The Argosy, Vol. 76, No. 3 — page 233: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE TAKING OFF “Tl tell you what's to be done,” Mr. Green said calmly; “ just come with me, both of you, up to the Nash farmhouse. I want you to arrest Joel and Andrew Nash for this little job of grave-robbing.” “What?” the astounded shouted. | “ That’s what,” the land-agent said with a half smile. ‘“ Come on; I'll be responsible.” In the dimly lighted parlor of the old Nash house’ Joel and Andrew sat huddled in their chairs, glowering at the floor. Beside Joel was Coroner Weston, bristling with importance; and _ the deputy sheriff had Andrew under guard, his revolver lying in his lap. Mrs. Nash, her apron thrown over her head, was hedged into a corner, where she wept and wailed. “Before they take you two to the lock-up,” Mr. Green was saying, “I have just a couple of things to say; you will know how much chance you have of lying out of this. Your father, Martin Nash, insured his life for fif- teen thousand dollars less than six months ago. He needed money bad- ly. He was hard up in every sense of the word. “You were all in desperate straits for money to go West with and make a new start. Then you hit on this scheme and waited for your chance to put it over. That chance came when old Bill Stearns died and was buried as a pauper. You two broke into his grave and carried the body up here; I’ve got a witness to that if lever need him. But I won’t, because you’re both going to plead guilty and take your medicine. officers OF MARTIN NASH. 703 “You dressed old Bill’s corpse up in your father’s overalls and boots and planted it out there in the barn. Then you fellows took the team and rig and hid down in the woods somewhere to carry your father off to a train. “He invited Lem Applegate over here so you might have a witness to his supposed death if you needed one, and he torched off his barn, ran to where you were waiting, and was driven to some whistling tank to catch a Western train, while the good people around here thought they were res- cuing his remains from the fire. “Your mother collected the fifteen thousand dollars insurance money, and I might as well tell you now that what’s in the bank—all of it except the two hundred you sent out to your father at Ashkowa, Colorado—is held up by a court order right now. “And your father is under arrest in Denver on a charge of swindling the insurance company, and he'll be back here the day after to-morrow to join you in jail, instead of buying irrigated land in Colorado with that fifteen thou- sand. Is there anything else you’d like to know?” Joel raised his head with a snarl. “Yes,” he said; ‘I’d like to: know who the devil you are.” Mr. Green extended a card with elab- orate courtesy. “My name is J. Derrick Green,” he said, “ and I’m a special invesigator of suspected claims for the Mastodonic Life Insurance Company. Oh, I do lots of this, Mr. Nash. Your work was really rather coarse. I guess you can take them away now, Mr. Sheriff. We won’t bother Mrs. Nash. She has troubles enough.” FREEDOM. BETTER to dwell in Freedom’s hall, With a cold, damp floor and a moldering wall, Than bow the head and bend the knee In the proudest palace of slavery. Moore. COMicdoo S CO@