The Argosy, Vol. 76, No. 3 — page 74: what you’re looking at

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

044 What did you bring me back for, when I was slippin’ away so easy? Now the black horror is gripping me by the throat, and—and—I’m scared of it, men, scared of it. I ain’t old! Thirty-eight, that’s all. And here ’m crossin’ the divide with the best of my life ahead of me!” Self-pity seized him. His face hardened like stone and his dull eyes smoldered. Clenching his fists, he broke into gasping torrents of words whose import sickened those who lis- tened. Ransom laid a muffling hand over his mouth. “In Heaven’s name, Carruthers,” said he, “remember where you are. You haven’t long to stay. Don’t pass out with curses on your lips! Let your final act go toward undoing some of the wrong.”’ He bent down so that he could look in the feverish eyes. “ Tell me about Griggsby,” he added. “That’s why you’re here, eh?” snarled Carruthers. “ Well, you might have saved yourself the trouble. Not a word about anything. I fought for my own against that black-hearted Deane.’ He’s won and I’ve lost! I'd barter my soul for one year more of life—just a year.”’ | He fell to raving again. O’Hara got up and passed into the other room. Returning softly with the flute, he sat down by the head of the bed and be- gan to play. It was the intermezzo from * ‘ Caval- leria Rusticana.” Never had Bremer- ton heard O’Hara play as he played then. The tender melody floated about the room, and there went with it a rustling as of unseen wings. Ransom stood lke a man entranced. Morton pulled down his sleeves and walked to the window. Bremerton bowed over his pencil and paper, weirdly thrilled by the pathos and the pleading of those whispering notes. - The twisted lines straightened in Carruthers’s face. He fell silent. Presently his eyes closed and he lay still. O’Hara made an end of the music and laid the flute on his knees. THE ARGOSY. “God!” breathed Carruthers, open- ing his eyes. “ I’ve heard that before, somewhere. \Vhat piece was that?” “Only a bit of an air to make you see things differently,” said O’Hara. ‘Tt does that for me and, by the same token, I thought it might for you.” For a second Carruthers lay think- ing. Then he turned his head so he could look at the Irishman. — “ Play it again,” he begged. “Sure, and as long as you please, but not till you’ve talked with Ran- som.” “T want to know about Griggsby, Carruthers,’ spoke up the sheriff. “What you say can do you no harm.” “Blame nobody but me for what happened to Griggsby and Lacey,” said Carruthers. ‘“ The rest of the boys had nothin’ to do with it. I went farther with Griggsby than I meant to, and that’s the God's truth. “T knew Mallory had struck some- thing rich at the Mariquita, and I wanted him to lose. I asked Deane to help me beat Malory out, and he said he would keep him dangling until the last minute, and then turn him down cold. “So he did, but not until he-had got me with my back to the wall. It was either sell out to Mallory for the twen- ty-five thousand or to Deane at double that. He had me, and he knew it; but I swore he would never get any good from the mine until he deeded me a half interest. “That is what I was fighting for, Ransom! For that I laid low in the hills, fighting the work at the Mari- quita. I did whatever I could to make Deane sick of his bargain, and to force him to come to me. I know I’d have had him, too, if it hadn’t been for Bremerton. “ Mallory’s girl got Bremerton away from us. I tried to follow them into the gully and find out where they went, but—but I slipped from the rope as some one fired at my men in the swale. That’s—all—I—” Carruthers’s voice died in his throat, COMicdoo S CO@