Argosy, Vol. 85, No. 3 — page 177: what you’re looking at

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

THE JACKAL’S fears of the natives here, and you've got an exaggerated idea of your importance. I don’t care a snap of the fingers for you or for your threats! “Come, Lou,” he added to his trem- bling wife, ‘“‘ we’ll go to our room, and to-morrow I’ll see the proper authorities about the outrageous actions of this bully.” “ Have a care, monsieur!” spoke up the innkeeper in a shaking voice. “ Believe me, you do not know half the evil that M. Berard is capable of. You are a braver man than I, monsieur, but you will ~ pay a great price for your defiance. I speak as a friend.” Victor Berard took the big revolver from the table, and his thick, stubby forefinger crooked indolently around the trigger. “Vou talk like an American and a fool!”? he said to Eastman harshly. ‘ Do not try to leave the room. If you reach the door, monsieur, it will be as a dead man, stretched across the threshold. Your wife will then have the choice of go- ing with me or of dying; I do not permit women to worry me. I will have money —to-night—or you cannot live until the morning!” “Vou are weaving a terrible net around yourself, Berard!” declared Eastman tensely, and his face had grown as white as that of his wife. ‘‘ You can gain nothing from this folly but a return ‘to prison. With my traveler’s letter of credit, and all the credentials that I have, I could not raise more than five thousand francs at the American consul’s office. And even so, I would not give you the smallest part of that. Now, think well of what you are doing!” “Go to the American consul now,”’ or- dered the outlaw, ‘“‘ and bring me the five thousand francs! I will take that—and we shall see what will come later. Your wife will remain here, and I shall wait two hours for you to make the journey in your motor. Yes, I will be gracious; I will take the five thousand francs.” “‘T believe you are insane,” said East- MIGHTY ROAR. B19 man. ‘‘ Do you think that if I went to the consul’s office I would not return di- rectly with police, with French marines —with all the authority that I could get back of me? Your frank assurance is ridiculous! ” “Not at all, monsieur!” replied the outlaw blandly. ‘‘I am not a child. Of @ certainty, you could get the police—a company of marines, if you wished. But —it would be a sorrow for you, mon- ‘Steur, to find your beautiful wife with her throat cut when you arrived with your police. Is it not so? While you are gone, madame will sit here, and my pistol will point at her heart. When you re- turn to this room I shall know instantly whether madame is to live or to die. I can shoot very quickly, monsieur. “Ha, ha! You see it now!” he went on, chuckling. ‘ Myself, I take no chances. With a man alone, it would be different; but with the lovely lady as a forfeit, I have no fears. Now go!” Mrs. Eastman spoke suddenly in a despairing wail. ‘“Give him all we have, George,” she said. ‘‘ The man is a savage! How can we expect reason or mercy from him?” “Madame is endowed with brains as well as beauty!” exclaimed the outlaw. “It would be a thousand pities to spoil such beauty, or to spill such excellent brains. Do not delay, monsieur!” George Eastman stood with clenched hands, his face working convulsively. “You are the ‘first man I have ever wanted to kill!” he declared. The outlaw shrugged his shoulders. ‘““Myself, I have no fierce emotions like that,” he said virtuously. ‘I should like to avoid killing you, monsieur. No, it would not be pleasant to kill either you or madame!” Eastman looked at his wife long and earnestly. His eyes blazed with hot an- ger and resentment, and he longed to at- tack the desperado and take his chances, but the piteous, hopeless face of the frail woman unnerved him. “Well, then,” he said suddenly, with a comicloool C©