Argosy, Vol. 122, No. 1 — page 105: what you’re looking at

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

late. hy | George C. Shedd WHAT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED Recs Louis Gaillard from a murderous attack, Jerry Mofiat, penniless and _ starving, accepted a sort of temporary position with his new friend, the first duties of which included the shadowing of one Barbanera, friendly to the Zorrillas, hereditary enemies of the Gaillards. Jerry had previous encountered two lovely girls—Isabel and Felipa Zorrilla, and, later, rescuing his new employer from agents of Barbanera, to whom he had been decoyed by Anita Carley, a woman in Barbanera’s pay, he brought Gaillard to the latter’s rooms. There he acquainted him with the facts, at first fearful as to how he would take the news of the girl's perfidy—she had previously professed something more than friendship for Gaillard. But Gaillard appeared unper- turbed, until, with the arrival of one Pacheteau from his plantation in the South, news came of the activity of the Zorrillas. With Gaillard and Pacheteau, Moffat set out for New Orleans and the Gaillard plantation. Arriving there, Gaillard told him of the feud with the Zorrillas, who lived just across the bayou, and Jerry’s impression of mystery, battle, and sudden death was not lessened by the vision of a dead face rising out of the black water. Later he learned that the face was that of one of the Zorrilla “ retainers,” and, employed as superintendent in place of Pierre Careval, mysteriously missing, Jerry, while fishing in the bayou, met suddenly none other than Anita Carley. The girl asked his aid, telling him of the imprisonment of Careval, who was not dead. Then, in a heavy storm, while Jerry set out to find Careval’s prison, Gaillard, saving both Isabel and Felipa, brought them to his house, where Isabel warned him against the other Barbanera, José, whose skill with a rapier was proverbial. But after a bantering talk on the part of Gaillard, Isabel grew furious at his easy gallantry, this being further aggravated when he said: “T always did like a bit of temper in a woman.” Now she did not wish him killed by a sword; she wanted him to die slowly over a fire, or in boiling oil, or on a rack. CHAPTER XI. A PROPOSED TRYST. BLAST of the hurricane seemingly more furious than any that had gone before, brought Gaillard and the two girls to their feet, standing intent, alarmed, waiting. The roar of wind and rain was like the sound of a thousand bass pipes blending in one mighty, deafening diapason. Under the incessant pressure of the storm the house strained and trembled and creaked, as if the tortured ghosts of another world strove for release within its frame. Even the toucan lost its sedateness mo- mentarily. Now it ruffled its feathers and now turned its huge beak from one side to another, while an uneasy croaking came from its throat. ‘There ‘ll be ships founder and damage done along the gulf coast to-night,” said Gaillard. ‘“T shudder to think of us in the sail- boat in this,’”’ Felipa replied with face white. ‘It’s not pleasant to contemplate,” said he. “ Best not think of that, for you're here, not there. The worst should be about past, though it may take some hours for the wind wholly to go down. And in any case, ladies, I fear you will have to spend the night under my roof, for even should the storm cease soon, which is doubtful, the bayou will be running too high to cross to- night. I presume that all of our small boats have been flung somewhere ashore or driven up to the marshes, where they will have to be sought, which will cause delay.” Some further conversation followed, and: as he saw that the experience through which they had passed earlier in the evening had This story began in The Argosy for May 29, 95 cComiclbooks.com