Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 1, 1922 — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

$42 tell you something that, I fear, will give you a painful surprise.” Alice gasped, and the old expression of dread that had disfigured her on the home- stead leaped again to her eyes, blotting out their radiant expression as a snuffer extin- guishes a lighted candle. ‘What is it?” she demanded. Calvin Carter been found?” “Yes,” said Kemp. “Calvin Carter was the man who accompanied me to your shack some two weeks ago.” She stared at Kemp. The tragedy of her attitude moved him deeply, but he felt that he had to tell his story in its regular and natural sequence. ‘“‘He went there with the intention of claiming you as his wife,” he went on, “ but when he saw what a poor place you had, and how careworn you looked, he decided that you would be more of a burden than a help to him, so he repudiated you and went away again.” ““The wretch!” she exclaimed. ‘‘ What a fool I was to think there might be some good in him after all! My first opinion of him, formed when he deserted me, was right.” “Without a doubt,” Kemp agreed. ‘“‘ And the grim joke of it all is that the painful measure you took to let him know you were in the country—living on a worth- less homestead so your name would be re- peated everywhere—was the very thing ‘“* Has ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. thought you were what you appeared to be —a dispirited, penniless woman, driven by necessity into an attempt to make money by filing on government land—instead of the competent and well-off woman he had been led to believe you were.” “But what he thought or did makes no difference now.” Alice slumped down into a chair, with her head on her arms, and sobbed. “I am not a widow, as I thought. With that man alive, I can never marry you, Peter.” Kemp sat on the arm of her chair and put his arm around her. ‘'That’s just where you are mistaken, dear,” he said. ‘‘ You can marry me, be- cause you are a widow.” “ How? I don’t understand.” Alice looked at Peter with a mingled expression of hope and despair. ‘“‘ Because I learned only this morning that Calvin Carter—or Calvin Hubbard, as he called himself here—is no longer alive. It seems that when he went back to the squaw he had been living with he abused her and boasted about the white wife he had until finally the squaw became so en- raged that she did what she threatened to do the day I arrested him—she stabbed him to the heart with a knife.” It was characteristic of Alice Carter that she gave the poor wretch who had been her husband: a decent burial — then, with no cloud in sight, Peter Kemp and she set out that caused him to renounce you. He _ for the land where dreams come true. (The end.) Le] Lo Uv Lo] FISHING’S FINE A RAGGED straw and overalls, A bamboo rod and a hook and Iine, An old tomato-can of worms— | And all the joy in the world is mine. For down the stream by the fallen tree From the depths of the pool, a glimmer and shine Have flashed a message and challenge to me— Come on, old boy, the fishing’s fine! Florence B. Fink. comicloool C©