Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 33: what you’re looking at

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

. By JOHN HOLDEN Aathor of “‘ Four Strokes at Midnight,’’ ‘‘ Beyond Control,” etc. A NOVELETTE—COMPLETE IN THIS ISSUE HEN the stranger alighted from \\/ the stage Sheriff Jim Harper's first feeling was one of surprise that such an obviously refined and educated girl should wish to stop at the wild railroad construction town for even a single day. Storekeeper Joe Blundell had just been tell- ing him that he had felt obliged to send his wife and daughters to Helena to live be- cause of Geyser’s swift retrogression from a respectable dry farmers’ trading point to a hell of iniquity since work on the B. and ‘. cut-off had begun. When the girl in- quired if there was a small vacant building for rent Harper received a mental jolt, such as a lover of jewelry might experience at sight of a pearl necklace dropping into a gutter. ‘There is, but I hardly think you will want it.” Blundell told her. Why not?’ Harper noted that her tone betokened de- 823 termination as well as culture. Her very attractive eyes seemed unusually sonaber and serious, and there was a trace of anxiety in her fine features. Her tailored suit was as businesslike as it was well-fitting. * Well, you see—” Blundell looked em- barrassed. ‘“ This town, miss—it isn’t the kind of burg you probably think it is—not the sort of place it used to be by a long shot. It’s tough, miss. So tough that I had to send the missis and girls away till the railroaders get out. All those buildings you see down there "—he waved his hand— ~ are just saloons and low dance halls and— er—all that sort of thing.” “I think I understand. Is the vacant building situated near those places?” “ Yes—that’s why I don’t think want it.” The girl smiled in a mysterious manner a increased Sheriff Harper's interest in Is th ia i j comicbook