Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 47: what you’re looking at

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

A drink-crazed reveler let loose a war whoop and flung his hat at the ceiling. + Hurrah for lil girl!” he shouted. “ Go to it, kid; we’re all ears, like a jackass.” A wild outburst of shouts and cheers sec- onded this sentiment. The tumult added fresh fuel to the flame of Alice’s reckless desire. “ My friends—” she began. ‘You bet we’re your friends!” “Tt wasn’t only to write letters for you that I came to Geyser. Principally it was to find the man who means more to me than anybody else in the world.” “Hurrah for the man!” “ He was driven away from home, men, by the same kind of misfortune that prob- ably drove some of you away from your friends and family. He was unjustly ac- cused of embezzling money. He didn’t—it was his partner—but he was equally liable, so he ran away and came out here to try to earn enough money to make good his partner’s theft. I don’t know whether any of you know Rodney Allan or not—”’ ‘“‘T know him,” some one shouted. ‘* So do I; he’s all right.” It did not occur to Alice that encomiums from men such as these were questionable recommendations of character. ‘ Boys,” she went on, “ when I came to Geyser, under my maiden name of Juno, the first man I met was your sheriff, Jim Harper. He acted like a pretty good fellow. He helped me get started in business, he swore he would protect me, he said he would do anything he could to further my interests. “But he didn’t, men. All he wanted was to gain my confidence, so he could learn my real business. He suspected that I wanted to get in touch with some one who was wanted by the police, and he made up his mind to learn who the man was and erab the reward that would be offered for his capture. That’s the kind of a friend Jim Harper is. He succeeded, boys. He was too smart for me. He knows all the tricks of the man- Catching trade, and I don’t. One of his emes was to encourage me to look at the re you're mistaken. She’s a regular fel- man I was looking for. — a notice about Mr. Alle in that scheme. | “His next piece of trickery was t amine my personal letters. He founc that I came from Willowfield, Ohio. ~ he received a circular saying that dney Allan was wanted there, and he put two and two together and rightly guessed hat Mr. Allan was the man I was trying to find. ‘“‘ Then came his lowest trick of all. Har- per pretended to show me all his new cir- culars, but he kept the Allan one concealed. That prevented me from putting Mr. Allan on his guard. Mr. Allan learned that I was here, as I figured he would, and this eve- ning he came to see me. Harper was on the lookout for him. He recognized him from his picture and description and locked him up.” Angry growls from her audience encour- aged Alice. “As if that wasn’t enough, men,” she went on, “‘ this noble sheriff of yours insin- uated that the man I came here to find is not worth my efforts on his behalf, is not true to me. No straight-out accusation, mind you; just a mean insinuation that Mr. Allan is no good. What do you think of an effort like that to separate a husband and wife? Because that is what we are, my friends. Rodney Allan is my husband!” Fierce cries rang out. “T’ hell with Jim Harper!” “We seen him tryin’ to make love to you.” “You’re the kind of a wife to have.” At the side of the hall the woman called Babe rose and began to push through the crowd to Alice’s platform. Sherrard saw her and grabbed her roughly by the arm. ‘‘ What’s eatin’ you?” he demanded. ‘I want to tell that girl something,” Babe said. “ She’s a good kid; she got me writ- in’ to my mother. I want to tell her that Harper is right; her man is a dirty dog.” Sherrard shook her. “ You open your — trap about that, Babe, and I'l hand vou __ a wallop. Understand?” He pushed he 4 a “ way and she returned to her seat, . ‘s.com 7 ig