Adventure, August 3, 1919 — page 67: what you’re looking at

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

5 eo trie 2 Ns x's ae. \ = ut [ suppose Hardridge, as my visitor med himself, referred mainly to its on, perched as it was five hundred up the seaward slope of Mount Tamalpais, five miles from the nearest illage and four from the nearest house. i I replied that he was hard to please, since the setting couldn't be beaten for a murder. And indeed Hardridge seemed outwardly to have every chance of accomplishing his intention. We both believed we were alone in the house; he had also made certain that I carried no weapon, and He himself held an effective-looking revolver - jn a clearly efficient hand. But he rested that hand on the table, with the gun pointed only in my general direction; so. I could feore concluded the scene at any moment. However, I didn’t want to check him yet, there being too much I wanted to know to let slip a chance for knowledge. On his part, up to now Hardridge had been enjoying himself perfectly well in gloating over my supposed helplessness. Assassins are usually rhetoricians as well— which fact has saved many lives. “However,” I added, EPIL probably be as comfortable as you, dead or alive. For, of course, there'll be no doubt as to who killed me. In fact, Osborne warned me against you before I came over. He’s the _ executor, you know. You'll either hang or go to ‘San Quentin——_” At that last word Hardridge’s face went livid. His revolver flashed up, and for an instant I thought we were both dead men. you,” he cried—it was his first touch of real passion—‘“‘cut that. Don’t you dare——” “For a longer term than I caused you to get last time,” I went on steadily. “That'll be some consolation to my ghost.” | Few men will fire in the middle of ' another man’s sentence; that was one reason I completed mine. But there was _ another . reason, too. His outburst par- ‘confirmed a suspicion certain of his ‘remarks and certain things in his appearance had given me—that he had been in prison and believed I had sent him there, and I : wanted to prove or disprove it. You see, I hadn’t yet learned why he ble Hou thik," h ped, lo hi ae ik so,” he ras wering his | yer. owll not have that omort. Those of the ring that are left as Sowa = + ian ‘ae ats. Th ee ay Rei eA oo Le ~~ —TS = ss ae” le eo oe a Ae ed a Rogues’ End 57 are back of me in this, and they’ll see me through. Because you’re a traitor doesn’t prove all men are. Because I trusted you doesn’t prove I'm altogether a fool, either. My getaway is safe. And I’ve money, too. Plenty of it. My pre rate in that pool you stole didn’t break me by a long shot, though it did break most of the others. * No, John Maxon, it’s not prison but life that’s ahead of me—tlife!’’ he exulted. “And for you, death and the fishes! For I'll drop you into the bay; I wouldn’t poison the earth with you. Pah! Nothing but poisonous toadstools could come from your carcass.”’ It’s not easy to hear oneself reviled so and make no defense, but I could hardly have opened my mouth without betraying that I wasn’t the man he thought me. What I had gotten from Hardridge so far was not as much knowledge as food for conjecture. As for the~ smooth-talking lawyer, Osborne, who’d drawn me into the affair and got me to come to Cragcastle, he’d really said nothing about Hardridge but only warned me against danger in general. Anyway, I placed little confidence in anything Osborne had told me. His ap- pearance of candor had been too perfect to be genuine. I’ve learned to beware of the confessed rascal who looks me straight in the eye—there’s always some other deviltry hidden behind his confession. This, I was sure, was Osborne’s case. Although the will itself—John Maxon, Sr.’s, disposing of Cragcastle and the rest of the Maxon estate—was evidently genuine. Osborne had calmly proposed to me, a stranger, a plan involving false impersona- tion, perjury, theft and perhaps a few other violations of the law. Profit, about fifty thousand each. I couldn’t pick out the unsound spots in his proposal, except that he wasn’t a man who would be content - to divide such profits evenly. Naturally I wanted to see what was behind his proposal, and a week must necessarily - elapse before I could sail on my own busi- ness; so I came in with him. I came the more readily since I knew ~ I really needed some amusment to take my mind off the absorbing problem into which I would ntly plunge. It can hardly be hinted at in the present con- nection, but, if y yu Pec denibes that throne- shattering socie Se: he .* me we =e aide sie Ne | ih. ; ~ Se ne cemicbooke com , the Ko Lao Hui, the a a 4*