Adventure, November 1915 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

The Gold Lust elbowed himself from his chair and Peggy stood pointing, a swift, evasive shadow showed for a second against the misty glass and then vanished. “Tt’s Henley!’ hoarsely exclaimed the old man, his face working. ‘‘He’s trailed us.” “Tt may not be he,” said Addams. “Come on, Jim! Where’s that torch of yours?” - The two men passed through the little passage and out into the crisp air of the Mews. An electric arc at the alley’s en- trance to Fifth Avenue dimly illumined the lately fallen snow, stained faintly here and there by the orange light from a window. The snow had ceased. Along the narrow sidewalk, halting in front of the studio win- dow as if some one had been peering with- in, a trail showed clearly defined, one sharp imprint and the blur of a dragging foot, coming and going back to Fifth Avenue. There was no one in sight. The mews seemed utterly deserted. “That’s the lame chap who followed from Fellowes’s lodgings,’’ said Addams. “Fellowes said it was Henley,” said Jim. “Did he mean the chap that was the leader. He must be about a hundred, by all ac- counts. He’s pretty spry in his old age.” “No, his son. You'll hear about him later. He’s got the old boy pretty nervous. Trying to force him to tell where the gold is. Come on in, Jim. It’s freezing. And pull down that blind.” “Tt was Henley?” asked Fellowes anx- iously. “He’s getting desperate, I tell you-—”’ “He can’t get in to do you any harm here,’ soothed Peggy. ‘‘Won’t you sit down again?” He suffered himself to be made comfort- able again, but his corded hands were shaky and the look of alarm had come into his gray eyes once more. “See here,” said Winton, “‘you don’t have to go home tonight. Archer, you'll stay here. Your usual room’s ready for you and we can fix up Fellowes here with a shake- down in the studio. Eh, Peggy?” ‘Easily,’ she answered. “T’ll tell Selim.” She pressed a button and the tinkle of a bell sounded distantly. ‘This is what he’s after,’”’ said Fellowes, reassured somewhat. ‘This — and this, meanin’ the whereabouts of the gold—only he don’t know just what shape I carry them in.” Il He took from his inner pocket a piece of — ~stout paper, creased in its well worn folds, and laid it on the table near Addams, while he fumbled at his waistcoat and finally brought out a thick, old-fashioned silver watch. “You keep it,” he said to Addams. “I’ve always meant you to have ’em. I'll feel safer.” Addams carefully spread out the paper which proved to be a roughly drawn map of an island, marked here and there with faded lettering. “T’ll come to that presently,” said Fel- lowes, as Addams laid it on the table. *‘Who’s that?” He covered the map with his great hand, staring fearfully at a figure that glided si- lently out of the shadows. A lithe, swarthy man, with black almond-shaped eyes and thin, straight nose, black-browed, his crisp black hair barely topping the shoulder of Peggy Winton who gave him some quiet or- ders to which he bowed and departed as quietly as he had come. “That’s Selim,” explained Winton. “Our butler, cook and man - of - all- work. We couldn’t get along without Selim. You needn’t be afraid of him.” “He looks like a South Sea Kanaka,”’ said Fellowes, still keeping his big hand over the “He’s an Arab,” said Winton. “Peggy picked him up at an employment agency, and he’s some cook. She nursed him through an attack of pneumonia and he worships the ground she walks on. Don’t worry about Selim. He’s eaten our salt and he’s true as steel.” ‘“‘He’s brown!” said Fellowes suspicious- ly. ‘And if you’ve seen as much of brown skins as I have, you wouldn’t trust ’em out of your sight and not too much in it, though some of them was mighty good to me once.” He watched the Arab when he returned with fresh logs for the fire, and waited until he left the room before speaking. Ther he attempted an apology. ~ “T ain’t aimin’ to say anything against your servant, miss,” he said. “Only, three- quarters of a million is enough to turn any man’s head, white or brown. Where was I?” “Fourteen days out, in a dead calm, with five sharks following on behind,” said Win- ton in a Voice the affected calm of which betrayed his eagerness, while Addams smiled quietly across at him. (E(0) book co