Adventure Magazine, March 1916 — page 66: what you’re looking at

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

s 64 “Too lazy to carry his suit-cases to the tender!’ the mechanician grunted by way of explanation. “Now, listen, Carl, ” said Ward, “I’m going to tell you some of the things T have found out here, and I want you to make -your memory of them absolutely accurate, for you must repeat them to Mr. Greiner over the long-distance ’phone just as soon as you can raise him from Sea View. Every- thing will depend on the clearness with which you present the case to him. You must not embellish it in the slightest with your fondness for melodramatic trimmings.” “T won’t, Chief. Honest.” As briefly as he could, Ward outlined to the astonished mechanician the events that had led up to his discovery of the camp down the shore and the later ones that had | convinced both him and Nellie Blaydon that her uncle and Mrs. Herriot were in a con- spiracy fraught with the gravest conse- quences for the girl. , “YT do not know who this dark, swarthy man is,’’ Ward concluded. ‘He may be the third of the trio who attacked Mr. Conway here, but I doubt it. If he is so nearly black as to excite the attention of the telegraph operator, Mr. Conway would certainly have noticed him particularly and would have described him to me. It looks to me as though he were a newcomer and, if he is, it means that the cast of characters in this damnable affair is being lengthened. And that means that the plot is becoming more complicated and requiring more men to handle it.” “Do you want me to ask Mr. Greiner to come right down here?”’ “No. You must find out first what train Blaydon and Mrs. Herriot take for the north and tell Mr. Greiner so that he can be on the lookout for them. Their first ac- tions when they arrive north will probably be most significant ones, and if they feel that they are not watched, they will go ahead with their plans, and Greiner will find something definite to work on. Tell him, however, that you will get him on the ’phone again in the morning—make an appoint- ment to do so—and, if possible, I will be with you. Then we can confer and decide on our next steps.” “Why don’t you fly up to Sea View as soon as we start and get Mr. Greiner on the phone yourself? You could be back before we get there.” ‘such signs of a disturbed conscience. Adventure Ward’s teeth clenched grimly. “T have something more important to do,” he said. “Besides, Blaydon might hear of my aeroplane being over Sea-View and it would make him suspicious and put him on his guard. That is the one thing I do not want.” Again the deep voice of the man they were discussing boomed from the yacht. Carl made a wry face of disgust as he heard ~ it. “‘There’s my boss,” he said. “T’ll go.” It was with the greatest difficulty that Ward mastered his own loathing sufficient- ly to walk down to the yacht to bid them an apparently friendly good-by. Stephen Blaydon held out his hand. It felt big and flabby and damp as Ward took it, as though every pore of the man’s body were oozing cold perspiration with his nervousness. His eyes, too, reflected his uneasy state of mind. They were shifting and restive and dropped constantly under the gaze of the aviator, though Blaydon evidently tried hard to keep them firm. His whole appearance served to convince Ward more than ever that this man was not the one to conceive and carry through such a plot as seemed to encompass Caprice, and that he was acting his part only because he was being constant- ly goaded on by another and stronger mind. But the portly Mrs. Herriot exhibited no She was ease and urbanity personified, as she came up to him and took his hand. “Good-by, young man,” she said heartily and with every evidence of cordial friend- ship. —leaving you and Nellie alone like this without a chaperon in such a lonely place; but I don’t see any way out of it. I’m too much broken up by things in general to stay here any longer, and besides, climbing these steps every day would be the death of me in no time. You just take good care of Nellie for a few days until Stephen sends for her, and then you put in a bill for your time and services and I’ll see that Stephen pays it.” Ward sneered in spite of himself at the woman’s crass vulgarity, but she did not ap- pear to notice it. “Good-by,” she called, waving her hand to him and then to Nellie. “Stephen, you'll have to help me into that little boat mighty gingerly. I don’t believe it’s ever going to carry us all to Sea View alive.” ~ “Tt’s likely to make an awful scandal . 0)(0 6) COME S (E@)