Adventure Magazine Cover, December 18, 1919 — page 193: what you’re looking at

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

against it. Bogus Gems _best-to answer a dozen questions at once, but I told nobody anything. I seemed trying to explain in the midst of inter- ruptions and, though I kept everybody out of the room, I let them jostle me at the door and peer through morbidly, some of ‘them perhaps sympathetically, at the pretty young woman in my room who, huddled forward, was weeping with hands to face. But, of course, no one could come into . the room or touch the body of the dead man until the police arrived. Every one was tense with nervous curiosity ; though the man lay on his face, all could see that he was masked. It seemed mysteri- ous and thrilling. ; The police came, the police-patrol. It came rattling down the street through one of San Francisco’s heavy fogs and the policemen bustled with an air of directness and business through the crowd about my door. : They knew me at a glance and, though their ‘eyes were a little suspicious, they were respectful. My record was not above suspicion, but it was unindictable. I told my story. I had not been able to sleep. I had sat up, trying to read. I had heard a noise in the hall, then a sort of scuffling, not loud, but strange enough to arouse curiosity. J had gone to the door and listened, barely opening it. Al- most at once a woman had flung herself She could hardly talk. She was out of breath and frightened. She . staggered into the room, gasping for me ‘to save her. As I had beer surprized and did not know -quite what to do and had just turned around when a shot was fired—and, havy- ing a gun on the arm of my chair, I had snatched it up and shot. I mentioned to the policemen, just to remind them, that at times I could shoot rapidly. I had whirled and shot. I did not know the woman. I had never seen her before. The man. was masked. HAT was my story. Not truthful perhaps, but honest. The woman could get from the net as well as she could. J had no great sympathy for her, for I was more than half inclined to be- lieve that she had leaned so close to me, had gripped my arm so hard and let her -. fingers run up my arm so pleadingly, to 179 distract my attention from the door and give Blackstone a chance to come in and cover me with his gun—and perhaps shoot. She may have been sincerezand he may have merely jumped at the chance ~ of seeking an excuse to kill me by pre- tending to find his wife and me together. Neither the truth as she might tell it nore what lies she could imagine would very well discredit my story. I had told it first. I had told it plausibly. “Besides, the dead man wore a mask and the police are never inclined ‘to side with masked men, living or dead. ~ She might say I had poked a pencil through the black silk, but then she would have to explain how the mask came to be in the room, and so implicate herself; whereas I had given her a loop-hole if she had the in- genuity to take it. ~ When the police came into the room, other people’ tried to follow. They tried to crowd close to hear what the woman would say, but every one was pushed back into the hall and a big policeman. _put his arm, like a bar, across the door. When I had finished with my story, the woman flashed a look at me that I did not understand: just a flash from the corner of her eye when I approached and cut off other people’s view from her face. The look appeared more full of astonish- ment than anything else, but there also seemed to be a little something of gratitude. She sobbed convincingly and in a broken voice and with nodding head said that I had told just what had happened. The police had looked into the dead man’s face but none of them recognize him. She told his name. She said that he had hounded her; that she could not escape him and that she was afraid of him. He had threatened to kill her be- cause she would not be his wife. She sobbed a great deal at this point, in order, [ think, to get time to decide ‘how best to go on. One big policeman laid a hand gently on her shoulder and spoke encouragingly. She went on. She lived at the apart- ment next door. He must have learned PA in some way that she was planning to « move so as to hide from him. Shortly before midaight he had telephoned that he would kill her if she tried to run away from him. ‘Later he telephoned j Copnlicsoo — S C7? a ya .* €O