Adventure Magazine Cover — page 179: what you’re looking at

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

J must have it. Ellis’s threats and movements after he was pardoned by that rascally governor, Walsh, but all track had been lost after he reached New York. “Vou have no idea, Mr. Everhard,” he said, “what a wretchedly dishonest man Walsh is.” It happened that I knew somicthing of that too. “T am convinced,”’ he went on, “‘that he pardoned Ellis just to have him hound my . brother and me.’ “Why don’t you strike back?” manded. “Strike back!” “Yes. Ruin him?” : “What do you mean?” he asked anxious- ly, suspiciously. Then he blurted it out: “You got that box. You opened it! You’re going to sell it to Walsh! I’ll pay you more. I'll have you arrested Then he checked himself and tried to wipe I de- _ out the threat of arrest by talking money again. Tassumed a pose of puzzlement and twist- i ed from him the admission that the box con- tained papers that would ruin Walsh. But alas! Walsh had evidence that would injure the Cornwalls and ruin the name of his dead brother, who—another alas—was not alive to refute it. _ LT assured him with sincerity, and for the time convinced him, that I did not have a single paper or scrap of paper that belonged to his brother or referred to Walsh. He wanted to know where Cora was. He wanted to get hold of the little black steel box. It, contained valuable documents. He explained how it came to be in Cora’s possession. That must be returned to him. What could she have done with it? I could have told him what she had done with it, but I didn’t. I could have told him that it was in my room, but I did not mention any such thing. I could have told him lots of things that would have sur- prized him—a few things, one at least, that would have nearly paralyzed him. . I[demanded to know why he thought Ellis might hurt the girl. Cornwall tried to be rather vague. He really did succeed in a way, but it seemed that Ellis had been enraged when she per- mitted him, Joseph Cornwall, to make her his heir. Why should he have felt that way? Cornwall was perturbed by the line of questioning. He evaded anything more definite than to say Ellis had always hated him because of Mrs. Ellis. That old fellow had not had his legal training in vain. He was good at subtleties, lies and evasions. I could have rocked him, knocked the props from under him in twenty words, but there seemed to be no- reason just then for crushing what little spirit—if not life—that he had left. The affair was far from being ended and I thought that after I had had a talk with Steve Ellis—if I could ever locate that fellow—I would know more of what I ought - to do. I may pause to admit that my income is not so large as I sometimes wish it, and on occasion I have been known to use a little of what looks suspiciously like blackmail. I haven’t many weaknesses of sentiment, but two things always arouse my sympathies ' —sick dogs and crippled children. Before I finished with Joseph I expected to see a large subscription go to a certain children’s hospital. Perhaps I would sell him the little black box. But more important motives than that were, of course, behind my interest. I am fairly likely to want to meddle— though I do not always do so—wherever it appears that rank injustice has been done. -I had not only liked Mrs. Ellis, I liked Cora also, and if she were coming into my family as Jack’s wife, as there was no doubt that she would, for Jack was a youth who got what he wanted, I had good justification for. taking the trouble to interfere in the complications that affected her. Vil 3 MY JUSTIFICATION increased almost immediately. Somebody nearly killed Cora Ellis. She was, in spite of all that Jack could do, still living in that cheap rooming-house. Somebody en- tered the room at night and nearly fractured her skull witha blow.. Her mother had been killed in the same way—a blow on the head while she lay in bed. But Cora was not killed, though her condition was serious— concussion of the brain, I believe the doctors said. She was carried to the hospital dan- gerously near death. Her name gpt into the papers. More than that, pretty much the whole story eventually got there. Jack could then use his money to give her .¢ % Tih.