Adventure Magazine Cover — page 97: what you’re looking at

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

96 a SHE paused, motionless, until he had stepped through the door and ‘closed it; then she turned and ran across the room to the other door where another and more impatient knock was demanding her presence. But Zoronna had no sooner turned her back than Remy Cantello peered through the doorway, then slipped swiftly and noiselessly into the room again; and with the directness of a man who has already thought out his plan sidled in behind the curtain of the window nearest to him. Of course I could not help wondering what would have happened if he had come a few feet farther and crept ir behind my curtain; the situation was interesting, 2 complicated enough as it was. For a moment or two Zoronna was very much absorbed at the door, which she had opened only narrowly. She whispered in- audibly, and said, ‘“‘Sh-h-h!” then drew the door softly closed, hurriedly recrossed the floor and went into the next room. A hasty glance around must have assured her that: Cantello had withdrawn, for she. re- turned almost at once, and, throwing the hallway door open, said: “All right; come in. I had to make sure the maids were out of the way. One can never tell about servants.” I was set and tense for a glimpse of Hur- gronje. Instead Lord Bob came strolling in, and with his foolish air of boredom. No doubt it was purely my imagination but I fancied that I detected some queer, slight, muffled sound from behind the cur- tain on my left. But as neither Zoronna nor Lord Bob appeared to notice it perhaps I was mistaken. I do not know how many réles Lord Bob could have played, but the stage was de- prived of an excellent fop when he took to crime. _ That may ‘have seemed no time for a foppish réle; but he appeared to think that Zoronna would have liked him less, perhaps have been irritated, displeased, if he showed any trace of earnest affection for her. He concealed the emotion and eagerness that I knew he then felt with a manner suggestive of boredom. He said it had been a fine night for walk- ing; that he had been walking up and down the sidewalk across the street for half the night. He needed the air. He just hap- pened to notice a light in her apartment so pause. Adventure he came to remind her that early that morning she had invited him. “Oh!’’ she said quickly, catching hold of his arm. “Oh, Lord Bob, I’m frightened almost to death. Where is Everhard? What did he tell your Anything?” Lord Bob looked at her studiously for a moment, and he was on the verge of being serious. But he was a thorough actor. “Oh,” he said languidly, “that fellow climbed down the fire escape an’ got away. What’s up? You act all fussed. = wouldn’t hurt anybody.” “Listen.” Her hands went to his shoulders. “Tam terribly frightened— I— don’t know what to say.” She stopped. There was silence, a long He stared at her, but the monocle was in his left eye, and though his gaze was earnest he looked rather foolish even then. At last he drawled: “Y-es. I get that way too. Too much gin—horrible dreams. You know. Ab- sinth an’ gin. Good, but awfully bad. What’s the racket?” “Do be serious! Do, do, please. I’m going to tell you—everything. But be serious.” Her voice was strained, and I had no doubt of her earnestness. “Serious? Then you’d tell me not to be a fool. I’ve tried, you know. But wwhat’ S the matter, Zoronna? T am serious.’ With his last sentence his tone changed. He was serious. The monocle fell from. his eye. “Youll hate me when I’m through. But I must tell you. There is no one else I can trust—that I want to trust, Lord Bob. Don’t stand. ; Chere ae Now <> Ae r Lord Bob sat down, and she tossed a cushion to the floor and sat with feet crossed before him; and she looked at him a long time before she said anything. Perhaps she studied .out how most shockingly to begin. Women are like that at times. “Hurgronje took me when I was a little I— [f child. I hated him even then, but I’ve — = been afraid of him ever since. I don’t dare disobey him—I just don’t dare. I’m just a slave. When he says, ‘Come,’ I come. When he says, ‘Go,’ I go.” At her first words Lord Bob had restos started from the chair. Then he had COMME OOS (COA