Adventure Magazine Cover — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

844 disappointment, .turned the great bell heavily in his hand over the velvet cover of the table. Berwind hung his head deject- edly. He, too, for one sweet day had dreamed his dream. “You are right, Stuart,”’ he said quietly, lifting his face at last. ‘It is odd we did not think of that before. We knew the simple fact, surely. Yes, it did not occur to me that the place had changed from a garden to a desert since the location of the treasure was cut upon the bell. It would be of course impossible in a wilderness of ice and snow to locate the spot. Oak tree, indeed! I don’t suppose there is a twig anywhere about the place!”’ So still had they all become that it added intensity to the natural shock when Mr. Lee suddenly flung the bell from him on the table and turned on them violently. “I have been made a fool of, a fool!”’ he cried furiously. ‘‘ Before you set me to work on that six-day contract, young man, I really think you might have taken the trouble to consider a little! You might have consid- ered me, if nothing else! A capital geolo- gist you make, indeed! Don’t bother me now, Nora!’”’ He flung off the hand she laid in a soothing, appealing caress upon his shoulder. And in spite of his own good reasons for resentment, Stuart felt a pang of pity for the girl which almost disarmed the bitter keenness of his own chagrin and disappointment. Still in his angry mood, Mr. Lee berated them all. ‘“Berwind, you might have spared me this! A fine sort of guardian you are to shield an invalid from annoyance! I am going to my cabin at once, and I will thank you to attend on me!” He had half turned to the door when he flung back at Stuart with another thought. ‘“‘The Vatna cruise is off,” he said briefly. ‘We start for the northwest this very afternoon. I am sorry to disappoint you, young man, but I can assure you I am disappointing you no more than you have disappointed me!” “TI will be back in a moment, Stuart,” put in Berwind, as with his strange patient he vanished behind the curtains. Rey) STUART, iinatigatty awaiting the WS a Doctor’s reappearance, resolved “ upon an immediate return to the shore as the one solution to an intolerable situation. His hopes, which only a mo- Adventure ment before had soared so high, lay about him in ruin, which in itself was hard enough to face, without the consciousness that he lingered where his presence was distinctly unwelcome. Then, to his amazement, he heard Nora’s voice, addressing him with a new gentleness. “IT regret very much, Mr. Stuart,’”’ she said with some hesitation, “‘that here, as our guest, you should have met with dis- courtesy. But perhaps Dr. Berwind has explained to you that my poor father is still suffering from the effects of a very. ) severe illness The little catch in her voice dispelled Stuart’s resentment at once. In pity for her obvious distress, he bowed his acknowl- edgments and his sympathy. In the mournful concentration of her thought, Nora seemed to have forgotten the hostile terms on which they stood. “It is so discouraging,” she said helplessly. ‘““Why doesn’t he get better? I can not understand it. What can there be that would alter his very nature?” In her face, Stuart read the stinging recollection of her late rebuff at her father’s side. His one thought was to find words of comfort for her and yet it was with some self-consciousness that he said cheerfully: “Your father will soon be better in this air. They tell me it is famous for its bracing quality. Why, even I can see an improve- ment in him since that day I met him first last week.” His reward for this stupendous falsehood was a glance of wistful gratitude from the hazel eyes, more in accordance, it seemed to him, with the hauntingly sweet impres- sion which the girl left always behind her than with her actual bodily presence as he had hitherto found it. He was distracted from this contemplation of her contradic- tions by the cheerful tones of the returning Berwind. “Your father’s lying down, Miss Nora,” he said pleasantly. ‘‘It was the working over that bell, and the sudden disappoint- ment, that did him up for a minute. Now, as to you, Stuart.” ‘“‘As to you,” retorted the other, are coming ashore with me.”’ Nora looked up with a little startled glance. ‘‘Oh, but surely,” she said, “you won’t leave until after luncheon?”’ Stuart shook his head pleasantly but seriously. Their hospitality might be very Comiclbooks CO