Adventure Magazine Cover, October 1911 — page 41: what you’re looking at

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

Easy place. Oh!” she gasped softly, as Mana- han drew out the rest of the coat and took from its folds two glass preserving-jars filled with small irregularly shaped yellow buttons that rattled noisily as he tried to unscrew the covers. ‘Don’t open them!” begged Carmelita. “You might spill - “T can’t!”’ grunted Manahan, still strug- gling ineffectually. Carmelita crossed nervously to the shrub- bery behind which the Hermit had disap- -peared, just as Manahan, in his disappoint- ment and impatience shook the coat roughly. Two large yellow pellets, glisten- ing like dew-drops, fell to the ground. With his eyes on Carmelita he snapped them up from between his feet and slipped them into his pocket. He was hastily wrapping up the jars in the coat again, when Carmelita turned suddenly. ‘“We’d better skip!” she warned. ‘‘That dog’s bark is getting nearer! Let’s go back the way we came; it’ll save time. Unless,” she added dubiously, “you still want to stay and see Glauber?”’ “It’s too late to do it to-day,” puffed Manahan, scrambling along behind her. “We'll come back to-morrow, You can come up in the morning and explain. It'll seem more courteous.” And the dog behind them still barked. To Carmelita the sound was Mephistophe- lian, truimphant. VII “5 THAT evening a ragged urchin yey ~brought Carmelita a scrap of a note * written on dirty, yellow paper. She read it, and without comment passed it over to Manahan. It said: Miss McCann: If dot feller you was talking with me about likes to buy some gold, you can bring him up to-morrow. I got some I vill sell for fifty cents on the dollar. You should bring your own scales; some son of a gun stole mine. Also—you should bring cash. To me checks is nothing. J. R. GLAUBER. “There’s a bright man, that friend of yours!” said Manahan. “Wants me to bring cash, and doesn’t say how much gold he’s got! How much do you suppose it is?” ‘‘A small fortune, I should think,” said Carmelita. | “Probably not so much as you’d imag- ine,” said the Big Person depreciatingly. Gold 987 “Well, if there was twenty dollars’ worth in that first button, the one I gave you— Dear me!”’ Carmelita laughed helplessly, “it sounds like a Land Show puzzle, doesn’t it? ‘Guess the number of beans in a jar and get a fine orange grove in Florida!’ I guess —a thousand beans!’’ “In one jar? Nonsense! Not by half!” Manahan rose up heavily from his chair. “T think I’ll just step down street for a min- ute,” he said apologetically. Carmelita nodded pleasantly and watched him waddle along the avenue, a mischievous glint in her eyes. ‘‘There he goes to have his stolen treasure tested—the old villain! I hope Jim didn’t get rattled and make a mistake.” Mess] APPARENTLY, Jim had made no e 4] mistake, for on the morrow it was — Manahan who seemed the more anxious of the two. It was mid-afternoon, however, before three heads bent over a little pile, yellow to the eye and fascinating to the touch, that lay on the table in the hermit’s lean-to. As Manahan carefully weighed and set aside the contents of the first jar, he said gruffly: “Well, fetch on the rest of it! I guess I can use it.”’ ‘““Dere is no ‘rest of it’!” lied Jim with stubborn finality. “Huh! the way you talked I thought you had the United States Mint backed off the boards. On the level, now, is this all you’ve got?”’ “On der level’—no!” grinned Jim. “I got some more, but it is for anodder feller, a man in Kansas City.” - “Oh, I see. He’s expecting it, eh?”’ “T haf der letter written, yes,’ answered Jim evasively “‘Und he gets dis.’’ He pulled from his pocket a grimy envelope. “He vill expect it.” “But,” argued Mahahan, “if you haven’t sent the letter, why not let me take all you have, and let him wait for the next batch?” “How long you t’ink it takes to make dis?’”? demanded Jim. ‘‘ Twenty-four hours, huh? Vot you vant, anyhowe You got fifty cents profid on efery dollar in dot pile.” “Well, what of it?” retorted Manahan. “Vou get about ninety cents to the good on every dollar I pay you, don’t you?” “Py Chove!” said Jim, “you vas right! I nefer t’ought of it dot vay. How much money you got, hein?”’ © Gbooks (©