Adventure Magazine Cover — page 39: what you’re looking at

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

Ite. ES Born to be Hanged, But— “Have a drink. We might as well make it up,” he offered evasively. I said nothing. I looked at him steadily. In about three seconds he handed me the aper. “You keep both hands on the table and turn your face the other way,” I instructed. He hesitated, but did as told. I did not want him jumping at me while I was read- ing. I wouldn’t greatly have minded having him do so if I had not already been in certain complications that would have become more embarrassing through having to explain how I happened to shoot million- aire Thrope, candidate for governor—and likely to be elected. I glanced at the letter, and I came as near to feeling shame as ever I can. But JT began and read it. I read it carefully. Tt was astounding. “The envelope—the envelope,” I said. “You know to whom it’s addressed— you’ve read it before,’’ he replied half leering at me. Ged IT WOULD have been useless to deny the charge. I had not read ahd it before. I had not even been able to identify it as that letter—but I had had suspicions. So I asked for the envelope. I really did not care whether he gave it to me, for he had given me its equivalent in his remark. Perhaps I should have destroyed the letter. I find in looking back over my years, however, that I have seldom done the sensible thing at crucial moments: I have done the safe thing, or tried to. I had some influence over Thrope as long as I kept the letter. He would have given a foot, leg and all, to get it again. Besides, I rather looked to Mrs. Curwen to feel more -relieved if she destroyed it herself—rather than heard, even from me, that it was destroyed. I could, too, understand her hesitation in ever destroying it. A letter of the kind is not the sort that a woman would ever destroy—and then not without committing it to memory. I put it into my pocket. “Name your price,” said Thrope. “I prefer to auction it,” I told him. “Congressman Bryan is not a rich man, but he has friends. Then, too, a woman may want to bid—and have nothing but tears. Did you ever try to bid against a 7 = 25 woman’s tears, Thrope? What in —— would you have to offer then?” Of course, he didn’t know of what I was talking. All that got into his head was the idea that I was going to auction the letter. . He became excited and offered—it is useless to repeat his insane sums. he never expected to pay them, so he could afford to talk in large numbers. He never expected me to get off the ship with the letter. All he feared was that I might destroy it. “By the way, Thrope, who was the woman that went overboard—to get away from your” | I am all the time discovering that, though most men are better than the world thinks, yet some of whom I have the lowest opinion are worse even than I could have imagined. I don’t like to repeat his exact words, but I believe it necessary: nothing else that the man ever did or said so vividly illuminated the utter meanness and subtlety within him. Had I not known the facts even I—wh was rather a sophisticated and suspicious youngster—would scarcely have doubted the truth, though I might have had con- tempt for his callousness. He said with a kind of careless regret: | ‘Her? Oh, a Tommy I picked up on the Coast. She was full of hop and got away from me—jumped the cabin when I wasn’t looking.” A silence. I don’t think that I showed that I doubted him. I merely waited. Nothing so much as silence, nothing so much as pause, jangles the nerves of even the hardened guilty. Then quietly I remarked— “Helen Curwen never impressed me as a girl like that.’’ An explosion went off inside of him. For a third of a second he looked as if he was literally blowing up. He jumped and quivered in every muscle. This governor-to-be was rather im- plicated in something more than mere scandal—he did not care for mere scandal— if I should tell my story to the public. He could lie, yes. His friends could lie. A mere outcast girl could have been pretty well disposed off by lies; but there were men courageous enough to investigate. the facts concerning a reputable daughter, Gomichbooks Anyway (ef 0) ae