Adventure Magazine Cover, June 18, 1921 — page 71: what you’re looking at

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

sorcery and Everhard One of the many reasons that I liked Lord Bob—or Robert Calversley, as he was more formally known—was that in spite of his fluent nonsense he appeared io have the gift of holding his tongue. He asked no inquisitive questions. He did not know into what sort of trouble I had got myself that I chose to bea Mr. Richards. A man with secrets of his own generally does not ply meddling questions. I ASKEW, of course, what he had told her of me. He had said that I ~. was his best friend, and the only man he knew who had ‘sense enough to trust him. {replied that in such an opmion he was per- haps deceived by my not having anything that needed to be kept secret. Her eyes were disconcertingly direct and intense. I had the feeling that I knew what she wanted, but I was not sure. I thonght she wanted me to offer to serve her, that she was piqued, almost offended as a vain wo- man would be, by my disinclination to be Yet there was such a sustained scrutiny from her eyes, such an appearance of in- terest with something of an affectation of indifference, that I could not be confident of what she might have in her head. She walked to a chair and sat down, flmging her loose glove to the table and firigering a key. -It must have been the key to the apartment-house which no doubt Lord Bob had given her, perhaps had dupli- cated from his own. She looked about her carelessly, eying various objects, and poked some of the scat- tered magazines with the pomt of her very small black-satin shpper. . Incidentally the jJomg, narrow buckles seemed to be set with diamonds. “Ah, from France! Blessed, dear land! It was there 1 met Lord Bob. I must find him at once. It is extremely urgent. I know of no one else to whom I can appeal— because—because—” she was watching me clasely—“I need some one who is not afraid.” The invitation was almost explicit, but I was not tempted. A woman readily be- eves that any man is instantly fearless if she urges him to run risks for her. I am not fearless; and least of all when a woman is engaged in mysterious maneuvers. Zoronna Symondi was like a flame burn- ing on a pine knot; it changes color, it flares 61 briefly in first one direction and another, it is tense. She was restless without seem- ing nervous, and every move and gesture she made would have been a pose if she had paused long enough to make a tableau effect. She told me how much she valued Lord Bob; he was a fine, generous, brave fellow. She must find him. Couldn’t I. tell her where he was? “T am in such trouble,”. she added, look- ing at me, not pleadingly, not calculatingly, but with something of the gaze of a gambler who watches the ball on the spimning wheel, and yet is more interested m the game than in the stakes. I saw very well that she had made up her mind to entice me into the mysterious ser- vice for which she had sought Lord Bob— the fop whom she had the penetration to judge as far different from what he seemed; but I did not intend to be enticed. It does not please me to have a woman’s thumb and finger to my rather long nose, leading me where she wishes. Zoronna sat back with a little sigh and nearly closed her-eyes, but through the slits of lids she was watching me. Her lashes were long and dark, no doubt blackened, but effectively.so; and the glint of yellow—al- most of yellow light—that came from under them was not unlike the light that might have been in a barbaric queen’s eyes as she stared, not wholly unamuced, at some poor stubborn courtier. This ; ?mpression was in- creased by the suggestion of a smile, a smile so faint as not to affect the nes of her lps. “T tell you,” she said slowly, her voice low, clear, not soft but far: from harsh, or even cold, “I tell you, 1am m danger. Per- sonal danger. It would*be unwise of me to tell you—a stranger. But Hurgronje——” She stopped. Nota muscle of my face or fingers moved. Nature, as Hf ironically playimg a trick on my very respectable and somewhat religious family, gave me the cold, emotionless nerves without which a card-gambler might as well take to a pick-handle and turn ditch-digger; and night after might, through year upon year, of sitting at the green baize tables, enduring the gaze of hard-eyed men, some angrily alert to catch me cheating at those very moments when I could not afford to trust to luck and must pluck the cards I needed; the many times in which some bully, perhaps hired, or perhaps half-drunk and seeking the fame of having killed so | COmicloo CN Vp) (©