All Story Magazine, December 1913 — page 104: what you’re looking at

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

814 THE and when the brooch struck me a little under the left eye | hoped there wasn't any more. — There was a rush of rustling skirts. I straightened and turned about with a hazy conception of Ralph being very near to me, Della rushing through the dining-room, and Fanny, suddenly timid and anxious, following her. Some one in the hall moved hastily and a door closed. Della did not seem to heed. I heard her rushing to the other end of the hall; another door slammed and the Gobbler wailed louder and longer. Ralph was very pale and shaking with anger and excitement; his hands were clenched. Mine were filled with rings and bracelets and the brooch. The tiara and necklace were in my pockets. “Give me those things!” he de- manded. “Are they yours?” “They belong to my cousin.” “T'll see that your cousin them.” *You—you— Hang you!” He lunged at me, and, with my hands filled as they were, I could only throw up my arms to ward him off and side-step. L backed into a small table—upset it. A vase crashed to the floor and I went with it, when Ralph, crazy as-a Malay and swearing between his teeth, plunged at me, catching me off my balance with a terrific swing over the gets left. eye. My head was swimming and _ the electric chandelier whirling round; and something hard and sharp came up from behind, and the lights grew dim. In an instant a weight pressed upon my chest, and when I struggled feebly to rise the weight grew heavier. There was nothing distinct. Millions of miles above me I saw a faint light, and from tar off came a child’s cry. A long time afterward the weight upon my chest lifted, and some one ALL-STORY MAGAZINE. flung something wet in my _ face, grabbed my arm, and, pulling me to my feet, held me there till the mists before my eyes faded, and I saw that she was Fanny. “ Are you a friend o’ Mac’s? T nodded. “Do you know where Rollins is?” “T think so.” “Then for Heaven's sake wake up an’ get a move on, or there'll be mur- der this night! Della’s gone for Beans Borrowman.” a9 CHAPTER XXXII. NUMBER 314. vy 4 o . Dire few minutes are hazy. “Gone for Beans Borrowman! ” Ts . That threat roused me as nothing else could have done; made my bruised eye, the growing lump on the back of my head, and the fact that Ralph had taken advantage of his opportunity to Hee with the jewelry matters of sec- ondary importance. next very It all lay somewhere behind the shadow that Beans and his revenge cast across the pathway of events. I could see the Rob Roy gang torn asunder, the blot of murder upon its escutcheon, its members scattered and fleeing from the clutching fingers of the law. Its leader— [ rushed to the telephone and stood upon a red-hot griddle while the oper- ator took centuries to get me _ the number I wanted. A gruff voice an- swered my query. ‘Mac ain’t got here yet.” “ Hasn’t got there!” “Naw! Ring off.” Then, because there was nothing else to do, and because inactivity was the one thing I simply could not stand, I got into my hat and coat and out of the apartment to find a taxicab to take me to the th Street house. I don’t know what Fanny did or where she went or anything about her. As I went out I had a dim vision of comicloooks.com