All Story Magazine, December 1913 — page 109: what you’re looking at

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

A THIEVES’ to mean consent,’ Campbell resumed relentlessly, ‘it is to be presumed that he had no objection to the ceremony he heard performed a few minutes ago. A parent’s consent is always nice to have in affairs of that sort. Pater- nal generosity is much nicer. So he has kindly assigned to his daughter— to take effect upon the occasion of her marriage to — well — anybody — the mortgages he held upon the estates of Didderington. “The paper was carefully drawn by that eminent practitioner of law, Mr. Seton Tait, who arranges legal words and phrases so that they can’t be split with an ax. Our guest signed it, feel- ing that he—might as well—and stayed to be sure that everything was all right. Of course, the costume he has affected for the occasion made him rather backward about making an ap- pearance. “And, by the way, Didderington, I believe Smith & Nelson, of Broad Street, have a few dollars for you, made on the sale of one thousand shares of Rand Island at 225.” I was dumfounded. Even Rollins was so startled as to forget his fear and again rise a few inches out of his chair, and a queer sound, half whine, burst from his pallid lips. But he slid back again instantly and cringed away from the menacing touch of his guards’ revolvers. Campbell eyed him up and down, and seemed to be talking just for the personal satisfaction of being sure that Rollins would understand exactly what had happened and how all of his various plans had failed. “My agents borrowed fifty thou- sand shares from the gentleman in San Francisco who owned them and gave security of five million dollars—or double what the stock was worth. Since my guest bought the stuff, I can’t return it, and, of course, forfeit the security. But I think that the balance of what was realized upon the sale of fifty thousand shares at 250 should make a certain very young man inde- COMEDY. 819 pendent of his guardians, whoever they may be.” : Of course, I knew that he meant the Gobbler. He reached out for the other half of the sliding door. Rollins had not a word to say; did not make a’sound of any kind. ‘When I give the word, boys. till then.” Crabbe nodded, and the door slid together in a second, shutting out the splash of red and yellow, the pallor of Rollins’s cheeks, and the glint of his keepers’ weapons. The last glimpse of the tableau I had was the rakish tilt of the glengarry upon Rollins’s head. Campbell gripped my arm and, lead- ing me toward the parlor entrance, said quietly: “When you undertook to play the market yesterday, I phoned Smith & Nelson for you, telling them to sell. Thought you might not know when. But I imagined I’d like to see if it made any difference to Margaret and you. Tell me how it all happened—that eye and everything. It wasn’t Beans who—” The basement bell rang. Ere the sound had died away Camp- bell had reached the sliding doors and had thrown them back. “Quick! You’ve just a minute Crabbe and Paler started to their feet, clutched MRollins’s arms, and hoisted him out of his chair before he had much of a chance to even gasp. The basement door closed. Taking charge of his prisoner, Camp- bell ordered Crabbe and Paler to the main stairs. “The second they show, cover them,” he finished ominously, uncere- moniously hustling my grotesque and shrinking father-in-law across the par- lor, out into the hall, and toward the outer door. Instantly I saw his plan. As Beans and Della came in from below, he was sending Rollins out from above. It was better, under the cir- cumstances, to let the Borrowmans in than keep them out. Not {9 comicloooks.com