All-Story Weekly, March 1, 1919 — page 176: what you’re looking at

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

Spham pleaded the little old-fashioned ‘lady. “ Remember this is our home, and should -Bny — come to the young man—” “Why not?” demanded Spike. ‘ Old - man Winfield told us we could go as far as we liked short of actual starvation or as- sault, didn’t he?” “Sure,” “agreed One-Shot. got to stir him up.” “JT agree with you, boys,” said Missouri Dave. “But we have got to go at this thing cautiously.. Just what did the old man sayPr” ‘““Mr. Winfield said he had no objection to the kidnaping of his son for a week or two. He thought a scare would do him good and straighten him up and teach him to appreciate his own home,” said One- Shot. ‘“ When Pendleton and I went to _ see him, he fell in with the idea at once. He said he wouldn’t mind a black eye or two. If we could get the young fellow thoroughly peeved, he might come to his senses.”’ “He wouldn’t care to have us go as far as manslaughter,” interrupted Spike, “ but anything short of that would have his sanc- tion. One thing he was particular about. He said not to allow the young man to fall in love with anybody during this expe- rience. His son has a mania for love- affairs, having as many as three or four at one time. We both assured him that such an eventuality was impossible, at least from a good dramatic standpoint. The technique of such a thing would be faulty from every rule known to dramatic writing.” “There is a stout padlock on the coal cellar,” mused Missouri Dave. “ That’s the idea!” exclaimed Spike. “Then you boys go and get him and bundle him into the cellar,” said Dave. “ There will be four of you, counting Jean, and you should have little trouble.” It was not without some hesitation that Spike, One-Shot, and a third gentleman known as Bloody Mike embarked upon their enterprise, while Dave went down- stairs to prepare the coal cellar for its oc- cupant.. They crept around an angle of the house “We have = and beckoned to Jean, making several mys- ALL-STORY WEEKLY. terious signs which he seemed to under- stand—all this behind the prisoner’s back. As the three advanced upon Jerome, he turned suddenly and faced them. Milli- cent gasped, and, turning to him, urged him to flee. “They are desperate men,” she said. ‘Fly and leave you with. this gang?” said Jerome. ‘“ Not yet.” “T beg you to,” she breathed. will not harm me. me.” Jerome made no reply. He gazed steadily at the approaching trio, and the spirit of the old Cornell days seemed to take pos- session of him. With a fiendish yell, he crouched and met them in the middle of a broad gravel walk. In the twinkling of an eye, Bloody Mike landed in the midst of a large syringa-bush, Spike was rolled conveniently away be- neath a wheelbarrow which had been left there, and One-Shot was limping away to- ward the house as rapidly as possible. He was dragging one foot behind him, in a manner of aes. He. never looked back. From the wall sprang Jean and landed squarely on the back of Jerome, attacking him from the rear and trying to bear him to the ground. Millicent screamed and tried to pull Jean away. The young English playwright, Fordham, forgot that he was a valet, and put up a nasty fight. Jerome finally sub- dued him with a square poke under the left ear, and, while he was yet groggy, picked him up, carried him to the wall, and hoisted him up in his place. Then he picked up the old dueling pistol, laid it across Jean’s knees, brushed the dust from his coat, and went back to the flower-bed and resumed his conversation with Milli- cent. As he looked toward the house, he ob- served the portly lady sitting in a wicker “ They My father will protect chair with a broad arm, making notes on a pad of paper with feverish haste. The young man was doing something at last, and. she missed no detail of it. The three heroes, as if by mutual agree- ment, reached the coal cellar at about.the same time. boo <=) 2 et Se - ¥et 2 _ Ee - oa - a a ~ - ‘ al sn aD i St “.* Ne ne a ner -“—-* ad — ° ee — ml Ly Lah — Se © es ee ee —_. 2 7 Be “7 > ae a ol Eom