Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine — page 85: what you’re looking at

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

(dy GREEN darty little devil_curled up an’ swayin’ in his hammock as happy as ye please. “ Besides, the man I see shamblin’ to- ward the ’tween-decks at eight bells was too tall fer the steward. Omura, he walks quick like a cat an’ picks up his feet high; but this fella kind o’ shuffled along limpin’ almost, an’ seemed kind 0’ old. Why, in- stead o’ bein’ that darty little devil of a steward it might better ’a’ been old Dan’l Gaylord hisself!”’ “Dad!” moaned Dorothy under her breath, and I saw that her face was like wax. “Did ye speak, Miss Dor’thy?” asked Mankus, turning toward her. “ No? Well, as I was sayin’, instead o’ Omura, the person I see that night might better ’a* been Mr. Gaylord—or Mr. Falkens here, from the shape of the dome—” Mankus paused abruptly, and his jaw sagged as if a sudden great thought had just come to him. Then he shook ‘his head slowly. | “T said it was Letcher, an’ stab my guts if I don’t stick to it! He’ll never git aboard this craft while I got a cartridge in the gun!” Falkens turned suddenly, as if about to reply, but Dorothy forestalled him. “The person you saw that night was myself,” said she, a hard, strained note in her voice. “Hay? Hay?” returned Mankus blank- ly, his cigarette dropping from his mouth. “Tt was I!” repeated Dorothy. “I wore a long kimono and stooped over.” “Hay?” cried Mankus sharply, exhaling with such vigor that the stuffing of his cigarette blew out. and scattered, burning, over the table-cloth. ‘“ Ye wore a long kimony an’ stooped— Well, now, who’d ’a’ thunk it. Why, I never heerd 0’ sitch a think! I thought it was Letcher all along; an’ now it was you! Why didn’t I ’a’ knowed it then? I guess I never heerd ’a’ sitch a— But what ye a givin’ us, gal? You had somethink in yer hand!- T see—” “The spider-case, of course.” “Mother of God! Then if was you as done it!” “Yes,” continued Dorothy in the same expressionless tones. “It was I who .dropped it in the port-hole!”’ SPIDERS. A427 “For Heaven’s sake, _Miss Gaylord, think what you are saying!” I exclaimed. -But just then I remembered that I, too, had seen her that night going toward the *tween-decks, and the realization appalled me. “This has gone too far,’ said Falkens chokingly, as he rose and rapped on the table with a fist. ‘“ What Miss Gaylord has just said is false. I—I don’t believe her. I have good reason to think it was a man who was guilty of this crime. I—I—” Dorothy glanced at him in vexation, and bit her lip to keep back a sharp retort. Evidently she expected him to make some important disclosure, for she waited for him to continue. When he hésitated, and stopped in evident confusion, her vexation quickly changed to a look of deep scorn. “Ts that all you have to say, Mr. Fal- kens?” she asked coldly. Falkens, thus taken. to task, compressed his lips and flushed as if he felt the irony of her words, but was determined to abide by his decision. “That is all,” he returned shortly. “Then I shall know what to think of you,” she said scornfully. “.As for myself, you all knew my feelings toward Captain Jessup. I—resolved to kill him. I saw Mr. Letcher throw his spiders in the basin, and— But why detail the miserable story? Iam the guilty person.” The fact of Dorothy’s guilt did not seem to concern Mankus so vitally as the bare suspicion of Letcher’s had done. Mankus lit a fresh cigarette, drummed idly on the table, and actually grinned. “Well, now, Miss Dor’thy,” he said, a new note of respect in his voice, as he eyed her with undisguised admiration, “if ye done it, then I guess ye must ’a’ had good an’ sufficient cause to do it, which it ain’t up to us to question or throw in yer téeth. Why, if ye done it, you-was sure justified! That clears the little gal, fore an’ aft, t’-gal- lants to keelson. Come, doc, that there’s what I call good news.” “Tt also clears Mr. Letcher,” I reminded. This put a damper on his spirits, for he shrugged his shoulders, and an ugly ex- pression supplanted his erin as he realized the truth of my contention. Cconmicooolks.conn