Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 3 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

S ARGOSY-ALLSTORY W EF EF KR LY Vor. CXXIV SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1920 NUMBER 3 | O g b/ - Raymond Lester yg Author of “Dast to Dust,” “ Walls of Clay,” the Nan Rassell series, etc. CHAPTER I. JULIE BECKONS TO OPPORTUNITY. ‘PY ULIE SOMERS was absorbed im un- usually close and intensive thought. Dark, upcurved, and pleasmely thick lashes veiled her downcast eyes; but it - Should be known they were blue, very beay- tiful and, emotionally, very unexpressive and misleading. In a mental close-up of in- ner vision, julie was looking again at a wrsst watch. it was an oddly shaped trinket, oblong and quite different to the common run of timekeepers. It had cost a lot of money, and the wrist it adorned be- longed to a girl with astonishingly blond hair. More of her anon.. At present she figures only as a shadowy being in Julie’s Ofihand, these same may be classed as be- ing kin to the small potato farnily; but cam- menplace seed-tubers are at times of vast importance. They sprout, flower, and mul- - tiply and bear—new potatoes. The clang and rattle of the car’s wheels over the vibrating rails of the column-sup- ported Elevated intruded not at all upon Julie’s conscipusness. Night and morming for months of workdays she had taken that same short journey. Down-town at 8.45 a.m. Up-town.at round about 6 P.M. 1A 985 For her there was no novelty or remotest tingle of excitement m the swaying, grating rumble of the train as it took the curves. She felt no discomfort m the elbows that jogged her. No irritation at the crowd that jostled, and she paid no heed, either, to the casual glances of the women, or the more Inquiring looks of some of the men. The bi-daily trip, Sundays and holidays except- eg, was a standardized detail in her extst- ence. She didn’t like the journey, but on the other hand it didn’t bother her over- much. Anyway, at this moment of meeting her, Julie was in a mood of total disregard of external circumstances. She was think- ing, groping; striving to concentrate and form the germ of a philosophy of life. Lots of us are this way inclined. In fact, several of us are old-tnmners, and have a multiplicity of philosophies to fit the needs of the moment. A most accommodating style of mentality this; but not /conducrve However—to Julie Somers. For her, the merest glimmer ef a precenceived plan of life was a unique experiment. Her fluffy, untenacious little brain was hard put to it to hang closely to the idea that had struck her. Up until this interesting moment her mental processes had been exercised m con- sideration of so-and-so’s chewing gum. GOMLGDOO SS (CO