Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 3 — page 179: what you’re looking at

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

_. BEWARE OF on!” said Thomas, out of his semi-hypnotic state. were going now. Mary was not there. The lights of the den came up, and William, after a single glance, marched again to the closet and threw it open. Mary was not there. Without comment, he strode ahead—to the bedroom, the bedroom closet, the glit- tering little bath just off the bedroom. Mary was not there. And there was the dining-room, which Thomas illuminated, and about which he gazed with quickening pulses. - Mary was not there, either! _ Where was Mary? Where was Mary? “She’s in that hole right off the kitchen!’’ William muttered, as if in an- swer to his thought. ‘“‘ That’s where a wo- man would run—as far from the living- room as possible.” Gun still up, quite as if he meant to slay Mary on sight, William sped to the kitchen and the servant’s room beyond and hurled open the door of the little bath therewith connected. And he stopped, did William, and stared. Because Mary was not there! “Did she jump from a window?” he d. - “ Every window in the place is locked!” said Mrs. Noble’s decidedly new voice. _“T looked at them as we came along, I thought of that!” They stopped in the center of the kitchen. Peter turned his bewildered eyes from one to the other. ‘“ If—if Mary really was here, what was she doing here?” he queried. “ Ugh!” said his wife. ‘ Ugh!” “Pah!” snarled Mary’s husband. “ That dumbwaiter shaft!” ‘“There’s a fancy—lock on that,” said _ Thomas’s thin, wondering tone. ‘She couldn’t have—opened that even—if she had been here—which she was not!” ‘¢ She’s not here!”’ Mrs. Noble cried an- grily. ‘‘ We’ve looked in every corner, and she’s not here. She was spirited out while I was unconscious, I tell you!” é¢ What?’’ “ Just that, of course! ” Sally laughed harshly. ‘‘ They—these two—got her out The sidelights of the little private hall | THE BRIDE. D00 while I was on the couch, fainting from the shock of—of seeing her as she was! ‘‘ She—she—” said Mrs. Noble, and turned decidedly uncertain as she strove to recall her last conscious moments. “I think she attacked me because she wanted my clothes. She needed them! She—” ‘“‘ All right! Where is she now?” Wil- liam demanded. “In my own flat!” Mrs. Noble cried. And she turned and sped to the door, and after her went William and Peter Noble. Thomas Henning, alone, sat down with a thud. Mary was gone! Whither? Had Mary dematerialized? Can such things be? He clasped his hands and tried his hardest to think, more than half con- vinced that the trouble was with his own brain—that much stress had caused some — vital part to slip its bearings, and that he could no longer really think—that Mary, doubtless, had secured suitable raiment and just walked out during some mental lapse of his own! Although— “She isn’t there!” William stated, pop- ping in with the most disconcerting sudden- ness and with the interesting Noble couple at his heels. Thomas arose and nodded mechanically. ‘She was there, though?” said a breath- less Sally. ‘‘ Her clothes were there.” ‘““ Her clothes!” cried Peter, as a great light broke. “I can tell you—” “Qh, please don’t do that!” his wife cried. é¢ But—” | “No! , No! I won’t hear your disgust- ing lies about a disgusting thing like that, you—you immoral, indecent monster!” Mrs. Noble cried. ; William “laughed suddenly, _ bitterly. Also, he laughed directly at Sally. “Well?” she queried. “That sort of thing sounds queer, com- ing from you!” said William, who was out for pure, unadulterated trouble this night. ‘‘ What the devil do you mean by saying . a thing like that to my wife?” Peter de- manded. “ You were talking like that be- fore, weren't your You—”’ ‘““Ask your partner. He knows,” said young Mr. Emerson carelessly. ‘‘ Don’t COUMIUC AOOLK Colin