Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 3 — page 182: what you’re looking at

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

000 -It was very still, indeed, just now. Thomas faltered his way to the big arm- ir that had once held Mary in her iron suit, and settled back with a low groan. Where was Mary? He shook his head. What had become of her? She had not dropped five floors to the street, locking the window after her before she let go, and then hurrying blithely into a blue gown and returning to the ball? No, that really seemed to strain the possibilities a bit. Yet Horace had stated that she was at the ball, and Horace rarely made mistakes. Surely he had not made one earlier in the evening when he sought to penetrate Mary’s disguise. And—oh, what. was the matter with him? By no earthly possibility could Mary be dancing over there. Thomas scowled and shivered again. Just as surely as he sat here, Mary had been in the music-room — Mary had at- tacked Sally Noble—Mary, with the cur- tain wrapped about her, had wennes him carry Sally to the couch. : Why,’up to the very second of Bill’ S en- trance, he had been talking with Mary! Unless he conceded his own stark madness, nothing could efface that simple fact.. And, there in the blessed solitude, the more Thomas pondered the matter the less was he inclined to admit any element of brain defect on his own part. With the ut- most lucidity he recalled every minute and | fraction of minute that had passed since Bill’s arrival. To leave, Mary must have passed through this room. Well, whatever the ex- citement, no young woman in—vwell, pink bloomers, if Sally had been accurate— could possibly have walked through unob- served and attained the hallway! That much was established fact; Mary had not left! And, on the other hand, was the equally established fact that Mary had left, the simple proof of this being the certainty that Mary was not there now. They had probed every nook without finding any trace of Mary. So, to sum up, Mary was in the flat, and Mary was not in the flat, solely because she could and could not be either of these things. , manage “ Billy! ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. lt was puzzling, of course. It caused Thomas, after ten full minutes, to emit a little squeal of exasperation, net altogether unmixed with terror. Unless Horace actu- ally was right, unless Mary had discovered the fourth dimension in there, and_along it made her way to the ball across the street, picking up a wardrobe in some little fourth dimensional shop along the way, Mary Emerson, one of the sweetest girls alive, had been driven by sheer force of malevo- lent influences into thin air! Nonsense? Doubtless, bat it appealed to Thomas for a minute as the only possi- ble solution. He sat up and gripped the upholstered arms of his chair. He gulped once of twice and tried to sta- bilize the reeling brain. He could not. That was no answer at all, of course, but —there was no other answer. | Mary was gone! That was aji—Mary was gone! Gone! Yes—gone/ “Tom,” said Mary, as her head popped through the music-room curtains. CHAPTER XXXIV. - WHEN KNIGHTS WERE BOLD. ELL indeed was it for Thomas Henning at that moment that the architect had specified thick walls and doors for the Cypria apartment build- ing. That shriek must have penetrated anything less substantial than concrete, as Thomas shot out of his chair and stood glaring at the curtain shrouded apparition. She was not there, of course. And sty, he could have sworn that he saw her, and that she had called his name and— “Mary! Are you—there?” Thomas faltered. Mary did not even heed the question. “Did he leave it?” she demanded eagerly. “Eh? Whore Leave what?” Thomas d. - Billy! The bag, of course!” Billy’s wife cried, impatiently and in the most matter of fact way—and quite as if, these last ten or fifteen seconds, she had not gathered her component atoms out of space and resolved them into bride again! . CORNICLOO@ Ss Colin