Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 112: what you’re looking at

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

738 “Faith?” He stared at her as if she were a ghost. ‘“ Faith Howland? Am I dreaming?” He rubbed his eyes; he shook his head as if the situation were beyond his under- standing, and his glance fell on the wreck of the airplane. Then he began to remem- ber. “ T had a fall,” he said. buckled on me.” “ Aren’t you hurt?” she asked breathless- ly. ‘When I found you I thought you were—were dead.” Somewhat vaguely Bob began to feel himself and stretch his arms and legs. “T seem to be all there,” he announced cheerfully. ‘“‘ Guess it only stunned me a bit.” He started to get up on his feet, but quickly sank back again with an involun- tary cry of pain. “ Oh, you have broken your leg!” Faith exclaimed solicitously. “No.” He lifted it tentatively. “ Leg’s all right.” “Then it is your ankle. sprained it?” Again he shook his head, wiggling the joint to prove that the injury was not there. “T’ll tell you,” he confessed sheepishly; “ it’s—it’s my big toe. I guess I must have stubbed it.” It was too much for Faith. She gasped, choked up; then, unable to control herself, sank down upon the sand and went off into peals of laughter. “Bob Moore! Bob Moore!” ‘The tears of mirth were running down her face. “Could anything so ridiculous have hap- pened to any one else on earth? I see a smashed-up plane,” she ran on, “I rush to it aghast, thinking that Cale Northrup has had a fall. I knew of no one else around here who might be flying. Under the piled-up ruin I find what seems to be a corpse. Then you calmly sit up and tell me you have stubbed your toe.” Again her almost hysterical laughter rang out; and, even though the joke was at his expense, Bob had to join in. And after all it was probably the best thing that could have happened to either of “The left wing You have ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. them, for both had been through a wearing strain during the last twenty-four hours, and this yielding to hilarity eased their overtaut nerves. ‘“‘ But how do you happen to be out here alone?” demanded Bob, when at last they had sobered down. The question recalled her to her plight. Springing to her feet, she swept her gaze over the wide expanse of desert in every direction. But there was nothing in sight save the empty waves of sand. ‘IT must be on the watch,” she said ap- prehensively. ‘They must not get a chance to recapture me.”’ “They? Who?” questioned Bob. She shook her head to indicate that she did not know. “It happened just after you left me so abruptly the other night, there by the old arroyo,” she told him. “TI was sitting in my car, debating whether to call you back or not, when a cloth was thrown over my head and I was seized from behind. I tried to struggle and cry out, but a sponge soaked with chloroform was held under my nose, and in spite of all I could do I became unconscious. The last. thing I remember is being driven away in a car a prisoner. “* Some time later, though, I must have roused up; for I felt myself lifted out of the car and carried a short distance to another vehicle. It was an automobile truck, I think; because there were no seats, and I was laid out on the floor with an old horseblanket thrown over me. The blanket and the truck both smelled of whisky. But I did not have a chance to notice much of anything. My head was still woozy with the chloroform, and I drift- ed off to sleep. “When I roused up again I was being transferred to another truck, which seemed to be full of machinery and things like that. I was put in on top of two big coils of rope, and I could smell engine grease somewhere near me; but I was blindfolded and tied, so that was about all I could make out. “We must have gone a considerable dis- tance, for we seemed to be traveling at a rapid rate of speed, and it was daylight when at last we stopped. I could tell that COMMICLOookKks (C@