Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 133: what you’re looking at

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

MYSTERY OF VOODOO MANOR. I frowned at the figure. Its act and _ presence were so incomprehensible. Yet un- doubtedly the bearded man came in total ignorance of Solomon Isaacs’s recent infor- mation. Why should he suspect that the tpawnbroker would mention his ordinary and unsuccessful search merely for some kind of curio for a den, real or fancied? Noth- ing about his visit had breathed of any in- terest in a knife with an opal eye. And certainly he could scarcely know of the later arrival of the man with the patch -at the pawnshop with the mysterious dagger. But how came the man with the patch with the knife, anyway? Could he have stolen it and then sold it to Solomdén Isaacs? Perhaps, after all, the cook with her Cel- tic imagination working overtime had fan- cied that this mysterious person was the peddier. Bearded men were not unlike in general appearance. ‘The man at the hy- drangea bush was perhaps too far from the cook’s point of sacs for infallible iden- tification. Mayhap the mechanical intonation of the voice was one of those queer coincidences with which many pages out of the book of life are strangely overburdened. Were this fortuity true, then what would be more natural than for the self-stated curio collec- tor to come in quest of what he deemed a fitting souvenir for his den? I hoped that he would at least make a bid. Certainly he Would have to raise his voice above the much mentioned low mono- tone with which several dark figures in the pattern of the tragedy were already vested by certain witnesses. ‘Ladies and gentlemen,” began the loud voice of the auctioneer, ‘‘I bring to you this morning a rare and valuable prize, in- deed. I see before me people who are trav- eled, who are collectors, who have knowl- edge and taste in recognizing the unique and the valuable. Such a gathering instantly knows how much human events add to any curio, whatever its previous intrinsic and commercial rating.” Nancy had certainly selected a man who -knew his business. In the hushed expect- ancy he went on: “You are thoroughly familiar how such relics become enhanced in value by the pass- 6035 ing of years. You know how the dagger of the infamous Italian Luigi, which dripped with human blood, passed from collection to collection until to-day it rests among the priceless relics of a certain Castilian noble. You know how the sword of fvan, the ter- rible Russian, reeking with the gore of stir- ring events, has been fought over and pur- loined, so great has been the human desire to gain it for its history’s sake. “You know how the pearls of Megia, the Spanish ballet dancer, have more than once been dyed red as they have traveled from land to land and from hand to hand. You know how the blue diamond of the sheik of a certain Turkish province still exerts its exotic and hypnotic influence over the minds of men eager to possess it whatever the cost. “And now we come to the famous dag- ger with the opal eye, which will go down in history as the instrument of death in the incredible mystery of Voodoo Manor. Were the knife itself without commercial value, the strange part it has played in this baf- fling crime would instantly elevate it to a rank of peculiar worth and facination. “For we all love the mysterious, even though crime may cause some of the more timorous of us to blanch and shiver. And no mere bit of steel was ever more crypti- cally bound up in a strange mystery than this knife with the opal eye. “But in addition to its recently aed history, the dagger is a piece of rare work- manship, of extraordinary handiwork. It was old long before Miss Loring purchased it. Mayhap shrouded in the veil of the un- known it even possessed a nefarious history ere it came to its last owner. “1 frankly admit that this is pure specu- lation on my part. But I do aver that the rare beauty of the knife, its finished work- manship, place it, irrespective of its new history, in a class by itself. “In my business it is my habit to deal with rare weapons. i am familiar with the make, the workmanship, and the history of many. And I tell yow right here that I have never beheld in my years of experience so admirable a bit of tempered steel, or of such exquisite workmanship, as the one which it is my-privilege to bring before you.” As the crowd tried to surge nearer, the (E©@) EGomichbooks