Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 89: what you’re looking at

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

A HATFUL OF TROUBLE. 559 Tower’s smile was boyish, but still it hinted of the mathematician behind the man. | “ How—how did you know I had your unicorn?’’ stammered the detective. “T’ll match you. How did you know I’d be in here about noon to-day?” “Science!” said Cassidy cryptically. “ Mathematics,” returned his late pris- oner, Cassidy stared. “T like your nerve,” he managed at last. ““T’m beginning to like it myself,” said Arthur, “ but my admiration of it falls far short of your ability at finding me.” Cassidy frowned. ““ There’s neither satire nor umbrage in my last statement,” sald Arthur, imperson- ally. “I told you on the train to-day that mathematics is behind science. That’s how I was fairly sure you’d be here either late to-night or early to-morrow. And that’s how I knew you had my unicorn.” “Was mathematics back of that stunt you pulled when you slipped away from us last night?” - © was. It’s behind everything Tt was behind the man who mailed the letter you got in police headquarters about the time I left there this afternoon. A special de- livery letter. My missing unicorn was in that letter.” “You're a fast bov, for one that’s lived around Boston.” “Js that a compliment or 2 threat?” asked Arthur. “ You ought to know,” said Cassidy with the same pallid irony that he had shown on their last meeting. ‘‘ You know so much that you ought to know how the police de- partment gets all its unicorns—unless this one is just a mathematical unicorn.” “The hole he left in his hat makes me suspect that he was mathematical,” smiled Arthur. “But, that isn’t the point. The ‘point is—first, he’s my unicorn. Second, he was stolen from me. Third, I’ve missed him sadly. His tail, you know, had a very fetching curve to it—flossy, I believe is the New York vernacular, And the motto: Hic et ubique, meaning ‘ here and every- where,’ has rather grown on me since I left Boston, That's why t yearn to have him back again.” “Why didn’t you apply beforehand to the fellow you think mailed him to us?” craftily returned Cassidy. “‘ And then you wouldn’t have to ask me! I can’t—” : He got no further. The blow that felled him came from be- hind. The man who had dealt it was masked and he was far too short to be the y-man. — So it would seem that the x-man had had seen fit to appear in person. CHAPTER XXIIL. MASKS. NARMED., Arthur Tower should have been petrified by fear, especially after seeing Detective Cassidy so brutally stricken down; for, while he had adventured afar in deserts of algebraic formulas, wan- dered wide in wildernesses of lines and sur- faces in geometry, and quaked amid the quicksands of calculus he had never before faced a masked man, much less with an- other human being stretched at his feet. The mighty cable of habit held him, in spite of the action that followed his de- mand of his unicorn from Cassidy, Reason routed fear, for in the hesitancy of the x-man he discerned a bravo—minus brav- ery. Arthur crouched and leaped like a - panther at the man of hidden visage. The bravo twisted aside. The twist of his body was as swift as the stealthy stroke at the unsuspecting Cassidy. Like a serpent, his sinuous, eluding glide swept him around the corner of the latticed bower, while Arthur, plunging forward, en- countered only empty space until he grasped the slender framework of the lattice to check his momentum. Again balanced and free to follow, he descried the distant shadow of the prowler running with footfalls almost feathery. He wound his devious route amid the maze of landscape gardens, sprinkled with pergolas, hedges and other obstructions. Arthur could do little save step back to Cassidy, who moaned and tried to rise to his knees. The young mathematician stooped and lifted him. Presently he could ’totter along with Arthur’s help toward the house. oO EComicbooks.com YAY)