Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 134: what you’re looking at

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

916 when he spoke of those operations, as though he were sorry he had mentioned that period in his life to me, and when I found ‘that there was something hanging over him it occurred to me that it must belong to those years which he did not care to discuss. You don’t mean that his money was made ‘in illegal ways—that he was a criminal?” “ Criminal negligence is all that the law could have held him responsible for, yet there was murder on his soul, Claudia!” Stephen’s voice was low but firm, and al- though he spoke with an obvious effort he went doggedly on: “ The foundation of the fortune -he was making was the indirect - cause of the action which he took and which resulted in the death of one innocent per- son and the unjust punishment of another. Yl cut this part of the story as short as i can and then give you Zorn’s version of how he came to be involved in the mat- ter.” | - “He told me that he had once done a great favor for my husband and run a per- sonal risk in doing so,” Claudia observed. a He magnifies the risk, but he did help __Niles’s Hamersley out of a—a nasty hole. - “They were clerks together in the St. Louis branch office of a stock brokerage concern with headquarters in Chicago some twelve years ago, making twenty dollars a week as and commissions, and neither of them had ‘another penny. Hamersley was prepossess- ing, though; Zorn was not. He lived in a cheap commercial hotel and played the races on the quiet; Hamersley had a cubby- hole of a room in an extremely proper boarding house in the outskirts of the best residential section of the city and played society. His name wasn’t Hamersley then, Claudia; it was Jim Raikes, and he changed it legally afterward, as Zorn ascertained, but he was really a native of Canada, as he told you.” “The son of an English valet who mi- ~ grated there with his master and married the daughter of a sheep farmer,” Dreyer’s cool voice broke in. ‘ Our client wants all the truth, Munson.” © Tell me!” Claudia begged. ‘I agree with Mr. Dreyer, Stephen; I must know everything! You say that Niles’s played society. Do you mean women? Zorn said _ ARGOSY- ALLSTORY WEEKLY. that he was always a wizard with them, that he hypnotized them, but I never gave it a second thought.” “He was a—great success with them,” Stephen said slowly, “ especially the rich, elderly ones. Please try to remember that I am only repeating Zorn’s story. Hamers- ley handled all the women’s accounts at the brokerage house and his commissions more than doubled Zorn’s. He laid himself out to be agreeable and the women—widows for the most part, with more money than they knew what to do with—took to invit- ing him to their houses. He had a flair, a natural genius for social organization and soon he was planning their entertainments, originating novel parties and that sort of thing, until no affair in a certain clique was complete without him. The leader of their set was the widow of a millionaire brewer, so old that she was becoming a trifle ec- centric. _Hamersley made himself indis- pensable to her. He was only in the late twenties, you know, and she took a tre- mendous fancy to him, being quite alone in the world. Before long she was lending him large sums to speculate with on the market on his own account. He severed his connection with the brokerage house, but still kept up his acquaintance with Zorn, who claims he gave him valuable tips. “The old lady had promised to remember Hamersley substantially in her will, but she ~ put it off and the matter was hanging fire when he met a girl who upset all his cal- culations. She was a decent enough little thing, according to Zorn, and worked in the confectioner’s shop where Hamersley bought candy for his elderly benefactress. She was engaged to a young plumber who owned a fast second-hand runabout. I mention this because that car figures in the catastrophe which happened later. “ Minnie—that was the girl’s name—fell head over heels in love with Hamersley when he began amusing himself by flirting with her. He took her about on the quiet, showing her the sort of life she’d never known before;- late parties at roadhouses and that sort of thing—nothing wrong, but it would have broken off her affair with the young chap who was saving up to marry her | | and killed Hamersley’ s chances of an in- -com ick Bee S co