Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 142: what you’re looking at

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

eel —— My ae Pinal Pa a yy via ope iby ver Bee GEE a aye JON . SU cay ely! Po) a hy! vm) att ’ Vale ' h ale) me y, ty ——= ee ‘ iN Sit a -— some inner emotion. ~ citement ran through her. a more. Her glance sweeping the spectators discovered Mrs. Yates, damp but deter- ~ minedly cheerful, and in the row just behind her Dicky Tewson caught her eye. He nod- Ged deliberately with an enigmatic smile - _and a tiny glow of annoyance mounted in her wan cheeks as with no sign of recogni- ~~ tion she looked above and beyond him. Her ~ search was unsuccessful; Stephen was not =" there. Dreyer appéared as nonchalant as ever -_as he greeted her, and Rowe as calmly pa- - ternal, but Claudia detected beneath his = urbanity a shade of self-consciousness as though he were endeavoring to veil from her Was he going to = produce Stephen’s witness when the moment. The ascetic, inscrutable face of the judge __ Jeoked down from behind his high desk, but somehow the bloodless, waxen countenance seemed a shade more animate, and in the — meditative gaze a gentleness brocded. Was it only because hope filled her heart that he appeared more human and kindly? _ She had avoided the eyes of the jury- = ‘men on the previous day, not in fear or - eonfusion, but in a proud aversion to the thought that some one of them might mis-— - ¥ead appeal in her glance. - garded them each in turn with a calmly - Impersonal gaze. - The foreman seemed lost in refiection, but his immediate neighbor eyed the dis- _ trict attorney expectantly, his bread, good- __ natured face still weighed down with that expression of portentous gravity. _*. the man with the suspicious wife, Claudia remembered; had the prosecutor’s cynic- ae ally. sarcastic allusion to the blind belief — of 5 BBY wife ” already prejudiced him? This was Number three, the excitable Frenchman appeared to he on ill terms with Garfinkel, who sat beside him, for he was shrugging expressively and .eying the little pawn- broker with exaggerated contempt; but the latter was smiling quietly to himself as though he had gotten the better of some _. argument. Again that impression of vast wisdom = to the girl as though his self-contain- _ Ment Sees from | a pene Imowledge A little thrill of ex-. Now she re- -ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. of human nature, and with added confi- dence her gaze traveled to the next man, — to find his fixed full upon her in a wistful, absent stare which seemed incongruously pathetic, coming from this man whose heal- thily tanned, perfectly groomed counte- nance seemed otherwise to radiate complete satisfaction with life. But this was the man who had been “ crazy about just one eirl,” who was dead! Hastily, as if she had surprised him into 2 confidence, Claudia’s eyes turned to num- -ber six, but the stolid baker, too, was re- garding her, though with a lively, personal curiosity, and her glance traveled swiftly along the second row. Broker and truck driver, professor and manufacturer, musi- cian and salesman, all six had fastened their gaze upon her with varying degrees of in- terest as though her scrutiny had drawn theirs and her glance fell. the girl who had looked like her and At that moment the clerk of the court = # Risdon Lamont.” = Claudia started. Why, he was Niles’s friend, and had been an usher at her wed- ding! What could this middle-aged, rather “pompous clubman have to impart? Whatever it was, he seemed highly re- painfully as he took the stand, and he mumbled his oath with obvious embarrass- ment. “Mr. Lamont, you were present at the marriage of Niles Hamersley and Claudia Langham, the prisoner before you?” ie district attorney asked. luctant to reveal it, for his face flushed — Mr. Lamont. contented himself with a ~~ bow. of assent and the prosecutor con- tinued. “Tn what capacity?" ‘“‘T was an usher.” “Do you recall any guest or guests who ~ sought admission without a card?” He meant Zorn! Claudia glanced at her attorneys, but Dreyer had assumed an air — of utter boredom, and Uncle Matt was lost in a reverie which seemed to be affording him much inward satisfaction. ““E recall one, 2 man.’ » The witness coughed nervously. — — “Do woe recall him distinctly?” =