Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 91: what you’re looking at

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

THE STRANGER AT THE GATE. to get a value placed tentatively upon it. When that has happened, I shall double the highest price that has been offered and then place the pearl on sale. Within a week it will be a sensation. Within a month it will be bought by a king or an American millionaire. I can’t say which would pay the more liberally.’ “¢T think you are right,’ said the com- modore. ‘‘ For my part, I cannot pose as an expert on pearls. You will see by a glance at my collection that this is true. The pearls are the fewest in number and the least desirable of the lot.’ “T glanced at the jewels. It was true. The pearls were very ordinary in quality and they were few in number. ‘““< But,’ said the commodore, ‘ that will make it easier for you to understand how greatly I appreciate what you have just told ‘me about the Sheik.’ “T did not understand, and I told him so. He merely shrugged his shoulders and smiled down at me in that damnable way of his. ‘““¢ A little reflection,’ he said, ‘ will teach you. Did I not say that it was I who was lucky when the storm blew you my way?’ ‘“T Jooked at him in sudden terror. The fears which I had felt before swept back upon me. I jumped from the bunk, “© Commodore!’ I cried to him. “<¢ Hush!’ said he. ‘You are making unnecessary noise, my friend.’ ‘“ And he drew out a great black revolver and laid it in his lap and kept on tossing the pearl up and down and smiling at me. “¢ Good God, commodore,’ I said to him, ‘do you mean to murder me and steal the Sheik ?’ “< Murder you? By no means!’ he said. ‘Why should I?’ “*Vou cannot steal the pearl otherwise,’ T assured him. “ But he laughed in my face. “¢ Only a few seconds ago,’ he said, ‘ you were telling me that you and I are the only living human beings who have ever seen the Sheik.’ “ «What of that?’ I asked him. ““¢Vou will see,’ he said. “ And with that he stood up, crossed the cabin, dumped the great pearl into the 6A 881 drawer, closed the drawer and the safe, and that was the last time, until to-night, that I saw the jewel!” CHAPTER XV. A TALE UNFINISHED, OGAN paused. During his narration he had smoked constantly, heavily, and the bed was now surrounded with a blue-brown haze. Through this he looked into the tensed faces of his audience. He had swept them so easily along that they now were murmuring with indignation. ‘“T was stunned at first,’ he went on. ‘But when I ran across the cabin at him, he shoved the gun in my face and threat- ened to blow my head off and tell the au- thorities afterward that I had gone mad with brandy, and as a result of the un- balancing effects of the storm. ‘“« And,’ he went on, ‘if you give me any trouble I shall be tempted to complete the business at a stroke, in this very fashion. Logan, be careful—be very careful. You have been on the very verge of death, and you are still close to the precipice!’ “J believed him. The circumstances would have been too much against me. What earthly purpose would he have in killing a storm-racked stranger unless I had, as he would declare, gone mad with liquor? Also, a bullet would put out of existence the last person, outside of him- self, who had ever seen the great pearl. And the pearl was worth murder. “T saw all of these things in a flash, and IT said no more. When we made port, I simply assured him, as quietly as possible, that I should do my best to recover the gem, and then I went ashore and found a lawyer. ““He listened to all the-details of my yarn, and when TIT was through he assured me that he was intensely interested, but that his practice did not include any great deal of criminal work; but he gave me a card to a friend of his, another lawyer, he said, who would be delighted to take such a case. ‘““T went to the address which he had written on the card, and when I reached COMmicoookssc©