Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 125: what you’re looking at

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

LIBERATION. _ bargain, for honestly, dear, I didn’t see how I could carry out such a task. “Jt looked hopeless, as I told both you and Lorrin frankly, and after you left us he couldn’t tell me anything that would help. I was pretty desperate when I re- turned to the city, and then I thought of your idea that I go straight to Wharton and tell him I thought he was wrong about that forgery.” ‘“You—Wharton—” Mary stared. ‘“That’s it,’ he nodded, smiling, “TI faced him in his office and told him I was" going to prove Lorrin’s innocence.” ‘When did you see him?” Mary asked faintly. “Yesterday morning. He tried to bluff and bluster, but I could see I had him go- ing, and when I get a shred of evidence to take to him he’ll come in with us, climb on the band wagon, so to speak, in order not to be left in the role of an unjust perse- cutor.” King paused as though awaiting com- mendation, but Mary merely queried: “Have you your ‘shred of evidence’ yet, Wesley?” ‘““My dear child, can I produce it from empty air?” he asked in his turn, reproach- fully. ‘“‘ With nothing to go upon yet, where could I get this evidence?”’ Mary drew a deep breath, and her brows lifted a trifle as she gazed straight into his face. ‘T thought, perhaps, from Richard Hill,” she announced quietly. “ Where have you hidden him, Wesley?” The car swerved, but he jerked it sav- agely back toward the center of the road. ‘“ Hill!”’ he echoed. “‘ What on earth do you mean, Mary?” “Just what I say,” she replied evenly. “ Hill went to you last night after Mrs. Lorrin had told him what we learned about lay” ‘“So it was Lorrin’s mother who told you—” he broke off, and added in a care- ful tone: ‘‘ Why should she or you think he would come to me? Why, he’s just a clerk in Wharton’s outer office, a fellow I hardly know. I saw him there yesterday morning and didn’t even shake hands with him. So she’s been hounding him, then, 759 and because he’s keeping out of her way, she thinks he’s in hiding somewhere? Real- ly, Mary, the poor woman’s mind must be a little deranged by her troubles. What an extraordinary thing she should imagine he would come to me.” “She doesn’t,” Mary assured him, fight- ing to keep back the sudden trembling that seized her. ‘“ It’s another woman, Hill’s wife, who believes that he went to you!” ‘“‘ Aill’s wife!” King turned the car ab- ruptly under the shade of a group of trees by the side of the road. ‘“ Look here, Mary, let’s have this out. Some one has certainly been filling your head with the weirdest nonsense. I never knew he had a wife, or anything else about him.” “ What favor did Richard Hill grant you that gave him a hold over you? Why has he gone to you for money whenever he needed it—blackmail, they call it, don’t they? You gave them a wedding present though you had never met his wife, and when you did you were introduced to her under a false name. Hill called to you twice that day in the park before you would obey and stop, and you were furious that you had to meet his wife at all.” The words were coming now in a rush from Mary’s pale lips. ‘“‘ What does he know of the forgery for which George Lor- rin was sent to prison? What does he know about you that forces you to shield him at the expense of that innocent man? I want the truth, Mr. Coyle.” “Mary, either you are mad or I am.” King took off his cap and ran his hand dis- tractedly through-his dark hair. “ Who is ‘Coyle’? Has some one tried to make you believe that I ever posed under that name, or any other not my own? I don’t under- stand, the whole thing’s amazing.” “It was, to me,” Mary remarked. “ My dear girl, it’s all a mistake. Young Hill never did me a favor in his life. I tell you, I scarcely remembered him when I walked into the office yesterday. I never gave him a cent, much less a wedding pres- ent, and 1 don’t know what you mean about a meeting in the park.” Hill was stammering in seemingly candid bewilderment, but Mary noticed that his hands were gripping the motionless wheel oO ComiclboookKs (S@