Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

180 Moreland, surely enough, had offered a pretty little thought for consideration. Jones helped with some trimmings. “And he could do it!” he said. ‘ Do you all realize that? He could do it! Storm must be worth seven or eight million dol- lars, outside the business, and that kid of his has always been more than the apple of his eye! I'll. venture to say that he would throw every last penny of his pri- vate fortune into paying off a grudge against ony one he fancied had injured her!” Craven looked like a perfect demon! »“ See here!” he gasped. ‘“ Will that girl go to him if—if she doesn’t get whatever satisfaction it is she requires from Ber- ford?” + “Ts she bright enough for that?” Mac- pherson breathed. ~“She is!” submitted Mr. Bennett, and it was plain that for the moment the ex- citement had conquered even his kindly brain. ‘‘ She—she’s a mighty bright young woman! She was bright enough to walk in here and turn all hands upside down, at the most satisfactory moment in the history of the concern!” “True!” said Macpherson. ‘“ True— every word of that! And what’s more—” Mr. Berford is courteous always, even if it is in his own hard, short way. I couldn’t have imagined him interrupting a director in that particular fashion; yet it is the fact that just then he brought his fist down on the table with such an unearthly crash that the whole quintet jumped. ‘‘ Gentlemen!” he shouted. “ I’m through for the day! I wish to say, for the very last time, that I am innocent of any knowl- edge of, or crime against, the young woman who was here. That is my complete and final statement of my side of the case and ends my connection with this—this damned tommyrot until four o’clock to-morrow afternoon, when I shall give a full account of my doings on January oth, 1920, and then leave the rest of it in your hands. Good afternoon! Come, Henry!” Henry, I am free to say, would have been just tickled to death to hang around that room and hear some more of the cheery thoughts the old gentlemen were going to ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. conjure up; but he didn’t. No, Henry trotted dutifully after his employer, and once we were in the president’s office, he slammed the brief case down on the desk and glared at me. I’m no mind reader, of course, but I think he was inclined just then toward his perfectly regular and usual trick of ignoring the possibility that I might be a human being and understand a thing or two beside stenography. Would that he had done just that, then and later! But the emotional side of Mr. Berford was in too hectic a state for dignified silence! “Henry, you’re only a—a kid, but Vl have to talk to some one,” he said sud- denly. I bowed politely. “ Say, did you ever hear of anything like that in all your days?” Mr. Berford roared. “*T never did, sir!” I said. “Out of a clear sky—a perfectly clear sky—and at just this time! A woman I[’ll swear I never passed in the street or sat opposite in the subway and—hell!” He sat down hard and bit his lips and stared at the desk for a minute, while I re- mained in the background. He glanced at his watch and snorted and got up again. ‘Well, if it wasn’t for the rotten side of it the thing would be funny,” he observed. ‘“‘ However, we'll make mighty short work of it to-morrow, Henry—and after that, perhaps, we'll see what the law can do to that little devil. You were not working for me at that time, Henry?” “Tt came about a year later.” “True enough. Murfon had your job, and he’s somewhere in South America now, I believe. All right. I’m going home now, Henry.” Yes, sir,” I said. “And you go to work immediately—I’m _ sorry to ask you to stay, but it’s unavoid- able this time—and run through the early 1920 correspondence of this office before you leave. Find out just what I was doing about the oth of January, and I'll piece out — the details, of course. Jot it all down and come up to my house at quarter of eight, sharp, Henry; and whatever letters you find that have a particular bearing on that date, bring along with. YOU... nd 1 Note- Sacom