Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 7, 1925 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

Se» NORTH STAR. immediate memories. Their altercation— Dickie Robbins—would he still be waiting against the tree—could she, as she would now have to, get rid of Wilbur—as to Susie should she wait, or take this opportunity for losing herself in the near-by crowd? Wilbur was drunk; it wouldn’t be sporting to leave him. He was a fool, unkind, and a drunkard—a wastrel—but her brother— her— Ah, he was coming. - She looked at him coldly as he came to- ward her along the path. He appeared quite sober. He was also more than a little pale. She wondered whether they would plunge at once again into the heat of their fight. — “Did you try to argue him into taking more for him?” she asked when Wilbur had joined her. “ Certainly not, ” he replied shortly. “Then what was it that delayed you back there?” “J doubt whether you would under- stand. I don’t quite myself.” “Tm ready for your apology.” “ Apology?” “ You called me a har.” “Ym sorry. Let’s not bicker, sis. Let’s go home. I feel rotten.” “Sick?” “No. Morally.” They had reached the fringe of the crowd and were pressing through it. It was clus- tering about the end of an artificial trout stream where an angler was making a Se- ries of brilliant casts with flies. For a moment they could not advance. Along the trail they had left there was a commotion. <A gray form of splendid beauty that drew expressions of admiration from all whom it passed. A gray form that sped unerringly upon the scent that drew him as surely as a magnet will draw steel, ignoring in his passage the pelts, the smells, the potpourri of woodland exhibits that at another moment would have proved of such compelling interest; unmindful of hands that attempted to stroke him, of voices that made an effort to arrest his attention, un- mindful of everything but an overwhelming urge to find at onee the young stranger who had taken, without reason or question, his heart. Something cool pressed against the palm of Wilbur’s hand. He turned and looked down upon North Star. CHAPTER IV. THE DIAMOND BRACELET. O Marcia, the dog’s appearance at _ her brother’s heels was,the final straw that overset her irritability. It meant further delay. There had been too much delay. Another minute in that atmosphere of unrest would send her, she felt into hysterics or an outrageous exhibition of temper—a public exhibition. * But did it mean delay so much as it meant escape? The word sprang appeal- ingly before her, much as an oasis in the midst of an insufferable desert. Wilbur was sober now. How or why she did not care. He was thoroughly competent again to take care of himself. She would send him back with the dog. Then she could oe into the crowd. é She remembered the general location of the tree against which she had caught sight of Dickie Robbins leaning. him again and join him. He was misun- derstood. E:ven as she was misunderstood. _ “ Take him back,” she said. Wilbur did not answer her, move, but continued to rest his hand firmly upon the dog’s strong neck. The dark oval eyes stared unwaveringly up into his. ‘“‘ I said take him back. Dll wait—rather, ll be somewhere around here. That French fool is standing in the doorway of his cabin. I caught a glimpse of him through the crowd. He’s waiting for you to take the dog back.” . “No, he isn’t,” said Wilbur. “Look for yourself and see.” “1 know he’s standing there; but he isn’t waiting for me to take back North Star.” Marcia permitted fesse a distinct tap-_ ping of her foot. “Vl take the dog back myself,” she said. “You can’t.” “Have you gone mad?” She would find He did not Gomichboo cS: (ECO) im