Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 3 — page 74: what you’re looking at

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

B56 The armor maintained the same non- committal silence. In his doorway, Thomas Henning clasped his hands annd gritted his teeth. He would rush forward and clasp her in his arms—he would tell her the truth and enlist her aid for Mary. Or—no, he dare not. Dolly herself was rather explosive this evening, and from cer- tain past remarks she had made, anent Mary and the interest Thomas seemed to feel in Mary— ‘““T asked you,” said Dorothy, ‘‘ who the girl was?” And even now the silent knight refused to speak! Miss Hayes’s pretty shoulders drew up and her lips set peculiarly. It _ May have been imagination, but even at the distance it seemed to Thomas that he ' caught the fiery flash of the eye behind the mask. i. “Am I being disciplined? Is that it?” she asked ominously. ~ b The knight refused to contradict her. - “Oh! That zs it, then? Really, do you know, if I were you, I wouldn’t try a trick like that, Tom,” the young woman pursued incisively: ‘I’ve come a great deal more than half-way to meet you, although I was just a little in the wrong while you were ‘very much in the wrong. But please don’t fancy for one instant that my coming gives you any license to try humiliating me or. to maintain that august silence until my spirit is thoroughly tamed! & “It’s not that kind of spirit! You speak to me, do you hear? Speak a and tell me_ !»? you’re sorry! Again her gentle bosom was heaving! In his background, Thomas gulped and clasped his hands once more, imploringly this time, although to save his very life he could not have told just what it was that he desired. Not that Mary speak, certainly; not, just as certainly, that she maintain the ghastly silence. One or the other of these courses was altogether unavoidable, to be ~ sure; yet either of them meant dire disas- ter for Thomas Henning! Why—why out of a crowd of hundreds did not one young man appear and insist that Dorothy dance with him? Why did not an earthquake choose this moment to — - » Google ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. rattle the building gently and create a di- version? Why—Thomas’s knuckles were crackling under the strain; he dropped his” hands to his sides and moaned softly and helplessly. After all, the great inspiration of putting Mary into the armor had been his own. Dorothy was doing her level best in the matter of self-control. Ah, yes, and her lips were shaping for some new and doubt- less interesting remark! Thomas held his breath. Tom!” said Miss Hayes’s sharp, low voice. “Lift that visor and look at me and let me look at you!” Inside the helmet there was a single, sudden loud puff, like the sound of pent- up steam escaping.. The helmet squeaked, too, as if in terror. That was all, but it caused the very blood in Thomas’s veins to congeal. Here, to be sure, was a bright new possi- bility; unless he overestimated Dolly’s ca- pacity for direct action, one of her dainty hands would go up now and push aloft the movable front of the helmet. teeth. The hands merely clenched tightly, He set his | as the vivid red of justified anger crept into, their owner’s cheeks. “It isn’t that I want to admire your beauty, you know,” she said dangerously. “Tt is that I want to be just to you, and be sure. Are you ill or overcome with the heat in there, or something like that?” _ The helmet shook swiftly from side to side. One hand rose uncertainly, as if in protest, and dropped again. Dorothy’s full lips turned to a straight, white line, and her adorable head came closer to the ‘helmet. “You may not realize it, you may not believe it,” she said, quite thrillingly, ‘‘ but unless you speak to me this instant, you'll never—never speak to me again in this world!”’ Tensely, she wal. swayed a littfe, like a bush in a gentle breeze, for all the sign of life or interest that came from ‘the armor, it might have been entirely empty! ““ Very well, you have made the choice,” Miss Hayes remarked, concluding her mon- ologue—and she turned abruptly and Save that ‘it 1cbooks C@ TE UNT