The Argosy, August 1905 — page 138: what you’re looking at

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

i a DOWNING THE KING-PIN.’ BY MARCUS D. RICHTER. . A conspiracy against a Wall Street manipulator which found itself astray and wrought fear and frenzy aboard an ocean liner. SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTERS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED. THE yacht Babbler, belonging to Brandon Burgess, the wealthy Wall Street speculator, lies across the pier from the steamer Yantic. take a Mediterranean cruise. Both are ocean bound. Burgess and his secretary, Horace Tarr, are to Two trunks, both marked H, T. in a diamond, are brought to the pier, ad- dressed to the Yantic and the Babbler respectively. One is stenciled in red, and one in black. The watchman's dog, excited by the constant ticking in one of the trunks, worries off their tags, which the watchman replaces in reverse order. Helen Trainor, her invalid brother Calvin, and her aunt are to sail on the Yantic. love with Helen, decides to send Tarr on their steamer in case that he may be of service. his destitute cousin, Ben Crowding, as valet for Trainor. Burgess, who is in Tarr suggests Crowding has been employed in Burgess’ mills, which are shut down, and he is very bitter against him. Tarr has met his cousin in suspicious places, and notices that he seems ill at ease in Burgess’ presence. : While befriending a little Italian boy, Angelo, Tarr’s attention is called to an old woman in the steerage who bears a striking resemblance to Brown, one of Crowding’s suspicious associates. old woman tries to discover Tarr’s identity. Through Angelo, the Miss Trainor finds the wrong trunk has been sent to her stateroom, and asks to have the right one, sterciled with a black H. T.in a diamond, sent up from the baggage-room. He says something was moving in the trunk. and reports only a red label of the same style. Angelo searches for the trunks, On his way back from the baggage-hunt Tarr overhears the conversation of some passengers. By a - Marconigram they have learned that Burgess’ stocks are rapidly falling, and that he has left the city. Pondering this, he notices Angelo thrust a note into Crowding’s hand. Crowding reads it and faints. In attending to him Tarr discovers a goad concealed in Crowding’s clothes, preventing him from lying down or even resting. In the stateroom Crowding seems terrified, and he obviously has some terrible secret that is preying upon his mind, but which he refuses to divulge. Up on deck Tarr finds Miss Trainor with the broker, Kinney, Later Kinney insults Tarr, who boxes his ears. pleasant remark is passed between the men. An un- The rumor one of Burgess’ rivals. is circulated that the quarrel occurred about Helen Trainor, and that Tarr has been sent to watch her by Burgess. Tarr receives word that Crowding has become delirious, and after an interview with the old woman in the steerage has tried to break into the baggage hold. Going to his stateroom, he finds Crowding raving about something which he must stop, and shrieking over and over again “Only a hundred hours.” CHAPTER XIV. AN UNANSWERED PROBLEM. b2: broke at last—a blowy, misty, dirty morning; a morning when it looked all along the sea-line as though the slatternly wind-sprites had hung all their dirty rags of cloud out to air, and the sea was sullen. Wave after wave rose out of the northeast to meet the proud prow of the Yantic, slapped her sullenly and with no little spitefulness on either jowl, and parted for her passage, running hissing aft as though angry that they could not a 7 * ° , “4 ‘ . ” * ro! te, ~a a be prospect from the door of his stateroom as soon as the gray light of dawn shim- mered on the apparently flat surface of the sea. The air was raw. The smell of fog was still dank in his nostrils; the night which had just passed had been no time of rest or calm for him. Crowding had finally sunk into a stu- por and his babblings had ceased for the time. But the broken sentences rankled in Tarr’s mind—gave him no peace—gripped his thought and would not set it free again. - What was the mystery which had driven poor Crowding into his present __ stop her progress, | state of mind? What did those broken Horace Tarr viewed the unsightly words mean? ‘es oo “This story began in the June issue of THE Ancosy. The two back numbers will be mailed to any — ie Te ss addiress on receipt of 20 cents. ict a era —_ + aie ° comicbooks.com