The Argosy, August 1905 — page 145: what you’re looking at

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

a tee DOWNING THE KING-PIN. : 185 “TI wish to God I did know!” cried Yarr fervently. The physician’s remarks put him quite in a fever of worriment. When he was left alone with the sick man, and the latter began babbling again, Tarr drew forth the paper on which he had transeribed the sentences which were the burden of Crowding’s delirium and studied them once more. “The red diamond! I must open Now, what could that mean? What of the red diamond, and ~ what was it the delirious Crowding felt that he must open? When he had suffered his collapse the previous afternoon, Crowding had been fighting like a madman to enter the hold forward through the hatchway in the orlop deck. Trimble had reported that the man tore, tooth and nail, at the hatch fastenings. Was that what he had felt he must open? And why? Or had the association of ideas in his poor, weakened mind made him do this? Tarr could not see how any danger, known to Crowding, could menace the Yantic. It must be some other vessel which was referred to in the man’s de- lirium as “a floating hell.” “Crazed as he was,” muttered the secretary, “he would not be likely to distiaguish between this boat and the one which troubles his mind. If he knows of some accident which has be- failen or is about to befall another ship, in his sudden insanity he might try to do aboard this ship what he would do aboard that other, were he _ there. Something has happened or is about to happen in the hold of another vessel. Crowding is criminally aware of what it is. His conscience, as he told me himself yesterday morning, and as his previous actions prove, was lashing him terribly. “Tle has done something or has knowledge of the doimg of something which endangers the lives of innocent eople. When he went entirely off his ead he strove to get into that hold be- cause he thought that was the place where this awful thing would occur. “Gad! What amess! It isn’t pos- sible that any danger threatens ws. That fellow Brown—if it ts Brown—is mixed up in it. He'd never risk his neck on a vessel that was likely to be injured—blown up or scuttled or any- thing like that.” _ Tarr paced the confines of his cabin in a terribly disturbed state while he thus soliloquized. And the thought of Brown set his mind off on another track. Could it be possible that he had been mistaken in that individual below in the steerage? If not, the man was a con- summiate actor. It might be a woman, after alli—an old woman of Brown’s own nationality and who looked like him. Yet, he swore to himself, Crowding had recognized the person, too. Crowd- ing had denied all knowledge of the identity of the old woman. Yet Angelo said he had been the means of commnu- nication between them, and Tarr had seen the boy pass the paper to Crowd- ing. “Confound it! Somebody’s lying. Messercde said the boy is a liar. Crowding told me he had not received any note and knew nothing about it. The boy acts strangely, it is true—he acted strangely this morning when I spoke about that trunk. Yet, what objeet can he have in mystifying me? ” And with these and similar thoughts he worried his mind fer several hours. He did not forget to attend to Crowd- ing’s eyery want, however, and fol- lowed the physician’s instruetions im- plicitly. The forenoon passed, and several pas- sengers came to the door to inquire about the sick man. That part of the deck was avoided by the passengers in general, who realized that the doctor desired quiet for poor Crowding. Toward mid-afternoon two visitors came whom ‘Tarr was not anxious to see —Helen and her aunt. The strained relations which had existed for the last twenty-four hours between the ‘Train- ors and himself made any conversation extremely awkward. Mrs. Shackelford showed this awk- wardness more than Helen, for the latter was anxious regarding Crowding and put every other thought aside but that of mercy. i ail ace epee ~ a