The Argosy, December 1905 — page 111: what you’re looking at

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

THE OUTCAST. BY W. BERT FOSTER. The lure of false hopes that paved the way to tragedy, hedged with doubt, and girdled by remorse. - SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTERS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED. Ramon Burress returns to his native village possessed of nothing save his medical degree and some debts, which his uncle has given him to understand he will settle. He finds Leslie Searles, his boyhood sweetheart, betrothed to his chum, Seymour Lloyd, and his uncle refuses to settle his bills save by a legacy. His uncle’s taunts, his disappointment and the demands of his creditors half madden Burress, and when, while out hunting, he comes upon his uncle in the woods, he impulsively shoots in his direction. As his uncle falls dead, Lloyd rushes from the underbrush, crying out that Ramon is a murderer. In his haste he falls and stuns himself. in, discovered by Orrin Paddock, the old herb man. Burress returns to his own home, and later on Lloyd is brought The young doctor does his best to revive him, know- ing the while that with his friend’s returning consciousness his own doom will fall. CHAPTER VII. A GHASTLY RESPITE. URRESS had leaned forward and seized the covering, intending to turn it back from Lloyd’s body. This brought his face much nearer that of the patient, and on the instant of the girl’s speech he saw Lloyd’s eyes flash. Widely the lids sprang apart, reveal- ing the eyeballs, distended and with a glare in them which nothing but fear could inspire. No recognition—or seemingly none; only terror looked out of those staring orbs. The doctor’s hand, steadied now by the emergency, sought the patient’s heart. At the instant of the contact a change took place in Lloyd’s attitude. Without uttering a sound, he sudden- ly threw his arms about the man leaning above him, his fingers interlocked in a vise-like grip, squeezing the doctor to him, crushing the latter’s ribs and chest in the maniacal embrace until he shrieked aloud. The act was so unexpected that Bur- ress was utterly helpless for the mo- ment. lLeslie’s voice echoed his scream, and she seized Lloyd’s arm and sought to break his grip. “Stop, Seymour! doing?” she cried. What are you At her words and touch the patient uttered a sound which resembled the inarticulate cry of a dumb beast more than it did a tone from a human throat. He threw himself to the far side of the couch to escape her hand, glancing back wildly over his shoulder as though fasci- nated by some horrible apparition. This movement gave Burress a chance to release himself. He gathered his strength, and, crowding his bent knee against the other’s body, broke his hold and suddenly straddled Lloyd’s legs, holding his trunk down upon the couch by pressure upon the arms. Panting for breath, uttering now and then the strange, guttural noise, Lloyd continued to struggle to escape. At.the first moment of the attack the doctor believed his old friend had re- membered the scene in the woods, and feared for his own life perhaps; the memory of the murder was the chief im- pression upon his aroused mentality. But now, looking down into the wide- open eyes of the patient, and hearing the inarticulate sounds he uttered, he was convinced that some awful change had taken place in Lloyd. This was not the Seymour Lloyd whom he had go long known; the very expression of his countenance was foreign to that of his old friend. It was as though a strange *This story began in the November issue of THE ARGOSY, which will be mailed to any address on receipt of 10 cents. COMMICLOOOLK (C@