The Argosy, October 1906 — page 74: what you’re looking at

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

—~ Ss Sd Peabody Set no- “time in- returning This done: he ‘was abel to re “new = the compliment. seals when it dawned upon him that he = By degrees, as the presi plied his had overlooked the. cameo with which — Se guest with drink, the man from Provi- Peabody had impressed the wax. _ Es __, dence grew loquacious, then boisterous. Another stealthy expedition placed the = Before nightfall he was decidedly watch-charm in his possession, where- -— woozy. By ten o’clock he was so far upon he sealed the sacks with: the own- SE oblivious to his ‘surroundings, with one er’s private insignia, returned them to exception, that it required the combined the grip, and replaced all the articles — efforts of his host and two native serv- in his guest’s- Toom Precisely as. he nae ants to put him to bed. | found a . The one exception was the black “In the morning Bennett ‘Peabody was et: traveling-bag. With dogged pertinacity another man. Morose, snappish, self- og he clung to its handle throughout the centered, if he had any recollection of = a evening and refused to be Sepaeted the convivial exercises of the night be- = from it on any pretext. - fore he made no reference to it, and des- = “2 Even while the trio Gadressed him patched his breakfast in gloomy si-. Ss — he was with difficulty perstiaded to, lence. The ride to Guanajuato served = change it from hand to hand. . by no means to improve his temper, and == _ ~~ ‘The something ‘Denton had been it was not until he was about to step =e S waiting for had turned up. Peabody, so- aboard the tram for “Marfil that he ven- = per, had succeeded in obtaining genuine tured beyond the curtest of monosyllabic : samples from the worthless mine, but remarks. “ “the promoter could see no reason ‘I stowed away two or three bits of why he should jeopardize his financial ore in may coat-po kets yesterday after- = prospects by permitting Peabody drunk noon,” he growled, “and now they're — — _ to carry the ee rock away with gone. Guess I left them on the table in == ee him. — my room. I wanted to give those speci- — \ It was nearly three in the morning mens to some friends in the East. I = oe before Denton felt perfectly safe in wish you’d mail them to me—that = undertaking to retrieve the disaster of would save me the bother of. undoing — = the preceding afternoon. one of these bags. Will you?” = oe The house was a squat, one-story af- Smiling inwardly, Denton promised, aes _ +» fair built around a narrow courtyard, and shook hands with his dupe through . upon which its various apartments the window as the bare-legged driver — ; opened. . The room assigned to Pea- of the tram cracked his long whip about. = body lay directly opposite to that occu- the ears of the. SEES mule and started _ pied by his host. off. 3 a Creeping across the court in’ his It was Pedro. the Aztec outfit’s cook, ==S = stocking feet, the young man paused who ‘eventually recalled the matter ob justgoutside of the visitor’s door to lis- the forgotten specimens _ to Denton’ pr ten. Reassured by a series of melodious mind. He found them in- the sriest- = snores, he softly entered. chamber, and carried them to the a The hand which had so tightly Americano to ask whether they. should - grasped the traveling-bag was extended be thrown out. - z -- above the pillow, and the bag itself was Carelessly Denton took them in his Ss ~~ almost within reach from the door. hand to examine them. In an instant. Se = Cautiously Denton stole acr&s the his indifference gave way to amazement. Se earthen floor, removed the key from his “Tll take care of them,’ ~ he © an: an __victim’s trousers pocket, seized the bag, swered, as nonchalantly as he could; — and departed as silently as he had come. but the second the servant retired he = we In the security of his own room he rushed. to the chest into which he had | <—— ripped the seals from the sample-sacks, cast the supposedly worthless _samples — a = _. emptied their contents into one end of secured by Peabody, dragged at inte the*- = ~~ a long wooden chest beneath his bed, middle of the room, threw back the =~ Soe and refilled them with some high- orade lid, and raked over the. ore with = ore which constituted his stock in trade. _ energy. Fae -