The Argosy, Vol. 75, No. 4 — page 48: what you’re looking at

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

Ah oe }: jmpaee TY Ves ans \* ‘ $ "3 ~* - a = ON Na a el me 750 THE ARGOSY. will. But every thought of him fled from her mind in the first minutes of her terrible discovery, to return with awful meaning when she recognized the shabby gray suit, the high-heeled boots, the red tie, of the dead man. This was certainly the man she had seen with Ted and about whom she she had questioned her fiancé, only to receive answers that left her doubting. Had Ted’s hasty departure anything to do with the appearance of this man who had sought him in town? The question turned Bess cold and faint with horror. Was Ted to blame for the man’s being thrown into the water ? In a moment of anger had he sought to punish him for his continued intru- sion? Animated by the spirit of fear that possessed her, Bess imagined that Rad- ford had made his early start, come out of the house, only to find that the ind1- vidual he wanted to escape was there to confront him. She could almost see the struggle which might have carried them across the court and to the wall. Why Rad- ford should have thrown his assailant over the balustrade to certain death in the poo! she could not imagine; but neither could she understand why he had struck him the blow that had ne- cessitated his remaining in the town house when he came there on the day of the wedding. There was some mystery back of the persistent way in which the man sought Ted, and it had culminated in her finding the man dead in the pool at the base of the wall. Had Radford killed him? The question pounded through her brain till she was almost distracted. Only the sight of the serious faces of the gardeners looking at her for direc- tions made her focus all her will to speak to them. “Will you stay here till I find Mr. Barrington?” she asked. They consented with a reluctance for which she did not blame them. She went with uneven steps and scarcely seeing eyes up the flight of steps and toward the house. She almost crept into the’ entrance, dreading lest she encounter Mrs. Bar- rington. She felt that she could not tell her what had happened. It was sufficiently dreadful to have the man lying dead at the very foot of the ter- race that Mrs. Barrington loved, bad enough to have the first days of her stay in the beautiful home darkened by such an occurrence; but the awfulness of the mother’s gradual realization that her son was in some sinister way connected with the dead man simply took every atom of strength from Bess’s body. She leaned weakly against the wall and panted as if she had been running. Gradually, more because the place where she was was so conspicuous and she might be seen than because of any great accession of strength or courage, she made her way along the corridor toward the pergola at the southern end of the house, where Mr. Barrington usually read and smoked. Just as she caught sight of Barring- ton outside she noticed that a maid was engaged near the red lacquer vase. ‘As she neared her the girl held up something. Bess started. ‘It frightened me, too, miss, when I saw it coiled in the vase,” the girl hastened to explain. She held the snaky-looking thing up for inspection; but Bess stopped barely long enough to see that it was a rarely fine snakeskin belt. Then she went on, intent upon the painful mission. “Mr. Barrington, there’s a man— dead—at the foot of the wall!” she whispered, her nerves almost at break- ing point. | Barrington’s paper fell from his hand. He looked at her with eyes so surprised and lips so still that Bess was stirred to resentment. “Don’t sit there staring! You'll have to tell the men what to do with the body!” she exclaimed. - His surprise and the look of abso- lute fright in his face scarcely lessened ; COPMICLOOOKS (E@)