The Argosy, August 1914 — page 118: what you’re looking at

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

108 Grelthorpe said nothing. “ Tongue-tied, eh?” the youth rat- tled on. “Ah well! I can scarcely blame you. When one takes into con- sideration what my appearance here may mean to you, it is a wonder that you haven’t thrown a fit all over your august threshold.” Still David Grelthorpe uttered no sound. The young man turned sud- denly from him to the third man, his companion, lurking in the shadows behind him. “Come hither, admiral!” he com- manded with mock solemnity, and he made a low obeisance to the bizarre figure that, obedient to his command, slouched into the streak of light before the door. It was a middle-aged man, his gray- ish hair matted in unbrushed confu- sion, his face apparently innocent of contact with a razor for many days, his clothes faded, unpressed, and plen- tifully patched. His shoes, worn at heel and toe, were knotted together with pieces of common string. On his head was something that had once been a derby, but now looked more like a battered can; beneath it twinkled eyes of piercing brightness. On this uncouth creature’s lips was a smile as mocking as that with which his young companion, again turned to the mute master of the house. “David Grelthorpe,’ he said in high-flown accents, “shake hands with Admiral Dreadnought; or per- haps, admiral, you prefer this evening to be Professor Copernicus? My friend,” he continued, ‘‘ does honor to the world in either capacity. “To him the perils of the deep and the lore of the stars, the secrets of races living in remote fastnesses thou- sands of miles away, and the binomial theorem are bosom friends. Grelthorpe, shake hands. with Admiral Dreadnought! Become acquainted with Sir Isaac Newton the Second!” The motley creature stretched out five dirt-rimmed fingers; suddenly abandoning his air of mockery, the David. THE ARGOSY. tall youth looked straight into David Grelthorpe’s ‘eyes. In-his gaze there was now menace. Without.a word, David Grelthorpe stretched out his hand to the bedrag- gled tramp. “Glad to meet you, sir,” he said. The servant in the hall within stood frozen with amazement. ‘Admiral Dreadnought,” the young man continued, “has come to your threshold this evening in order to real- ize the dream of a lifetime. In spite of his manifold attainments, David Grelthorpe; in spite of having led ex- peditions against piratical Chinese junks and cast searching eyes into the unexplored jungles of astronomy, philosophy, and mathematics, he has never sat down at a really recherché dinner table. “ When, with touching sighs, he dis- closed this cruel void in an otherwise crowded career, I told him that you were the very man who would see that his ambition was realized. Journey- ing to this great metropolis, we ascer- tained that you were giving a dinner than which nothing could be more ex- clusive. ‘“* Professor,’ I said to my’ friend, “here is your chance. Don’t trouble to dress; David Grelthorpe is the most delightfully informal man alive; he well knows that a eelebrity like you would grace any board, even though he appear in shirt-sleeves, with nose bangles and carrying a huge three- pronged Malayan spear.’ “Struck by my reasoning, the ad- miral acquiesced. He has come, as you see, in most charmingly unconven- tional garb. No sycophantic razor has whisked from his cheeks the marks that denote the man of adventure and science, whose thoughts are far from barber-shops and such like effete spots. “David Grelthorpe!” All the mockery again went out of the young man’s voice, and his eyes leaped to those of the master of the house with such a fire of menace smoldering: in them that Grelthorpe involuntarily ECOMMICLOO® <S) { ‘ (C@