The Argosy, Vol. 84 No. 1 — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

42 “ Oh, yes. In the house, but not here,” the girl smiled; and her own lips com- pressed and the bewildered line grew be- tween her brows for a moment; and then, like sunshine flashing out, the turmoil within seemed to still, and she smiled again and cried: ‘Oh, I know! J know now!” “Not so loud!” Dr. Jim gasped. é¢ You” “Come! I know! I know!” his charge whispered. ‘“ Back here!” She was off again, with scant concern for anything save the immediate object of her hunt. She whisked into the corridor with Dr. Bowen at her heels and made straight as an arrow for the heavily curtained door at the back. She pushed back the curtains and, before he had entered even, her wretched gift of finding switches had lighted some one’s library! In a smaller and more modérn and homelike fashion the room was not so very different from another Dr. Jim had seen that night. There was a big desk on the far side, and half a dozen deep chairs, but the shining black safe in the corner was what Miss Catterson sought. Radiant, she glided up to and touched it, looking confidently at Dr. Bowen. “In here!” she said! “In here!” “ You left the box in there?” “The box—yes! Oh, open it quickly, - please!” Dr. Jim Bowen advanced upon her slowly. That look was back again for an instant—that peculiarly sane look which had puzzled him before. It was gone now, but it had been there unmistakably. Confound it! It was all gone again, and the girl was tapping impatiently with her foot as she said: ‘Open it, please! it! Open the safe!” “T’m not a safe-cracker,” Dr. Bowen said mildly. “ I—” “J opened it!” the girl informed him. “T—can’t remember how, but I opened it.” . Her voice was rising excitedly and the We came to open THE ARGOSY. foot was tapping faster. Dr. Bowen, whose own brain was beginning to feel rather odd, compromised by hunching down before the safe. He had put in an unusual night, and done some unusual things; it was not be- yond the -possibilities that this combina- tion lock would yield as readily as an- other had done earlier in the evening. It was most unlikely, but he essayed a twirl or two of the dial and thought rapidly and with a covert smile. The very best thing about this latest visit was that the girl seemed wholly con- vinced of her own accuracy. He would be unable to open the safe, but he could lead her back to Catterson with the news that his accursed box in all likelihood was secure in somebody’s house on St. Marks Avenue. And then he— “Hello!” gasped Dr. Bowen, rising with a jerk. Out in the street an automobile gear had crunched as a car stopped. Stand- ing on tiptoe, Dr. Bowen could look down the hall and see the car itself at the curb, grotesquely outlined through the etched glass door. And he could see more than that! He could see a man’s figure bounding up the steps; he could hear the scrape of another key in the front door. Now, in fact, he could see the door opening and the man entering. ee CHAPTER XVII. THE UNPLEASANT TURN. Your really first-class brain is a de- pendable machine. Dr. Bowen had suspected that a certain marked foggi- ness was coming upon his thinking ap- paratus, but he had erred. The brain was whizzing along like lightning now. He himself was in plain sight, and as soon as the hasty citizen, doubtless amazed at the early morning illumination, should remove his key and raise his head, Dr. James Bowen would be in line for more trouble. But Helen Catterson, CONNIE OOOL<S, (E@)