Argosy, Vol. 112, No. 2 — page 108: what you’re looking at

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

274 everybody, of course. That letter of Sims has been published, or will be; it comes out to-day in the weekly. You can sue for slander, or libel, or whatever you call it, if you want to. The people of this place are naturally neighborly; they wanted to return to Silas the amounts they’d demanded as rebates, but we wouldn’t let them. And they’d like to /ynch you! There’s a move- ment to disbar you, and they’ve got good old Erasmus Hawkins, an /onest lawyer, to head it. Also, they’re agitating having you arrested; I forget the technical charge, but it means scoundrel!” She turned toward the door. She was very lovely in her gray costume and toque to match; with her red, red cheeks and her black eyes sparkling with anger. “1’m glad your aunt was called to rest before you revealed yourself, you leaner!” she flashed. ‘‘ Perhaps the poor litile cot- tage in which she toiled so hard to put you through college will yield enough of a mort- gage later to furnish you future bail! “T called to warn you not to be in town a week from now. Silas will be home for the week-end, and I wouldn’t answer for the consequences. He’s ordinarily easy, but his hair is red. He never let himself go but once, and then he nearly killed a man. You’re not worth a man going to the chair!”’ “Where is he?” mumbled Evan Todd, hazily remembering the depths of gloom that had enshrouded Silas during those later days when he was victimizing him. “ He isn’t in a—sanatorium—is he?” “Silas? Why, he’s at Urbanus, at the university, where I told him, betore he branched out, he ought to go. He’s taking a course in the laws pertaining to architec- ture and modern building, so that he can get along without a lawyer!” The door slammed behind her, leaving Evan Todd white and staring. V. Tue shades of night were falling when Evan Todd, carrying two grips, slunk out upon a little-frequented road leading west- ward from Palmyrus. Over his diminished head winged dark-brown clouds, corre- sponding in hue to his present taste of life. He shivered within his overcoat in a pierc- THE ARGOSY. ing October wind. The frost was on the pumpkin and the fodder was in shock. Evan had not dared to risk the trolley. Locking the door of the cottage that had been his respected aunt’s, he was walking to the station of the next town, to catch a late train south. Underneath that thatch of tow wild thoughts were whirring in gyrations like a toy top. The white-bearded, otter face of Hannibal Hoyt, of Bucephalus, seemed surveying him with a malicious grip. Now, too late, in the whirl of his slender intel- lectuals, he perceived some salient differ- ences between that ghoulish master and his fallen pupil. —— ~% Old Hannibal had not one victim, but — many. Adeptly he played ‘both ends against the middle,’ and he played the game alone. Assuredly it required some finesse successfully to sin, said succes lying in getting away with it. Old Man Fate, coarsely sneering, was fairly shouting at Evan Todd a message which he was not mentally able to assimi- late as yet, and it was this: “Stand until you can afford to lean— and then don’t!” Evan Todd, breathing hard after the in- opportune luxury of his illness, staggering under the weight of his two grips, sneaked into the railroad station at Tallington. He set down the satchel. He approached the ticket-window, feeling forlornly in a trouser pocket. He had a ten-dollar bil!, three ones and fifty cents in change. He shoved the ten-dollar bill under the wicket. ‘Give me a ticket,” he panted hoarsely. The supercilious eyebrows of the agent were upraised. ‘“ Where to?” he questioned, an incipient tittér in his tone. ‘““Why—why,” stammered Evan Todd. Then the storm in his brain began afresh, the raw winds of his terrors whipping psc all coherence. Cravenly he invoked whatever mercies the astonished agent might possess, while deepened in growling thunders the roar of the approaching train. “Say!” cried wildly the lawyer who was leaving, willy-nilly, “ how far can I get for _ ten dollars?” Gomichbooks Eom