Argosy, Vol. 112, No. 2 — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

EVERYTHING “Ves, I know that,”’ smiled the doctor. ‘““What puzzles me—’’ ‘About whether I really thought I was somebody else? Well, I didn’t. Not ina million years,” William laughed bitterly. ‘That was just a try at getting out. ° We’re not strong for the country; we wanted to get back to the bright lights and whoop her up.” He breathed again, too. He seemed to have hit the right line, for the doctor, after a last moment of hesitation, snapped his case together, and replaced it in his pocket. “You seem at least to have attained a more amenable frame of mind,” the doctor _ smiled cynically. ‘‘ The bright lights will do without you for many weeks. Do you quite understand that, Mr. Otis?”’ “Too well, doc!’ William said cheer- lessly. “Very well, then. Now hear the rest of what I have to say. As I mentioned down- stairs, I desire—I plan—to use the mildest measures in cases like your own and that of Mrs. Otis. On the other hand, as-I also mentioned, there are many other measures. So far as possible, I wish to leave your lives normal; that is why I permit you.to remain together. You understand?”’ c¢ Yes.”’ “ But at the very next outbreak—at the very first suggestion of another attempt at escape—I shall see that each of you goes into indefinite solitary confinement!” “No!” escaped Annabel. “Not unless you render it imperative,” the doctor said with growing suavity, and he rose and considered them carefully. “ If that becomes necessary, I shall go further, I think, and try the effect of surgical inter- ference with your malady. In your case, at any rate, Mrs. Otis.” ; ‘““My—my case?” Annabel gasped. “There are two peculiar malformations of your skull, madam, which present inter- esting possibilities. The knife, as I have found—ah, well, we’ll permit that to rest for the present.” He bowed in the most conventional man- ner and stepped out. As usual, the lock scraped noisily. Then his steps died away in the corridor and a pale-green Annabel was gripping William Hervey. BUT THE TRUTH. 217 “Don’t make a noise. Please don’t make a noise,” she gasped. ‘ Please don’t do anything to make him think we’re trying to get out.” “Tm not. I—” ‘Because if you do he'll take me off somewhere and cut my head off,” little Mrs. Elton choked. ‘‘ That’s what he said! That’s what he said! He said he’d take the knife and cut my head—”’ “Hush!” breathed William savagely, and although she was another man’s wife he took her very firmly in his arms and held her there. ‘‘ Hush! He'll do nothing of the kind. Do you hear? There, there! Do you see that chair over there with the loose leg? Well, I'll wrench that off in a minute for a club, and before he ever lays a finger on you he’ll have to kill me first.” He held her more tightly and patted her until the spasm of terror had passed. He gritted his teeth and looked around over her head, too, with some suspicion that he was really going mad: And then, with much relief, he found that Mrs. Elton had taken a grip on herself, even to the extent of pulling away from him gently. Although her boson heaved tumultuously still, some of her color was coming back; and with a sigh William released her. “Don’t fret about the man,” he said quietly. ‘“‘I promise you that—” ‘““ T—-I wasn’t fretting about him. I was thinking of something else.”’ What?” ‘We're here, you and—and I,” Mrs. Elton faltered, and her color rose quite astonishingly. ‘‘ We’re here for weeks.”’ “ There'll be a way of getting out. Our friends are bound to come hunting for us, and they’ll find us.” “Yes, Jackie ’ll find us,”” Annabel cried. “We're locked up here together, and Jackie ‘ll find us.”’ “It’s reasonably blameless, you know,” William said grimly. “Yes, but Jackie ‘Il never understand that.”’ ** Well, idiot—” “ Jackie’s no idiot at all. man! And he’s jealous of me, and when if Jackie isn’t a congenital He’s -a—a 4 LEN pa he finds out about—about this he’ll never 3 Comicbooks;com — : JW has i iui eA i? a b