Argosy, Vol. 112, No. 2 — page 84: what you’re looking at

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

250 till the bone snapped with a final, horrid snick! And now, at three o’cleck-in the morn- ing—the duil tolling of a distant bell had just throbbed into his ears through the open window—they were having a conference in there. The rustling of papers showed that. Sometimes the rattling was soft, again loud, as if they had been snatched up violently by handfuls and tossed about. : Between times there fell patches of silence broken by mur- mured scraps of conversation, exclamations, questions, and answers, as if the two were studying over some puzzle and suggesting things to each other—with a great tension of some sort hovering over them, and the strain growing, moment by moment, toward the snapping-point. And she was the fresh-cheeked, warm- eyed little charmer, whom his eyes had watched for ten days, as she sat so near, buried in her great volumes, and whose blithe image had been, for nine of those ten, floating about in his dreams like a morsel of perfumed rainbow! The big man barked out what was unmistakably a ferocious, dis- appointed oath, flung back his chair, scram- _bled to his feet. There was a great crunch- ing of paper. A torrent of rage poured from his mouth, and the girl, after one or two attempts to answer, fell into silence. It was perhaps a minute or two that the fellow strode up and down, shouting and cursing and scolding. Then he stopped and snapped out something that apparently was diabolical. At the words the girl shrieked and sprang for the door. At the sound Tarton had .galvanically catapulted around his corner, across the hallway, and up to the threshold. Although he stood in plain sight, looking in, the two were so absorbed with each other that they did not notice him. The man had intercepted the girl? 's rush and, one arm about her, was tugging her across to the bed. Sitting down, he pulled her to his side. Then he turned .so as to half face her, ‘and still holding her with his left arm proceeded to do something extra- ordinary with the right hand. The ends of the last two fingers he pivoted on her shoulder. The thumb -en- circled the point of her chin, So, the hand drawn out like a pianist’s over a great octave, he paused and smiled. He mur- mured something in a soft and whimsical voice, and contracted his hand a trifle. Per- haps an inch her chin swung round. Still smiling and still chatting, but with his eyes cold as the blue holes in icebergs, he kept on closing the vise. The girl’s face had become white, her cries had died away ‘to a parrotlike croaking, when Tarton, with a great shout, thawed from the horror that had been freezing him and plunged into the room. He had felt for his pistol and found it gone—naturally. In the moment of surprise that his en- trance produced, the man on the bed paused in his twisting process. His shaggy head came round, his piggish eyes gleamed into Tarton’s and he smiled. ‘So you got out,” he said purringly. “TI ought to have remembered that your gassing tregtment was good only for ‘three hours, but Zaida and I got absorbed in our little problem here and I forgot. But I have your pistol, and with your bare hands you cannot harm me. No one is strong enomgh—” Tarton glanced desperately around. He must do something instantly. In a half second, a single twist more— - The room stood out before him with photographic vividness—the broad desk, lit- tered with papers,,piles and piles of them— and at what he saw on those papers ‘his brain had a subconscious, prickling start— the books, the trinkets of statuary, and ancient jewelry, the piles of mounted photo- graphs, the curious bronze sword over the mantel with its curved, massive blade and ivory handle. He sprang toward it with a yell—vaguely he realized that it was wild and bloed- curdlmg—a yell such as a primitive ape- man might have given forth when going into battle with a massive, grizzled bully who stood swaying and grinning fiendishly at the threshold of his home-cave. Fingers tight about the ancient handle she ‘whirled and rushed. The big fellow had sprung from the ‘bed as he moved and met him more than ‘half-way. Tarton had a confused sensation as of charging imto a steam-roller with bushy whiskers and bullish neck and shoulders, & com comicbeoks ’ ( 3 le ey ‘-. e PN i bre rat ey we Pe VI REAR AL Maah Paw Wile at my he -) a APOy frit ’, M' es A ’ ee ty. bse BS i L y WV. r i ae {) phen i | Aish Nh EN ine Sic cha CN ald ir LM ald Cee iA a. Loe