Argosy, Vol. 112, No. 2 — page 91: what you’re looking at

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

‘ sp Be! aie v4 ; but which I’m going to keep.”” He held it up for her to see, and then, smiling, slipped it in his pocket. ‘‘And last, but by no means least, this interesting trinket. Pure Egyp- tian, dating from about the first dynasty, I should say. One of the finest hammered gold neck-ornaments that ever came out of a sepulcher—and that amazing jewel in the center, not to mention that microscopic scroll of hieroglyphics around it—”’ Midway of his lecture he glanced at Zaida Heldstrom and stopped, thunder- struck. She had givem a cry of despair— eS more than that, of absolute terror, and her : face had turned to ashes. : ‘““My God!” she cried. ‘“ You got it! : You brought it away! Oh, why did you? How did you manage to get hold of that fearful thing? I thought I was through with it at last. I was goimg te forget it! All my life I would never have to see it again, and now—” With a desperate effort at control she pulled herself up and faced him steadily. ‘Do you know,” she said, “ that that thing in your hands, or mine, or any one’s, means death? Sure, inevitable, unescapa- ble? It was that that killed five men at ~ Karnak, and two more at Wadi Halef— and last night, right in our own house—” Shuddering she broke down, sobbing wildly, her hands over her eyes as if to shut out the glare of the great yellow stone that, brighter than a diamond, flamed and: blazed and cascaded with tawny light as it dangled 3 from Tarton’s hands. 3 Absent-mindedly, he dropped the orna- ment on the table, and, sitting down beside her, tried, with his arm about her shoulders, to calm her. After a few moments she looked up, dry- ing her cheeks. “ Please — go away for a little while,” she whispered. ‘‘ I must be alone. I have toe thmk something out—at once. Come Pe back in—an hour.”’ ss Without answering Tarton got up and it, went out. As he descended- the stairs he heard the key snap softly. She had locked tl We Miles od MY tay ant Mae te AY Gee Ais ye IM ODI Ur te LNT eae e OA Hy | Hw ee BAS the door! - When he returned, in sixty minutes pre- : cisely, it Was still locked. Calling, at first 6 Arcosy THE. YELLOW EMERALD. by this time. softly, then louder with growing apprehen- sion, and at last, shouting her name, he got no answer, ‘Dm. afraid something’s the matter,” he confided jerkily to Mrs. Contestable, who, aroused at the racket, came laboring UP, ‘“ She’s been hysterical, scarcely herself— full of queer notions. Ill have to break the — door, I’m afraid.”’ He looked at the French- woman questioningly. His soul grew cold at what he knew he would see stretched on the bed. ~“ Go ahead!” she notlded. petiie!l” But when, at the third shock, he splin- tered a panel, and went through—the room: was empty. Zaida had gone. The fire- escape beyond the open window showed how. And the neck ornament of old Egypt, with its blazing stone, was also missing. “La pauvré CHAPTER VIII. DICTATED TERMS. "PARTON sank to the bed dismayed, while Mrs. Contestable, bustling about like a scared hen, filled the roonr with: frantic exclamations. “ Ma fois! Mon Dieu! La pauvre petite —oun est elle allée?” Tarton twisted impatiently and scowled up at her. ‘Where has she gone? That’s easy— but what gets me is how I’m to—”’ “ Yow know—where she is at?” cried the woman, rushing over to grip his shoulder, ‘“ You know—and yet you sit there while the little ene wanders, ill—” ‘‘ She isn’t wandering. She has got there And she’s either all right, : wa a ; pe 4 ME } \ ORR E LT ee a ay) 3a. re, a Fa. ° * TST RP eR MTAOm | home NL AVS gmat a es taal | ’ ry « ” heat | Me Lal ate ty | ye td > or—”’ Leaving the sentence enigmatically un finished he reached for his hat and left the room. His heart was heavy with foreboding. In @ flash of imspiration he had suddenly understood it all—what that baleful jewel stood for between Heldstrom and the girl, why the study table had been snowed down with those curiously marked papers, why the hairy man had tried to kill her; why, on edd that he had the thing. faiz “ « Ae * ‘ (oe a psc scinineeeeee — Pad