Argosy, Vol. 117, No. 2 — page 154: what you’re looking at

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

304 By midnight they would be at Harpers- ville. As Jerry now went up on the station plat- form and looked through the bay-window, he expected to see Mamie in the telegraph office. But she was not there. The day operator was still on duty. Jerry was not concerned about that. If the day man had not heard from Mamie, he would go to meet her. He entered the waiting-room and went up to the window. © “Heard from Miss McBride?” he asked. “She "phoned just a minute ago and asked me to work for her for a couple of hours,” the operator answered. “Anything the matter with her?” ‘Not that I know of. ‘She didn’t say. Wouldn’t wonder if her mother was worse. She’s been pretty bad these last few days.” Mamie had not~said that her mother’s condition was worse. Jerry supposed she had not wanted to add that to his worry. He left the station and went up the street on which the girl lived. As he came to the front of the house, he saw that lights were burning in a side room and a front room down-stairs. He went up the walk and rapped on the door. There was no answer to his summons. He knocked again. Still there was no an- swer. Jerry was puzzled. He did not believe Mamie would ask the operator to work for her unless she had been unavoidably de- tained. So far as Jerry knew, there was nothing to detain her except her mother’s illness. If that was the cause, it was strange that she did not answer his knock. He waited five minutes longer and then he went to the house next door. A woman answered his knock there immediately. “Twas looking for Miss McBride,” he said. “I knocked on the door but, got no answer. Do you) know where she is?” “Why, she went to work at her usual time,” the woman said. “She left the house at a quarter to seven, as she always , does. Her mother has been pretty sick for several days. But, she seemed better to- night. She has been sleepin’ all day and ‘she was asleep when I left there a few minutes ago. I been takin’ care of her, but THE ARGOSY. { had to come home for a few minutes. If you'd like to know how she is, I'll go back with you. Well, I must be goin’ back any- way, so it ain’t no trouble.” She threw a shawl over her head and she and Jerry went back to the house. Jerry waited on the front porch while the woman went inside. In a moment she was baek. Her face was pale and her eyes had a start- led, frightened look in them. Her left hand was pressed over her heart. “Why,” she said, “ I was afraid it would happen like that. You know, Mrs. Mc- Bride has been suffering from heart trouble. She’s been sleepin’ all day, like I said, and she just slep’ an’ slep’ till—till—she—” ‘‘ She’s dead?” Jerry whispered. The woman nodded, and tears came into her eyes. ‘Poor Mamie,” she murmured. child, Are you her beau, mister?” “She’s going to marry me,” Jerry said. ‘You want me to break the news to her, do you?” = . “It'd better come from you,” the woman said. ‘“ She’s a good girl and affectionate. She'll need somebody to comfort her. She thought an awful lot of her mother, espe- cially for the last week or so. She worried about her and had the doctor come every day. Mamie seemed to know her mother hadn’t long to live. As far as that goes, the doctor knew it. He said she was liable to-go any time.” ‘You'll have the doctor come?” Jerry asked. “Tll telephone right away,” she an- swered. “‘ And my husband will take care of all the other matters, just as soon as Mamie decides about them. You’ll find her right away and bring her home, mister?” “Yes,” Jerry said. : He hastened back along the way he had come. He was halfway to the station be- fore he remembered that Mamie was not there. He stopped in bewilderment. Mamie was not at home and she was not at work, and she had left to go.to work at her usual time. Jerry feared that Jensen had struck again. This time, desperate as he was, he would try to make his blow a mighty one. He decided to throw caution to the winds. “ Poor ECORMMICLOOKS (C@)