Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 2 — page 64: what you’re looking at

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

214 strength. For that he was glad, because in any business in which Devil Downey was concerned there was no room for or- naments. “Now,” began Spaulding, as he flung a_ ~ leg over the tiller and cleated down the main sheet, ‘‘ tell me what I’m to do.” She had curled up out of the way in the cockpit, with her back against the side of the cabin near the companionway. But he had been obliged to shout to make her hear, and she evidently thought it necessary to move to a locker at his side. “The wind has shifted into the north,” with her tangle of hair close to his ear, “and that helps us. You are to stand on and off the point just beyond the cove and I’m to watch for a motor-boat run- ning down before the wind without lights. Then—then you'll give me the tiller!” “TY will, will I?” he asked grimly. “‘ And should I carry lights?” ‘Yes, you will!” She laughed very soft- ly. “And no, you should not carry lights!” After all, he asked himself, what dif- ference did it make if he did give her the tiller? From what he had seen of her he thought her capable of handling the Vixen —and what if she did get him into trouble? Wasn’t he an intimate acquaintance of trouble? So they sailed on, leaning up against the slant of the deck and swaying with the pitch of the sloop. They made the point and he came about, tacking back and forth thereafter as she had directed. For a long time neither of them spoke, while the wind blew keen and sweet ir their faces and they watched the tossing darkness for a darker spot and listened for the put-put of a motor. “Whose clothes were those?” The words were thrust so swiftly and so in- sinuatingly into his consciousness that he answered without thought. “My wife’s, damn her!” “Oh!” It was a little cry of apology, but the inquisition persisted. ‘‘ Is she—” ‘‘She’s dead,” he interrupted. ‘‘ What else?”’ ‘Why did you give them to me?” The the way quickly. THE ARGOSY. girlespoke boldly now, trying to probe out whatever was in his mind. He recognized the desire, and laid it at the door of woman’s curiosity. _ “ Because I was sure I was cured!” “And so—and so—” “And so I don’t like any of you!” he shouted. ‘‘ Woman, why don’t you let me alone? noble creature with a mysterious past! I lost some money, pretty nearly all I had, and my wife couldn’t stand it—she quit me for one of my friends! Stripped down to the bones, that’s all there is to the sor- did mess. I’ve learned she’s dead. And she’s the reason why I don’t like any of you. You're quitters! You don’t stick! I never heard of one who did who didn’t have something in sight to gain! keep quiet?” “Yes,” she answered quite simply, “ for I’ve found out what I wanted to know.” He had to smile to himself at that, bit- terly as he ached with the pain of roused memories. She’d got what she wanted, and like the rest of them she never would have been satisfied without it. He realized now that he had been held a little by the fas- cination of her personality; but he told Now will you I’m not a duke in disguise or a. himself that she had killed this and that he - thanked her fer it. Not until she gave a low cry of warning did he break his reverie. Then he caught a lifting hull off the port bow, and apparent- ly on a course that led straight toward the cove. The slim but frantic hands took the tiller from his grasp, and he moved out of Devil Downey’s daugh- ter, leaning forward intently, held the sloop a little closer to the wind and headed di- rectly across the bows of the oncoming boat. If they missed a crash it would be by the length of a man’s arm. The man at the wheel of the motor-boat had two alternatives: he could swing off to port or starboard and wallow in the trough of the sea, certainly shipping water and perhaps killing his engine; or he could risk his life by holding a straight course. He chose the latter. The long, narrow boat shot straight down from the crest of a wave, shaved the stern of the Vixen, and (C@ ANU SH TOO CO!