Argosy, Vol. 119, No. 2 — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

182 THE ARGOSY. “ Mr. Fane, you’re going to help me?” ‘“ Certainly,” said Tony, melting inward- ly, although his voice was crisply business- like. * Then, please listen. It is twenty min- utes to eleven now. I must go into the hotel and up to my rooms, Araminta will telephone, I am sure, to make certain that I am there. You go to the garage and send a man back for my car, then meet me at the side entrance in ten minutes. What- ever happens, I must be at the Golden ‘Trust at eleven. That will leave time, won’t it?” ‘ Plenty; we cught to make it in five.” “Then good-by, Mr. Fane, and thank you.” The girl held out her hand as she stepped from the car almost before it drew up at the hotel entrance, and ran lightly up the steps and into the lobby. It did not take her an instant to reach the ele- vators, and her smile at the starter made him send her up rapidiy in an empty car. She burst into her bedroom just as the telephone rang. “ Answer it, Ellen;”’ ‘she said to her maid. “ Pil talk to any one.”’ In another moment she took the receiver the woman laid down. > Yes, Miss Letherby,” she said, “ just got in. I’m certainly sorry we have dis- turbed you; Mr. Fane told the man not to tell you anything about it. No, I couldn’t say; he went to the hotel garage to send a man back for the car. No, I don’t care, it’s only a hired one, anyway. I had to have something to drive; guess Ill buy myself one to-morrow. Thank you so much for calling; good night.” Robin replaced the receiver gently and then faced her maid like a_ whirlwind. “Ellen, Miss Letherby will call again, I fancy, in a few minutes. I’m going out: Gut she mustn’t know that. Pretend I’m in the bathtub, and after a minute I’ll come to the telephone—in your person, of course —and explain that. Giggle and laugh into the phone just as I do sometimes. Say you're going to take a beauty sleep and have a massage; be sure and make it plain that you are undressed and going to stay right here. I think you can put that over, can’t you?” The woman eyed her soberly. “I think so, Miss Robin, but I hope you aren’t running into any danger, miss?” ‘No, I don’t think so, Ellen, you dear old thing. It is to help come one in des- perate trouble; anyway, against that, dan- ger doesn’t count. But ii—if 1 don’t come back in an hour or two at the most, tell Mr. David that the key to all is a trunk with ‘S. T. R.’ on it. He can trace that up all right, and they won’t really harm me, I’m sure of that.” Like a laughing shadow she was gone. Ellen heard the descending elevator carry- ing her away, and sighed. Then she hur- ried to the window, and, raising the shade, looked cut. Only the darkness of the park was visible, with here and there a gleaming light of an automobile flew through the gloom. : Raising the window, she listened to_the roar of the city, frowningly. Who knew what dangers adventurous, dare-devil Rob- inetta Cortland was about to face in this Strange place? It was darker in the street near the ladies’ entrance. Tony did not see Robin until she stood close beside him. She settled down in her seat, nodding at him to proceed. Out of the anes of Sixth Avenue they sped into the splendor of Fifth. The traffic was small, for the theaters had not yet dis- gorged cai: crowds. Robin nestled back in her seat with a sigh of content. “If it must be a city,” she said, “ then let me see Fifth Avenue.” And, replying to Tony’s laugh: “ Mr. Fane, will you wait for me round the corner from the Golden Trust? I must walk alone past the clock, there, at exactly eleven. I’m afraid—if we were together—we might frighten off that poor Scarlet Rider.”’ “So it was—that?” Tony said. ‘She nodded. ‘“ Ves; why you and David should have jumped to the conclusion that . it was eleven in the morning, I cannot think. For a man harried by the police, and just out of prison, think what a relief it must be to do anything at night, in the dark. But he never thought, naturally, how he was courting disaster by sending out all those letters at once, with a whole day in- tervening. Oh ”—a sharp edge of anxiety (E(e) Eomicboo a Ae * *y pat rie xy Pal “W Te ek yt yee }} + ets Ns eee naK Pee Nhe 20 prea yog De aa i i PF ir aA A eek Lae