Argosy, Vol. 120, No. 1 — page 42: what you’re looking at

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

32 “Please don’t think I am disparaging. Only, we look at things from a different angle. So I chose adventure—the big chance. I promised to marry Burchard. No, I’m not wearing a ring. _Don’t care for rings. The rest of the story is brief. - “ Burchard is something of a speculator, as I told you—a big man with big ideas— and a business gambler. A consolidation of independent Alaskan salmon canneries was his latest. A fortune in it, if it suc- ceeded. There was a stock company or- ganized, and capital secured. We had a lot of* options—on good trap sites and plants. But we had to. turn our profit quickly—either that or nothing. ‘Well, it was nothing. An off year, I think they call it, anyway, a catch way be- low par. Notes coming due; the conserva- tive, heavily financed competition alarmed, and spreading propaganda; stockholders asking. questions; smash! By this time there are probably a dozen lively criminal proceedings and lawsuits. Burchard was~ in the north on his own yacht when it came. He dare not come back in reach of subpoenas and warrants—yes, it’s as bad as that! But he wanted me, and I’d prom- ised. I was glad to come. “ Somebody told him of this place, quiet, out of the way, forgotten. My instruc- tions, wired in code, were to meet him here. One of our cannery tenders brought me from Juneau, and he will call. He ex- pected, of course, to meet me. Something, storm or fog, 1 suppose, delayed the yacht. I came three days ago, and the tender captain was worried about me._ But I con- vinced him it was perfectly safe to leave me to your hospitality, and decidedly danger- ous for him to remain and possibly attract attention to us. You know, if Burchard does get in range of the law it will prob- ably mean—prison. And that’s the story.” A preposterous story! Dean, who had listened judicially, reach- ed a silent conclusion. Yet was it prepos- terous? Or rather, what combination of circumstance could be more impossible than her very presence in\his cabin, across the breakfast table—a city flower transplanted to asand dune? And she was reality. He could no longer doubt that. THE ARGOSY, He rose, preoccupied, sought out a pipe, filled and lighted it and, smoking, stared from his window at the vacant beach. Marta Kree watched his broad back a little anxiously. | Finally: ‘‘ When will this yacht come?” He asked it without glancing back. " “ Surely .to-day! Very soon, I hope. I— Mr. Dean, truly I’m sorry to force myself on your hospitality. If there had been any other way—” Dean shrugged impatiently. “J hope Burchard will come very soon.” She said it with almost 4 spiteful emphasis. Dean disregarded her meaning. ‘Do you realize,” he began bluntly, “ you did. a very foolish thing—took a very great risk? How could you know what sort of man—?”’ “How? By his home, Mr. Dean. I was not afraid. I found the home of a gentleman. And I took the liberty of pry- ing a little. Excuse that to self-defense, can’t your After what I read of your manuscripts I was sure that—that—” She was smiling, he knew, by her tone. ‘“ Mr. Dean, would.you like to know the sort of man I pictured—” So “Eh!” She was laughing now. “A graybeard. Honestly! Shining bald head with a little white cotton about the ears; a wonderful long white whisker. A real hermit, a kind: ly, gentlemanly hermit—” “You took too great a risk, much too great. Last night—” “But I was so sure of you. And ”— she added it deprecatingly— ‘‘ of course I was armed. I know how to use a.pistol, too! But this morningimagine how I felt when I’saw you!” ‘So only a graybeard should think as I do? Only a doddering old fool with one foot in the grave?” Dean was thoughtful. “Tt is not—usual—in a young man,” Marta Kree defended. ‘Some men learn early in life,”? Dean murmured to himself. His guest left the table to stare uneasily from the open door. He knew she-was thinking of the yacht, and presently, when she walked slowly toward the beach, he followed her, conscious he had been a little comiicloooalk