Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 146 No. 4 — page 160: what you’re looking at

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

2% mee ! her breast. “ My poor Randal!” sy thought. “T cannot help you!” _ The music started again. __ “ Here’s the next dance!” cried Mrs. Car- mody vivaciously. ‘“ Do take me back, col- onel. I have it with the most fascinating creature!” A day or two later Diantha called up Myra. She said: ‘Oh, Myra, dear, I’ve just learned that the colonel is going to at- tend the Latin-America banquet on Friday night.” “Fine, darling! Did you ask him what time he would be home?” “Said he was going to make a night of it.” “ Splendid!” “Are you sure Friday night will suit you, Myra?”’ “ Absolutely, love. I'll call up Sutliffe at once.” She did. And in a quarter of an hour he was in her apartment. They congratulated each other. “ Like the direct interposition of Provi- dence!” said Myra. “Or the devil,” suggested Sutliffe in a high, good humor. For an hour in the parrot room they had their heads together. Better than anything else in the world Myra loved plotting her situations in advance. So clever was she, and so heedless most other people, that she was generally successful in bringing things around the way she wanted. She now went into the minutest detail; what she was to say; what Sutliffe was to say; how they were to act in every contingency. Sutliffe, with a man’s impatience, chafed at these elaborate arrangements, but with Myra it had to be all or nothing; either he had to submit to her in every particular, or she washed her hands of the whole affair. __ As Sutliffe rose to go he said: “I'll get oat nied tickets.” ” Ae ee want more time, pick out a tere the maid, 1 Tra. iy : 4 ; rat ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, : ‘* Nervous, dear?” he Pens A. “ Not at all!” said Diantha quickly. her breast was fluttering. Oe He took a small automatic from. hi i pocket. nde “ You ought to carry this. How can you" D conceal it?” he asked with an anxious glance: | at her tight bodice. ‘“T prepared for it,” said Diantha coolly. “Slit a seam in the back of my skirt and put in a pocket.” . “ Just where a man carries his,” said the colonel, smiling. “Tt ‘ll be darned uncomfortable if I hap- pen to sit on it,” said Diantha. “Ever fire a pistol?” he asked. She shook her head. “ Better unload it, anyway,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to shoot him, really. It will be enough just to produce it. You will be near, anyway.” The colonel nodded and emptied the shells into his hand. Diantha slipped the weapon into her pocket. “Everything has gone all right so far,” said the colonel. “ Mrs. Guyon made an appointment with Sutliffe for eight thirty to-morrow morning. Consequently he had to get the letters out before closing time this afternoon. To-night when you visit him they will either be upon his person, or con- cealed somewhere. in the apartment. Your job, of course, is to find out where the let- ters are, and, if possible, to get your hands on them. “ Sutliffe’s apartment has a whole line of windows opening on the side street,” he went on. “I and some of my men will be watching those windows from across the street. If you need help you are to throw” up one of the windows. A forcible entry by us would make a lot of unpleasant pub-— licity, of course. But you mustn’t take any unnecessary risks. If you can’t get the win-— dow up, break the glass.” in Diantha asked: “ Has Mrs. pe described the letters?” - i “Yes. There are ten letters. — ie all written on the same he vy, TOUg 3