Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 13, 1923 — page 102: what you’re looking at

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

—- aS ; WRENS SO LONG Tae RPL Tae PR ER A Mim ey y . ‘ bi we * ‘ aihy? ¥. : - - al ; ‘ UERREAE SE RT MAMAS eM MA PORE a Tidy dy! \ \ - ws t . Me eit oe NT INT SS si a tle, bleeding, agonized fragments, future has changed, all in @ day, from brightest rose to deepest black, hard work 564 rising, was steady again and rather pale and in his eye shone the light of determination. * That’s where I stop!” he announced fiercely. “I may not have much self-re- spect, but I’ll blow my head off before I go any farther with this stuff!” “ Eh?” “| didn’t dare stir up Althea, but I’ll see Wicks to-morrow if I have to hunt all over New England for him; and when I find him Tl tell him the truth in so many words and he’ll understand. When he knows a wom- an’s life probably depends on his taking it sanely, he’ll have to understand!” “You think he’ll just overlook your mak- ‘ing love to Althea?” Wolcott queried, mus- ingly. “ He will before I’ve finished with him!” John said doggedly, albeit he lost another shade of color. ‘ Don’t gape at me like that! I’ll manage it diplomatically—but Pil manage it!” * Well, I hope, Jack,’’ Mr. Wolcott said, ‘with a dubious smile. “ I certainly hope—” “ Yes, so do I!” John said shortly. “‘ I’m going to work now!”’ To a man whose soul had been blasted, whose whole happy life has been rent to lit- whose may bring at least a little relief. All else apart, Miss Helen Stevens had _ inflicted these things upon John Harley. Helen, not without reason perhaps, had lost faith in him; Helen had informed him quite bluntly that he was lying to her; Helen had dis- missed him forever—and as the minutes passed the conviction that his entire exist- ence had been wrecked grew firmer, even, than at the moment of the crash. So it was fortunate that his work was of a nature that demanded the hardest kind of concentration. Half an hour Mr. Harley struggled with the things that surged through his brain; after that he was Potter & Company’s precise machine again, scrib- bling, muttering to himself, scratching down memoranda. Wolcott, summoning him at ‘supper time, was waved away; Wolcott, later, tiptoed in with a little plate of sand- wiches and a cup of coffee and John ate absently as he worked. i Mans ES hie : rea ee *, 6 SS ge Ne ae aman a ee a . SS 2. aa ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Otherwise, there was an odd lull. Aunt Faith, plainly respecting his devotion to duty, failed even to telephone; Althea, too, seemed to have accepted his neglect as un- avoidable. Mildred, to be sure, called up a little after eight—but considered side by side with Althea, Mildred was a shamefully easy proposition. Although he blushed and ground his teeth over the task, Mr. Harley soothed the second fiancée of his odd col- lection with honeyed word and plausible explanation until she, too, understood that the really busy man cannot devote even Sunday nights to the one girl. Following this conversation, Mr. Harley shook his fists in the general direction of heaven and spoke horribly for two full minutes before resuming his work. At midnight, fagged out, he staggered to bed. Suburban trains between eight and nine are rather clubby affairs. Six days a week, the year around, the same people meet and idly gossip about the same things. When it chances that one of the regular crowd has ostensibly inherited three millions over the week-end, the gossip is likely to be livelier and very definitely focused. On this par- ticular Monday morning, Mr. Harley most inconspicuously boarded the seven-thirty instead of the usual eight-two. He dreaded the moment of entering the Potter offices, though—the congratulatory shouts that would rise, the back-slapping and the endless excited questions. He braced himself as the door swung behind him; and some ten seconds later he relaxed, for he was at his desk and not one of his co-workers had offered more than the ordi- nary nod and word of greeting. They didn’t know! And Potter himself rarely came in before noon on Mondays and, even then, it was most unlikely that he would call the em- ployees together and advise them of the Harley inheritance. With the mail light and imperative duties very few this morn- ing, John could devote several hours to planning the impending Wicks interview. It would need planning! Presently, John would call up the Wicks office and learn whether, by any chance, its master had re- turned; and, if he had not, where he might EOPNIEL OOO KS (E©) ee = — ee »