Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 13, 1923 — page 107: what you’re looking at

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

-GOOD LOOKING AND RICH. “ Well—ah—how would it affect you, for © example?” John hazarded. He held his breath, waiting for the kind- ly platitudes. He was a little startled at the evil light which flickered into Wicks’s too expressive eye. He was more than a little startled by the hard, ruthless smile that flickered about Wicks’s lips; men who engineer wholesale massacres and butcher off royal families must smile very much like that. “Well, John, this being a hypothetical case, I can speak quite freely,” Mr. Wicks replied meditatively. ‘ If, let us assume, an error of some sort had caused you to believe yourself rich when you were really nothing of the kind, it would be—oh, regr. ttable from every standpoint, of course. You’d consider the engagement broken, for [ll have no infernal pauper for a son-in-law. I may even say that, being a bit touchy my- self about such things, we might not be friends for a while. Nothing much more serious than that, at any rate. But—” said Mr. Wicks, and paused blood-curdlingly. “Yes?” said John. *‘ Tf you or any other man ever practiced a deception of this kind on me deliberately, if it ever should appear that for purposes of gain or any other reasons, you had been lying about the whole thing, I—why, con- found it, sir, I believe I’d hound you down into the very mouth of hell!’”’ Mr. Wicks stated, and looked as if he meant it. “Yes!” John agreed. “‘ Because, while I might forgive the other aspects in the course of time, Jack, my daughter is the most precious thing in the world to me, and the very thought that any man had dared—” Here, for a mo- ment, emotion quite overcame Mr. Wicks; he controlled himself with a visible effort; he even laughed, although it was not a mirthful sound. ‘‘ Bosh! This is all rather ridiculous, of course.”’ “ Oh, of course!” John admitted hastily, although from a great distance. “That sort of thing’s common enough, but it’s not in your make-up, boy! What were we talking about?” “T think it was about the way I haven’t risen to new conditions,” Mr. Harley said with a wan smile. 569 “Maybe you’re below par, anyway—. sick—something like that?” Mr. Wicks sug- gested, looking sharply at him. “* Maybe.” “That fool Potter’s been driving you too hard! He’s given to that sort of thing, I believe. He—yes, Miss Parker?” “Mr. Duncan is here.” Wicks scowled annoyedly. “So soon?” he muttered. ‘ What time ‘do they have lunch where he comes from? Well—I’ll see him in about three minutes.” And as the soundless secretary moved out again, he rose and extended a hand to John Harley. ‘Too darned bad, just when we were getting down to family matters, Jack,”’ he said, ‘‘ but this is my railroad man and I need him in the business and I'll have to take him out and feed him. You'll be at the house to-night, of course?” “ T’m not sure.” “ Tf I know Althea, you’d better be sure,”’ the millionaire grinned most amiably. “Come for dinner.” «ec Tf’? “ Dinner!” Mr. Wicks concluded flatly. ** Seven o’clock. Now get out of here.” He tempered the gruff command with a significant, affectionate pat upon the shoul- der for which, all things considered, many young*men would have given ten years of life. Mr. Harley, not being among the many, would quite cheerfully have con- tributed fifteen such years on the spot, had. there never been any occasion for the pat. The dark young woman, apparently tele- pathically summoned, had opened the door and was waiting for him to pass through. A slightly bent, distinctly cold and bewil- dered person, Mr. Harley passed—and now the office boy was opening the gate for him—and now he was stumbling into the elevator—and on out into the sunshine. Well, just as he had so greatly desired, he had come face to face with Thurlow Wicks this fine Monday morning! He had had every possible opportunity to stand up like a little man and tell the truth. And tacitly, if not so very brazenly, he had gone right on with his lying, he had done everything necessary to confirm Mr. Wicks’s belief in the genuineness of his inheritance. And why—w/:y? What under the sun GEomichboo i") pee