Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 13, 1923 — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

i i a nea 548 it was quite plain he wasn’t concerned at all. Isn’t that so? He’d only just met my sister, hadn’t he?”’ Jimmy could have bitten out his tongue for its rashness. “Quite so. Only, of course, he’s inter- ested. You see, he was at school with Nor- wich, too.” Rosslyn Bates seemed fairly well satisfied with this meager explanation of Dick’s po- sition, but it had been a near shave for Jimmy. He now vaguely realized the mo- tive of Detective-Inspector Lewis’s star- chamber proceedings. ‘There must be some object in keeping Dick out of the public eye. For instance, an arrest would have meant publicity, even the arrest of a Jimmy Creigh. He saw Miss Bates into the cab which would take her to her cabaret show and then went back to Cavendish Square. By this time, the little Marchesa di Trevi was in a fever of anxiety. In a few moments, she told him reproachfully, her stepson and other relatives-in-law would be coming home from the opera and that would pre- vent anything in the nature of confidential conversation. “Well, and did you deliver my letter?” she demanded breathlessly. He handed it back to her. “Take my advice and burn it,” he said. As she started to protest he told her hur- riedly exactly what the AXgean Club was and that the police had the place under sur- veillance. “ Furthermore, you’re a very foolish lit- tle woman even to think of trying to get into communication with that fellow again.” The marchesa began to cry. “ And if I were your stepson, I’d lock you up,” Jimmy continued, unmoved by the sight of her distress. ‘“ Here, give me that envelope; we'll have it on the coals at once.” The marchesa let out a faint shriek. “Tt’s—it’s full of money!” she ex- claimed. Jimmy stared at her, open-mouthed with amazement. He felt himself to be the most outraged person on earth., To think that she had tried to make such a cat’s-paw of him! - ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Her pretty little face mantled with an emotion which might have been shame, but was more likely indignation. In an an- noyed way, she tore open the envelope and extracted from it some folded banknotes. These she thrust into a drawer of her desk. The envelope with the rest of its contents she tore to bits and put on the fire, as Jimmy had suggested. *“‘ Now are you satisfied?” she asked. ‘“* Not in the least,” he replied stiffly. I'll say good night, marchesa—and also good- by.” He turned away, but she ran after him and caught hold of his arm. “Oh, Mr. Creigh—do you wish to break my heart? You don’t understand.” “‘T understand considerably more than I want to,” said Jimmy. ‘“ You tried to get me—me/—to deliver a letter filled with money to a notorious crook who is being hunted for murder. That money—had he received it—might have helped him to get away.” ** No—no! wailed. But Jimmy was in no mood to hear any more. His dignity had been deeply wound- ed, and something else besides. As he left the house he told himself furiously that never, so long as he lived—if it were a hun- dred years—would he trust a woman again. Hereafter the seclusion of the Crusty Bach- elors’ Society for him. You don’t understand,” she Evelyn Harland had developed what her mother described as nerves, and her father called the fidgets. Never before had she been unpleasantly self-willed, but the same could not be said of her now. “ What she ought to do is to forget Dick Ardell,” said Mrs. Harland. ‘‘ And the sooner the better. I shall take her abroad, I think.” | Evelyn, informed of this idea, said noth- ing, but that night she prayed a little more fervently than usual, and the next morning, when the maid came in with her early cup of tea, she learned that her mother was laid up in bed with one of the severe attacks of gout to which she was subject. Evelyn had not petitioned for her mother to be stricken with gout, and it was rather a warning to COPNIC OOO KS (E©)