Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 6, 1923 — page 142: what you’re looking at

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

924 more. Her glance sweeping the spectators discovered Mrs. Yates, damp but deter- minedly cheerful, and in the row just behind her Dicky Tewson caught her eye. He nod- ded deliberately with an enigmatic smile and a tiny glow of annoyance mounted in her wan cheeks as with no sign of recogni- tion she looked above and beyond him. Her search was unsuccessful; Stephen was not there. Dreyer appeared as nonchalant as ever as he greeted her, and Rowe as calmly pa- ternal, but Claudia detected beneath his urbanity a shade of self-consciousness as though he were endeavoring to veil from her some inner emotion. A little thrill of ex- citement ran through her. Was he going to produce Stephen’s witness when the moment came? The ascetic, inscrutable face of the judge jooked down from behind his high desk, but somehow the bloodless, waxen countenance seemed a shade more animate, and in the meditative gaze a gentleness brooded. Was it only because hope filled her heart that he appeared more human and kindly? She had avoided the eyes of the jury- men on the previous day, not in fear or confusion, but in a proud aversion to the thought that some one of them might mis- read appeal in her glance. Now’she re- garded them each in turn with a calmly impersonal gaze. The foreman seemed lost in reflection, but his immediate neighbor eyed the dis- trict attorney expectantly, his broad, good- natured face still weighed down with that expression of portentous gravity. This was the man with the suspicious wife, Claudia remembered; had the prosecutor’s cynic- ally sarcastic allusion to the blind belief of “any wife” already prejudiced him? Number three, the excitable Frenchman appeared to be on ill terms with Garfinkel, who sat beside him, for he was shrugging expressively and eying the little pawn- broker with exaggerated contempt; but the latter was smiling quietly to himself as though he had gotten the better of some argument. Again that impression of vast wisdom came to the girl as though his self-contain- ment emanated from a profound knowledge ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. of human nature, and with added coni- dence her gaze traveled to the next man, to find his fixed full upon her in a wistful, absent stare which seemed incongruously pathetic, coming from this man whose heal- thily tanned, perfectly groomed counte- nance seemed otherwise to radiate complete satisfaction with life. But this was the man who had been ‘‘ crazy about just one eirl,” the girl who had looked like her and who was dead! Hastily, as if she had surprised him into a confidence, Claudia’s eyes turned to num- ber six, but the stolid baker, too, was re- garding her, though with a lively, personal curiosity, and her glance traveled swiftly along the second row. Broker and truck driver, professor and manufacturer, musi- cian and salesman, all six had fastened their gaze upon her with varying degrees of in- terest as though her scrutiny had drawn theirs and her glance fell. At that moment the clerk of the court turned. “ Risdon Lamont.” Claudia started. Why, he was Niles’s friend, and had been an usher at her wed- ding! What could this middle-aged, rather pompous clubman have to impart? Whatever it was, he seemed highly re- luctant to reveal it, for his face flushed painfully as he took the stand, and he mumbled his oath with obvious embarrass- ment. ‘Mr, Lamont, you were present at the marriage of Niles Hamersley and Claudia Langham, the prisoner before you?” the district attorney asked. Mr. Lamont contented himself with a bow of assent and the prosecutor con- tinued. ‘*In what capacity?” ‘IT was an usher.” ‘Do you recall any guest or guests who sought admission without a card?” He meant Zorn! Claudia glanced at her attorneys, but Dreyer had assumed an air of utter boredom, and Uncle Matt was lost in a reverie which seemed to be affording him much inward satisfaction. “T recall one, a man.” The witness coughed nervously. ‘“Do you recall him distinctly?” COMiiclooe (©