Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 6, 1923 — page 133: what you’re looking at

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

‘UST TO DUST. Siac things; the State will show you that this woman sitting here in msolent uncon- - - cern, considering herself above the law and its just decree, is a cold-bleoded, calculating murderess and you will be asked to render - @ verdict on the evidence set before you!” _ _-Jhe towering, dominant figure blurred and waved before her eyes and Claudia did not know when that forceful, insidiously compelling voice ceased and court was ad- journed, Blindly she rose when the suard touched her arm and moved amid black, menacing shadows from the room and across the Bridge ef Sighs to her cell. : The kindhearted matron petted and min- istered to her, but she was unaware even of the woman’s presence, her flesh deadened and insensate and her spirit writhing. But the guard appeared once more, sum- = moning her to the counsel room and again she followed blindly. But on the threshold she paused, her heart suddenly pounding and the blood rushing warmly to her very brow. Matthew Rowe was there and Quin- cey Dreyer, but a third man stood where the waning: light of late afternoon fell full upon his face and Claudia held out her hands with a little choking cry. “J have kept my promise to you, Claudia. It is almost too late, but, thank God, I am still in time! I have found Hugo CHAPTER XVI. THE ELEVENTH HOUR, , TEPHEN’S voice fell upon Claudia’s- _ear like a’message uttered in a dream, so often had she heard it in the dark watches of dreary, interminable nights and she tottered and would have fallen had not- he sprung forward and caught her in his arms. For a moment she clung to him trembling, the surging beat of his heart 7 against hers vibrating through all her frame, seeming to endow her with new strength. Then she gently withdrew herself from his protective embrace and = him lead her to ~ @ chair: | Matthew. aoe. ice his throat, but | - his t tones were e still make @ when he spoke. = ber, from the minute you confronted him Niles Hamersley’s early history which he Western city. 15 “This is wonderful news, my dear! a Dreyer and I found Stephen waiting atmy = office, and although I knew how nearly prostrated you must be I felt that you must hear his story without- delay. He has = — learned the whole truth, the details of the = — affair in your husband’s past that Zor => was holding over his head and notwith- standing the fact that itis bound to revolt and hurt you—” LS “De you think that anything can ever” —— hurt me again, Uncle Matt?” Claudia in- oo terrupted. “Don’t you suppose that I as impervious to all suffering after the revela- tions of the last twenty-four hours and that = experience in court to-day? Whatever it is in Niles’s past, however revolting, it is far better that I know it in every detail than imagine the fearful things which have _ & thronged my brain since that man appeared, - ——— leering from the end of the pew as I came = dows the churcl- ate = “I told you!” Dreyer nodded. aS | ‘* The knowledge of her husband’s real char- acter may be a shock to Mrs. ee = bak shes ant ste best ee she Know. - = "Munson. ‘don't bother now with: = you discovered Zorn: get down tocasesand = tell her just what you told us as nearly in = the fellow’s own words as you can remem-- = = afternoon in that flat on the Con- course.” Stephen regarded Claudia with troubled == eyes: ae - #4 don’t like to be the one-to bring an - added blow to you after all you have en- — == duréd to-day nor te speak disparagingly » of the dead as I must, but I’m not going to- think of myself now. I know from Mr. Rowe what you told Inspector Dawes about = = had let fall to you from time to time, but = you. said later to Mr. Rowe that you Ss == thought he had not inherited all his eet = : but made it in stock speculations in some Did } understand that cor-— = rectly?” a “Yes, Stephen.” She nodded. “T didn’t ——— tell the inspector because, looking back,I could see that Niles’s manner had been odd. = and constrained after that single occasion =