Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 23, 1924 — page 48: what you’re looking at

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

- =. ee ee ne gh kn > ltl yy can Pty my a a Se ee “? a eh ae a ee —~ aM a a ee ee ee eB ES Re ee pare ee = <5 ~<a pn a ow FL ee = . coal ; ae ‘ - 3 es af ore? * < ¥ x we - S = - , . + —< ae —— ae aS _ 206 _< = ee “You must be crazy,” he announced. Gilfillan shook his head. “Merely omniscient,’ he replied. “TI know everything. I know that you are go- ing home. I know that if you don’t drive yourself home now, somebody else will drive you home later.” “ Marvelous,” quoth the other. “ And who, in a manner of speaking, are you?” “TY am he who sees, and thinks, and lives while the world is asleep. I am he who knows the moon and stars. I know the ‘comings and goings of men and women in the night time. I am the night watchman.” “You are also a sumptuous chump.” Douglas Gilfillan removed his coat very deliberately. “In which I have the advantage of you,” he warned. “ For you are about to be un- conscious.” | With which remark he sprang upon Alicia’s visitor with an ardor that was only equaled by the skill with which he used his fists. And that skill in itself was only equaled by an equal skill on the part of Alicia’s visitor. In the darkness of the driveway the two men did battle with the clean cut precision of two very good middleweight boxers. When Gilfillan rushed, the other shuffled backward with exquisite dexterity and rained blows upon Douglas’s guard. Doug- las presented a shoulder, and sent his op- ponent reeling with a fine body blow which he followed up with a left to the other’s chin which would have done damage if it had landed. But it didn’t. Instead Doug- Jas stopped a mighty swing to his right temple, and ducked into a right which made his ribs creak. He backed away, and his opponent shifted. It was then that Douglas began to realize that his opponent had indeed been guilty of misrepresentation. He was not lame, and his head was sound. Douglas’s was not. Douglas was the lighter man. The mat- ter boiled itself down to precisely that. When a good heavy man meets a good light man, the result is foreordained. Douglas ordained it himself at about the same mo- ment as he discovered that his opponent ‘was not lame. But Douglas was no quitter. He tried to overcome his disadvantage by ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, footwork and defensive fighting, but that first rush: that first high spirited attempt to make the affair a short one, had used him badly; Douglas had pressed the fight when he ought to have avoided it. Asa re- sult he had spent his best blows—and the bloom of his effort before his adversary had really settled down to boxing. And now that adversary .pressed him. He pressed him with dire weight and heavy blows. Douglas tried footwork with leather soled feet that slipped and rolled upon the gravel. His opponent, clad in khaki and shod with sneakers, followed him merci- lessly. Douglas closed in. He closed in with short armed, hearty blows at his adversary’s torso. These he felt land upon the elastic, muscular body of his man, but Alicia’s visitor appeared quite unfeeling in the mat- ter. He brought a hooked right arm about and snapped Gilfillan’s head sharply over to the left. “ Ugh!” remarked Gilfillan, and relaxed. Alicia’s visitor shifted and swung a hooked left that snapped Gilfillan’s head back again. For this Douglas appeared to have no com- ment. He swayed for a split second on the balls of his feet. Alicia’s visitor deliv- ered a body blow which was little more than a push. Douglas fell upon his face in the driveway. ‘““ See the moon and the stars,” suggested his opponent cheerfully, and with a springy stride he darted forward up the drive. XIII. MARION Ray sat in the great bay window that jutted forth from the library of North- over. She sat in the bay window because, with the lights out, and a superhuman con- centration of vision, she could imagine that from the bay window she could see down the drive for a considerable distance. Marion felt decidedly uneasy. Especial- ly she felt uneasy because it seemed that the principal matter of the evening was becom- ing obscured in her mind by a consideration which insisted upon a position there of greater importance than any other consider- ation whatever. Like a persistent and spoiled child this matter wormed its way COPMICLOOOKS (F@)