Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 23, 1924 — page 49: what you’re looking at

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

rz > é - - > - é %. - => THE COLLISION, into Marion’s consciousness, and would not let her think of the danger which threatened Alicia and the house of Averill. ‘Is he in any danger?” was the question. “Could it be possible that Drayton would carry agun? And if so, might not Douglas Gilfillan be in peril of his life?” Suddenly Marion surrendered to that ap- prehension out of hand. Suppose her mind was on Douglas Gilfillan? she argued with herself defensively. One couldn’t let a man in for murder and sudden death without some consideration. And she felt rather proud as she considered that Douglas Gil- fillan was capable of anything. He didn’t know what fear was. She decided to go out and speak with Douglas Gilfillan. In the hallway she came upon Cowper, who sat like a lean and supercilious remind- er of man’s mortality upon an exceedingly high Renaissance armchair, with a fowling piece across his knees. Instead of laughing, Marion found that she was pleased at the sight of that colossal fowling piece. “ 1’m going down the drive, Cowper,” she said. ‘‘ Better come along. Bring that gun with you.” Cowper covered with haughty disdain the fact that he didn’t like to go out in the dark. “T think one of us ought to stay here, miss,” he objected. ‘““No. He can’t very well get past us to the house if we keep our eyes open,” she decided. ‘“‘ Come along.” Cowper clutched his weapon and _ fol- lowed her. Alicia’s visitor, having dispatched Doug- las Gilfillan, as recorded in a previous chap- ter, saw them emerge from the house as he stood in the scented screen of the rhododen- drons across the drive. After they had passed down the latter and vanished into darkness, he left his concealment and crossed to the great front door. Finding it locked, he began to circle the house. They had locked him out, he re- flected, and he well knew that he stood little chance of gaining an entrance by ringing the bell. Well, he need not stand upon the conventions; he had got along without that so far. If a window were open, it would do as well; and she would understand. She 207 thirsted for romance; she was wiser than the old-young children of her time; she thirsted for romance. Very well, he would give her romance. He looked upward, and saw a light which shone from a bay window that opened upon a balcony. He thought quickly. She would expect him. She would wait for him in her sitting room. Her sitting room would be upon the second floor, and that light in the bay window was the only second floor light. He examined that window and he ex- amined the wall, which was thickly screened with a gnarled and sinuous vine of ivy. He smiled to himself. She thirsted for ro- mance! He drew himself from the ground, with his hands strongly grasping the vine. There was a wealth of footholds. Slowly he climbed toward her window. Marion, meanwhile, had dragged the un- willing Cowper through all the shrubbery and verdure among which she had sought for Douglas Gilfillan before. And Cowper was unhappy. Cowper was one of those who never leave the paths of this world. The grass beneath his feet was anathema to Cowper, and the shrubbery which clutched at his clothes abhorrent. Life in that moment was further darkened for Cow- per by virtue of the fact that he was not familiar with guns, didn’t like guns, and had been wont all his life to study with a morbid fascination all those newspaper cases of horrible deaths resulting from guns that had gone off by accident. ; “Farmer Blown in Half When Gun Catches Tree!” was a caption that flashed into Cowper’s mind at this moment, and he held the gun so high above him that he dis- covered for the first time how really heavy it could be. “ He’s not here,”’ whispered Marion. “Better go back,” instantly suggested Cowper. ‘We'll go out on the road first,” rejoined Marion. With a desperate prayer that the gun might not go off until they got into the open spaces of the road, Cowper followed her. As she stepped out of the shrubbery onto the driveway her foot slipped upon a splash of oil. Gomichbooks (ECO) Af