Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 17, 1924 — page 83: what you’re looking at

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

SOMETHING SMALLER THAN GOD. cause he has grown so thin. No, he is not insane; he is a ring worshiper. ‘“He was so wise before—so sure of his belief in God. And now he is an old, old broken man. The Great’ R-r-rhoda! What a fool any man is to worship some- thing smaller than God! An ivory ring! How God must laugh!” She stared broodingly into Farley’s eyes. And suddenly her chin started to quiver, and her eyes filled with tears. Her hands did not stir from her lap. She did not bow her head. She looked up at the young man’s alarmed white face, blinking the tears in her eyes until they overflowed and wetted her cheeks and trickled down to her lips. Grief so heroic, so unashamed, was more than Farley could endure. Gritting his teeth, he turned his head away. Marcene dried her eyes with one end of the voile scarf. A soft sigh reached him. A warm breath of flowers crept up about them. He turned. ‘““Look here,” he said determinedly— “can’t something be done to cure him of this fool belief?” She bobbed her head with girlish eager- ness. “If some one would only offer to be his impresario—for just a little while.” “ Tell him,” Farley said gruffly, “that I will help him. I haven’t much—perhaps two hundred pounds.” He stopped. Marcene had seized his hands, was smil- ing up at him; and it was then that her teeth reminded him of pearls. It was the winsome smile of a happy, normal girl. “You are so kind!” she cried. good! Oh, I like you so very much!” He stiffly withdrew his hands. It was ignoble to suspect any one so childishly naive as Marcene Rhoda of guile, yet what he had sternly promised himself would not happen had been somehow brought about. He was going to finance the Great R-r-rhoda! ce So NT. His suspicions were dulled in the morning when, after a sleepless night, he sat at the magician’s bedside. Rather, they were dis- placed by a sweeping tide of compassion. Rhoda was a very sick man. His intense black eyes were feverishly bright, and his 230 cheek bones held hectic spots. He was not grateful for Farley’s assistance, but he ac- cepted it with enthusiasm. “We can make a killing in Nish, Michael. There are eighty thousand people in Nish and the environs of Nish, and none of them has seen a show like mine before. They will pay fifty dinars at least. Well, let us decide on two nights here and then a week in Belgrade. I will leave all the ar- rangements to you and Marcene. Do not stint in your advertising, and we must have a theater with ample seating space. Four days from now I will be on my feet. These attacks run their course in four days. Have no fears on my account. Marcene!”’ The girl came quietly to the bedside and looked down without emotion into the thin, flushed face. “Yes, papa?”’ “You will tell Michael all that is to be done. The performance is to be advertised for Thursday and Friday nights. I will do the trunk trick.” * T will do the trunk trick,” he reiterated, and moved his right hand to fondle the ring. ‘““ Very well,” said Marcene indifferently. While the Great Rhoda tossed in his bed and between naps saturated himself with quinine wine, Michael Farley straight- ened out his affairs. It was not the first time he had helped fellow countrymen in remote places who were stretching their credit at native hotels and waiting, or*pre- tending to wait, for funds which rarely arrived; but never before had that seasoned young traveler encountered so complete a bankrupt. His trunks—thirty-five of them —were scattered in all parts of the city. Some were held at the stanitza for the payment of excess baggage charges; oth- ers were in the keeping of the Café of the Prune and Pepper, held as security against Rhoda’s bar bill. But the majority of them were being watched over by the manage- ment of the hotel. Farley redeemed trunks and crates as well as a miscellany of starving animals. There were half a dozen rabbits and an assortment of white mice and snakes. Despite his inexperience as an impresa« COMIIGDOO S CO