Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 25, 1924 — page 65: what you’re looking at

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

‘THE DANCING DOLL. much sometimes, but now I don’t think he’s ever quite sober.” ‘““ He’s the lowest kind of a crook,” re- plied George. “A stick-up man wouldn’t associate with anything as low as Guy Dal- by. Has he tried that game before?” “What game?” “ You know what I mean! ‘to introduce his friends?” The girl nodded, too ashamed to speak. ree When?” “Just a day or two ago. He tried to make me drink champagne with some of his friends at the hotel. I had to lock my door against them.” George gritted his teeth in rage. For a moment he was speechless. “By God, I did wrong to hit him with my fist. I should have killed him outright. The dirty dog!” Margot sobbed silently. The car rolled along the sweeping curve of the bay where the moonlight flashed on the waves and the gentle plash of the surf filled the night with music. Before them lay the most beautiful vista in South Amer- ica, that continent of romance and beauty, the bold peaks of the Sugar Loaf and the Hunchback, and the other rocky summits that overhang the city, the dark masses of tropical foliage, the walls of houses, bright in the moonlight, and the lofty, graceful forms of the royal palms. But to the boy and girl who rode through that loverlapd, clasped in each other’s arms, like happy sweethearts, the bay and Rio and all South America seemed like a fatal trap in that hour. They were surrounded by hidden dangers. The boy had insulted and struck with his fist a powerful and un- scrupulous local despot—and the girl was the object of that scoundrel’s inflamed de- sire. “ The safest place I can take you is Gian’ Bori’s,” Geotge spoke presently. “ He has a little house with a garden and a grape arbor, an out-of-the-way place where no one is likely to come.” “And can you stay there, too?” Mar- got’s voice trembled. “ I know I can trust you to protect me.” ‘ “T’m not sure whether I can stay with you, but you will be safe there. Bori’s Has he tried 55 wife will look after you. She’s a good- hearted old lady.” The car turned and retraced part of the way along that magical shore and the romance of the perfumed night made the boy and girl forget their anxiety for a while. Margot’s body, warm and fragrant, re- laxed as she lay in his strong arms. She sighed like a tired child. ‘How wonderful it is to be riding like this with you.” “It’s like when I dream of you,” replied George fervently. “It doesn’t seem real, and yet it is. Any minute I expect to wake up and find that I’m all alone. That’s the way my dreams of you end.” ‘Do you really dream of me, George?” ‘““ What else is there to dream of?” Her only answer was a shy pressure of his hand and the boy continued: ‘ Oh girl, I’m wild about you! From the first minute I saw you, it was like that. I’m just crazy about you!” ‘You were very kind to me that first night,” she replied timidly. ‘“ You were splendid the way you found Guy for me! The way you fought off that gang of cut- throats! But I didn’t know you were do- ing it because—because you cared for me that way.” “Of course, I cared for you, Margot! I tell you, I fell—fell hard for you the minute I saw you! It’s the first time I ever felt that way about a girl!” ‘Is that true, George? Youre not just saying that?” “ Before God it is true. Do you know what I thought the minute I set eyes on your” Margot’s head sank to his shoulder. “ Tell me,” she said. “All right! If I was a rich swell—if I had a college education, and knew how to behave, and if I’d ever done anything to be proud of—if I was the sort of a fellow that was even half good enough for you, I'd try to get you to care for me—and some day, I’d ask you to marry me. You know what I mean, if I was ten times as zood—ten times as rich as I am! Then perhaps you might—” He stopped. Words would not come to him. George stared straight ahead, not COmMICLOOokKsS e (C@