The Argosy, November 1908 — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

638 THE craven, seek shelter behind the petticoats of Miss Prentice. With an impulsive gesture, he turned away from the portal, and heard the maid close the door behind him. And as he lingered a second on the ARGOSY. porch, the night was suddenly shattered into fragments by a wild howl from over toward the center of the village—a fierce yelping as of a pack of hounds loosed to the chase. The fifteen minutes was up! (To be continued.) THAT DROPPED CAR. By ROBERT RUSSELL. How Smithers came to have an unpleasant fact broken to him, not easily, but as it were in sledge-hammer fashion. TF Smithers had not been so anxious to make the strongest kind of an im- pression on the young woman with whom he was to spend his half-holiday, the thing would never have happened, but the result would probably have been the same. At any rate, when Grace Forest had said, a few days before, that he might accompany her on the train to a suburban town a short distance outside the city, the young man determined to make every portion of the trip as perfect as possible, and finally to unbosom him- self of the great love he persuaded him- self that he felt for her. Her visit was to be a short one, in which he was not to share, but he was confident that the granting of this favor by such a popular girl meant that she would not be averse to hearing his pro- posal. It was this desire to appear to advan- tage in her eyes that led to the brilliant idea of spending his last three dollars on the extravagant luxury of a taxicab to carry them both to the station. Their tickets were safely stowed away in his pocket. be met at the station by her friends, so that when he was obliged to turn her over to them she would be in ignorance of the fact of his folly. The beauty of the day made the long ride to the station extremely pleasant to the young man, and her graciousness and apparent appreciation of his thought for her comfort added much to his pleasure. “ But it was awfully foolish of you to go to the expense of this taxicab,” she remarked. He knew that Miss Forest would. “In one’s affairs with some people nothing is foolish which adds to their pleasure,’ replied Smithers, with a hid- den, intense meaning. ey have a brother who is just starting in to practise law for himself,” Miss Forest continued. ‘‘ You see, T know how slowly the fees come in.” “ But,” replied Smithers, with becom- ing modesty, ‘there is a great difference in the amount of work, and consequent pay, that young lawyers make.” ‘At any rate, it was very kind of you to take so much trouble,” said the girl; “and it certainly is pleasant. = “ Point one,” Smithers told himself. Safely aboard the train, with the an- ticipation of their hour’s ¢éte-a-téte be- fore him, the young man set himself seri- ously to work to disclose to the girl his keen insight into affairs which usually escaped the ordinary young person. He had some story concerning every place of importance which they passed, and he felt that his remarks were unusually brilliant and original. An abandoned quarry naturally suggested other indus- trial errors which stupid capitalists had made, and the subject of railroading came up. “This road, for instance,” remarked Smithers, “is very poorly managed. It has probably escaped your notice that this train is composed of two coaches which are occupied, and one that is bare- ly filled. To my mind the.carrying of that extra coach is a great waste of energy. Now, if I were at the head of this railroad, things would be done very differently.” comichooks.com