Argosy All-Story Weekly — 'The Metal Monster' — page 117: what you’re looking at

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

whose darting glances were like those of some predatory bird beneath a mass of elaborately coiffed white hair. “Tam Miss Frost. May I ask what your business is with me?” Her voice boomed out with surprising depth and aus- terity. “Just to ask you a few questions, ma’am, if you'll be good enough to answer them,’’ McCarty replied meekly with a dis- arming smile. He was about to continue when the lady forestalled him. “By what authority, 1f you please?” she demanded coolly. “Your name is un- known to me—”’ ‘“’ By the authority of the police commis- sioner!’? McCarty interrupted, his usually impervious good nature deserting him for the moment in the face of her arrogance. ‘“* You've been acting, I understand, as com- panion for Mrs. Baillie Kip.” ‘ Police!’? Miss Frost gasped. ‘“ Oh, that horrible, low-bred creature! I feared gos- sip and possibly scandal, but never, never this!’ What is it, sir? What has she done?” ‘“] didn’t say she had done anything, ma’am,’’ McCarty said more mildly, for the sharp, hawklike face seemed to have aged perceptibly in the last minute. ‘‘ We just want to get a line on her, that is all.” “It is enough!”” Miss Frost wrung her hands. “ To think that I should have been so misguided as to lend her the prestige of my chaperonage, a woman who is—is ques- tionable in the eyes of the police! I shall never be able to hold up my head again—I, whose position in society has always been unassailable in spite of financial reverses! My reputation, my _ standing will be ruined!”’ , “Not at all, ma’am, you can rest easy on that score. This is confidential, just be- tween the two of us. Your name needn’t even be mentioned if you'll tell me what you know about her.’’ Miss Frost glanced about her helplessly and then sank into the nearest chair, with a fluttering gesture toward one across the table. ‘“T know literally nothing about Mrs. Kip!” she disclaimed. ‘‘ Less, in fact, than HOW MANY CARDS? king. 111 on the day when I went to make my home with her. The Frosts are one of the oldest families in society and in my younger days —but I digress. For the last ten years or more, Mr.—er—McCarty, I have found it necessary to augment my income by in- troducing to society certain members of the newly rich who would otherwise be unable to obtain a foothold. I have been instru- mental in arranging some of the most bril- liant alliances of the past decade. You have heard of Senator Welkyn?” McCarty nodded. “ His Wife was an absolute failure in Washington four years ago, but I schooled her with the utmost patience, and last sea- son succeeded in launching her triumphant- ly at Newport.”’ Miss Frost continued ner- vously. “ Finding that she no longer need- ed my sponsorship, she presented Mrs. Kip » to me as the widow of a Western copper I have blamed myself a hundred times since for not having looked up Mrs. Kip’s antecedents with my usual care, but Mrs. Welkyn’s minute details of her history and assurance that they had been girls to- gether convinced me that she was quite— er-—possible, especially as I had watched her previous unsuccessful attempt to break into society some years ago and knew that she had held herself sedulously above any hint of gossip. ‘We came to a financial agreement last autumn and on my advice she took the house in which she now lives and where I went to reside with her. You must know the success of my efforts in her behalf even in so short a time; she is received at the - larger functions everywhere and has even achieved a degree of intimacy with such people as Mr. John and Lady Margaret O’Rourke, the Douglas Waverlys, Nicholas Cutter and their set. I had intended to eliminate the Waverlys in the course of time as my—er—client penetrated still more ex- clusive circles, and was really using Nicho- las Cutter merely as a stepping-stone to that end, for he holds the open sesame everywhere, you know, but Mrs. Kip did not prove tractable. “ For a long time I have felt uneasy about her. In the first place she was most secretive about her financial affairs. I was COUMIUC AOO!K co ww