Argosy All-Story Weekly — 'The Metal Monster' — page 98: what you’re looking at

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

92 somewhere, waiting for you! Do you think I’ve done nothing, these past years, but live in dreams of you?”’ The words tumbled over each other. Ka- trina was scoring her own conscience. ‘ Katrina—you don’t care?” ‘“T don’t know— Oh, you’ve no night to ask me to answer right away!” “ Tf you loved me, you could answer right away!” “‘ Then I don’t, because I can’t! go!” Gordon-Channing’s face was flaming in the dark. His breath was coming in short, - uneven gasps. His arms tightened around the girl. Something about him frightened her. She grew faint. ‘‘ Katrina,” he whispered huskily, “Tt “can’t let you go now. Good God, I can’t! You don’t know how this gets a2 man—a man who has wanted you all these years! I can’t let you go now—I won’t give you up to that fellow Thorpe. Kiss me! Kiss me!” A low cry escaped the girl’s lips as she felt his hot breath beat a tattoo upon her closed eyes. His mouth touched hers, and Let me then—Katrina’s body lay limp in his arms. The sensation of her body relaxing against his inflamed the man as her resistance never could have. He picked her up in his arms and started for his room, Captain Buchanan’s old quar- ters. As he reached the corner of the house he ran into a figure approaching from the opposite direction. He felt a quick hand shoot out toward him and his burden. Then a voice cut through the dark. } “By God! I thought I heard her call out! Put her down! D’ ye hear? Put her down!” As Gordon-Channing made no move, the other stepped closer to him. “Give her to me!” he commanded hoarsely. “ Give her to your Why? have you to her?” “My right? The right of a clean man— a man who has lived at her side, alone, day and night—for weeks—and who has never so much as touched her, unless necessary!” There was a soft sigh from the woman’s What right “le : e a : .*° ri @ \ {) r] ~ ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, lips as her faintness began to wear off, but neither man noticed it. -“ Katrina is—to be my wife. This is her affair and mme, Thorpe! Now, what is your right?” He started forward with the girl, and Thorpe groped blindly out of the way. As Gordon-Channing reached the wind- shield at the door, Katrina’s senses returned to her. She felt the arms about her—felt the strength wrapping her around—and her vaice fell gently upon the night, saying: ‘Larry? Larry—my dear! My dear!” There was a quick cry from behind her— a quick movement. She felt two hands upon her hands where they lay about Gardon-Channing’s neck. ‘“ Katrina, I am here—Larry.” Then there came a sudden change in thé voice. “Now, put her down, Gordon-Channing} You can claim an unconscious woman, but not when her living lips cal! my name!” The last words came as a sob. The girl, as her feet touched the deck, staggered dizzily. She looked from one to the other of the vague silhouettes in bewil- derment. For an instant she scarcely breathed. Then, as understanding flooded her dazed mind—as she realized that she had come to, thinking she was in Thorpe’s arms, and that she had called to him—she sobbed suddenly, and then buried her face in her arms against the door of the captain’s ‘room. The two men stood silent for a moment longer, facing each other in the dark. Then Thorpe spoke, and his voice was like a whip. “TI wish to speak to Katrina alone.” The other man hesitated. He turned to- ward the woman. “ Katrina—”’ he began. But finding himself incapable of speech, he walked blindly away, leaving the two to- gether in the shelter of the windshield. For a moment Thorpe stood trying to see through the dark—trying to make out the outline of the figure crouching away from hime Then he stepped close to her. All the bravery of her that he had so admired was in eclipse. Katrina stood, a pitiful figure, hiding her face from his eyes. He whispered: her name; and she made no answer—no move- COMIC OO® UN S (CO