Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 2 — page 177: what you’re looking at

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

BEWARE OF callous thud, he dropped her; with a swish, be caught up her feet and disposed her, . at least, in a horizontal position. Then Thomas left the flat of his friend and hurtled back to his own apartment! They had gone no farther than the liv- _Ing-room, ~ Standing there now, and Dolly, however, dazed for a little, seemed to be recovering herself rapidly. She looked steadily at Thomas as he entered. ‘Don't speak to me!”’ she, said. “J” Thomas essayed disobediently. ‘“‘' No, please! Yu pave a lie ready; I understand that, Mr’ Henning. You're brutally stupid enough to try something like that. I do not wish to listen; I want you to listen to me!” - 66 Well, if-—”’ “Dry up, Henning!”" William Emerson snapped, angrily. “ You keep your mouth shut and hear her, or I'l] shut it for you! I’d like the chance to do that!’ His fists doubled. Thomas nodded numbly. “ Consider that I have dried,” he said, with a weak, dizzy smile. “Go on.” ‘YT want to say only this,” Miss Hayes informed him crisply. “ Before—over there—I was angry, when I thought— never mind what I thought. What I mean to say is that it was just a girl’s natural avfger because the—the man she fancied she loved was flirting with some one else. “That could have been forgotten and reconeiled ; this can’t ever be! You know that, of course.’ Thomas ened his lips. “T don’t know how most women feel at a time like this,’ Dolly pursued,-. very steadily and with a distinctly wicked glint in her eye. ‘‘ Perhaps the usual thing is to forget it and forget the man and the in- jury and everything. “ But I know how I feel! I feel that if you were—were drawn and—and quartered, it wouldn’t be punishment enough, Mr. Henning! And if I know my father, he'll feel that, too, and he'll act accordingly!” Thomas did not contradict. “ So I’m goihg home now and tell him!”’ Miss Hayes concluded simply. “ Will you take me down and find my car, Will?” That was much. They were . THE BRIDE. 359 She turned her back upon her late fiance. Young Mr. Emerson offered his arm—and | Dolly was taking it and stepping daintily toward the door—yes, and now the door was closing upon them and—they were gone! There was a table besidé Thomas. He caught at the edge of it and =a him- self. “Qh, I’m glad!” came brokenly from be- yond the curtains. ‘“ Er—what?” faltered Thomas. “Tam! I’m glad!” repeated the hysteri- cal tone. ‘“‘ You deserve it—you deserve all of it! You do!” ° Thomas did not release his grip on the table edge. “Why, Mary?’’ he asked, ‘and his voice seemed to come from a great distance. ‘Because you—you came back here without my clothes!” Mary panted. “I saw you! I saw you when you came in and you were carrying’ nothing! You did that deliberately! ”’ ‘No, Mary,’ sighed Thomas. “ Yes, you did! You don’t want to get them for me! I heard you go in, over there! And you came back without my things, because _you—-you want to Keep me here! You—you—’ Thomas smiled wanly and shook his head toward the curtains. | ‘No, Mary,” he repeated, “ you wrong me about that, too. There are quite a number of things I want just now, but keeping you here isn’t one of them!” Through the curtains the towsled head appeared, eyes flashing ominously. “Then why don’t you go back and get them for me?” their owner demanded. “ T’m going to do that, right away,” said Thomas Henning, with pathetic eagerness. “I can get ’em, too, if I hurry. I’d have had them before, if it hadn’t been for—you wait there, Mary, and keep out of sight!” He pushed away from the supporting table and steadied himself. For the mo- ment he seemed to have forgotten the un- conscious lady across the hall; he remem- bered her now—but not .as a medical pos- sibility. It was only as a glowing opper- tunity that Sally’s fainting spell appealed to Thomas just then. It had looked like a s CONIC AOOLK \ (CO