The Argosy, Christmas 1912 — page 180: what you’re looking at

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

166 the muglug who was carrying him, surveyed the establishment with won- der and admiration. He had lost his fears, for the arrival at the factory had convinced him that, although the steel warriors were at large, they were by no means proceeding at random. Reassured as to his own personal safe- ty, he surveyed the plant with interest as he was carried through it. Passing out of the huge workshop, the two muglugs crossed a glassy plot and entered a small building. Lumley was placed in a chair, and the metal giants who had brought him ranged themselves side by side along the wall and lifted their hands to their fore- heads. A tow-headed usurper of perhaps twenty-five sat at a table in front of a number of blue-prints and received the salute. At the opposite end of the table was a hatchet-faced, thin-shanked man, who stared at Lumley as though at a ghost. “ Hello, Archibald Grant!” claimed Lumley. “Well, what do you think of this?” muttered Grant. “‘ Where the deuce did those muglugs pick you up, Lum- ley?”’ With the words, Grant came over and took Lumley by the hand. ‘They saved my life, I think,” said Lumley, and explained his recent perils and the timely advent of the two iron wa!riors. “Good!” exclaimed Grant, striking his hands together in gratified approval. eX- “Write it down, Haskins, 23,” he add-- ed, turning to his assistant at the desk; “ Nos. 9872 and 9873 tested and found O. K.” “ Very well, sir,” answered Haskins, and made an entry in a book. Grant faced the two muglugs. ‘““ Proceed at once to the barracks,”’ he ordered, ‘and report to Captain Dicks.” | Again the metal warriors saluted, then wheeled and tramped away. “As soon as the muglugs are fin- ished,” explained Grant, “we send THE ARGOSY. them out into the town to see how they behave themselves under the subcon- scious rays. If they prove tractable, and show the proper amount of initia- tive, they are passed; if, on the other hand, they are sullen, slow in their movements, and backward in obeying orders, they are repaired and _ tried again.” “This is most remarkable!” ex- claimed Lumley. “It should not be—to you. It was your book which made such a factory as this possible. We are hustling out the muglugs as fast as we can. You see, the new edict that retires vapor- ized and deodorized food is a good way from being popular. A storm is going to break before long, and we’ve got to have the city properly policed.” “TI should say the edict wasn’t popu- lar! It looks to me like a very unwise proceeding.” “An elegant piece of graft, though,” chuckled Archibald Grant. “They’ve already sold a million cook- books, and the gold for them is in the treasury. A year of this, Lumley, and every one of the dictators will be a plutocrat.” Regret and sorrow stabbed Lumley to the heart. Graft, graft! Were these dictators thinking of nothing else? Could they heap miseries upon the people for no other purpose than that of lining their treasury? Lumley felt that he would soon have to take up the cudgels in defense of an oppressed people. For the present, however, there were other matters to claim his attention. “Have you heard anything about Dr. Kelpie and the time-ball?” he asked; “‘or about Kinch’s pursuit of Jefferson Plunkett? ”’ “A couple of transmits came in just before you got here,’ answered Grant. “Dicks stormed the old Kelpie house with a company of muglugs and res- cued the doctor, and then the doctor recovered his precious’ time - ball. Kinch, also,.was successful. He over- hauled Jefferson Plunkett and laid him CoOMmicbook CO