The Argosy, April 1916 — page 165: what you’re looking at

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

a7 5 4. be attended by physical consequences, and Nealis had gone all through life evading physical consequences, and he wasn’t ready to alter his invariable trend of habit. He kept his mouth closed, in other words. Helen, in the meantime, had begun to form the conviction that all was not well. She addressed the man at the wheel. ‘You are a detective,” she said. ‘‘May I see the badge which you displayed so proudly when you arrested us?”’ “Ym running this car, lady,” was the savage reply. “I’ve not got time to stop and show you badges, or enter into an argu- ment. It will be better for you if you keep as still as your friend.” “T understand why you might think so,” Helen returned. “But if you'll pardon me, I am going to call—” She suddenly closed her lips tightly, real- izing that perhaps she had said too much, which, as a matter of fact, proved to be the case; for the driver, with a snarl thrust his lever forward, causing the car to jump ahead at terrific speed. Helen half arose as though to jump out, but the driver struck her lightly on the breast. “Tf you make a move,” he said through his clenched teeth, ‘‘I’ll set you back in the car in a way you won’t like.” With a cry Nealis leaned forward and struck the driver on the side of the head, the sudden assault causing him temporarily to lose control of the car, which slowed and skidded dangerously upon the hill. ‘“‘Kenebal, blast you!” cried the driver. “Didn’t I tell you to watch that man? [I'll have your hide for this.” The automobile was now going like the wind. Reaching the bottom of the hill, it turned into the side road that led to the bathing beach. Nealis was struggling in the grizzly bear hug of the man at his side, while Miss Granger, her eyes turned on the driver, sought for an opportunity to snatch the wheel, and guide the car into the salt meadows on either side of the road. She would welcome a spill rather than this fellow’s company; for it was now plain to her that all that had recently happened was closely associated with the events of the morning. Looking behind, as the driver’s fist flour- ished in her face, Helen saw the cab follow- ing them at a distance perhaps of a hundred yards, and tearing up the road to keep in this position. 155 She turned pale as she caught a glimpse of Apponnetti’s shining eyeglasses and black whiskers. It was quite evident to her that the count did not intend to permit her to gain access to Lansing’s car. But what about Nealis? He was strug- gling in the grip of the Behemoth at his side, but was making an ineffectual, if game, fight. Plainly he was to be captured, too, and she could not understand why, unless her enemies had fear that Nealis knew as mucu as she did. Her speculations upon this point, how- ever, were soon set at rest. For as the car neared the beach road, with a set of aban- doned bathing houses between it and that thoroughfare, the man at the wheel brought it almost to a stop. “‘Now, Kenebal,” he cried, “wing that guy and chuck him out.” Almost before the driver had finished speaking, Kenebal’s hands dove into his ‘pocket, withdrawing a blackjack, which flashing instantaneously above Nealis’s head, descended with lethal force. The young man slumped down without a groan and the next instant he was dumped over the side of the car into the sedge like a sack of meal. The car sprang forward a few feet, then backed into the sand and made a complete turnabout, retracing the road over which it had already come. The cab was turning, too, but had not completed the maneuver when the automobile flashed by. Helen could see- Apponnetti, and she could see, also, that the man at the wheel was not a regular cabman, but a person whom she had seen in Apponnetti’s com- pany upon the occasion of several of the supposed moving picture meetings. Apponnetti hailed the driver of Nealis’s motor as the car went by. “Good!” he cried. ‘Excellent. take her to the place, and I’ll follow.”’ Near the top of the hill the car turned off into a seldom used road; it was not as- phalted nor macadamized, and, as a conse- Now quence, there was little chance of meeting motors or vehicles of any sort. None the less the man in the rear leaned forward with his’ heavy hands upon the girl’s shoulders, having been directed to do this by the fellow at the wheel. “Tf she utters a peep, throttle her as you would a hen.” There was a grim note to the command which left Helen no doubt that the man was in earnest. LOOOLK nn) C@