The Argosy, April 1916 — page 62: what you’re looking at

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

52 “Tt’s a trick! You want me to have my good rest, and you ave going to sit up.” ‘“‘Not very long. For a wonder my foot is quite easy, and I shall enjoy the luxury of another smoke.” : “Very well. Call. me if anything hap- pens.” “Don’t lie awake all night thinking ~ about it.” “Good night.” “Good night, Mrs. Owens.”’ After she had gone Yale refilled his pipe, lighted it, and then put out the lamp. He was not very expert at this, for never, since " his youthful days, had he been without gas or electric light. | He sat in the intensely dark room smok- ing slowly, listening for any warning sound, and thinking of the utter strangeness of the situation. Suddenly he heard a noise. It was not a loud noise. It could easily, in fact, have been made by a rat. But somehow Yale did not think of rats. He stiffened his muscles, and listened with a great intensity of strain. What he wanted to hear was a human voice. But he heard nothing that sounded like speech. Now it seemed as though some one was trying to open a window of the very room in which he sat. He peered in the direction he knew the windows were, but could dis- tinguish nothing. The darkness was so ab- solute that the whitest object could not shade it lighter. Kenneth had not told the truth when he had told Beverly that he was in any way cowardly. All his life, from his boyhood sports to his manly enterprises, he had been noted for his daring. He had a life-saving medal, which he did not wear, earned by leaping from the deck of a friend’s yacht in Long Island Sound, diving under an overturned cabin sloop and bringing back to life and the pos- sibility of happiness a child who had been imprisoned there. The parents were rescued while Yale was out of sight. He had been a first class man in college athletics. He had shot big game. But never in conversation did he revert to any of these things. And now he cursed himself for a helpless lump of mud. Some one, with evil intent, was forcing an entrance to his house, and he sat with his leg on a separate chair, as fit to fight as a sick cat. He leaned over, felt the table, and put THE ARGOSY. his pipe on that. Then he slowly and carefully swung his swollen, but somewhat improved, foot to the floor. He gripped the back of the chair and stood up. He could remember nothing in the room that would serve as a weapon ex- cept the chair itself. A chair in powerful arms is nO mean weapon, provided the other fellow has no gun. But if— It was scarcely probable that midnight visitors of this kind would go unarmed. Yale took hold of the chair-back with both hands. : The noise increased. The first attempts having aroused no commotion within, the person who wanted to enter grew more courageous, or at least used less caution. The fastenings of the windows were old in age and fashion. A knife-blade would open any one of them. The click of the blade against the bronze catch could be distinguished. Yale could have called out. This might have driven the intruder away. Or, on the other hand, if the entering party was composed of sev- eral, and they knew that only a girl and a nearly helpless man were there to defend the house, they might throw all secrecy to the winds and rush him. He had no idea of waking Beverly. Time enough for that if he found himself de- feated.and her in danger. _ The sash slid up. Almost holding his breath Yale stood with all his mental facul- ties alert and concentrated upon that sound and the spot from which it came. He could now almost see with his ears, so intensified had his sense of hearing, be- come because it was not possible to use his sight. He seemed to know when the vis- itor thrust in a hand to make sure the way was clear. He could visualize the head that was moving in the open square of the window. He could tell when a leg was thrown across the sill into the room. And yet he waited, for it was not the time to strike. He knew that in all probability he would have but the chance of getting in one blow. For the clumsiness of his weapon, and the darkness, made it a problem what the re- sult of that blow would be. If in the first blow he knocked out his man, there would be left toshim a chance to meet another. If his first blow failed a knife or pistol might end his fighting for- ever. MICLOOOK (©