The Argosy, Vol. 90 No. 1 — page 100: what you’re looking at

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

94 hand to his forehead and scowled feebly. The gloom of the place, the depressing in- fluence of the storm, and Camper’s legend had made us susceptible to the same sug- gestion. The waiter seemed unreal. ‘He acts as if there were just three at each table,” mumbled Batak. “Probably the three colonials who got André,” I whispered with a foolish snicker. ‘ And spoiled Arnold’s game,” murmured Camper. Batak grunted something unintelligible, then said: ‘The other waiters don’t seem to see him. I’ve been watching to see if one of them wouldn’t walk right through him.” The words were scarcely uttered before the figure straightened and the ghastly countenance turned in our direction. For a moment we looked into the sunken eyes, where sparks of ancient fire slumbered. Then the emaciated figure returned to bow over another empty chair, the impossible head being cocked to one side as if heeding a fantom’s ordér. “Only three at that table apparently,” muttered Batak, this phase of the panto- mime seeming to obsess him. He started to light a cigarette, abruptly changed his mind, and reverted to his for- mer thought, saying: “Tm still waiting to see a waiter walk through him. Unless they bump, I won’t believe he’s real.” I sought to encourage his touch of levity by declaring: ‘Amos, it must be your friend, the waiter, who tipped off the colonials about André.” Camper frowned at my jocularity, warn- ing: ‘“ He’s coming this way.” ‘‘ He only tends empty tables,” reminded Batak, drawing his feet under his chair. Unnoticed by the waiters flitting back and forth across his path, the man glided to the line of tables paralleling ours by the wall and began working up the hall. His halt at each table was marked by the same deportment. In fact, so identically did he deport himself at each empty chair, I was impelled to think of a grotesque automaton, capable of certain motions only. THE ARGOSY. As he drew abreast of us, I could detect no sound of a footfall. A nearer view in- creased the likeliness of Batak’s first utter- ance—that he was a dead man. For the yellow skin was drawn as tight as parch- ment over the bones of the face, and the hands appeared to consist of bones only. ‘““Coming for our order,” I whispered. ‘““Let’s order drinks.” I was mistaken. Instead of approaching eur table he passed to the window, and for a moment bent over the sash and gazed out on the storm-drenched veranda. When he faced about and glided back to the center line of tables, Batak, with a touch of relief in his voice, said: ‘“ He’s going back to his grave. Manage- ment must be crazy for allowing such a spectacle in the room.” “No one seems to have seen him but us,” said Camper thoughtfully. “Pit bet he went to the window to tip off the colonials about Arnold’s treachery,” I joked. My voice must have carried farther than I had intended, for the man faced our table and for nearly a minute stood motionless, his sunken eyes fixed on us like eyes peer- ing through a bone mask. I, for one, did not move under that steady scrutiny, and when he took a step forward I think we all had the same thought, that we were the only living men he had deigned to notice. Camper’s feet scuffed staccato under the table. The attenuated form drew nearer. I was seated so as to face him. To gain my side he must pass one of my companions who held the ends of the table. We remained quite rigid as he came to a halt behind the fourth chair, waiting for something to hap- pen. But in an anticlimax his mechanical figure turned aside, and he would have de- parted down the hall had not Batak’s jang- ling nerves prompted him to cry out: ‘““By God! I’m going to see if it’s real!” And leaning from his chair, he grabbed for the long, thin arm. As he exclaimed this, the man stopped and one bony hand met Batak’s clawing digits for a second. Then the man glided away. Camper and I gaped after him. When we sifted our questioning gaze, it was oO Comicbooe S CO