The Argosy, Vol. 90 No. 1 — page 166: what you’re looking at

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

160 THE Thode’s eyes. What did anything else matter, now that he had returned? An informal dance was the order of the evening, and Willa and the young engineer gravitated to a seat on the stairs after a romping fox-trot. Both were flushed and sparkling, but when they found themselves alone together a diffident silence fell upon them. ‘Tt must seem good to you to get back,” Willa ventured at last when the pause had become oppressive. “Tt is.’ His glance rested upon her with a world of contentment. ‘I can’t be- gin to tell you how wonderful it seems!” “And your work down there?” she pur- sued hurriedly. ‘‘ You have finished it? You will not have to return again?” The contentment faded, and in its place there came a look of bitterness and dogged determination. ‘Tt has scarcely begun. I wonder if you ever heard an old legend around Limasito concerning the lost location of a marvelous oil-well?” Willa laughed nervously, a little taken aback by the abruptness of the young en- gineer’s question. ‘“Qne hears so many legends in every country of lost or buried or hidden treas- ure,” she parried. ‘‘ Scarcely any one pays attention to them except the tenderfeet. You know, up in the mining country one is forever hearing such tales of vast de- posits of ore, but nobody can ever find the lead.” “This particular one concerns a well in a mysterious pool of water where a mas- sacre is supposed to have taken place. It dates back to the time of the Spaniards’ coming.” He paused, but Willa said nothing. She was Striving to mask her thoughts in con- tinued composure lest his quick mind grasp the significance of her interest. ‘The place is spoken of as the Pool of the Lost Souls,” Thode went on. “ Surely you have heard of it? The people to whom you were so kind—old Tia Juana and her grandson—knew more than any one else about it. Did they not mention it to you?” “Tia Juana?” Willa glanced up quick- ly, but she could not meet his eyes. ‘“‘ She ARGOSY. is very secretive, you know, and jealous of the old legends which to her form the sa- cred history of her beloved country. Sup- pose you tell me the legend yourself.” Briefly he recounted it to her, and she listened until the end in a dismayed chaos of mind which culminated in a staggering blow. ‘““And I have found the well,” he re- marked casually, no jubilation in his tone, but paradoxically a note of defeat. “You!” she stammered breathlessly. ‘Yes. You seem surprised,” he added with a quick glance at her. ‘I know these old legends are mostly regarded as bunk, but now and then one proves to be a straight tip. Generations have searched vainly for the Pool, as I thought you must have heard, but they did not know where to look.” “Then how did you, a newcomer, dis- cover it?” Willa scarcely recognized her own voice. “ By the simple expedient of following some one else who had stolen a march on me in a despicable fashion.”’ His jaw set in the old characteristic way she remem- bered. “I don’t mind admitting that I would have taken almost any means to Jo- cate it; that was my main objective in Mexico, and I was acting under instruc- tions from my chief. But I would scarcely have stooped to the method employed by the man of whom I speak.” “Starr Wiley?” The question was wrung from Willa’s lips. He stared at her. “You know, then?” ‘“ I—I guessed,” she countered hurriedly. “I knew that you two were enemies, of course; and it came to me that if any one had played a false trick upon you, it must have been he. You say you found the Pool by following him. How did he know where to search?” Thode hesitated. ‘“T found a map of its location, but I had scarcely got my hands upon it when I was struck down from behind and the paper stolen.” Willa uttered a startled exclamation, but he continued, unheeding: ‘“Some one found me hours later, lying oO Comicbooe S CO