Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 4 — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

546 And save that he was not old, its human escort seemed in hardly better case. The purchaser of Mirror, though mud-splashed, had been noticeably well-dressed. This fellow was clad in a dirty brown shirt and disreputably ancient trousers; his feet were bare, and his untrimmed tow-colored hair stood out from his hatless head in absurd, ragged points, among which clung bits of straw, as if the man had last slept in a stable. : From his gaunt face, tanned brown by wind and sun, pale gray eyes stared bleak- ly with an oddly vacant look, almost like the eyes of a blind man. That he was not blind, however, was presently proved, for meeting the two who had come out to for- get, his bleak eyes shifted suddenly from vacancy to Leilah’s face, from her to the doctor and back again. Then his thin- lipped mouth widened in a sneering grin. Vanaman was in no mood to tolerate even silent insolence of that sort; his fists clenched, and in passing he half turned. The fellow was looking over his shoulder, still grinning. He jerked a dirty thumb backward, indicating the horse. ‘“ Best I could get, matey,” he leered. “‘ Good enough, yer think?” ‘“‘What’s that?”’ demanded the doctor. ‘“‘ That’s a horse,” the man explained, de- liberately misunderstanding the question. “A white horse. Don’t blame yer for not bein’ sure what it is, but what can yer ex- pect fer five dollars? I give all I had in the world fer it.”” He laughed mirthlessly. “ That’s more than Lutz give fer his, the tight-fisted Jew! Did yer read in the paper how he beat the price down from thirty-five hundred to three thousand? A Jew like him would be bound to make that sort of break and lose out. Now I hold that havin’ give my last cent fer this charmin’ brute, my five-dollar plug is worth more than Lutz’s three-thousand-dollar thoroughbred. What yer got to say to that, Dr. Vanaman?” The doctor eyed him rather wildly. Just at that minute he was swept by a ghastly doubt that any of this was real; that he was not himself mad, and subject to delusions of fantom sea-tides, hawk- faced old tyrants, amazing strangers, and THE- ARGOSY. white horses. Then he looked at Leilah, and recaptured his mental balance. He had not been alone in hearing that astonishing speech, for bewilderment and dawning dread were in every line of the girl’s deli- cate features. 3 He whirled on the stranger almost fiercely. ‘Who are you?” he snapped. ‘“‘ How did you know my name?” ; The vagabond’s sneering grin widened. “Why, d’ye see,” he drawled, “I got reasons of my own fer keepin’ track of what goes on in a certain house. That’s how I knows yer name, matey. And I tells yer frank what you’ve likely guessed al- ready: yer mixed in a bad business, matey, and before yer done you'll be buyin’ a white horse of yer own, or I miss my guess. And take my advice, matey. When yer buys it, don’t yer make Lutz’s mistake and think yer can wriggle out easy. Pay all you’ve got in the world, matey, down to the shirt on yer back. And yer can tell old millionaire Robinson that broke as I am, I wouldn’t stand in his shoes fer three times all his money! Tell him Blair said that, will yer? Jim Blair. He’ll understand. So-long, matey. Me and beauty here’s got & engagement.” . He jerked at the frayed rope which, in lieu of halter, was tied about the ungainly beast’s neck, and lifting its drooped cari- cature of a head an inch or so it shambled patiently on in the wake of its master. Vanaman made no effort to follow or stop them. When a minute later he saw the pair turn off the drive, go plunging and stumbling down the embankment, and head for a reed-grown spit of land which ex- tended a short distance into the river, he turned abruptly and caught Leilah’s arm. ‘Come away, Miss Robinson,” he said between his teeth. ‘“‘I have no right to interfere, and I’m not sure I wish to. But there’s no need of your watching them. Something is about to happen out there which would distress you. Come away!” ‘But, doctor, that must be the very man you wished to trace—the one who sold Mr. Lutz the green box! I remember Fris- by said that he was tall and lean, very ragged and dirty, with pale eyes—”’ (C(O) mM NOOLK