Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 4 — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

“Come away!” Almost forcibly, Vanaman drew her with him, and in half-frightened perplexity the girl yielded. Walking fast, they had soon reached the boulevard again, and were out of sight of the river. But though the girl, alarmed by his insistence, had not looked back, Vanaman had done so while they were still on the Drive—and had seen what he expected to see. They had been out scarcely half an hour, and old Robinson looked up in angered surprise when, without any formality of knocking, the door of his study was flung open and Dr. Vanaman entered alone. Then something he saw in the doctor’s face and manner caused the old man’s hawk- brows to draw more fiercely together. “What has happened?” he snarled. “‘ Where’s Leilah? Ye damned pup, if ye’ve let any harm come to my gal—” ‘““Your miece is perfectly safe, Mr. Rob- inson.”” For all the tension his eyes ex- pressed, the doctor’s voice was very cold and even. ‘I wish and in fact demand a little interview with you alone, sir, and for that reason Miss Robinson has very kindly excused us both for a time. There are sev- eral questions to which I demand answers, and the first two are these: Why did Jacob Lutz commit suicide when the white horse he had purchased escaped from his knife on Atlantic City beach? And why did Jim Blair—yes, I thought you’d know = that name!—why, I say, did Jim Blair, having also purchased a white horse, lead it to the river when the water was salt with the in- coming tide—and cut its throat? Why did he cut its throat there, so that the blood ran into the river? Come, sir, you’ve been using me blindfolded long enough! If I’m to go any further im this cursed business, ‘T’ve got to know where I’m going. Why wene those things done?” CHAPTER VIII. PSYCHOMETRY. ‘TO demand is very well, and not diffi- cult for any one who is young, force- ful, and keyed almost to breaking point by circumstances which in the normal course 547 of a normal person’s life have no right to be. To endorse those demands may or may not be quite so easy. In Mr. Jesse J. Rob- inson, for instance, the demander of any- thing whatever, reasonable or otherwise, was likely to find a resistance more than proportionate to the force in action against Dr. Vanaman was young, strong-willed, and resolute. But at the end of that in- terview he knew that he had merely dashed himself against the steel of a will not only the full equal of his own in strength, but having the advantage of a ruthless cunning to which he could by no means lay claim. He had fancied that his feeling for Lei- lah, a secret almost from his own soul, was unsuspected by her uncle. ’ Now he learned differently. Keen hawk-eyes had seen much more than they appeared to, and at this first real rebellion of the slave he had taken unto. himself, old Robinson tightened his grip in a very disconcerting manner. “So ye won’t stay by me without I sat- isfy your prying curiosity, leave me to fight my own battles this very night, witheut I account for the foolish- ness of them two durn fools, Blair and Lutz, and tell ye, besides, all I know about this here?” His grasping claws caressed the green box, and his voice rose in snarling triumph. “All right! Clear out, then, ye wuthless, quittin’ whelp! Leilah and me, we can git on without ye! Leilah’s a Robinson, and the Old Nick himself, hoofs, horns, tail, and brimstone, can’t make a quitter of that gal! “ Skeered, maybe; yes. But she’ll stick by her old Uncle Jesse till Tophet freezes. You’re sweet on that gal. Oh, yes, ye are, now; d’ye think old Jesse Robinson’s a fool to believe ye’ve took a job that drags ye through hell every night, and kep’ it even this long for any other reason? “Well, then! Ye want Leilah should hev your job o’ watching by me? I warn ye, that’s what ’!l happen if ye quit. I can trust Leilah, and I’ve learnt I can trust you; but fore the Lord, there ain’t anoth- er body living I'd want to take chances on trusting to watch by me right now! One of ye two I will hev beside me. Which is it to be? You or Leilah?” eh? Yell. JOO > a (C(O) SS (C(C)