Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 4 — page 79: what you’re looking at

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

CLAIMED. gine works. A large government contract stood in danger of being tied up, and Rob- inson, after a hurried breakfast, flung out of the house and into his car with the ex- pressed determination to “git that water drained off if I have to murder a few of them wuthless loafers who want to lay around and twiddle their thumbs and wait. Wait! Damn ’em! They’d wait till the cussed Delaware dries up, and me losin’ money every day—” He was gone; and a certain atmosphere of relief enfolded the house he ‘had va- cated. For Leilah and Dr. Vanaman, however, the relief was not so great as it might have been had they not been left to guard a blue- green, polished, beautiful enigma, the very sight of which they both loathed. Again its owner had extracted a solemn promise from his resentful but trustworthy slave not to let the box for one instant out of his sight and keeping. ‘“‘ The cussed thing is mine,” he had em- phasized. “It’s not Leilah’s, and it ain’t yours. Understand that, and—” “Tf you have any mad idea that I want to claim ownership in it—” began the doc- tor indignantly, but Robinson had cut him short. “Ye plaguey fool, no!” he snapped. ‘‘“Shet up and listen. This box is mune. You and Leilah, you’re jest my agents, and though you’re responsible to me ye ain’t responsible to—to somebody that used to hev this box and is actin’ up mighty dan- gerous trying to git it back. Don’t ye ever dass’t think of it as anybody’s but mine; then I reckon you’re safe enough. Fergit that warning, and I won’t guarantee noth- ing. Understand?”’ “You know that I do not—not fully. But I shall remember what you’ve said.” After Robinson had gone the day passed quietly enough until mid-afternoon, when the door-bell rang and presently the butler brought Vanaman a card. ‘Show the lady into the library, Fris- by,” he instructed, after a moment’s con- templation. ‘“‘ And ask Miss Robinson if she will be so very good as to join me there at her convenience.” He descended, taking the box with him, 049 and when a few minutes later Leilah ap- peared in the library she found ‘him con- versing with a tall, angular, determined- looking woman dressed in black. Her iron- gray hair was fairly strained back under an old-fashioned black bonnet, and the stern severity of -her countenance would have been rather appalling, had it not been re- lieved by a pair of very kindly, bright brown eyes, so like the doctor’s own that Leilah instantly and correctly surmised blood relationship. “Miss Robinson, I would like you to know my aunt, Miss Fellowes. This, Aunt Jane, is the young lady who, as I wrote you, shares with me the desire to see a very cu- rious problem solved.” “And as soon as I had Jack’s letter I came straight on,” announced the visitor, in tones as positive as her appearance. “That was extremely kind of you, and I am very pleased to make the acquaint- ance of a relative of Dr. Vanaman.” Leilah spoke cordially, though inwardly bewildered. Was this the “ person in New York ” to whom he had referred as neces- sary to the second plan, which he would have preferred not to take? If so, what was that plan, and why had he hesitated over it? But as the conversation proceed- ed, her naturally quick intuition divined the reason well enough, and in connection with any other matter than the green box she might have found it just a little bit amusing. 3 Dr. Vanaman’s aunt was a spiritualist, and not only that, but a spiritualist of the most pronounced and aggressive school. That “ Jack,” who according to his aunt: had been a grossly blind materialist from his youth up, should have had to admit that there really was something in the world a bit past his understanding, seemed to give her something very like gloating triumph. Moreover, she had apparently assumed that from this on he was full convert to her own rather extreme views. ‘“ Spirits,” “communicators,” ‘ guides,” -“ percip- ients,” and “ psychic forces” haunted that library in verbal form till in desperation the doctor held up a protesting hand. ‘Aunt Jane,” he pleaded, “I can’t pos- sibly swallow all that at once. Please don’t JOO (C(O) S (CCC)