Argosy, Vol. 122, No. 1 — page 142: what you’re looking at

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

182 tocrat. Since the day of La Salle’s indict- ment the haggard look on his face had deepened. His hair seemed to have grown whiter. His corded hands looked old and uncertain. “Glad to see you, glad to see you, La Salle!” Thawn’s manner was a parody of hospitality. He linked his arm with La Salle’s, urging him into the house. ‘ Heard the good news,” he chattered. “ By gad, sir, I was glad, glad to get it. Splendid! But right will come out on top, yes, sir. There’s still law in this land, I guess. Well, well, well—come into the library— here, take this chair, it’s more comfortable. Well, sir, you showed up those pups, eh?”’ La Salle made no comment. There was a grim littie smile on his lips, and he watched Thawn with his new confidence, glorying in the discovery of his power to make Thawn talk. “You had my best wishes, I can tell you,” Diana’s father began nervously, after that brief, unfruitful pause. “I'll venture the best people of this community, .all of them, were behind you. This matter of at- tacking solid business—this attempt to tear down our institutions, has gone too far— too damn far. The better classes will not tolerate it—’’ Another pause while Thawn blinked and rubbed his nose. Still La Salle made no comment. “Well,” he tried again, ‘ that’s past now —settled. You—you’re free to go ahead with your splendid schemes again—free to continue business without interference. I— I suppose you—will—go ahead, eh? Not going to let a little disturbance like that interfere with development! Ha, ha, of course not! Eh?” Behind his nervous laugh showed the grim fear that made him its puppet. La Salle knew what he feared, knew how close to disaster Thawn had come. It gave him a vicious satisfaction to see Thawn squirm. But finally he ended the torture. “Yes, I’m going ahead,” he nodded. Thawn vented a deep and eloquent sigh that told of relief and _ thanksgiving. “Thank God,” he added simply. “Yes, Thawn, we’ll go ahead with the Manor idea. I’ll give the word in the THE ARGOSY. morning. Came to talk to you about that very thing.” La Salle spoke confidently. “That’s news—fine news for me,” Thawn babbled. ‘“ Yes, that’s splendid news. Don’t mind telling you it means a lot to me—fact is, I was running close, mighty close to the wind. Fact! By gad, sir, ifi—if they had—er—got you, I don’t know what I’d have done. Had all my credit tied up, you see, been borrowing pretty heavily. It would have been—hell —plain hell—” ‘“No doubt of it, they’d have smashed you, Thawn,”’ his visitor agreed, cheerfully cold-blooded. ‘‘ You’d have gone down with the wreck—‘ sunk without a trace,’ as the Germans used to say. Only—they didn’t sink us! There wasn’t any wreck, and, Thawn, there won’t be any wrecks, not in my business!” He drew a deep breath, and his eyes gleamed. “ Well,” Thawn confessed naively, “ I’m mighty glad to know that. I—I suffered a good deal, worrying about what was go- ing. to happen to me. But now—” ‘“Ah, now! Just what I came to see you about. Listen, my friend, I’m going to do great things with this scheme of ours, bigger things than you or I ever dreamed of before. Thawn Manor! I'll show the world what a live man can do with suburban property. No, and that’s not all. Bigger things still, in here.” La Salle tapped his forehead significantly.”” Want to talk to you about them, Thawn; that’s why I dropped in. Listen, I’m going to travel fast and far— I’m going to make myself rich, and I want to make you rich—” 6c Me! ”” ‘Yes, you; why not? I can do it! I want you to tie up with me, Thawn. I want your partnership. I tell you plainly, IT need a man like you, a man who knows the right sort of people—and how to ap- proach them. A man with a good family- name like yours.~ And I want to put you in the way of making something big, some- thing so big this Thawn Manor proposition will look to you like carfare. Now I want you to put yourself in a position so I can do this for you—” ‘“I—I don’t think I understand you.” Thawn began to look vaguely uneasy. cComiclbooks.com