Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 16, 1921 — page 147: what you’re looking at

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

138 and Frayne had entered. When he reached the narrow hall he paused, took a key from a pocket reached through a slit in the folds of the silken garment he wore, and inserted it in the lock of the door which led—Ham- lin supposed—to the second story of the building. Wong’s movements were deliberate, and his smile endured through the process of unlocking the door and swinging it open. And as the opening of the door disclosed a flight of dirty stairs that led up to a land- ing, Hamlin was inclined to think that Wong meditated no trickery. However, he waited until Wong aie up the stairs. Then, pushing Frayne ahead of him, he followed Wong. Wong clat- tered to the top of the stairs, and stood there smilingly watching Frayne and Ham- lin ascend. When the two reached his side Wong wabbled down a long hall, lighted dimly by a solitary lantern at the rear. The lantern..had evidently been: placed where it was to light another flight of stairs that ran from the rear end of the hallway. Still smiling, Wong halted before another door in the hall, inserted a key, and swung the door open, standing aside to permit Hamlin and Frayne to enter. At the instant he passed Wong, shoving Frayne ahead of him, Hamlin saw Wong’s smile change. It became ironic, mocking, triumphant. Hamlin, sensing trickery, wheeled and leaped toward the Chinaman. -But the door was slammed in his face. Hamlin threw his weight against it; suc- ceeded in forcing it open a trifle—enough so that he caught sight of half a dozen yel- low faces in the crevice. For an instant he stood, realizing that he had been trapped, but still half believ- ing that Miss Alden was in the building. He turned from the door, ducking as a shadow moved somewhere in the room, to escape a heavy chair in the hands of Frayne. The chair struck the door at a point where Hamlin’s head had been an instant before, slipped out of Frayne’s grasp, and crashed to the floor at Hamlin’s: feet. Frayne’s face was set with malignance. When he observed the failure of his attack ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. with the chair he cursed bitterly and leaped at Hamlin, striking savagely. Hamlin did not retreat an inch. He met Frayne’s rush with half a dozén short, jolting punches that caused Frayne’s eyes to glaze; and rocked his head back and forth on his shoulders. A last blow sent Frayne down near the wall opposite the door through which both men had entered; and Hamlin, aware that he and Frayne were alone in the room, looked sharply at the fallen man, and then took a swift glance around him. The floor.was bare, the walls undeco- rated. There was no furniture except the chair Frayne had used in his attack, and a disreputable-looking bed in a rear corner. There were two windows in the front, both boarded up—Hamlin could see hinges, pad- locks, indicating that the boards were formed into doors, locked securely. At the rear of the room was another door, and in the wall near where Frayne was lying still another. Hamlin, judging from the width of the room he was in, and comparing it with the lower floor of the Dragon, was convinced that this door was in an outside wall of the building and that it connected the room in which he was standing with a room of the adjoining building—perhaps in another day one ten- ant had occupied both structures. However, the door was not at present utilized as a means of communication, for . it was tightly closed and there was affixed a huge hasp swung from massive staples, with a gigantic padlock, rusty from dis- use. Hamlin tried the door, however, ‘hoping. It did not give an inch to his shove. He left it, went to the rear door, tried that. It, too, was locked. Hamlin returned to where Frayne lay. He stood silent, watching the man regain consciousness. When at last Frayne got to his feet, it was Hamlin’s hands that helped him. He dragged Frayne to the chair and set him into it. Then he drew out Frayne’s gun, stuck its muzzle against the man’s chest, and held it there with vicious pressure. ; “Frayne,” he said, his voice vibrating with earnestness, “you’ve tricked me. COmiclboooks (©