Avon Modern Short Story Monthly #36 — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

8 Veght of Hate THE MURDER OF THE DUKE OF GANDIA HE Cardinal Vice-Chancellor took the packet proffered him by the fair-haired, scarlet-liveried page, and turned it over, considering it, the gentle, finely featured, almost ascetic face very thoughtful. “It was brought, my lord, by a man in a mask, who will give no name. He waits below,” said the scarlet stripling. “A man in a mask, eh? What mystery!” The thoughtful brown eyes smiled, the fine hands broke the frag- ment of wax. A gold ring fell out and rolled some little way along the black and purple Eastern rug. The boy dived after it, and pre- ~ sented it to his lordship, The ring bore an escutcheon, and the Cardinal found graven upon this escutcheon his own arms—the Sforza lion and the flower of the quince. Instantly those dark, thoughtful eyes of his grew keen as they flashed upon the page. “Did you see the device?” he asked, a hint of steel under the silki- ness of his voice. , “T saw nothing, my lord—a ring, no more. I did not even look.” The Cardinal continued to ponder him for a long moment very searchingly. | “Go—bring this man,” he said at last; and the boy departed, soon to reappear, holding aside the tapestry that masked the door to give _ passage to a man of middle height wrapped in a black cloak, his face under a shower of golden hair, covered from chin to brow by a black © visor. At a sign from the Cardinal the page departed. Then the man, coming forward, let fall his cloak, revealing a rich dress of close- 77 Gomichooks com