Adventure, November 1915 — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

The Gold Lust white linen and spotless Panama set upon her well-shaped head, crowned with its curling masses of red gold. “I am almost inclined to think you are sorry I came.” “Honestly, Peggy,” said Addams, “T’ll be glad to have the trip over, that is, from here on. The fact that we’ve seen nothing of Henley so far, doesn’t convince me that we've got rid of him. The man is a per- sistent type and he’s got a big stake to play for. Frankly, I’m nervous.” “On my account?” — Addams looked over the rail. They were around the bell-buoy now, heading for the harbor. The white houses on shore and clustering up to the slopes of Punchbowl crater, in their setting of green palms and tropical foliage, gave him an excuse. He was nervous, and on Peggy’s account. He had been in love with Peggy Winton for seven years, since she was eighteen and he twenty-three. The mutual loss of fortune, which he con- sidered due to bad judgment, at least, on the part of his own well-loved father, had set a barrier between them. Or rather he had set it up as a barrier, believing that he should not attempt to link his own poor for- tunes to those, no better, of the girl. He did not attempt to deny that he had en- tirely concealed his love. He had even hoped, in confident moments, that it was returned. The sudden opportunity of a bid for fortune, raised by his meeting with Fellowes, opened up to him, if success crowned their efforts, at least an opportun- ity for avowal on the standing that he felt a man should occupy, the ability to maintain ‘a woman in the state that she was accus- tomed to, or had a right to demand. - Jim Winton was frankly out for the mon- ey, to relieve him from the commercial grind. His interest in his pretty fellow passenger could not be taken too seriously. For Addams, the gold was-a secondary con- sideration, merely the key of a gateway that had long barred the path to the heart of his sweetheart. Peggy’s interest, he trusted, was coincident with his own. It was no wonder, he thought, that he was nervous. The death of Fellowes had brought a grim reality into the affair that Addams could not shake off. The story of the continuous ill fortune that had hovered over the old man’s life for sixty-five years to the mo- ment, when, with a happy if temporary haven in sight, he was suddenly cut down, 27 seemed to presage the still present existence of the curse on the looted gold. There was nothing superstitious about Addams, healthy-and vigorous as he was. The thought of disaster seemed absurd on this morning of tropic sunshine, yet it was persistent, imminent. They had left New York on schedule without hearing from the man with the dragging foot, they had seen — nothing of him on the train trip across the continent, it appeared impossible that he could be on even terms with them, and yet Addams shook his area shoulders and accused himself of being morbid. Peggy Winton had moved forward and was tossing nickels to the swimming boys who surrounded the sides of the vessel. She smiled at him as he came up. “I’m all out of small change, Archer. Lend me some dimes. There’s one duck of a boy ——” She broke off as a wheel-chair came up silently on its rubber tires, propelled by the taciturn, grim-visaged nurse. Addams surveyed its occupant keenly. The man lay heavily on his cushions, gloved hands limp and seemingly lifeless on his knees. Despite the heat a steamer-rug was wrapped about his knees and above a corpulent stomach. His face was very pale and clean-shaven; deep shadows under the eyes were accentuated* by amber-tinted glasses, through which he gazed vacantly ahead. Beneath a Panama hat, the only concession to the climate, its broad brims shading the ghastly face, a straggling fringe of gray hair showed. His eyebrows were slight, straggly tufts of white above the wide-rimmed glasses. : “Not much like Henley,” Addams thought with sudden relief. He lifted his eyes to the face of the nurse. The imperturbable mask of her face seemed to him to shift for an instant, in her dark eyes something that watched appeared to leap to the surface for a second and then hide again, swift as the movement of a camera-shutter. The wheel-chair moved on conveniently close to the gangway. Addams beckoned Selim to one side with a look. “T want you to follow that man in the chair, Selim,’”’ he said quietly. ‘‘Find out where he stops, make sure he’s staying there, then come up to us at the Royal Hotel. Ill look after the baggage.” COMIC OOOKS G (ECO) S|