Adventure Magazine, March 1916 — page 48: what you’re looking at

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

46 Adventure “Mr. Blaydon gave my mechanician five chance to talk toher. He had promised not , dollars to get his breakfast and get him started,” he said. “Go on,’ she prompted. “I want to know the whole thing just as it happened.” He told her the story as ‘Loder had told it to him. Throughout the narration her sharp eyes did not once leave his face. At its conclusion she held out a fat hand. “Y’m sorry-I called you a liar,’ she said. “T apologize. I thought you were, but now I know better. Mr. Fenton, there are some things in this world that are queer, aren’t there?” “Yes,” he agreed with a smile. ‘There are, undoubtedly, but I do not know just which ones you are referring to.”’ “No, of course not,” she retorted sharply. “And what’s more, you sha’n’t. It’s none of your business.”’ She turned on her heel and started back up the beach at a pace that surprised him. “‘Come on,”’ she said, ‘for stay there just as you like. I’m going back to that yacht and give Nellie Blaydon the third degree.” He hastened to her side in some con- sternation at her threat. “The third degree?” he repeated. “What are you going to do?” 5 ~ “Pm going to talk to her about my en- gagement to her father,” she answered. “It’s a subject she and I have never men- tioned yet, but now we’re going to.” They were at the tents by this time, and he stopped. “Then I will stay here,”’ he said. “Of course you will!’ she snapped: “You didn’t suppose I wanted you butting in, did you?” . He smiled wryly as she left him. She was an odd character, he thought, and he won- dered just for an instant whether her crude frankness were the result of actual, un- spoiled honesty or whether it were a clever pose, carried out with consummate skill for her own purposes. Greiner and Phil would know about her. He would wait until they came to the camp and then find out exactly where she belonged in this tangle of the Blaydons. (zy IT WAS a dull day for him, work- = ing about the aeroplane with Carl. SSE Several times he strolled around the tent to a point from which he could see the hull of Caprice, hoping that Nellie Blaydon might be on deck and that he could get a to ask her questions and he proposed to keep that promise, but he knew that it would be easy to tell her several of the things that had happened and gain much from the swiftly mobile play of her ex- pressive features. 7 In the afternoon he saw Mrs. Herriot on the deck, but he did not want Nellie to see him with her just at that time, so he did not ‘approach the yacht, and the portly and garrulous widow made no move to indicate that she desired to talk to him. It was well along toward sunset that he and Carl almost simultaneously caught the distant puit-puit of a small motor from down the cove, and knew that Stephen Blaydon was returning. They went out of the tent to look down the shore. Mrs. Herriot had left the deck of Caprice and there was no sign of life aboard the yacht until, with the sound of the motor growing louder, Nellie Blaydon came up from the cabin. She caught sight of them as she emerged, nodded gravely to Ward, and then turned her back upon them, gaz- ing down the cove toward the approaching oat. “You’d better go down and get that tender,’ Ward said. “Mr. Blaydon will probably not bother to tie it up.” He went back into the tent and resumed his work. Much as he desired to be present * when Stephen Blaydon returned, he knew that he could find no excuse for being on the shore to greet him. In half an hour Carl returned to the tent. He did not start again at his work. In- stead, he sat down near Ward and gazed in- terrogatively at his employer. “Chief,” he said finally. “Well?” “Did Miss Blaydon and her uncle have a scrap?” Ward glanced up quickly, but managed to hide his surprise at the mechanician’s ques- tion. } ““A scrape” he repeated. ‘How the devil should I know?” “T don’t know,” Loder said slowly. ‘But it sounds to me like they did. I hope not, for I like them both.” “What are you driving at?” “Why, Miss Nellie came down to the shore to meet Mr. Blaydon and they left the boat with me. When they had gone a little way up, Mr. Blaydon stopped and Eomichbooks ()