ComicBooks.com Register / Loginit's free!

Pulp Fiction, 1916 · page 56 of 228

Adventure Magazine, March 1916 — page 56: what you’re looking at

📖 Open the full issue in the page-flip reader →
Adventure Magazine, March 1916 — page 56: Pulp Fiction, 1916

A restored page from Pulp Fiction, 1916. Page through the whole issue in the reader above.

📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)

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

Pe 4 4 » <} 1a) Fy’ LS y4 : ox \ , —< vs |S (> * bale Oh yc SE UA, bate 2 rake tak : se ste on \ : ; ’ a" % b ia ~ < ian <> oy “ ua — > = = a * eae F,~* Se Sy aw; > = _ “4 oP . a = . = ee = ’ “bs ~ : hee f Sy J Ls e~ oes ra : 7” = ; = A Seige as oe < ——_ “2 o~ --, ~ Pe 3 Z eS - eo : a bold ' eS. <. i, =a : ae: Ase oe ; « ~ » afraid you are offering more than human nature is capable of giving. I have not come so much to explain, as to ask you, if possible, to be lenient in your judgment. I saw you in the cabin just as I—as I spoke to my uncle last night, so I know you saw and heard. You have, therefore, a right to demand an explanation.” “I forfeit that right voluntarily and glad- ly,” he assured her. ‘You have been suffer- ing lately. I have seen it in the change that has come over you since that day when I went to Baltimore with the news of the discovery of Caprice. I have noticed since you have been here ‘how the worry has been telling on you. I shall not add to your troubles by my curiosity. You need not explain anything.” She shook her head. — “Some things I must explain,” she de- clared. ‘“‘You said once that you would help me in any way you could, if I needed help. Was that only a pretty speech or did you really mean it?” There was something in the tone of her voice, some flash of intimacy in the half- timid uplift of her eyes, that made Fenton’s heart leap exultantly. “T said that I would do anything in the world to make you happy,” he said. “I meant it then. I repeat it now. If your uncle wants to have my aeroplane destroyed for some reason unknown to me, I will make no resistance if you will only assure me that it will help you in your present trouble. I said before that I would do as you desire and ask no questions. That also I repeat. You may feel absolutely free to use me in any way. I’m going to stay and do what I can to make those lines of trouble disap- pear from your eyes and to see you walk with that same free, happy, healthy stride that first brought you to me in your home in Baltimore. And, now that we under- stand it thoroughly, let’s get right down to business. You and your uncle have been quarreling lately. Can I help?” She glanced up, startled. “You have known that?’ she asked. “What have you heard?” “Nothing. I do not know the reason, nor have I overheard anything, but I know that you have disagreed. You showed that plainly by your actions last night.” She breathed a sigh of relief. “Ah, yes; to be sure. Last night we did disagree. Uncle Stephen seems to me to 54 | Adventure have lost his head in the dilemma that con- fronts him here and I am afraid of him. He is so absolutely determined not to allow one word to: be known about Caprice until he has arranged everything, that I am afraid. He is so unused to handling important af- fairs, so entirely unfitted for such a respon- sibility, that he is likely to go to any extreme to force you and me and every one to do as he wishes.”’ “But,” Ward protested, “I have already assured you that I will stay here and say nothing.” “T know.” She smiled gratefully, but with a little gesture of helplessness. ‘“‘You have been most comforting to me—but Uncle Stephen is so completely upset by what has happened that he will not trust any one.’ “That is the reason, then, why he is so anxious to have Phil Conway return?” He saw the quick color mounting to her cheeks, and again the eyes that she lifted to his flashed him that fleeting look of fright. “Ves—” her voice faltered a moment— ‘and it was particularly about that that I wanted to speak. You will get Mr. Con- way to come back at once, won’t you?” The memory of his telegram to Phil came to him reproachfully with the pleading in her tone. “T have wired him,” he said slowly. “Wired him to come?” “T told him your uncle urged him to fe- turn immediately.” “Oh, thank you—thank you.” He flush- ed guiltily at her genuine relief. “I am sure he will do as you ask. But—” she faltered again and her forehead gathered into a lit- tle frown of uneasiness—‘‘there is one other thing that is more important than all the rest, and yet I have no right to ask it of you. It will seem most presumptuous.” “T shall not consider anything presump- tuous under the present circumstances,’’ he assured her. ‘“‘You need not hesitate to ask anything that will make things easier for ou.’ “Then—” her voice was low and unsteady —‘T ask you to have your detective with- draw from this case at once.”’ “‘Greiner?” “Ves. Uncle Stephen tells me that you and Mr. Conway have engaged him to in- vestigate an attack on this camp. If I tell you that I am in a position to assure you that the attack will not be repeated, will GomiEbooks (E@)