Adventure Magazine Cover — page 60: what you’re looking at

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

OR the twentieth time Keegles circled the gurgling fountain in Madison Square. At the be- ginning of the twenty-first turn he came suddenly to a halt in front of an empty bench, looking vacantly down at it. He dropped into it disconsolately, his broad shoulders spreading over its back, his muscular arm flung wide in an eloquent and magnificent despair. He was tired— dead tired. But it was only physical. His brain was working, communicating to every vein and sinew of his great body its final conclusions on a situation with which it had been compelled to deal within the past fortnight. These conclusions were brief, but ironical and comprehensive. Summed up in total, they amounted to this: That, without opportunity, a college education is the most worthless thing in the world. Suddenly his eyes opened wide as the figure of a woman came into view under a flickering arc light near him. She con- tinued to advance, a trim, slender young 816 woman of athletic build, arrayed in a natty suit that betrayed the graceful lines of a healthy figure. For an instant she hesi- tated, looked rapidly about, and then with sudden resolution turned and came directly toward Keegles. As she neared him she hesitated again, standing within a few feet of him. Keegles was leg-weary, but weariness had not stolen his gallantry. He rose and stood before her —six feet of brawn and muscle and misfor- tune, attired in a loose-fitting suit of light gray kersey. She seemed about to flee from him, took a backward step, reconsid- ered, and faced him. ““TI—I am not quite certain that I want you,” she said with a queer note of inde- cision in her voice. ‘“‘But you look more of a—a gentleman than any of the others, and so I—came.”’ ““So good of you,” breathed Keegles, a trifling bit of irony creeping into his speech. ‘Pardon me,” she returned quickly, catching the note; “I knew you were a gentleman. But it is so easy to make mis- C© MICLOOOKS C©