Adventure Magazine Cover, October 1911 — page 34: what you’re looking at

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

980 scientist vill be a man of keen chudgment; he vill say nodding of his discovery—it vill die mit him!” “But then— What good would it do to “So! I puzzle you, not? It is because, naturally enough, you haf mistaken my work. All der alchemists want to make gold, und most of dem want to make it from der baser metals. Dis is no true economie. Silber, und lead, und iron haf all der proper place. To change all der iron in der vorld into gold vould be to de- prive us of a useful metal, and to cheapen a precious one; flooding de market mit somet’ing dot nobody has earned, und no- body has any use for except to make chewelry und vatch-cases und such like trash.” Carmelita threw her companion a side- long glance that was half-whimsical, half suspicious. “But everywhere,” he continued, ‘in common clay, in der dust of dis road, in der loam of yonder field, dere is gold—imper- ceptible particles of gold going to vaste! Now, could ve assemble dose particles to- gedder, bringing dem to a common center as der magnet attracts der iron filings, dot vould be a gread discofery, nicht?”’ Over Carmelita’s face crept a shadow of disappointment. She’d heard of such schemes before. She had, in fact, watched her father grow enthusiastic—at a cost of several thousand dollars—over an under- taking which proposed to distil the Pacific Ocean. Perhaps the old man felt her lack of response, for he relapsed into silence— a silence that was broken only as he pointed to a little wagon-road winding around the mountain, the base of which they were then skirting. ‘““Up dere I go. Ven ve reach de begin- ning of dot road I vill ask you to set me down. I vos not expecting to get home so soon. Perhaps you come und see me, not? Reindecker’s my name. You find me easily. T’ree und a half miles along dot little road “ “Would you like me to?” “‘Gewiss. Usually I do not care for vis- itors. But to you I will show everyt’ing.” “T’ll come!” said Carmelita briefly; and a moment later added: “I believe you’ll make a success of this.” ‘“‘Dankel Oh, in time—A ber—” he sighed, “it goes somewhat slowly, Frdulien.” (79 Adventure II Warn THAT evening Carmelita Sofia Mc- ) Cann played seven-up with the Big === Person from Buffalo, and lost to him with commendable generosity, considering how little she had to lose. Moreover, she saw him deliberately slip the cut twice, and each time deal himself a card from the bot- tom, which she strongly suspected to be the ace with which he won the hand. Being not entirely ignorant of the manipulations of certain limber-fingered gentry, she broke up the game by feigning a head-ache, and, with Manahan sympathetically in tow, sought the breezy eminence of the observ- atory, where with the aid of the moonlight she purposed to turn her companion inside out. But Manahan was more crafty than she had thought. The keynote of his nature was suspicion and, like many other suspi- cious men, it never dawned on him that he himself could be suspected. He studied Carmelita greedily; her type was new to him and attention from a woman so manifestly charming and so much his superior was a subtle flattery that went to his head. If he had thought to place her in an embar- rassing position, she had so far given no sign. In fact, to his clumsy sounding she re- sponded naively enough. She dropped little hints of certain large interests that she had in the Ozarks, spoke in figures the size and number of which made the Big Person wonder whether she were bluffing, and otherwise conducted herself as unlike a per- son in need of his forbearance as possible. Thus, having lit the fires of cupidity and curiosity in the Big Person’s brain, she tact- fully excused herself. She despatched a letter that night to St. Louis. It was characteristically brief: DEAR Jim: I’ve a hunch I’m going to need you. If you haven’t got a hen on the griddle, wire me at once. C.S. McCann. Carmelita was a habit; a very little of her whetted the appetite for more. When, therefore, on the following afternoon she ordered a horse, it was a source of sudden dissatisfaction to Manahan that he had long since passed a normal saddle weight. he was obliged to content himself with a few words from her as he watched her mount was a tart incentive to the possibilities of the CO That MICLOOKS CO