Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 3 — page 187: what you’re looking at

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

BEWARE OF THE BRIDE. ‘‘ Noe, Bond’s not seriously mjured—he’s ‘not injured at all, in fact. But it was a rotten finish for the ball, dear. Just when everything had been patched up and the old town—”’ ‘The voices faded away! As if a fairy’s wand had touched him, William smiled suddenly. “T didn’t! breathed. “ Billy, isn’t it ghorious? I didn’t even hurt him!,” he Isn’t it won- derful?” Mary cried, shakily, as her head was buried upon his besom. “ Billy, dear!’ éc Yesr”’ “You do believe me? You'll just let Tom and all the rest of them tell you the _ truth and then you'll surety believe me, Billy? You will—thene”’ At such a time as this it is incredible that William should not have been drimking in every word. Perhaps he was; perhaps that slight hint of a start did not indicate even momentary detachment from the af-. fairs of the moment. On the other hand, William was very much 2 busimess man! ““} believe you now, dear,” he said sim- ply. “ Mary, could we make it, if we start- ed now—the steamer, I mean?” “ Could we?” “ Mary, my cab’s down-stairs, waiting for me in the side street. I hired the man for all night, if necessary!” . “Yes, Billy?” “We can take that over to the uaction. Mary. I can wire ahead and have a spe- cial waiting for us there, and it Hf run us through to New York. It won’t cost more than five or six hundred dollars, and I'd rather pay that than miss the boat!” Wil- liam pursued, and his voice grew more and more excited. ‘“ Yes, I betieve that ae work out!” “ And — and — clothes for me?” Mary askéd. “You've got some down in the bag, haven’t your Of course you have; I re- member you putting them there. You can get into that serge dress after we get out of town in the cab. There’s a rug in there, too, and we'll buy you another coat m New York, if we have time.” “ Yes, Billy?” . IZA ‘for the coat, Mary,” he said briskly. 561 William’s arms dropped. With murder and alienated affections and other crimes and possibilities off his mind, he was grow- ing more and more himself with every second. ‘“T don’t know whether we'll have time 6é I have to meet Balderson—Balderson, Adams & Co., you know—at the pier, and we'll have to allow half an hour for that before the boat sails. Then I did want to see that young Jeffries about—oh, we'll manage the coat, anyway. Mary, can you shp out of the house like that?” : “ This coat covers almost everything,” said Mary; “but, Billy, wouldn’t you | rather wait and hear all the truth from Tom | and Sally and Dolly and—” «No, I wouldn't, kid!” said Wiliam. “ There’s no sense in wasting time like that, Mary. I believe you now, and I’m never goimg to doubt you again; it doesn’t pay. I wonder H there’s any stationery m that table drawer. © “Hah! MHere’s a pad! Where’s my fountain pen?” demanded William, and glanced at his watch and all but ripped the cap away. ‘I want to leave 2 note for Tom, Mary, but it'll have to be short and sweet! Yes, it ll have to be ahmightyehort and sweet, if we're ever going to make con- nections. “Mary, you get that telephone direc- tory, will you, and look up the railroad offices and see if the traffic manager has a special wire, and if he has, jot it down for me, dear. Now—lemme see!” When they had extracted Hugh Bond from his iron casing and ascertained that | his anatomy was quite mtact, and his life expectation as promising as before—when the ball, despite the two or three dozen optimistic souls who insisted on chnging to the spirit of the evening and remainmg to dance, had broken up in hot, spiteful confusion—when it became quite apparent that there was nothing more to add to his present store of knowledge, Thomas Hen- ning drifted out of the Thorndyke mansion and wandered aimlessly back to his Httle desecrated fiat. He was entirely cool, now, and very so- i UN S Colin GORGE OOO