Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

02 “ Of course,” he agreed politely. ‘ Love is the thing. That’s what a marriage should be built upon—love or, next best, a bet or a vow taken on the instant. I wish you the best of good luck with him, my dear.” ‘“‘ Dad—” she began, but her voice was so low that he did not hear her. “ Sit down in here,” he said. ‘“ You rarely come into my room. But there’s a comfortable chair. And yonder are a num- ber of books—not fiction, I confess, but some which are really better than fiction, I think. Here is a favorite of mine— . Machiavelli’s History of Florence. And next to it is a greater favorite—Benvenuto Cellini, that prince of princely liars, Or here is Maundeville to set you chuckling and, in good time, get you ready for bed and a sound sleep. Good night, my dear!” He kissed her forehead and went out, closing the door softly behind him. As for Olivetta, she waited until his foot- steps had padded away to silence on the thick rug of the hall. Then she dropped into the chair which he had pointed out to her. In the last two minutes of that talk with her father she felt that he had come wonderfully near to her, far nearer than he had ever been before. She had suspected, almost scorned him. But now there was a queer mixture of pity and admiration for him. For she was beginning to feel that there was more strength in him than she had ever suspected. And as for her marriage with money, was he not justified in expecting that she had planned only for a comfortable union? Her careless life, her frolic habits with men, her light-hearted chatter about the young- sters she knew—out of this he might well have drawn stinging deductions. What could she do to help him? ~ She resolved that when the morning came she would have a new and serious talk with him out of which they should both come with a better understanding, a new respect for each other. But in the meantime the moment she was left alone what had seemed too unimportant to tell her father became real again to her. And this was the mystery clinging to.the steel globe of Commodore Dascom. She went straight from her father’s study to her own room, There.she —— = wi ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, opened the drawer in which she kept the revolver which he had always insisted upon her owning and which he had patiently taught her to use in the old days. It was in perfect working order. She looked carefully to it, and when she was sure that it was in fighting trim, she donned stockings and shoes instead of slippers, rolled up the sleeves of her dressing gown, drew the belt tighter about her waist, and then stepped out into the solemn darkness of the great hall prepared to investigate, CHAPTER IX, WHO? THE effect of a gun butt touching the palm of her hand was like the turning on of a great light which flooded the house. She walked with steady nerves and a firm step down the hall and into the library below. And in that great room the space, the murmurs of the wind which had risen and which was now stirring in the chimney, hardly troubled her at all. John Hodge was not there. What if he had been? Or what if any man had been? She could shout for help and that shout would bring—whom? Certainly not the servants on the third floor. No, it would not bring any of those to her help. And in the rest of the house there were Logan and his retainer, the man, Louis Kern, and her father and John Hodge himself. Three strangers under the roof, and her father out walking in the night. Whom, then, could her cry of alarm reach? This thought cooled her courage consider- ably. And though she gripped the revolver tight with no unpracticed hand and went firmly across the room, yet she would have been heartily glad if the ravening curiosity within had not driven her on. There was no light near the globe. She switched on a reading lamp and rolled the globe—the heavy sphere was poised on a wheeled stand—into the illumined circle. Then she sat down with her back to the wall to examine the globe in detail. Even though she brought a fortified and resolute curiosity to bear, she could make but small headway, It seemed just as it = | c€omicbooks: — See ~ * se - - —_ ans