Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 19, 1924 — page 136: what you’re looking at

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

606 cing her. ‘“‘ Before I met you, I was known as the Great Corvan, slickest of confidence men; I was an expert swindler. I came down here and posed as you have seen me, to put a swindle through!” He pressed his self denunciation upon her through the dark, desperately—and he held her close, meanwhile, as though to protect her from it. ‘“T have told you this, so that you will forget me!” he finished. “ For I go away to-night—on this train. I’m going away. I shall never see you again!” He wanted to say more. He wanted to relieve the cold brutality of this revelation with a word for the miracle she had wrought in him, with a word of gratitude for the soul he had found in her. But his heart choked him, and stifled the utterance of such words. The train panted into the station. “ Forget me!” he cried, ‘for God’s sake, forget!” And he would have flung away from her, but she detained him. She held him tightly, and spoke with a burst of laughter and of sobbing. “JT know! I know!” she cried. “ Do you think I don’t know you as well as you know yourself? Do you think Grimshaw has told me nothing? Or Maddox? Or your own hunted, wearied eyes? “Oh, my love, I know all you have told me, and more! ‘There’s no need to run away. I love you! Id love you if you were a thousand times worse than you have told me!” He tried to press her from him. “You can’t understand!” he protested. ‘There is one thing you can never under- stand!” Close to him, her lovely, serious face pressed itself woon his consciousness to be- come a picture as she stood before him then, which his mind would never lose. “T understand,” she said, “‘ that you are free. What you have been to us is what you will always be after this—” “Tt is not enough!” he cried. ‘I’ve seen it through! I’ve seen this swindle through! I’ve got Queritt’s check in my pocket, and I’m off on that train—to-night —now! Leave me—Let go~-Oh, Mars garet, forget!” ARGOSY-ALESTORY WEEKLY, “Very well!” she cried; and her voice was alive with a startling vitality and com- mand. “Only before you go—before you take this step which separates us forever, think of what I say! They have forced you to do this thing, and you have chosen the darkness of this course to something which seemed darker stilk Was it as dark as life will be without our love? “Think of it, Dan! Now. Think of it now! Is there any sorrow or disaster worse than that?” | He turned back to her slowly—forgetful of time and flight. ‘“Do you know Wade?” he asked. She shuddered. She was frightened by the timbre of his voice. “Yes!” she whispered. ‘““ He was my partner. His hand kept me to the crooked road. I fought him, Mar- garet, but he won. If I turn this check back to Queritt, that man has the power to break me. He can send me to prison for years!” Her hand leaped to her lips. mured a little cry. ‘He :-can’t!” = °te ow!” “Shall I return the check?” he said. A light of surpassing courage had come into her eyes. ‘“‘ What will life be without our love?” she had asked. She saw now that the answer must be hers. Her voice was firm as she gave it. “Yes!” she decided. check to-night!” “To-night,” he assented. “I am made of iron, now.” He placed his arm about her shoulder, and they turned up the plat- form. The train had long since gone. But he did not notice that. He did not notice the sudden silence that enveloped them, the silence of nighttime in the coun- try which is noisy with a thousand songs. To him it had been so from the beginning of time, he and she alone under the star- light. He held her jealously. “Tt will be good-by—anyway. Good-by. But I have found out to-night that there is happiness in renunciation, and _ that happiness will wait for me through years of prison, or suffering, or death.” She mur- He took her two hands in “Return that COPE OOOKS5CO)