Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 19, 1924 — page 35: what you’re looking at

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

COLOSSUS OF THE RADIO. ‘“T hate secrets,” said May; “can’t you tell me what it is you’ve been doing all these months?” “ Promise you won’t say a word about that masked man?” ‘All right. I promise.” “Then,” said Nick slowly, “I'll tell you all about it, what I’ve been making and— I'll show it to you, when—” ‘When it is finished.” An angry sparkle came into May’s eyes. “Now, honey,” said Nick, and maybe it was because of the way he had with him, or the nice fashion he had of smiling at— May, or, possibly it was because May her- self was soft-hearted and—in love. Anyway, she relented and quite forgot to keep up her pose of anger. _ “ You are lucky,” she said, “ there must be a touch of Irish in you. You kissed the Blarney stone.” ‘“ What’s that?” asked Nick. “ Ask Bill, He knows. Ill tell him to come round and see you to-night. Maybe he’ll get at that wonderful secret. Good-by.” CHAPTER IV. LIVING STEEL, ‘AFTER Nick had watched the*girl out of sight, he returned to his workshop; screwed the lock on the door and sat down to think things out. His head was aching from the blow he had received and —he was a great deal more worried than he had allowed May to see or even guess at. How had anybody found out that he had a secret which was worth taking the chance of killing him to get hold of? Who was the masked man? Was he the same man that Bill had spoken of the night be- fore? These were questions to which Nick could find no answer, so, being one who liked to do things instead of wasting time over something he could not ferret out right away, he locked himself in his room and started to work on his invention. In other words, he began to put it to- gether. 505 Nick was not only clever; a great deal cleverer than any one knew him to be, but he was also very cautious. Every night, be- fore he went to sleep, he took all of his in- vention apart. He never went out of the garage, leaving any part connected. This is why the masked man had failed to get anything out of his attack on Nick. From different corners of the place; under the table, and here and there behind electrical machines, Nick collected a large number of pieces of steel. Some of them were hollow; some were jointed pieces of metal of all shapes and sizes. In all, there were about seven hundred parts. Nick laid them all together in the center of the floor. Then, before he started to join up any of the pieces, he -ung a strip of thin material over the lower half of the window. In this way, he had all the light he needed, but no one could creep up unnoticed and see what he was doing. Until nearly midday, Nick sat on the floor bolting the portions of his invention together. By one o’clock, he had six sec- tions complete. Instead of hundreds of parts, he had six Jarge and heavy sections. And—if any one could have seen what they resembled, they would have been fairly jus- tified in judging Nick as an enthusiast not quite normal and well balanced. Some, would bluntly have stated that he was crazy. Lots of inventors have thus been judged, and some have in reality become insane through lack of appreciation of their years of devoted labor. Nick himself, buoyant and optimistic, had fought through his moments of de- _ pression and questioned his own imagina- tion; but he had believed he could do cer- tain wonderful things, and now, with those six sections of steel he was going to prove that he had not been wasting his time or spending his money for nothing. “Now,” said Nick as he got up and stretched his cramped legs, ‘‘ Ill eat. After that, Ill put my baby together and practice up a bit more on control. By the time Bill comes, I’ll have something to show him that’ll make his eyes stick out and his hair cnn Ten minutes sufficed for Nick’s lunch. A hunk of bread; a bar of chocolate and a | Gomichvdookssco