Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 19, 1924 — page 43: what you’re looking at

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

COLOSSUS OF THE RADIO. silence. Then came a faint click. Crawley had depressed one of the keys. Response was instantaneous; power of action flowed through the colossus. His massive knees came up. Crawley quivered with elation. He touched other keys. Each brought some new movement from the steel man. At length, Crawley got him to a sitting position and finally—to his feet. The gangsters retreated to a respectful distance as the steel monster towered erect. ‘“ What did IJ tell you?” gloated Crawley, ‘““T can make him do anything—anything!” So far, fortune had favored Crawley in - his blind, fumbling selection of the keys to touch; but just as there are gamblers who never know when to stop, so are there crooks who play with chance over long. Surveying his awed group of men in chuckling triumph, Crawley announced the next item on his program. “Now,” he stated, “‘ ’ll make him climb into the truck and then you can all set about bringing the stuff from the house.” With a gesture of bravado, Crawley then. bent over the keyboard. Down came his finger on a key. He was quite sure it was the right key; the third from the left, but— he picked out the wrong rank! “Gosh!” exclaimed Slim. The rest of the men scattered. Crawley whirled around. The colossus plunged forward. There was a crash as the bulging armor of his chest struck the side of the truck. | “Stop him, can’t you? He'll shove the darned thing over!” Slim rushed forward. He clung futilely to the steel giant. Crawley’s hands wavered in distracted indecision over the keyboard. While he hesitated, the truck quivered and creaked, the step rose; tilted. The near wheels left the ground. In a panic of alarm, Crawley grabbed the keyboard. Holding it under one arm, he struck wildly at a key. Again, it was one that he should not have touched. The colossus leaned forward. The tilt of the truck increased. In another few seconds the rising truck would overbalance; toppie over, then— Crawley completely lost his head. Key after key he depressed. The steel man 3A 3 518 jerked in violent movement. Slim was flung six feet away. He staggered and fell groaning. Cursing shrilly, Crawley yelled to the others to drag the monster who would no longer obey his will, away from the truck. Not one of them would make a step nearer, The arms of the colossus came up; his rub- ber padded steel fists thudded against the side of the truck. He seemed a thing of mechanical madness bent on destruction. Then Crawley touched a key that changed everything. A pause came in the flaying of the steel man. He leaped back. There he stopped. The truck came down on four wheels. The shock shook the ground. Im- mediately followed, a splintering, rending sound. The rear wheel had broken at the hub. Slowly, then with uncontrollable swiftness, the truck sagged and fell. The edge of the roof caught the visored head of the steel man. He swayed—and went down with the truck. “ ‘You must have touched a key that shut off the power that kept him standing.” Without reply, Crawley joined the group surveying the overturned truck and the fallen steel man. | 5 ‘“‘ Flash on a light.” Slim’s torch showed a grotesque mess of damage and hopelessness. Not only was the truck rendered useless by reason of the splintered wheel; but the prize Crawley had risked so much precious time over and played with and lost, was surely beyond all salvage. With arms and legs asprawl, the colossus Jay pinned to the ground. True, his body and limbs seemed uninjured, but his head? The glint of crushed steel showed under the edge of the truck roof. | Slim snapped off his light. “‘ How about it?” he asked and his inquiry was followed by a rumble of distinct and threatening mutterings from the others. Crawley passed his tongue over his dry lips. Calamity had stunned him. Reaction came in the form of desire to make some one else pay for his own folly. Thrusting aside Slim, he aimed a kick at the bound Nick. “That'll go some way towards wiping that funny look out of your eyes and I'll hand you another dose presently.” Eomichbooks:co a eet) es.” 6h