Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 19, 1924 — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

508 “You followed me, yet you were here when I returned. You came from the di- rection of the house and said that the dogs were to be turned loose on you!” she accused. Her voice wasn’t soft and pur- ring any more, ‘“‘Hadn’t I found out where you worked and didn’t the fellow tell me it was the only place around with a high stone wall with vines all over it? When I’d followed along behind far enough to be sure you were going straight home I cut around the next turning and came across the grounds from the other side. That’s how the dogs heard me and commenced to howl. Gee, didn’t I take a chance of getting bit merely to see you again?” “ What were you doing with that flash light?” There was relenting in her tone and a suspicion of a dimple in her cheek, but she was still unconvinced. “TY always carry one in the country,” Phil explained speciously. ‘“ You see, I’m staying for a few days down at the hotel, looking for a likely spot along the roads around here for a garage.” “Vou were thinking, then, to put up a garage near Monsiew’ Monckton’s house in the city yesterday afternoon?” Her head was tilted slightly. For a minute Phil looked blank then he laughed again. “Oh, because I told you I’d been there looking for Nora? Say, the fellow in the drugstore told me this place belonged to the old millionaire who was just murdered and, of course, I’d read all about it in the papers. There was even a picture of the Manor in one of ’em and that’s how I found it so easy. If you hadn’t been so nice and. friendly when I*came on you I was going to get in with the chauffeur here and meet you that way. Listen, I was in earnest; I don’t act crazy like this, but I sure fell hard when I saw you, Lucie! You ought not to blame me!” She smiled and selected another chocolate daintily. : “That is the manner of you Americans. Always you—how do you say ?—keed! It was very wrong of you, M’sieu Philip, and never would I have permitted you to talk to me but that I believed you were the & ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. cousin of Nora. I did not come here to-day to meet you, but because it will be triste at the house. They will bring home the body of poor Monsieu’ Monckton for the funeral to-morrow.” ‘T read in the paper that he’d be shipped home this afternoon.” Phil nodded, glad that the subject had been changed. ‘ That man who used to come to see him, the one you told me about last night; do you think you would know him again if you should see him?” “I should not like to see him!” Lucie sniffed at the bottle of perfume, wrinkling her small nose as though to eliminate some offensive odor. ‘“‘ He has a sharp, suspi- cious face like a ferret and eyes that bore through one! Not that they bore through me, for I only peep at him when he does not see! Why do you ask of him, M’sieu?” “Oh, just curiosity!” Phil disclaimed hastily. ‘‘ You believe his son killed the old man?” She shrugged. “What is one to think? That bétiste of a robber—that is what we say camouflage. Would one do murder for an armful of old silver?” “ Maybe not, but ‘one’ would knock somebody flat to avoid being pinched for it,” he remarked. “What is that ‘pinch’?” she asked, frowning. ‘Is it argot of the thieves?” “Just ordinary slang for getting ar- rested!” Phil turned a rich red. Then the thought of those numbers scrawled on the wall returned to his mind and he observed: “T thought you’d never get through tele- phoning last night! You must be mighty fond of him!” “<« Him?’ ” she repeated. “ And how do you know that I telephone to a ‘him,’ M’sieu Philip?” “ What if I was fust curious enough to get that call traced?” he asked teasingly, and then stared in surprise, for the girl’s eyes flashed sudden fire. “ You would not dare! you? A pay-station, from that it is not possible to trace a call!” “Say, don’t get sore at me!” Phil pleaded. ‘“ I was only—teasing; of course I wouldn’t try, even if I could, but I’m But how could- GOMmIichbooksnco