Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 65: what you’re looking at

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

THE MAN WHO MASTERED TIME. cared for. But there was no mistaking the fact that he would have killed me without compunction had I annoyed him; and I could not forget his sardonic laughter when he had blinded me.” “Vou fired the Collinger at him,” Georgie said suddenly. “ Didn’t you hit him? He wasn’t—wasn’t invulnerable to a bullet, was he?” “No,” Loto answered with a smile. “ He was quite as human as I. He was standing in the shadow and I missed him. His blinding-flash struck my eyes just as I fired. I was telling you about my first three days in the house. I did not see the girl, except once, just for a moment. I was not held to the room, although I stayed there almost continuously. And one or the other of those dogs was outside all the time. After the first day, I grew bold enough to go into the living room. The woman sent me back, but I tried it again. “Once, when I was sitting alone in the main room, the girl entered. She stood in the doorway, and for the first time I realized how small and slight she was. She looked almost Egyptian—I mean her manner of dress. A blue-colored cloth was wound wide about her hips, with a dull red sash hang- ing knee-length down one side. Sandals on her bare feet; breast-plates of metal; a broad, low-cut collar of cloth with little coins on it, that lay flat on her. upper chest and widened to cover her shoulders. And her golden hair was parted forward over her shoulders in plaits that ended with little tassels. ‘Of course, I didn’t see all those details then. She was standing there staring at me, and this time there was no fear in her eyes—only curiosity. My heart leaped; it was what I had hoped for most. I could do nothing toward planning to get her out of the house so long as she continued afraid of me. “{ smiled at her in as inoffensive and friendly a fashion as [ could. Her eyes fell, then came up and I could see she was - ‘wondering at my clothes—my_ shoes, trousers, shirt and collar and tie. Abruptly the idea came to me that except for my garb, I probably did not look extraordinary or frightening to her. The thought gave me 699 new courage. I stood up, and spoke. At once she turned and ran from the room. ‘“‘ We were a Strange household, but after a time, except for having my meals alone, I found I could move about pretty freely. “Once Toroh brought me my electric torch, and making sure I did not aim it at him, he made me light it. I knew he be- lieved it a weapon. I thought this a good chance to convince him I was friendly. I smiled and shined it into my eyes, to show him it was harmless. He grunted, and tak- ing the flash light from me tossed it across the room, as of no use or further interest. “Then he produced my Collinger and made me show him how to operate it. But he was too clever to let me hold it; he did not let it get out of his hands. When he had fired it at a mark out the doorway, he grunted again and laid it on the snow. At a distance of twenty feet he stood with some object in his hand which he did not show me. Abruptly the Collinger flew into frag- ments! All its cartridges had been ex- ploded simultaneously. The bullets whistled past us, startling Toroh as much as they did me. Later I learned he had exploded it by something akin to radio. He picked up the remains and when he got back into the house, he tossed my broken weapon away disdainfully. It was the attitude a soldier of to-day might have toward an Indian warrior and his bow and arrow.” “But what did these people think you were?” the Big Business Man demanded. “Some foreigner of their own world?” “Toroh thought I had come from an- other planet. He had seen my plane the morning I hovered over the house. No one from another planet had been to the earth for centuries. But history told of them, and he thought I was one of them, come again. He treated me kindly enough —probably because I did not anger him or cross him in any way. But I had seen him strike the girl across the mouth; and one day he struck the woman. I have never seen such a look of sullen, repressed hatred as she gave him. She seemed to hate her father too. Later, I often saw him cuff her when she annoyed him.” The Doctor would have interrupted, but Loto raised his hand. “I have so much oO COMmicoookSse©