Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 30: what you’re looking at

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

By FRED MaAcISAAC A NOVELETTE IN TWO PARTS—PART I CHAPTER I. TREASURE TROVE. IGHT THIRTY o’clock of a winter morning is disagreeable anywhere, but it was particularly unpleasant on the front end of a Jersey City ferryboat jammed with shivering Jerseyites bound for work in the skyscrapers of lower Manhat- tan. Harry Hilwin stood next to the rail, his collar turned up and his hands thrust deep in his pockets. When the man beside him jostled him slightly he did not look pleased, but the offender apologized, and Hilwin, a good natured young man, grinned cheer- fully back. ‘Water looks cold, doesn’t it?” remarked the stranger, a lean, angular man of about sixty, who tossed a cigarette into the Hud- son as he spoke. The river was filled with floating ice; 186 it was gray and white in the dull morning light. ‘“Not a good day for a swim,” replied Hilwin perfunctorily.. : “There is no accounting for taste,” an- swered the other with a queer smile. “ You look like a good sort. I make you a present of my bag.” As he spoke he swung one leg over the railing, followed it with the other, and be- fore the astonished Hilwin could reach him, he dived into the river. Almost petrified with horror, Hilwin shrieked, “ Man overboard!” A dozen others repeated the cry. There was a clanging of bells, blowing of whistles, somebody tossed a lifebuoy over; deck hands rushed to lower a boat; the paddle wheels stopped; women screamed. Hilwin had followed the flight of the body with his eye. He had seen it hit a cake of ice and slide off into the gray : Comicbooks.conn