Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 7, 1925 — page 33: what you’re looking at

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

NORTH sT AR. = slap of her gloved hand stung him to a. - rage. “You little hell cat!” ‘““ Get out.” “Come here!” “ Get out of this house.” Her hand upon the bell checked his ad- vance. His eyes were bloodshot. of his blind rage something warned him that he was losing her; that his power over her was gone. He laughed disagreeably as he realized that his hold wasn’t. ‘““Why are you like this?” he said. ‘Because it can’t go on. I can’t ex- plain. It would be fatal for both of us You’d end up by being as miserable as my- self. You ought to be glad.” : ‘Glad you're jilting me?” “Glad I’m admitting my mistake before it’s too late. I don’t love you. I’ve never loved you.” ce No?” “Don’t be disgusting!” “T’m not good enough for you?” “Tf you must know it—you’re not!” The blood coarsened his heavy features. “So that’s it! But I’m good enough to keep your brother out of jail. Good enough to save him from the chair.” “What do you mean?” He offered her the version that served him best. cheeks and steady eyes. “Then the price of your silence has gone up?” she said. ‘In other words, it’s hit the high-water mark of my consenting to go through with this marriage?” He shrugged. She pressed the bell. Robbins’s eyes widened the fraction of an inch. “Mr. Robbins is going,” she said to Wil- kinson. “And Mr. Robbins is not calling again, you understand?” “Yes, Miss Marcia.” There was a threat in every step that Robbins took to the door. She telephoned and made an immediate appointment with her lawyer. Then she looked for the three postal cards that Wil- bur had sent her and put them in her handbag. She called her maid and instruct- ed her to pack two bags. In_ back She heard him through with pale 903 Se was leaving that night, she informed her, for a flying trip to the Canadian north- west. She would wire if it “was necessary to have her trunks follow with further sup- plies. She would know better what she required when she arrived on the ground. A curious calmness had fallen upon her. It was a blessed relief to shoulder the burden of her brother’s trouble. It seemed | infinitely to lighten the burden of her own. - The murder charge, of course, was absurd. Wilbur would explain. It was his disin- clination, she fathomed, against dragging the family name before the public eye that had caused him to yield to, yes, blackmail. She despised, yet loved, him for his weak- ness. Blackmail never paid. Anything was better than that. She’d find him and bring him back. They’d face his trouble coaether. Late that evening she boarded the train for the first lap on her journey to the Ca- nadian northwest. Mr. Rudgley, her law- yer, had been most comforting. He ar- ranged for a secretary to recall the wedding invitations and cancel all arrangements. He would also attend, he assured her, to Rob- bins. He had deciphered the postmarks on the three postal cards from her brother. They started her off on the proper trail. He agreed with her that Wilbur should be persuaded to return at once. She sank back upon the seat in her compartment and gave her tired nerves over to the swift, soothing motion of the limited. In a baggage car up forward was North Star. She had completely forgotten his very existence. She had her bed made up. She went to sleep. CHAPTER X. A WHITE CROSS, HE motion of the train, the noise, the shriek of the whistle, the sway of the _ baggage car, the slats of his hastily constructed crate, drove North Star into a frenzy of hate, distrust, and despair. His heart struck the depths and he lost ali faith in mankind. The days aboard the express car sf the limited were unbearable torture. The Gomichbooks.co