Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 7, 1925 — page 89: what you’re looking at

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

THE NEXT (VICTIM. Z Well,’ ” Vallance gingerly lowered a foot over the side of his bed and followed it by the other, & we can only die once, you know. Personally — I think that the state- ment is a delusion and a snare. I’ve died twenty times if P’ve died once in the past hour.” We flanked him on ehee side a it was a slow and halting procession which took us fully five minutes to reach the wireless ror. My nephew acicted Vallance through the door and propped him up against a— “Tve brought ; an Se to pep : bulkhead. you, ” he said to Smith. Smith, who was covered with grease, sat on the floor surrounded by various parts of the wireless transmitter. ing look at Vallance. tot” Smith stood up and nodded briefly toward the confusion of parts. a * Tt ‘seems all apart,” ‘said ‘Vallance eakly, as he staggered across the inter- vening space = oe a against st the” : set’s. panel. - = ~* Ves.” said Smith briefly. “TE does. Bee Vallance, making a great effort, bent down to ‘pick up some section of the set’s mechanism that interested him. “Look out, sir,” warned Smith. black goo is grease.” A palsied look came over young yy al- lance’s face. Goo?” he murmured faintly. ue “ Grease?” -Theld the door open and sacle warned is That him to look out for the ladder head as he. plunged past me and made for the rail. “The enlenan is ‘Sick, sir?” said Smith. “ As sick as your set,” said my nephew. “Tt’s on the blink for good, sir. been able to shoot. the trouble yet. —— ia S understand — from Captain W ick- strom,” said my nephew, “ that some one tampered with it. Isn’t that what you told him?” _ | “Ves, sir.” & What. makes you think 50?” “Well, the hurricane damaged the aerial a bit and I had to go aft to fix a spreader. nephew from slanting eyes. Tve- been at it for the past hour and haven’t “When I got back here I listened in for a minute or two and picked up a call from New London. ‘They were trying to get us ‘with a message. I guess it was in answer to the one I sent for - you, sir.” «Then you did send it?” Smith looked faintly surprised. * As soon as the siren stopped,” he said. == ‘Oh, ”” said my nephew. cE slapped the switches in to tell New - London to go ahead, but she didn’t work. Nothing happened at all. Fuses seemed Oo. K—Jjuice from the main line all right— nothing 1 wrong that ° you could lay your hand _ on easy—but ‘there was nothing doing. This seemed strange, as well as making me feel sore, what with having New London growl- He took a lower- = _ able to answer. “AML right, ‘Sir, he said. « Let him g 20 ing his: head off for me and me not being What’: Ss more, the pesky set was working like a Rolls Royce not fifteen minutes before.” = “Yes?” said my nephew briefly. “Yes, sir, running sweet as a breeze. 559 Right away. I felt that something was up— you know, had a presentiment like. I even began to feel ¢ ‘creepy—as. if there had just “FE suppose you: Tooked around?” “You bet I did.” And there was no one here?” “Vou guessed it.” Smith paused for a moment and then looked Sak at my ‘Then he added, almost ee = Some one had been, ouch: 2 as What makes you. so sure?” “ Because he’d ‘swiped my knife.” My nephew shot me a significant look. “ Knife?” “Ves, sir—more of a dagger than a knife. Regular wop toad-stabber. Picked it up in Napoli and have carted it around with me _ ever since. Well, I know Vd left it lying on the top of my desk when I went on deck to fix the spreader. ~ after coming back, I saw it was gone. Made ‘me feel jumpy.” When I looked around, My nephew looked steadily at Smith, _* Did it have a bone handle with a s‘iver shield, and a thin blade about. eight inches long?” he asked. (0) 00) choo _ been some one in the shack who had either deft it just ‘before-T entered, or else was still here.” 7 (E@) cS