Argosy All-Story Weekly, December 4, 1926 — page 105: what you’re looking at

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

ROLL YOUR OWN. worrying about how badly it’s broken. Wouldn’t matter if—well, I’m not worrying about that, of course.” Mr. Budlong laughed. He cleared his throat noisily. And in James’s quieting brain, interest in this gentleman was waxing by the second. He had never seen Bud- long’s eyes shift around like that before; he had never seen Budlong drum on the sides of his chair with his fingers; nor had he ever heard Budlong converse in this dis- connected fashion. “Well, what are you worrying about?” escaped James. “Huh? What d’ye mean by that?” the caller rasped. “ Well, just—just—” James stammered, for the man was favoring him with a glare no less than fiendish! “‘ All right—didn’t mean to yell at you like that, old man—nerves!”’ he said lucid- ly, and the fiendish glare was gone! ‘* Only —I wanted to see that car to-morrow. Matter of fact, I have to use it to-morrow.” “*Oh, I’m so sorry!” Dorothy breathed. “ Nonsense!” grinned Mr. Budlong. “I thought I’d hop on one of the evening trains and go get it myself. That’s all.” “ You can’t!” James said quickly. “No train, eh? All right; Ill hire an- other car, and drive out. Where—”’ “ That’s not what I meant. The car won’t be ready to-night, or to-morrow, either, Fred. I’m horribly sorry, but the —the garage man has to send to New York for a whole new gear. He’ll run in for it himself in the morning—he said he would.” On and on drummed Mr. Budlong’s fin- gers. “ Hum — well — say, Jim!” said he. “Probably he’s got something around the shop that he can stick in for a makeshift?” ‘He hasn’t,” James sighed. ‘“ He hunt- ed the whole garage over while we were there. He went over the regular stock, and the scrap heaps, and everything. Didn’t he, Dot?” “Ves,” murmured Dorothy, effort. “‘ He did.” “And there wasn’t one solitary thing in the way of a gear that would come any- where near fitting, or even that could be made to fit,”” James pursued very earnestly. with an A415 AY “He must have tried a dozen, and there wasn’t one within a mile of fitting. Was there, Dot?” “No,” said Dorothy, “ there wasn’t.” “So, while ’m horribly sorry, old man, we'll have*to—” ‘“ Confound it—don’t tell me again that you're sorry! I understand that you’re sorry. What good does that do?” Bud- long shouted, incredibly irascible for an instant—and at once smiling again. “ Er— where did you break down?” James’s hand waved sweepingly. "Way east of here?” ‘Huh? China? . Japan?” : ‘““No—out near New London,” ‘James laughed. “Oh! don?” ‘““No. We—we had her towed into a lit- tle village.” You got the car into New Lon- “ And?” ‘And she’s still there, of course,” James sighed. ‘Well, I understand that, too!” Mr, Budlong cried. ‘What I want to know is, where the car is? What’s the name of the town? It’s not a secret, is it?” ‘“ Er—no, of course not,” James laughed again, although this laugh lacked hearti-. ness. “It was—ah—well, now, isn’t that funny! It was right on the tip of my tongue, and now it’s slipped away. Dot, what was the name of that village?” Momentarily Mrs. Cranning’s eyes glint- ed at her husband. ‘* Er—wasn’t it some Corners? Was it Potter’s Corners?” “Um—no, that doesn’t sound just like it,’ James said very thoughtfully. “It was Corners of some kind, but~” ‘Well, look at your slip!” ‘What slip?” “The receipt you took for the car, of course. That ‘Il have the name of the town and the name of the proprietor, Jim. Say, it isn’t possible that you left the car without taking a receipt, is it?” Did James crumple before this ques- tion? Oh, no; a certain desperate steadi- ness had now become part of James Cran- ning. Easily and naturally he poe at Mr. Budlong, and laughed. COMMEMOOKS (E(0)