Argosy All-Story Weekly, November 12, 1927 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

490 hour; but you will not communicate with your son for many a day to come. “More of a gypsy than you, he follows the pateran, the gypsy trail—follows it not with the caravan, but alone—and it leads him to his chi, his true love, his heart’s desire.”’ And obliged to be content with that, the banker pressed a thick roll of bills into her hand, and drove back home to find his sec- retary awaiting him with another telegram which had arrived in his absence. It was from Mickey himself, and was characteristically worded: Report of my being missing is grossly ex- aggerated. JI know where I am, if nobody else does. I was only an ornament at the ranch, - and as I am fed up on being just a rich man’s son, I have gone far from the madding cows, to try and do something on my own. Don’t worry, and don’t try to trace me by this wire. I have filed it in passing through, and by the time you receive it, will be miles away from here. “Tt came collect about half an hour ago,”» observed Creighton, the secretary, ‘‘and appears to have been filed at Gold- field, Nevada, yesterday, with instructions to hold until this evening.” ‘So I see,” assented Rado. His brows contracted. ‘‘ Get me the police commis- sioner on the wire,” he directed curtly. When the connection was effected he put in a request; and although the police commissioner hesitated a bit, it was even- tually granted. | “Going to try something on his own, is he?” muttered Mavor Rado, as he hung up the receiver. ‘ Following the gypsy pateran, eh? Well, unless I miss my guess, it ‘ll lead him not to his heart’s desire, but to something auite, quite different.” CHAPTER III. _THE WORLD-OLD LURE. HE gypsy queen, whatever the occult power or trick of clairvoyance she employed, had correctly recounted Mickey’s experience. He had been wrecked just as she described it, had been picked up by a roving gypsy caravan, and had ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. been taken by them to their camp to be looked after and have his injuries dressed. Inside of two days he was fit as ever again; and with his usual capacity for get- ting into trouble had the dark eyes of the beauty of the camp following him about adoringly wherever he went. But the eyes of pretty Natushka, Mickey realized, were not the only ones following ‘him about. Those of the leader of the caravan, a sulky-looking fellow to whom Natushka was already engaged, dwelled upon him with an ever more menacing glint in their depths. Maybe if the girl had appealed to Mickey in any way, he would have given the gypsy some real cause for jealousy; but with his ardor cooled a bit by loss of blood, he failed to see a flirtation with her as worth the chance of a knife thrust. So, with unusual discretion for him, he decided to pull his freight before matters between him and the scowling leader came to a show-down. Also, he was anxious to get back to Circle A ranch. It had never been his intention to go a.w.o.l., and he knew that by this time his continued ab- sence must be causing alarm. But the difficulty was to accomplish a get-away without precipitating the very climax he was seeking to avoid. Natushka, having constituted herself his nurse and special attendant, kept hovering about him all the time; and he was pretty certain that any attempt on his part to leave would rouse her to an impassioned protest and’ probably start something. ‘You never can tell what a Crazy Annie like that will pull,” Mickey reflected un- comfortably. ‘‘ And old Pain in the Face is only waiting for an excuse to get at me.” In this dilemma, however, fortune fa- vored him. That night a party of cow hands from a near-by branding camp rode in to look the gypsies over, and have their fortunes told; and after they had all been duly warned of the “dark man” and “ fair woman ” scheduled to cross their paths, somebody produced a pair of dice and start- ed a game of craps. a+ COMIC MOO KS (E@)