Argosy All-Story Weekly, November 12, 1927 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

500 this on again, or if you even look cross- eyed at me, I’ll just naturally break you in two and make frankfurters out of you.” Then, as the crowd jeeringly followed his discomfited adversary, he turned to Ilsa Calder and caught both her hands in his. “It was you who really saved my life,” he mutmured glowingly. ‘‘ No one else but you lent me a hand, and you came just when I needed help the most.” His voice was low, caressing; but Na- tushka, standing close behind him, over- heard the speech and her somber eyes kin- died with resentment. Not a word of appreciation for her, who by her cry of warning had delivered him from the stroke of the assassin’s dagger. All his gratitude was for this milk-faced singer whose futile pummeling, so far as Natushka could see, had not affected the result at all. But Mickey, all unconscious of the storm he had stirred, was going on. “ It was probably some friend of Luigi’s who chucked this at me,” he said, picking up the bottle which had played such an important part in the affair; “‘ but on ac- count of the splendid use you put it to, I am going to preserve it as a sacred relic. I'll show it to my grandchildren, and teil them—well, Ill tell them what their grandmother did with it out in the wild and woolly West.” Ilsa gave a startled gasp. “ Aren’t you taking a good deal for granted?” she stammered, blushing. “Not a bit of it,” he declared. “ You can’t help it, and neither can I. It’s writ- ten in the stars, told in the cards. That’s the reason I wanted to finish reading your fortune where no one else was around. Come on now, and I'll show you how plain- ly the cards reveal it.” He caught her hand and drew her with him into the room behind the calico cur- tains. The gypsy girl stood glowering after them a minute, then, as a spasm of jealous rage contorted her features, she spat be- tween her two fingers at the spot where the two had been, and muttering a Romany curse under her breath, stalked out of the dance hall. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Meanwhile, Mickey, with the cards laid out before him on a barrel head, was ex- plaining to Ilsa how her future was dis- closed by the position and associations of the queen of hearts, which he said rep- resented her. “Here, you see, she is in a strange place.” He pointed to a sequence of clubs, spades and diamonds that surrounded the queen. “ And from the preponderance of spades, I should say the place must be Quoonah. 3 “In this place you are not what you appear to be,” he went on, studying the cards with a puzzled frown. ‘‘ You are acting a part, L should say, although it is for an honorable purpose. ‘Still, I don’t exactly get this.” He shook his head. ‘“ There is crookedness and lying and double dealing all through the picture, and it is closely associated with you.” He paused and scanned the combi- nation of cards, as if stumped for a solu- tion. “Oh, I see it now!” His brow suddenly cleared. ‘‘ You are not only deceiving, but are yourself deceived. The difference is that your deception is innocent, while the one being practiced on you is a cheating swindle. “You are under an evil influence.” He indicated the king of spades in close juxta- position to her card. ‘“ No need to tell you who it is, I guess. But you ought to know that that fat scoundrel is working a game you don’t even suspect, and that is apt to get you into a peck of trouble.” ‘You mean that business,” she broke in, “ of raising money from the folks back home, and passing it off as his own contri- bution to our partnership?” ‘No. This is something else—a black, treacherous scheme that he is carrying on at the present time. You take my advice, girl, and ditch that wop without losing any time about it. You think he is furthering your hopes for a career; but you were never more mistaken in your life. Where you ought to be with that voice of yours is in New York, not singing out here in mining camp dumps. It’s ridiculous. “There is trouble all around you.” He waved his hand over the spread of cards. COPMICLOOOKS (©)