Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 18, 1928 — page 106: what you’re looking at

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

904 When the patrol had gone, a faintness came over the girl at thought of Nelson and Simores being together, alone in the blackness of the streets. Simores, she felt, would cheerfully slip a knife into Nelson’s back if he got the ghost: of a chance; and she could not warn Nelson without letting a very malignant cat out of its bag. She looked pale and drawn. With con- cern, Nelson became aware of her faintness and, attributing it to weariness, insisted upon taking her home. Curtly motioning Simores to follow, Nelson led Patria to the hotel and into the lobby. The peon stood just inside the door with his eyes fixed steadily upon Patria and the officer. Patria, in haste to reach the seclu- sion of her room, was halfway up the steps when Nelson ran up and stopped her. “You had better make that servant of yours understand that he’ll have to obey orders about keeping off the streets at night, otherwise he’ll get into a peck of trouble. And I don’t want any trouble ever to come to you or anything that is yours.” It was too much for Patria; her sense of humor would not down. In spite of her distress a conviction as to Nelson’s ability to take care of himself relieved her with a warm glow of satisfaction. There was a mischievous twinkle in her eyes as she de- murely replied: “Tl have to tell Sim—Juan—that he had much better not take any liberties with —the United States Navy! Thank you. Good night.” Nelson bent low over her hand and kissed it. Over his head Patria stole a glance at Simores; the peon was rigid. The girl lingered on the staircase as Nelson rejoined Simores. She could not tear herself away, and a measure of her fear returned. But she sighed with relief as she heard Nelson’s crisp order: “ Push on, hombre—lead the way,” and he added an authoritative shove to point his order. Simores, almost bursting with resentment, stumbled out of the door as Nelson waved an airy farewell to Patria and followed him coolly into the night. Once, on the way, Simores stopped as though to adjust a loosened thong of his sandal. If he could get near enough to ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Nelson for a sudden spring, the flash of a knife might take the officer unawares. But Nelson stopped, too, and chose the moment to light a cigarette; he even held the match so that the peon could see what he was trying to fix. Simores had to go on. Before a disreputable-looking house they came to a halt as the man signified that it was where he lived. A near-by arc light threw a faint illumination upon the place. Nelson’s thoughts, filled with the image of Patria, suddenly became conscious of her servant’s appearance. The man’s shirt was badly torn by the man-handling of the sentries. Nelson reached into his pocket. “Son,” he observed pleasantly in his best Spanish, “I don’t know whether you appreciate it or not, but in your country you have the most wonderful women in the world. Here—take this!” Nelson quickly pressed two dollars into the hand of one of the wealthiest men in all Mexico. “Take his,” he said, “ and get yourself a new shirt; those sentries were just a lit- tle bit rough. Good night.” As Nelson’s white-clad form jauntily turned the corner there arose on the out- raged night a blistering torrent of ravings and cursings. Two silver dollars whanged against the opposite wall. Simores wildly shook his fist after the now departed American, called upon Heaven to witness his promise of ven- geance, tore at his hair, with tears of rage streaming down his face, and plunged into the house like a madman. CHAPTER XX. A HORROR FORTRESS. IMPLY gowned in white, a limp or- gandie hat becomingly shading her face, and a flimsy parasol in hand, the following afternoon Patria accompanied Nelson to the long pier. A pack of clamor- ing native boatmen yelped for patronage, and Nelson selected the most seaworthy and cleanest-appearing boat for their journey across the harbor to San Juan de Ulua. The water behind the breakwater was a Gomichbooks (E(0)