Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 7, 1928 — page 55: what you’re looking at

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

THE RESPECTABLE MANIACS. She just looked at him, like a small child that has cried for candy and final- ly got it. ) “T knew you needed a good cry, and so I let you alone,” he explained. Then he sat beside her and talked very low, with his head bent down to watch his fingers aimlessly tolling off the fingers on her right hand. She lis- tened meekly. “The troubles I spoke about, Vi, were my troubles about this Millicent. I’m not swell-headed, but I could see that she was gettin’ on your nerves by payin’ too much attention to me. I[ kinda like it, of course—any one would —but it didn’t seem right, and so I was thinking about it and trying to find a way to avoid her. So to-day I figured out that I’d stay away. “To do that I had to get George to stay out, too, and I put it up to him straight. He agreed with me; said Milly was sweet on me. And so George and I ate in a cafeteria and took in a revue. “Tt only cost me a coupla bucks, but that’s better than maybe a lot of worry to you. I forgot all about phon- ing till the last minute, and then the show was starting. And after I was watching the show, I got to thinkin’ that maybe it would be a good lesson to Millicent. She’d be expecting to see me and ’d be disappointec. I wanted to show her just how litiie I cared about her. “Though,” he added boyishly, “ it wasn’t so easy as it sounds, because (’m no hero nor nothin’. But Milly ’d kinda got me going, and it wasn’t a THE U U 45 cinch for me to give up an evening dancing with her and all that—much as I care for you, Vi.” She looked up at him wonderingly, and knew that he was telling the truth. Unable to speak for the moment, she squeezed his hand. Yes, he was right. It would be a splendid lesson to that vamp. That was the best punishment. Then she told him the experience of the afternoon and evening, and he grinned, “It’s great how good my plan worked out, isn’t it? I can forget all about being a little sorry I wasn’t there when you tell me how disappointed she was. That’s a let-down for her to take back with her to-morrow.” “To-morrow ?” “Yes. George told me she goes back home t6-morrow. She gets on a train at Grand Central—and keeps going for five or six hundred miles. The farther, the better for us.” The whole world cleared up for Viola—except for one little matter. “But that picture in your album, Al—who’s that?” “IT know now what one you mean. You silly nut, that’s my cousin, Fran- ces Bennett, up in Connecticut. They do look alike, don’t they? But if you look close you can see it’s just that Frances happens to be a blonde. She’s married and has two children. She sent me that a long time ago—a picture I tcok of her. It’s just the shiny glue I put it in the book with, that makes it look like it was put in lately.” Clinch! END Le} THE MAN FROM THE RIO GRANDE By ARTHUR EVAN JAMES will be next week’s Complete Novelette, a wildly exciting tale about a killer of three and the strange fashion in which he was run down. NOOLKS COLMUCE (C@