Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 28, 1928 — page 108: what you’re looking at

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

538 me good and sore, and determined to even up somehow. “It was a big contract on mining machinery at a place not so awfully far away from here, and the company went broke. | came down to see if I could salvage anything, and hearing that you were starting an irrigation project here in Los Chicos County ran over to find out if you'd need a pumping plant. “ Not a chance, your old surveyor told me, and showed me his plans for a dam. | saw at once he was away off in his figures. But I didn’t say any- thing. “ Instead, | went out and bought the Bridger County plateau for a song, tak- ing title in the name of a dummy. Here was my chance to even up for my losses, I thought. “Later, I learned that the survey- or’s mistake had been discovered,” he continued, “and that a plant was to be put in which would deprive Bridger County of any share in the water. “So I sent Crawford down here to see if he couldn’t negotiate for the ir- rigation of my plateau land; and gave him my power of attorney, and full authority to act in my stead. “But instead of following my in- structions, he used my name and au- thority to play a crooked game of his own with your grafting local officials by which he plans to defraud you, Miss Todd, and the people of Los Chicos County, and ultimately rob you of your entire estate. “ And the worst of it is,’ he con- cluded ruefully, “that unless we can hang the responsibility of this abduc- tion on him, or otherwise prove con- spiracy, it looks from what you tell me as if he were going to get away with it, “Things have gone so far, and he has the matter so thoroughly in his own hands, that I doubt very much if I shall be able to prevent him from carrying it through.” “And I don’t know that I'd care very much,’’ Molly smiled wanly, “if only I could be assured that Norman ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. was unhurt, and was coming back to me.” Morning came, and afternoon came, and another night came. And in spite of a vigorous combing of the mountain fastnesses, no trace was turned up of the missing flivver or of the supposedly abducted pair. Spurred on by the heavy rewards of- fered by the now almost frantic J. P., practically the entire population of Rio Rita was engaged on the search—boy scouts, business men, doctors and law- yers, even the village seamstress and the village milliner. They all might as well have stayed at home and pursued their ordinary avocations, however, for all that they accomplished. It began to look to Blair and Molly very much as if their original theory must have been right, and that the couple had been spirited off to Mexico. Certainly, it seemed established, if the searchers were to be believed, that they were nowhere within a radius of twenty miles of Rio Rita. Yet all the time, a short walk, if ‘it had been known just where to go, would have brought any_one to the eagerly sought flivver—or, rather, to what was left of it. When Norman roused to a dim con- sciousness from the stupor occasioned by the chloroform, he had a-hazy no- tion that he was on one of those dia- bolical amusement park devices which are supposed to create enjoyment by feet one about like a pea on a grid- €. He was being jounced and jolted and pitched from side to side until it seemed that his: entire inner mechanism was scrambled. Then realizing from the touch of the leather cushions and the characteristic snorting of the engine, that he was in the flivver, he gradually worked out from this—reasoning slowly and with periodic lapses into unconsciousness— what was happening to him. The memory of his seizure came back to him, and he recognized that he was COPMICLOOOKS (S@