Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine, Vol. 107 No. 3 — page 41: what you’re looking at

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

MISS one thousand-dollar note lay on the chair- arm between them. The girl was staring, then nervously fingering her veil. “Your money,” Hildreth muttered casu- ally. “I think some twenty thousand or so. I looked in it, you see. I—it made me sort of hesitate, and then I saw your face through the rain—you seemed dazed, and —well, I knew at once you'd lost it—and didn’t know where. And you acted so oddly since—telling me you were a stranger here and all that—TI think, when you found you’d lost your employers’ money, you just planned some desperate move — to disap- pear, somehow, and—vwell, that’s all I could make out of your actions—just blind bluff- ing—trying to pull yourself together and think. bP] Her lips were parted, her breath coming slowly. Then her eyes were burning upon “'You—did this?’ she whispered. “‘ Found it—brought it back to me?” “‘ [—well, I had a sudden wild panic to —to jump the track—to—get away. If _it hadn’t been for your face—the tragic thing in it—I—oh, well! Good Lord, you are the calmest thing I ever knew!” She had her hands to her eyes; gradually they slipped down to cover her quivering chin. And she sat in unmoving silence then. Hildreth felt the need of some rough and nonsensical kindness to break the strain. He feared some sort of hysteria might envelop her, now that she had been brought back to earth. And then, as an- other thought struck him, he found himself laughing a bit wildly himself. She sat forward, her chin in her gloved hand, watching him. ‘You see the queer thing,’”’ he went on, smiling, “is that I am broke. I don’t think you are. But I—well, it’s no matter. It’s all a screaming joke! Rotten and funny. It’s—but the way you've bluffed it out is magnificent. It’s just wandering in this joint along and aimless that’s puzzling.” She would not speak, and he went on un- easily after the pause: “T rather think you'll have to pay for my supper-check! Thirty-five cents they’ve punched.” He laughed again absently. She was speaking with a cool, mechanical MYSTERY. 383 quality now, as if qdlite sure of herself again. | ‘You found my money. It had dropped from my bag to my feet under the car seat. Well, and you pick it up instantly and rush to give it to me. It took you a long time, didn’t it?” He flushed again with doubting resent- ment. “I know. But, see here—if I hadn’t seen your agonized face out the car win- dow, I’d—I’d have been on my way back to New York—grabbed the first taxi and put this whole affair a thousand miles be- hind me. Funny, isn’t it?” ‘* Yes,” she was saying slowly, but as one who is not listening. ‘“‘ My name,” he went on, to break some curious pain in the pause, “is Hildreth— Lionel Hildreth. I am an irrigation engi- neer—or I was trying to be—and a little bump came. It’s a long yarn—ridiculous for me to be penniless in Chicago—just as silly as for you to claim you were. But, no matter—really, not at all. I’m a healthy young cub.” | Her eyes were narrowing slowly, watch- ing him. ‘“‘Qne can see—”’ she said measuringly. “* ‘Yes—very.” He writhed impotently, for there seemed a trace of ironical surprisé that any man would be so exactly decent. | ‘““See here,” he went on. “I called you out on the street—-the mystery girl—for you've acted so strangely. But—I gave you my name; you might do as much—don’t you think” ““ Not the least objection. Aileen Travers —rather stagy, isn’t it?” 7 He looked again into her gray eyes— they were entirely fearless, but he thought they ought to be just a trifle soft with gratefulness. “* Ailleen—Travers? It—sounds like a mountain river. I’m just back from Colo- rado, and they sing down the hills just like that.” She smiled slowly at his sudden con- fusion that he had said it. Then she went on evenly: ‘ The rest is: I’ve been doing bits around the motion-picture studios in - Los Angeles. Good photographic face, they MICLOOO© Co C)) S Co mM