Argosy, Vol. 120, No. 1 — page 64: what you’re looking at

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

54 teen years to come. Now, we're going to travel—”’ ‘“* But your arm!” “‘ Nothing serious, just in the flesh. Let you bandage it if you don’t mind. © Then we'd better get busy. You'll have to come with me, you know. Naturally.” Marta asked no ‘questions; no whys nor whithers. She bandaged Dean’s arm and began to help him with his brief preparations. A bit at a time she helped him transfer his cache of dust and nuggets to the whaleboat. When he stooped his shoulder to launch it, she lent her own efforts, working close be- side him. Muffled in the wrap he gave her, she scrambled in and sat strangely quiet and acquiescent when finally the able craft went dancing into the blackness. CHAPTER X. RESURRECTION DAY. N the darkness, Marta close beside him as he steered, Dean laughed softly. “A day!” he exclaimed, wondering. ** Just a day since I came home and found you. Funny thing, how !ong a day can be —longer than fifteen years. I have lived to-day!” “ Yes, Dean.” did live before. Not for fifteen years. I think I- was—a little—afraid of living. Afraid to take a chance. You know, Marta Kree, that’s the greatest mistake, a man’s biggest folly—to fear living. It’s the great- est adventure in the world—life is. If we face it, with a grin—and ready to risk its hazards we get all the joy there is in the world. We may get licked—but we have lived—”’ ** Yes, Dean.” He went on slowly, engrossed in his dis- coveries. ‘‘ I—well, I’ve been dead. Dead a long time. Fifteen years. And I was born again, twenty-four hours ago—like— like a resurrection. I’m glad of that—glad to be alive—a part of the world. I don’t know just how’to make it plain—” ‘But it is plain!” Marta stirred ener- THE ARGOSY. getically. “ I know what you mean, because —well, I was born again—to-day. I think something happened to me—as well as to you. “You see, I tried to think it out, too. Marriage to Burchard, considered in that impersonal way, looked like the safest, surest move. Comfort, excitement, moving ‘about, and yet the promise of somebody -else to do the worrying for me—somebody to pay the bills and take the kicks. I reasoned it out—and now I know you can’t always reason out a lifetime—you can’t plan it— that way—”’ ! Marta said no more, and Dean steered on through the dark, curiously happy and yet curiously frightened by her nearness. Some- | times he almost dared to hope—and again was convinced of the futility of such hope. Dean roused Marta to a cold, drizzling ° morning. They seemed alone on a gray sea until his arm pointed to a distant blur of smoke and the tiny form of a white hull. “ Passenger boat, bound for Seattle,” Dean explained. ‘We're in their track. They’ll pick us up within an hour. Then—” Marta’s hands were clasped tightly. be- fore her, and she seemed to be waiting. “Qh, yes,’”’ Dean seemed reminded of something. ‘ That gold, there. I want— that is, I intend you shall have it. All of it—I meant it for you. Only reason I stayed to fight. It’s all right, isn’t it?” “Tf you feel that way about it. After all, it’s only—gold. But, Dean, there’s more ‘than that to settle between us—”’ CC Eh?” ‘‘ There’s more than that you'll have to give me. Do as you please with the gold. But give me, Dean, can’t you see, I want—” “Oh!” said Dean, staggered by his dis- covery. ‘ Marta, do you care—for me— that way? The way that I—love you!”’ The first officer of the Queen, who had-- been watching the whaleboat through the glass, turned, puzzled, to the captain. ‘‘ Damned if I can make it out,” he growled. “‘ Damned if I can! He’s show- ing a signal, all right; wants us to stop. But it looks to me more like a damn honey- moon than a shipwreck!” (The End.) s wa « OOK —S ara C@ CO inn