Argosy All-Story Weekly — "The Purple Limited" — page 66: what you’re looking at

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

632 that he had to get in the rowboat and talk _ to himself for an hour ta keep from double- crossing his old friend Jim right at the start. Ann had red hair, creamy skin, pearly teeth, blue eyes, and a figure that would have made Venus look like a Rock Island water tank. And when she smiled, which was frequently, Skid had to close his eyes and picture the coast of Mr. Hudson’s Bay to avoid melting. His pulse became dan- gerously active, and his temperature one and one-half degrees beyond human aid. Mae Butke, on the other hand, was a petite, black-haired, serpentine beauty, who could strangle most men to death by merely looking at them. She arrived in a gown that did not miss her a quarter of an inch at any point, and Mama Temple clucked once and went into the house where she might faint comfortably. Mae deliberately shot Bert and Jim through the heart, but had no effect what- ever upon Skid, and stamped her foot pet- ulantly. “ Skid,” she said, “if I ever manage to create a flick of your eyelash I'll die happy.” “‘T wont,” retorted Skid. ‘‘ That’s some costume they’ve poured you into, isn’t it? Will it expand, or do you use a crowbar? How are you, anyway? I don’t think this Bert Eno will fall for.you worth a cent. Please be as circumspect as possible or we'll lose our chaperon. Flirt all you please with Jim Baker, just as I’ve posted him to do with you, on the chance that Miss Temple still likes him a bit and will get jealous; but if you really get him in- terested, I'll drown you without compunc- tion. How do you like our cottage? If Miss Temple’s look may be relied upon, I'll ship your body to Dubuque Saturday. I hope you have a nice time, but I hardly think so. Isn’t the water beautiful?” Having thus done all that was necessary to insure an interesting time, Skid went into the cottage and reassured Mama Temple. ‘* Mae is a very nice girl,”’ he told Mama truthfully. “She is as good as gold, and all that, and is perfectly harmless in the long run. When she was a small girl some ~ - > G@e eee te ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. kind lady told her that she would live to win a thousand masculine hearts, and Mae believed her. She is still short about one hundred and nineteen, and is merely doing her best before she gets crow’s feet and gray hair. So far.she has not been stirred, nor wrecked a home, and is no more to be feared than golf or tennis, and not half so tiresome.” - It is impossible not to believe Skid, and Mama Temple brightened. The following day, which was Friday, Skid observed with some gratification that Mae had apparently mesmerized both Bert and Jim. Of course Jim was just playing apart, but Bert, unaware of the conspiracy, was so adroitly manipulated by Mae that Skid and Ann were sequestered for. some time on the cottage porch. Bert had really tried to be left alone with Ann, but feared that that was not to be. Mae had a way of | obtaining what she desired, and without actual discourtesy he could not avoid her web. So when she suggested a trip to the island, while Ann discovered a convenient . headache, Bert floundered helplessly and found himself walking toward the boat- house, with Mae tightly grasping his arm. Jim needed no urging, and no doubt Ann’s mind was being disabused of the fixed be- lief that he was a quiet, old-fashioned gen- tleman with gout in one foot and an en- larged liver. ‘ There goes a woriderful girl,” said Skid as he and Ann sat on the porch and watched the three row toward the island. ‘“‘She has a magnetic personality which is irresistible. Jim is quite a sprightly youth, isn’t he? Of course you could expect that of Bert. He is an actor, and the life is conducive to irresponsibility. I am of it and I know. That is why I do not marry. No actor is worthy of a lovely girl unless he stops: acting, and I would blush with horror to take a good girl on the road. How large a town is Lombard? Have you ever been in Sioux City?” ““T had thought,” said Ann _timidly, “that the stage had lost its degenerating influence. I did not know—”’ “So .it has; so it has,” interrupted Skid. “To an extent. Nevertheless, it’s a care- CONMUC NOOK CO