Argosy All-Story Weekly, December 2, 1922 — page 73: what you’re looking at

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

RED DARKNESS. “Tt’s none of your damned business!” “Why isn’t it? You say you want to team up with me. Before I would team up with any one 1 would want to know just how his brain worked.” “Maybe I love the girl!” Reynolds blurted angrily. Javalie waved a disparaging hand. “That’s the most absurd remark you’ve made yet—if it’s true.” “‘ Well—protection during my get-away, if you must have a reason!” ‘“T guessed that. And you do love the girl, don’t you? Well, you have proved conclusively that you don’t know your subject, your subject being Theodore P. Banning.” “All right,” the amateur growled; “ supposing you’re right; supposing I have made some mistakes. Get down to brass tacks.” “You picked to-night,” Javalie proceed- ed. “ You knew the old man would be sleeping much more soundly than usual. That wasn’t bad reasoning, really. But to spoil it all, you were planning to run off with the girl this morning. Oh, Lord!” Reynolds glared at him. ‘“ She said you had persuaded her not to do it. damned penetrating, I suppose you were wise to my game!”’ Javalie ignored this. “ What I am trying to get at, Reynolds, is your mental process- es. You don’t seem to realize how important they are in an affair of this kind. Why, I studied up on Theodore P. Banning for six months before I even got around to consid- ering methods. “On jobs of such magnitude, Reynolds, preparation is ninety-nine per cent and a big fraction. I’ve prepared for this for a solid year and a half. I prepared for every contingency, including you. I waited pur- posely for this very night. The one flaw in my technique so far was that card trick. I hadn’t anticipated Fortune K. Tillman. And if you hadn’t come butting in when you did, the job, from start to finish, would have taken me less than ten hours. You're simply a natural-born bungler.” “We can finish it now!”’ Reynolds cried. Javalie waved the suggestion languidly aside. You’re so . 043 “Too late. The servants will be up and doing in another few minutes—if they aren’t already. Oh, there’s really no greet hurry. What I was getting at was this: f want no interference from you. Between now and when I do the trick, don’t talk. Play the game as you have been playing it, and—leave everything to me. Don’t ques- tion or wonder at anything I do. IT'll do some queer things. Continue with the at- titude toward me that you’ve adopted; be skeptical—but not too skeptical. And— you will get one-fifth of the plunder.” Reynolds grinned slyly. “And how, if I may be so bold to ask, are you going to get into the vault? Do you think I am going to give you the combination, give up the chance to take the whole pile, for a stinking twenty per cent?” Javalie sprang up suddenly, unexpected- ly; and as he did so Pete Reynolds’s hand leaped from the corded pocket with a short, wickedly glittering pistol. “ Don’t pull any rough stuff on me!” he grated. Javalie stared at him for a moment in- credulously. ‘““Why, what’s the idea?” “Youre going to come clean!” “ Put that silly thing away,” Javalie said irritably. ‘‘ Of course I am going to come clean. Do you think I have been in this house all evening without having the com- bination, you bungling idiot?”’ He jerked the crumpled paper from his sleeve, folded it across the middle, so that the combination of the upper dial was ex- posed. ‘ Here it is.” Reynolds’s eyes were bulging. He gasped. ‘* Where in hell did you get that?” “T’ve got it,” Javalie answered. “ Now, put that popgun away and go to your bed. Somewhere between now and ten o’clock I have got to get some sleep and prepare a sermon.” “A sermon!” the amateur blurted. “T’ve promised to.deliver a sermon in the colored Baptist Church at ten; yes.” He started for the door; turned back. “TI nearly forgot. Is twenty per cent on the dollar satisfactory—after thinking it over?” Gomichbooks.com