Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 13, 1923 — page 160: what you’re looking at

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

622 exerted more pressure it gave slowly before him. Ordinarily the action of the door would have aroused his suspicions, but his thoughts were concerned only with the un- mistakable odor that greeted his nostrils. Fur, and a quantity of it, he knew was in the room, and he put his shoulder against the door and pushed. Something in the nature of the door'’s re- sistance brought him to a quick stop. It was as though some one were pressing against it on the other side, trying to balk his entrance, He drew his pistol and held it ready as he listened for a moment. There was no sound, and he pressed the door open and stepped in. His moccasined foot struck an obstruction, and he lifted it higher, but when it came down he heard the snap of steel and simultaneously felt something grip his ankle so suddenly and so tightly he could barely suppress a cry of pain. His whole body jerked convul- sively. The door, released, slammed shut, and as it did so it knocked the pistol from his hand. With that first flash of pain Alan knew he had put his foot into a bear trap, and in the same instant he understood that he would be powerless to free himself; that he must remain there until Bicknell found him. Even before he stooped to feel of the trap he understood not only his pre- dicament, but his fate. This was the pre- caution Bicknell had taken to guard his ‘secret and by which he would add one more victim to his list. For a moment Alan was on the verge of. panic, as any man of the north is sure to be when he feels the jaws of a bear trap close over his foot. But intense as was the pain, it was forgotten in the realization of what was to come. He was a defenseless victim who could only wait for the coming of his captor. But courage returned and with it thought of his automatic. He went down on his knees, ran his hands over the floor, found the trap chain and tugged at it. It did not give, and further groping told him it was spiked to the floor. He began at once to search for the pistol. At first he swept his hands about quickly, ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. and when he failed to find it he began to cover the floor systematically. Still he was unsuccessful, and he dragged the trap about until he believed he had searched all the floor within reach. : He began again, more slowly and more thoroughly, and then as he groped along the wall he heard a step outside. In that first moment Alan hoped he had been mistaken. He tried to fight off his fear by telling himself he had heard noth- ing; that Bicknell was asleep and would not waken until morning. And then he heard the hinges creak as the door was pressed slowly open. Alan stood motionless. There was noth- ing he could do. Fear held him, and then rage drove it away. Helpless as he was, he forgot it, forgot everything except that Helen’s happiness depended on his escape. He stood there tense, ready to fling himself forward, and then suddenly the light of a pocket flash was snapped in his face. At the same moment the door slammed shut and a hand came out of the blackness and swept up through the cone of dazzling light, [t grasped a knife. Even as Alan understood that Bicknell preferred the silence of cold steel to the more certain but alarm-sounding firearm, he struck, not at his adversary but at the light. His fist sent it spinning from Bick- nell’s hand and the tiny globe was shattered when it struck the wall. Alan heard Bicknell groping at the door and sprang forward, striking blow after blow in the darkness. Once his fist caught the missionary in the ribs, but succeeding efforts failed to find a mark. As he paused he heard a slight sound behind him, and the next instant the slashing knife grazed his cheek and started the blood streaming. As Alan ducked to the floor to avoid a second thrust he saw what the fight must be. Alone, one foot burdened with a heavy, cumbersome, torturing framework of steel, unable in the darkness to guard against attack, he must meet a man who was free and armed, But even as he saw how in- evitably the outcome must be against him, his rage drove him to a passion for battle. Crouching there on the floor, he suddenly sprang forward with arms outspread like a COMIC OOOKS <7 . (E@)