Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 13, 1923 — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

- WHEN A MAN’S BROKE. of his kindly intentions. It is clear that he was one of those rare souls who dislike to be caught in good works. He changed the subject. He said to the doctor, ‘‘ You wrote us that Frazer’s case is like shell shock.” “¢ Speaking broadly, it is. I don’t set up as a psychologist. But his trouble is of that nature.” “Lost his grip, eh?” “ Lost his faith in himself, I should say, as a result of brooding over the accident that cost Mrs. Frazer her life. He saved his own—he jumped when he saw the elevator falling—and he has called himself a coward ever since.” 3 Lutwell and Laird exchanged glances, and the older man volunteered, “ Laird and I are experts in shell shock.” “Indeed?” said the doctor. * Tell him about it, Arthur. case.” Laird turned to the physician. “I came home from the war a wreck, sir. All gone in my nerve. Some days I was myself. Then somebody would drop a book behind me, perhaps, or —”’ ‘“‘T know,” Dr. Hamilton added. ‘My wife happens to be Mr. Lutwell’s favorite niece,” Laird resumed, “ and our children are like grandchildren to him. So when the doctors gave me up, he got busy. One evening Mrs. Laird and I went to the opera. A brute in the crowd jostled her, gave her the eye, insulted her with a re- mark. He was a big chap, but I walloped him all over a block of wet asphalt paving. When the cops dragged me off him I was all right again. Been myself ever since.” ‘“* Remarkable,” the doctor commented. “The man I thrashed was one Bing O’Brien, famous in the prize ring,” Laird concluded. ‘ Mr. Lutwell had hired him to stir me up and make me rediscover my soul, or whatever it was that I had lost,” “It cost me one hundred dollars,” Lut- well grumbled. The recollection hurt him so that he fished a bottle of tablets from his pocket and medicated himself, “ Doctor, could we work some such cure on Daniel Frazer? Get him fighting mad, you know, and—”’ It was your 8295 Dr. Hamilton frowned. ‘“ Frazer has enough to stand already, I think.” “You might say that of a drowning man,” Lutwell argued. ‘ Yet if handing him a hard knock on the bean would help you save him, you would let fly, wouldn’t youre” They spent an hour with the mayor, then went back to the Palace Hotel. Three days passed. On the evening of the third day he saw them coming up the street. “Here we are again,” they announced gloomily. When they had sat down with him in his» summer-heuse at the edge of the lawn, they told him a tale that caused him to open his eyes aS it progressed, and to shout with laughter at its conclusion. ““ Rich!” roared the doctor. ‘ You gave Frazer a psychotherapy treatment, and he kicked you out.” “It’s no laughing matter with me,” said Lutwell. wolf, and its hurts.” “We figured it would be easy to explain to him afterward—like saying, ‘ Excuse it, please,” Laird observed. ‘We didn’t calculate what a roaring lion we were going to rouse. ‘There seems to be nothing for us to do but to fold our tents like the Arabs and silently steal away for a season.” “‘ That’s one kind of stealing I’ve never been accused of,” Lutwell growled. “ Steal away? My foot! Think of my good name. And think of all that platinum.” His feelings got the better of him. “A Sweet pair of good Samaritans we look like!” he exploded. ‘“ Never again will I go out of my way to be kind, I swear to Mahomet. Never as long as I live!” Laird stated their object in calling upon Dr. Hamilton this evening. “Our wounded vanity aside, the first consideration with us is the Frazez’s wel- fare. We want to make sure, before we leave town, that their present plan will go through without a hitch, if there is any way we can guarantee it.” ; *““ We want to befriend them though they have wronged us,” Lutwell added virtu- ously. At their farewell breakfast that day CORICLOO© “I’ve been called a pirate anda ~ <S) (E@)