Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 6, 1923 — page 140: what you’re looking at

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

= Tt ‘was most unprecedented at this time of Stay an .y Poary Ore e fF 4 ee leh ea Sy yay SAY Mig: sO ae : = himself when he entered a moment later, drenched and a little white, _ bueyant a step as ever. the back of his chair and removed his sod- — den overcoat before seating himself. that all you’ve heard about Zorn? He didn’t want me te come again to that apart- -_ ment on the Concourse where he had a room - and it suited me because—well, you know __what I had in mind if I couldn’t come to then of shat happened anyway—well, it ___kind of gives a fellow a queer feeling!” but with as “You've heard, Claudia? I was waiting - in your office, Mr. Rowe, when I heard that --_ court had been adjourned at the start of _ the afternoon session and I knew that some- thing unexpected must have occurred. I — didn’t think it wise to come here er send a _ message before—” ““ Now that you’re here, Munson, tell us _ what you know,” Dreyer interrapted terse- Sig prosecution at the opening ef court this afternoon and then the anneuncement was made of his death. Do you know when” ---_ $t eccurred—and how?” | = “ Zorn was called as a witness for the Stephen nodded very cravely. —_ ““T was waiting on the other side of the river for him,” he said. “He must have 2 been coming to keep his appointment, but - the dust storm blinded him and he walked off the edge—” ~“DPust!? A creeping sense of awe stole over Claudia. Was it mere accident, after all, by which this man had come to his = death at the moment when he was about to do her the greatest injury? Had some strangely beneficent fate, watching over her, —_yemoved him, as it had that other, from her path? “Ves. You mcct have heard the wind! as ‘but so was the long drought we've Stephen hung his dripping hat on “Is When I think of it, and “T know!” Claudia murmured very lew. “Oh, Stephen, I was so afraid—” - «He tried to double-cross us, anyway!” Zz : ‘Stephen’ s jaw set. “ You've been told where = ee body was found? = Bes had turned to the attorneys and You know the lo- -nodiled. 3 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, | “ There are ——— jets and rocks ee — patches of woodland on the far side where the new road branches off from the old,” he remarked. “1 don’t remember any house for a quarter of a mile or more.” == “That’s why I chose it,’ explained Stephen. half past eight. I reached the spet over the new bridge in plenty of time, but he didn’t appear. The wind was howling 2 perfect gale and driving clouds of dust like solid walls before it; you couldn’t see your hand before your face when the gusts arose and it was almost impossible to breathe! _“¥F was to inet ides those a There are several new buildings going upon — the city side of the river, you know, with heaps of loose sand lying around, and Zorn must have been caught in a miniature des- ert storm. ‘The barricade at the end of the bridge abutment had been blown away and believing that he was crossing the new span he must have simply stepped off into space! Lord, what an end!” = “Was he dxcvened >” Claudia rhi fearfully. “T¥ thought bedies usu: at first! How was he found?” 3 3 “The ambulance doctor called it heart disease; I heard him,” Stephen replied. “tI waited there on the other side of the river for more than three hours walking up usually sank and down and sheltering myself behind the rocks as well as I could when a blast of wind came. It settled down to a steady blew as the sky grew darker, and I was wid, wondermeg if Zorn had been located at the last minute by the authorities or what had happened te him! _ “ Then at last I saw a commotion at the other side of the bridge and a crowd be- ‘ginning to collect at the abutment of the old one and somehow—I knew! You know what I was carrying? I hid it under a big Stone in the let amd hurried across the bridge. Before I reached the other side I heard an ambulance gong, and when I pushed my way into the crowd they had just hauled Zorn up from the water. _ “4 workman standing near was explain- ing how he happened to see the bady as he started te clear away the débris of the old barricade, and E waited only long enough to” diagnosis, hear the dector’s. then went back _ Over the bridge, g got the wallet from where — _comicboo ‘s.com