Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 23, 1924 — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

THE COLLISION, come hurtling through the hedge which separated those woods from the grounds, to lie hideously inert on the grass, Following Alicia’s gaze, Marion summed up the situation in a glance. ‘“ Ring?” she cried. ‘“‘ You mean run! Come on, Alicia, Brent has hit more than a hilltop this time!” And with the grace of an athlete, Marion swept from the room, while Alicia, just as supple, just as grace- ful in the lissome beauty of her youth, fol- lowed her with hair flying like a golden pennant about her shoulders. Il It was one of the most astonishing inci- dents of that remarkable occurrencé that Cowper got there first. Alicia and Marion ~ had not been the only interested watchers of the glossy car as it waited outside the chauffeur’s cottage that morning; for all Brent’s fellow servants were grouped in the porch with their eyes glued on the doorway of the chauffeur’s humble cot, as if the brass knocker on it might have been ex- pected to tell them at any minute whether it was a boy or girl. Cowper didn’t approve of this business _ of bringing the family doctor down to at- tend to the chauffeur’s brat, as he unfeel- ingly described it, and was just telling Bur- den, the gardener, that no good could come of it, when Brent followed the doctor out of his cottage door and whisked him away down the drive without giving them a word to relieve their curiosity. Cowper shook his head gloomily at that. He was the Averill butler. He should have been apprised with some ceremony of what had occurred within. He asked Burden what the world was coming to. Burden did not reply, but almost immediately the sub- dued crash, and the appearance of the scar- let headed man through the hedge, in- formed that Brent, for his part. had come to a disastrous stop. A housemaid screamed. “ He’s broke the hedge!” exclaimed Bur- den, incredulously. ‘“‘ Goo—!” remarked Cowper, “ Look at the blood!” And forgetting his dignity, he started to run. Burden started to run, too, 185 and they found themselves racing for the scene of the disaster. Cowper won, not because he was younger than Burden, nor because he had sounder wind or limb. Cow- per won because Burden in some manner mixed up his feet and hit the road with his stomach. After that he had to retire to the shrubbery, because the slide he had made had affected his braces. Cowper came upon the scene just as Brent and the doctor picked up the man with the scarlet head and laid him beneath a tree. He found that he was panting in a manner unworthy of the perfect butler, and strove for dignity by pretending that he always breathed like that. “Ts ’e—’urt—sir?” gasped Cowper. Brent looked at him with a feverish eye. “Here, Cowper, you're a witness of this!” he cried savagely. ‘ You saw it, didn’t you? He was on the wrong side, wasn’t he? Wasn’t he on the wrong side?”’ Cowper goggled an owlish eye at the chauffeur, and made funny noises in his throat. “ Of course,” he finally pronounced. “ Of course he’s on the wrong side. Comin’ through the ’edge that way can only be described as trespassing.” Marion Ray swept down upon them, Alicia at her elbow. ‘““ Whose fault, doctor?” she asked. ‘Is he badly hurt, Dr. Finch?” chimed Alicia’s voice. “T really couldn’t say,” answered the doctor. ‘I wasn’t looking.” : “Oh, please look!” pleaded Alicia. “ His head is bleeding.” “T was referring to the accident,” said the doctor coldly. “I had been thinking of a private matter.” (He had been thinking how much he might charge Morley Averill for this trip to the country), ‘“‘ when there was a terrific crash, and I was upset on the floor of the car. It was your chauffeur who first called my attention to the fact that this person had been injured.” Marion turned without another word to investigate the scene of the accident. Ali- cia, all compassion, bent over the fallen man. “ His injuries, Dr. Finch, what are they? Are they serious?”’ : comichbook