Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 23, 1924 — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

186 “T can’t tell you, Miss Averill. I must make a further examination.” “ Brent, is the car still running?” “Yes, Miss. She’ll still move. She’s only bent about the nose. He was on the wrong side, miss. Cowper will tell you. He saw it all.” Alicia totally ignored this amazing testi- mony, and she ignored as well the aston- ished protest of Cowper. Her thought was only for the wounded. “ Cowper, Burden!” she cried. “ Carry him to the car and run him up to the house immediately. Quick!” Cowper stood gazing upon the inert fig- ure. It was the figure of a rough, un- shaven and not overly: clean man in overalls. The overalls were generously besmeared with grease, and the dusty face of the wearer was profusely stained with blood. Cowper gazed upon the figure with aver- sion. He conceived that the duties of a butler stopped short at carrying such bur- dens as this. And it would never do to let it into the house. “Come on, Burden, look alive!” he snapped. “ And you too!” he glared at a youth of eighteen who was the gardener’s assistant. “ Lay hold of him.” And such was the awe inspiring grandeur of that most perfect of butlers, that Burden and the pop-eyed youth laid hold of the greasy vic- tim and carried him to the car, which Brent brought up from the road. The doctor climbed in with this new charge, and over- came his impatience to get home again by computing another one. “ Drive to the garage,’ ordered Cowper. “TJ said the house,” corrected Alicia. “And see that he’s put in a spare room, please.” “But, my lady—” Cowper was horri- fied. ‘“ He’s hardly in a condition.” “A spare room,” insisted Alicia firmly. The car purred up the drive again, shamefully twisting her broken nose away from the sunlight. Alicia looked for Mar- ion. That maiden rejoined her pensively through the gap which the victim had made in the hedge. ‘Brent has done it this time,” she an- nounced in her crisp manner. ‘“ Look!” She pointed through the hedge to the ruins ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, of a little, tinny car, which appeared to have been half truck and half runabout. On the side of the truck part of the vehicle was painted in large yellow letters, “ George Drayton, Mason, Painter and Machinist.” “The gentleman in the overalls was evi- dently transporting a tool shop and Brent has scattered hardware over three counties. Also he has hit our George into everlast- ing overtime. If the man recovers it will cost your father a cool twenty thousand. If he doesn’t the sum total will depend on how long the widow and children survive him.” Alicia frowned. The practical side of the matter had not occurred to her. “Widow and children?” she asked. “How do you know he has any?” “They all have,” explained Marion. “Plumbers, masons, steam fitters, and ma- chinists must have children to base their rates on.” “Tt’s dreadful,” postulated Alicia. ‘ Fan- cy our car doing a thing like that!” They had reached the house now, and entered to find that Cowper had had the victim placed on a great Chesterfield couch in the library. The thoughtful man had also seen that a canvas had been thrown over the Chesterfield first. Alicia, with her hair a golden light about her shoulders, swept into the room like an angel visitant, or a legendary princess. “How is he, Dr. Finch?” she asked, breathlessly. Dr. Finch, conscientiously determined to earn the large fee he had decided to charge for this retention, shook his head. *“* A case of concussion,” he said. Cowper cleared his throat. “Think of that,” he remarked. “Tt asked you to take him to a spare bed- room, Cowper,” accused the princess. “T thought you said just a spare room, Miss Alicia,” protested Cowper. He raised his eyebrows defensively. He assumed dig- nity. ‘‘ This was the most convenient room we had to spare, ma’am.” The doctor skillfully manipulated a rib- bon of gauze and decorated the inert ma- chinist with a white halo. Alicia looked upon the face below the bandage and caught her breath with a little click as she Gomichbooks (E@)