Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 23, 1924 — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

THE COLLISION. She rose with the calm majesty of true tragedy, and swept through her doorway with splendid grace. Alicia’s visitor, having climbed slowly down the ivy vine, feeling his way step by step in the blackness, had finally seen dimly the ground beneath him, and had dropped lightly from the vine. He landed squarely upon the shoulders of the faithful but faint hearted Cowper. “ Gawd!” cried Cowper; and the gun went off. Like a stag, the young man had regained his feet and bounded away into the darkness swiftly. Marion and Douglas Gilfillan, hearing the shot, came running to the startled but- Jer’s side. ‘Where is he?” cried Marion. “ Did you ring the bell?” hailed Douglas. But Cowper was inarticulate. “ Heelumpjun!” was the best he could do in his present condition. “ What’s the matter?” “He jumped on me!” sobbed Cowper. “ Like a tiger it was!” “Where? Where is he?” cried Marion and Douglas as one. “There! He run!” The distracted Cowper pointed into the dim fastnesses behind the garage. With the suddenness of an apparition Alicia was in their midst. ‘Ts he hurt?” she demanded coolly. She seemed the calmest of them all. “No, miss. No, milady,” Cowper an- swered. “It just went orf.” Marion laid an arm upon Alicia’s shoul- der. “Don’t worry, dear,” she said. “ We'll get him. Better go into the house.” Alicia gazed at her calmly. “ Very well,” she assented. “If no one is injured. Perhaps you are right. I will leave it to you, Marion,” and started for the doorway. Marion, pleased and surprised at Alicia’s ready assent, turned to her two confed- erates. ‘“Come on!’ she cried. ‘‘ He’s lurking behind the garage. We'll see him in jail for this.” “ Or hospital,” smiled Douglas. “ I have something to say to him.” He nursed a doubled fist, and taking the reluctant Cow- per by an arm, led him after the energetic Marion. | Alicia Averill saw them go, then turned from the doorway immediately. She had suddenly found that beneath her well bred reserve lay a woman of action. She thought quickly, and acted swiftly upon the thought. He would dodge them in the dark and as soon as he lost them would make for the car. When he reached it he would be saved if the engine was running. With elastic strides Alicia ran down the drive. Somewhere down there his car would be hidden. She reached it and, bounding into the driver’s seat, placed her foot upon the starter. With an expert nand she prepared to feed the engine and start it from inertia to the power of a living thing. Then she waited. For the time she heard nothing. Then came footsteps—hurried footsteps. A man running toward her in the darkness. It was he. Her hand flew swiftly, the starter screamed, the motor rumbled under her manipulation. The engine roared. He bounded into the car beside her. “You!” he cried; and she slid across him, permitting him to take the wheel. ‘“‘ Good-by!” he cried. “ To-morrow!” But she did not leave his side. “ To-night!” she said. ‘‘ I am going with you.” Behind them the roar of a high-powered engine leaping to life burst from the‘dark- ness. “'They’ve heard you!”’ she cried. “ Gol Fly!” And the little car leaped forward. “ All right!” he cried. “ To-night!” He threw the wheel over, so that the light machine left the drive and whizzed, bird- like, over the soft lawn. He was making for a hole in the hedge which he himself had made. XVI. Ir was the alert Marion who first caught the sound of the engine which betrayed the departure of her prey. Hearing it, she had seized Gilfillan’s arm—he was remarkably close to her if the circumstances of their (E(0) DOOKS ANUCE 211