Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 17, 1924 — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

TARRAPIN “ Mr. Manse Verdell owns dis here land tarrapin I’m nussin’ fer him,” Buckety in- formed them. ‘“‘ Mebbe he will lend us de loant of de tarrapin.” Roone’s attention was attracted by some- thing in the paper, and half an hour passed before he thought of the children again. One sentence spoken by Tuck caused him to look up from his reading. The sentence linked the name of Lois Roone with Manse Verdell. Without moving his paper from in front of his face, he listened and observed what followed. Tuck and the little girl walked over and sat down in the swing. There was a con- versation between them which Roone could not hear, but he caught the low murmur of their suppressed voices and realized that the tone of each child’s voice had changed. Tuck was trying to imitate the voice of Manse Verdell, and the girl was playing the part of Miss Lois Roone. It was clear to Roone that Manse and Lois had occupied that swing at some pre- vious time, and these children had observed their ways and were now imitating them. They were acting the game of love accord- ing to the example which had been set by the two lovers. Roone found this extremely interesting and somewhat disconcerting. Up to that moment it had not come to him that there was any association whatever between his daughter and Verdell’s son. But now the proof before him was not open to doubt. The murmuring love tones of those children, like the cooing of doves in the branches of a tree, presented indisputable evidence. Tuck reached over and laid his hand upon the little girl’s hand. She promptly placed his hand back on Tuck’s knee, and said: “Please behave yourself. I do not want to hold your hand.” But Tuck was not disturbed by this re- ‘buff. He repeated his offense two or three times, and the little girl’s tone changed to a sort of appeal: “Don’t do that, please. that.” But Tuck still acting the part of Manse, was not restrained by the plea. Finally his hand rested upon his companion’s little I don’t like TOES. 167 dirty hand, and she not only consented to let it stay there, but covered it with her other hand! Roone knew from this that Manse had won the first point in the game of love. Buckety, who had been watching this with eyes which nearly popped from his head, broke out into an insane cackle of African hilarity. Hidden behind the paper, the face of Roone would have made an _ interesting study for the moving picture screen in its panorama of conflicting emotions. There was surprise, perplexity, annoyance, then complete disapproval. Finally the face bore an expression of profound meditation. Roone was thinking back into the past and thinking forward into the future. But his thoughts were interrupted. There was a nervous protest, uttered in an excited voice in the swing: “ Quit, Manse, quit!” Peeping over the top of his paper, Roone saw Tuck with his arm around the little girl’s waist. She had seized Tuck’s hand and was trying to pull it away from her body. Roone acutely observed that she was not trying very hard. After a moment, there was a little struggle in which the girl tore herself frem Tuck’s grasp. Tuck did not seem to be disturbed by this failure. He waited a few minutes and tried again. This time the note of pretest was not as keen and had lost the tone of nervous excitement. It was a sort of mur- mur: ‘* Please don’t do that!” But Tuck persisted in his amorous in- tention and in a moment the girl settled down into a sort of sweet contentment, en- folded in her lover’s arms. Their voices calmed to a cooing murmur as they main- tained that attitude of close embrace and behind the paper the face of Roone became another study of expression for the moving picture artist. Once more, Buckety laughed his appre- ciation of the show with genuine Ethiopian _ abandon. The love play ended abruptly. “Look!” Tuck exclaimed. “‘ We forgot all about our new furnace!” The boys ran over to a corner of ‘the COMIC OOO KS (C@)