Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 17, 1924 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

(Seek, of 170 prompt in answering the telephone call to Miss Caby, because the voice which sum- moned her was that of Manse Verdell. She entered a little cottage which sat back in a small yard almost completely filled with vines and shrubbery. Passing one door as she walked down the hall, she entered the next room, and there on the bed lay the sick woman. “Ts it your poor head again?” Lois asked. ‘And have you sent for the doctor? Shall J—” “Tve got no patience with these old doctors,’ Miss Caby snapped. ‘‘ Some of them are fools and the rest are ignoramuses.” Lois heard noises in the kitchen which indicated that somebody was at work about the stove. Then Manse came in carrying a hot water bottle and the grin on his face was one of supreme delight at the job he had to perform and the nurse he had secured for his patient. He stepped forward in a professional manner and laid his fingers upon the wrist of his old teacher, under pretense of feeling her pulse. Changing his tone to the fine imitation of a physician, he asked: “ What seems to be the trouble, madam? Does everything you eat stop in your stomach?” “Stop your foolishness,” the suffering woman moaned. “ That’s too bad,” Manse said, his face as solemn as the face of a horse. “ How long have you been afflicted this way?” Manse looked at her a moment as if wondering what te do next. Then he be- thought himself of the hot water bag which he was carrying. Handing it to Lois, he said: “Nurse, the patient says her stomach ails her. I don’t believe I know where the stomach is located. Would you mind?” ‘Don’t pay any attention to him, Lois,” Miss Caby said sharply. “I taught him -jn school and he was always an idiot. I am suffering with rheumatism. Put that bag to my feet.” While Lois was fiinistering to the suffer- ing woman, Manse sat down on the side of the bed and watched the girl. When she had finished and seated herself, Manse said: ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, ‘* Aunt Caby, I know a wonderful remedy for rheumatism. Negro remedy—the best there is. Negroes got it from the Indians. It’s a sure cure, but you can’t monkey with it.” “What is it?” Miss Caby asked eagerly. “ Rattlesnake oil in whisky. You don’t drink it—you rub it on. I’ve got some rattlesnake oil and some whisky at the house. All I have to do is to mix ’em. Then you rub it on, and all is well!” “You go get it at once,” Miss Caby ordered in that old school-teacherish tone which she used so well. “ Lois will stay with me until you get back.” When Manse returned, he handed her a quart bottle, full of a ropy whisky-colored liquid, and said: “ Now, Miss Caby, rub it on and walk a mile or two every day. Take plenty of exercise, and make daily applications of the lniment. And for goodness’ sake, don’t drink this stuff—don’t take even a little taste—there’s enough poison in this bottle to kill an army. Keep it where nobody else can find it.” “ T’ll go to the kitchen and fix you some broth,” Lois said.- “ That’s the idea,” Manse agreed. “ We'll feed Miss Caby, rub her up like a race- hoss, and let her single-foot around .town a while.” When they entered the kitchen and shut the door, Manse smiled: “You have fixed it so we can be together undisturbed for the next fifteen minutes. I have fixed it so that Old Flounce will have to go out for that walk. Then we will remain here and keep house for her, undisturbed, while she is gone.” “You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” Lois told him. “T ought to be given some great reward,” Manse answered, coming nearer in case she wished to administer the reward. ‘I have done a fine work. Miss Caby is on the way to recovery, you are here and I am here, and everything is lovely.” During this speech he had drawn con- stantly closer to the girl and now he took her in his arms and kissed her. “Tt had a row with my father this morn- ing,” Manse announced when this ceremony COMMICGLOOO© S (C@