Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 17, 1924 — page 82: what you’re looking at

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

232 most those very words. ‘Mr. Farley is not a showman, papa,’ I told him. ‘ He is in Serbia buying tobacco.’ How nice it would be—for us—if you were in the show business!” Farley looked at her doubtingly, harden- ing himself against a more subtle approach. The girl was gazing sadly toward the Nishava. ‘Since we went to India he has been so changed. He was always so self-reliant, so proud, so strong. And so kind and gen- tle. Since our Indian trip he is all twisted. He was just a child before; and now he is— just weak.”’ She stopped, then added with a gasp of incredulity: ‘‘ He hates me!” Farley’s suspicions were being lulled to slumber again. “‘ That’s incredible!” She glanced up at him. “To me, only that ring is incredible. You would not suppose that anything so small could do such harm. He hates me because I hate that ring. I wish he would lose it in a river a thousand miles deep.” Farley slipped down beside her. “J offered him enough money for it to -put him on his feet. He said he would starve before he would sell it.” ‘“ And let me starve, too!” she cried. “Qh, that evil ring!” “ You don’t mean that you believe—” he began disappointedly. “No, no, no, no! They tricked him— they tricked him with his eyes open! Him —the great R-r-rhoda!” She began to laugh, thinly, discordantly. “ Don’t!” he begged; and her laughter stopped. “One of his sayings is: ‘ The wise ones are always easiest.’ And now—how it fits himself! He told you, did he not, of his great disappointment at those fakirs’ tricks? Why, he made them blush for shame! They had no trick he could not duplicate. And he simply astonished them. A fakir in Calcutta gave him the ring—and in the morning the fakir was dead. “Tt was enough to make any one won- der. He had told my father he would be dead in the morning—if he gave the ring away—and they showed us the marks of a cobra in his heel. The fakir had sworn / ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, that he would die when the ring left him, and that he would die by a cobra. I have never seen my father so upset by anything. The fakir was actually dead—actually killed by a cobra in the night, as he had predicted.” ** Another man,” Farley hinted. *““ Ah-h-h—no! It was the same man. There could have been no substitution. He was the man, the old fakir, who had given my father the ring. And he was very, very dead. Well—I will not describe him.” “You should not have seen him!” Farley protested. “T have seen many things,” Marcene Rhoda said mysteriously. “ Let me tell you how I saw them trick my father with that ring. I saw them become more disappoint- ed, more ashamed, as he guessed their tricks. Have you been in the Far East? Do you know the meaning of ‘ face’? At all costs, you must always save face. They ‘did. They were willing to make a terrible sacrifice to save face. Can’t you guess?” Farley nodded breathlessly. “Father had seen through their tricks and shown them others that they could not understand. Some little variation of his old trunk trick was all they could give him— that and the ring. In the end they made a fool of him, sacrificing that old fakir to save face. He was mystified by the ring. They told him it was cursed and that any man would die when it left his hand. And he be- lieved them—the poor Great R-r-rhoda!” “ Ridiculous!” Farley snorted. “ Ah, no, mon viewx—tragic! For it did exactly what they had expected. It saved face. The fakirs had shown him a wonder- ful, unexplainable trick! They succeeded. They ruined his life. Oh, you would not say ridiculous if you had to live with him. I ridiculed the ring, too, at first—and he grew to hate me. We do not mention the ring any more; but he hates me just the same. He knows I have nothing but hatred and contempt for the ring; and as my con- tempt grows, his belief grows. Nothing can come between him and his belief in the power of that ring. “It is more than a fetish. I know that he prays to it, and that he is in constant fear that he will lose it from his finger be- COMMICLOOokKs (C@