Argosy All-Story Weekly, August 9, 1924 — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

238 She gazed at him, baffled, doubtful. “ Of course you know best,” she said slowly. ‘“But Jansen is only a boy, and I feel so responsible for him.” ‘I feel responsible for him, too,” said Holroyd. ‘I shall do what I can to help. But we have no reason to think that any- thing’s happened to your brother.” With that, and lifting his hat, he walked into the cottage. Anne stared after him. ‘What a strange man he is!” she mur- mured. ‘‘ And yet I feel a great confidence in his judgment.” ““T do, too,” said Ropes. ‘‘ Sometimes he irritates me, but what’s the use of being put out with a natural force like Holroyd?”’ Ropes walked up the hill with Anne, and left her safely at her own door. When he came back to the cottage he found Holroyd still up, pacing the floor and blowing clouds of smoke. ‘ Did I seem ~ very abrupt, Philip?” he asked. “I’m not much of a hand at dealing with ladies. But I meant what I said. I do feel responsible for her brother. If any one has harmed him!” He stopped and his hand, with the pipe clenched in it, fell on a pile of books that lay on the center table. ‘‘ They can’t do in Maine what they do in Malaysia!”’ ‘“‘ So there is a connection?” said Ropes. ‘“‘ Cushing was a pirate?” Holroyd was lost in thought, and Ropes had to stand in front of him to get his at- tention. ‘ See,” said Ropes, ‘ I’ve learned this: Cushing ran a gambling club back of the Mermaid Teahouse. He fleeced fellows like Jansen Derby, while he pretended to be their friend, lending them money. He was a rascal, and some one shot him for the harm he’d done.” Holroyd’s deep set eyes lighted, his lips curled a trifle. ‘‘ Men don’t always shoot one another—in Malaysia—for the harm they’ve done.” “What do you mean by that?” “Never mind. Forget what befell Cush- ing. So you found there was a gambling club, did you? How did you learn that? Through Georgette Clement?” ‘“T watched her and some of her cus- tomers. I had a talk with her to-night. She said you were greedy for money.” ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. “Eh? Money? Are you sure? Well, and so I am, for money or its equivalent!” Holroyd leaned forward, and his fingers, with their grip of steel, circled Ropes’s arm. ‘“T’ve never been much concerned about women, but I’d risk salvation to make that girl fall j in love with me!” ‘You might be able to do it. She’s very much interested in you.” “Don’t you believe it, Philip. She’d sell any man alive for a chain of rubies.” Holroyd grinned. ‘And at present I haven’t the rubies to tempt her. If I had, I’d buy her with them.” CHAPTER XIII. PARADISE AND A PERI. HE man in the blue suit set his empty glass—that still held the fragrant aroma of gin and limes—on the stand beside his chair, looked at his wrist watch, and rising, walked to the end of the brick terrace and gazed out at sea. He was large of limb and rangy, tanned, with ruddy brown hair cut very close, one of a type not often met in cities, but to be found in the wider spaces of ‘the world. As a youth he must have been decidedly handsome, in the days before his brow and chin became so domineering, and his eyes so penetrating. He was not, one would have said, a man of reflection; rather of the breed that has carved out empires, and set men free or en- slaved them, as the exigency of the moment seemed to require. He was impatient now. He saw nothing on the sea that satisfied him, and with long strides he paced the terrace that ran in front of the house. The house itself was interest- ing, and certainly not of a style to be ex- pected on an island off the coast of Maine. It was built in a valley, and set so low that one might have sailed past the island a score of times and never have noticed that there was a dwelling there. To north and south were other islands uninhabited, small and rocky, with a thin layer of grass, and not enough vegetation to provide food for sheep or goats. But the house on this par- ticular island, though low, was large, and was built in an ornate style alien to New MICLOO (”) (C(O) S GO) nn