Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 18, 1925 — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

SOFT MONEY. get you into serious trouble. I’m liable to resign from my job.” “ Do you call that trouble?” “ Without me you would be a ship with- out a rudder, a watch without works, a horse without a rider. If I hadn’t joined you back in Kansas City you would already be so bored with yourself you’d be going ~to work or something horrible like that. Remember how I saved you from being married to Arabella.” “Poor Arabella! I hope she’ll be happy somehow. Maybe I’ll go back and marry her yet!” ‘You are more likely to marry the peach who thought you were taking a liberty with her instead of the statue.” In this way they amused themselves un- til the second sitting bugle summoned them into the dining saloon. “ Here’s a riddle for you,” said Howard as he picked up the menu. “ What's the difference between this bill of fare and the one in any Oklahoma hotel?” “ Lots I suppose.” ‘“Thi§ one has a hundred dishes on it. So has the other. But this one means what it says and all you can get at the hotel is ham and eggs.” “ There’s something in that. it.” The first meal on an ocean liner is ex- citing, because all the diners are looking over all the other diners, wondering whom they are going to meet, and how they will like them if they meet them. Howard’s head spun around as if it were on springs. Rod was thrilled a bit himself as at the assemblage. | “There are an awful lot of people here who look like plain folks, just small town and country people on a holiday,” he said. “Ves, but some of them are very dif- ferent. Look at that girl at the captain’s table. Isn’t she ravishing?” Rod looked. He saw the back of a grace- ful head crowned by a wealth of beautiful black hair. It was all he needed to recog- nize her. “T gee her,” he said dryly. “ That is the young lady who spurned me as we passed the Statue of Liberty.” Let’s see 227 ‘“So that’s the one. Good Heavens, she is lovely! Why crowned heads would be glad to talk to her. No wonder she couldn’t waste time on you. She’s liable to be hard, even for me, to meet. But I’m going to try. There’s Mary Norman over there. That girl friend of hers is a frump.” CHAPTER X. ROD GETS HIMSELF DISLIKED, I’m glad we didn’t get at her table. Y the middle of the afternoon the com- pany on the Durania had settled it- self comfortably for the voyage. The weather was warm and the sea was calm. The big ship slipped through the water without the lightest movement and a com- plete absence of vibration. The deck chairs were ranged on the sunny side of the three decks in two long lines. Women passengers wrapped rugs around their limbs, and leaned back among their pillows in perfect ease. A number of men and young women were already walking around the decks, counting the laps and gradually turning them into miles. It was not only good exercise, but a tour of in- spection. Howard and Rod were among the promenaders. Pretty soon Mary Norman spied them and haled them over to meet Mrs. and Miss Dupoy. The Thomases were not visible. The Dupoys turned out to be agreeable if plain sort of folks. Rod was quickly at home with them, which was fortunate, be- cause Howard had drawn Mary from her chair and taken her for a walk. The hours passed pleasantly. Stewards came with trays containing tea, buttered bread and cakes. It was Rod’s first expe- rience with afternoon tea, and, being a healthy young man, he consumed vast num- bers of little sandwiches and cakes, but de- clined the tea because it contained lemon instead of sugar and cream. Frances Dupoy laughed at him. “That shows you are a Western plebeian. Nobody in the East dreams of taking tea with cream and sugar any more. And if you eat all those cakes you won’t have any appetite for dinner.” COMME OOS (E(0)