Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 18, 1925 — page 83: what you’re looking at

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

SOFT “Vou shut your face or I'll break it for you.” Howard saw that his friend was burning up, and had sense enough to subside. He undressed and climbed into his bunk, “ All right, old socks. I won't try to bridge the gap. But if she speaks to me can I answer her, or must I cut her dead?”’ “T don’t mean to be rough with you,” apologized Rod. ‘“ You certainly are not to blame, but I feel very bitterly about this girl, and I wish the darn voyage was over. It’s spoiled for me. I’ve got a reputation on this ship as a chaser and I'll be afraid to look any woman in the eye.” ‘Oh, Miss Thomas isn’t the kind who'll talk. Only Mary Norman and myself know anything about it, and we'll certainly keep quiet. Try to forget it. There are lots of girls who’ll be glad to play around with you.” “Tm off the whole tribe for life.” “Well, let’s go to sleep. Maybe the ship will sink before morning and you won’t have any more worries.”’ Rod put out the light, clambered back into the upper berth and there was silence in the stateroom. Pretty soon it was broken by snores from Howard. Rod stayed awake for hours. Howard Campbell is not the hero of this story, neither is he the double-dy. _ villain. It’s been necessary to record some mean things that he has done and some generous ones. He was just a thoroughly selfish, volatile and. shallow-souled young fellow with a lot of brains that he had never put to work, an easy conscience and a desire to be as comfortable as possible with the least effort. He had attached himself to Rod Mc- Garry because he saw him suddenly wealthy, a bit bewildered and very much alone. He figured that Rod’s riches should result profitably for Howard. He had hoped to obtain control of the purse strings, to find Rod careless of expenditure and ex- ceedingly easy to manage. While Howard would not have stolen money from Rod in the exact sense, he would have had no scruples in padding ex- pense bills, making deals with merchants and tradesmen to pay him commissions and MONEY, 233 otherwise fatten himself at the expense of his employer. But in Rod he had en- countered a native shrewdness, a Scotch caution and a refusal to take him seriously, which had baffled him. It was generous of Rod to engage him as a secretary when he had no need for such an officer. It was decent of him to take Howard off to Europe as a companion, and it was very obliging to permit Howard to appear to be the moneyed person of the pair. Howard admitted these things to himself and he was as grateful as he was capable of being. But it was exasperating not to be allowed to improve the first real opportunity to fix himself that had arrived during his life. Beneath his mask of insouciance, Howard Campbell felt keenly his complete lack of accomplishment. Without the will to grind at labor he wanted to enjoy its fruits From the hour he knew that he was going abroad with McGarry, he had been won- dering if he might not meet a rich girl who would respond to his bag of attractions and enable him to make an alliance which would remove him from the ranks of toilers. During the first day of the voyage he had met three girls. Mary Norman was an agreeable companion, but she was as poor as himself; studying to be a teacher. That let her out. Miss Potter-Dunlap was rich as mud. Her mother was good-natured, rather com- mon; impressed already by his: surface qualities. He might do well in that direc- tion. But darn it, the girl wasn’t pretty and Howard was unreasonable enough to wish for beauty as well as wealth in ex- change for the gifts which he could not bring himself. There remained Gertrude Thomas. There was a girl—an exquisite darling of a girl, high bred, cultured, rare and fine, daughter of an old Boston family. Her father was a wealthy manufacturer of shoes; so he had learned from Mary. She ap- pealed to him tremendously. Could he make an equal impression on her? He knew well enough that Rod was hit hard in that direction. The very vehe- mence by which he declared that he hated the girl proved otherwise. The two af- (OLIGO KS (EO)