The Argosy, Christmas 1912 — page 105: what you’re looking at

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

- BEFORE THE DARK. 91 match. Then it would all be darkness. He would be blind, blind for life. CHAPTER II. ENTER THE GIRL. THE dead silence which succeeded the prediction continued unbroken for several minutes. The two men waited to hear if the gipsy would say anything more. It soon became evident -that she would not. At length a movement of Osgood’s broke the tension. Bennett met the seer’s eye, and looked hard at her. She returned his gaze evenly. Osgood looked at him, half in sympathy, halt in curiosity. Bennett was silent. He was con- scious of a great desire to get away, to get out into the air, to be where he would see— He touched Osgood’s arm. “Come on,” he said; “let’s get out of this.” He turned and made for the en- trance. Osgood paused to pay the prophetess, who thanked him gravely, and followed. Bennett had already gone some dis- tance. “What's the hurry?” asked Os- good as he caught him up. “ You have plenty of time.” “ Not now. Before the parade be- gins I want to find Miss Trevor and get her a good location, and so on.” “Oh, I see,” said Osgood in a dif- ferent tone. Bennett was too preoccupied to no- tice it. His temporary cheerfulness had vanished. The former mood had returned. “Well,” inquired Osgood at length, “what did you think of it?” Bennett laughed without amuse- ment. “She revenged herself, didn’t she? Evidently it doesri’t pay to display one’s disbelief. I wonder what worse dose she would have given me if I had said more? ” “ None, of course,” returned Os- good in dignified defense. “It isn’t any question of giving doses. It’s sim- ply what she sees. She’s a sort of in- strument, so to speak.” To Osgood’s surprise, Bennett did not retort with his usual ridicule. On the contrary, he seemed to give some consideration to what Osgood said. “IT wonder,” he remarked thought- fully, “if there could be anything in it? It doesn’t seem possible, because the whole business is so obviously a fake. And yet—” he broke off. Osgood took advantage of the op- portunity to press home his argu- ments. For once he was_ sensible enough to restrain himself and intro- duce his views more smoothly by half agreeing with Bennett. “A lot of them are fakes, of course, but some are on the level. This one is, I think. I should be inclined my- self to put a good deal of faith in what she said.” There was a pause; they walked on in silence. “You know,” said Bennett, as though continuing a train of thought, “T’ve noticed once or twice lately that at times my sight hasn’t been quite all it might. Nothing much, of course.” “Well, what?” “Oh, only trifling things. In fact, I hadn’t really thought about them un- til we saw this old woman.” Osgood’s face was grave. “This does not sound good,” he said. “ And it just occurs to me that to-day’s isn’t the first prophecy that has been made about you.” “Why, was there another? ”’ “Do you remember a couple of years ago, when we went on that cruise, Eidith—I mean, Miss Trevor— read your hand? Just after you had met her.” Bennett's face lit up. “T should say I do,” he said. Two years previously he had indeed met Miss Trevor, and she had read his hand, although only in fun. And soon afterward, when that playful incident cComicbooks CO