The Argosy, Christmas 1912 — page 196: what you’re looking at

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

182 toward. the guard-rail, lifted his arm, and hurled the knife with all his might into the sea. He heaved a sigh of relief as it struck the water and disappeared, and, return- ing to his chair, hurriedly opened his magazine and appeared to be deeply in- terested in his reading when Edwards passed by again. The lawyer had evidently discovered his loss now, for he was searching every inch of the deck anxiously. “Hello there!” exclaimed Selling, suddenly looking up and pretending to notice the other's presence for the first time. “ Looking for anything? ” “Yes. I’ve lost a knife. I’ve just discovered that I have a big hole in my coat pocket. It must have dropped around here somewhere, for I am sure that 1t was in my pocket all right a few minutes ago. Don’t happen to have seen anybody pick it up, do you?” “No. I’ve been so interested in this story that I wasn’t noticing anything that went on arotind me. Maybe it rolled off the ship and into the water. These decks are awfully smooth, you know.” “Yes, probably it did—confound the luck. That knife was of great im- portance to me. It was evidence in a case I’m working on. It can’t be helped, however. Serves me right for being so careless as to have holes in my pocket.” He passed on, and as soon as his back was turned Selling permitted his features to expand into a smile of satis- faction. - Upon the countenance of Franklin Edwards, too, there was a broad smile of triumph. “It worked like a charm,” he said to himself as he went below, where he joined the Meadors and Mildred Sud- bury, who were awaiting his arrival anxiously. “ He’s guilty!” he exclaimed in re- sponse to their eager glances. ‘‘ There isn’t the slightest doubt in my mind now that Chester Selling is the mur- derer of Colonel Reynolds. He walked blindly into our trap.” THE ARGOSY. * “What did he do?” inquired Jack Meador with breathless interest. “ Picked up the knife the moment I dropped it and hurled it into the ocean.” What!” cried Meador. “Do you mean to say we've lost the knife? That’s a bad piece of business, Frank. We needed it for evidence later on.” “Yes. I didn’t figure on his throw- ing it overboard. I thought he was too cautious to run the risk of being seen doing that. I supposed he’d pick up the knife and put it in his pocket, in which case we could have devised some means of getting it away from him later on. “It shows how badly scared the scoundrel was, that he didn’t lose a mo- ment in getting rid of the incriminating piece of evidence against him.” “ Yes,” agreed Meador. “ His con- duct is positive proof of his guilt. If he didn’t commit that murder he would not have recognized the knife as the weapon with which the deed was done, and, consequently, could have had no reason for hurling it into the ocean. Your experiment has proved a com- plete success, Frank, except that we’ve lost the knife.” “Never mind,” replied Edwards cheerfully. “ We can get along with- out it. The main thing was to satisfy ourselves that our man is guilty, and we've accomplished that, so I’m well satisfied.” ‘ And what will you do, now, Mr. Edwards? ” inquired Mildred Sudbury eagerly. “ Will you instruct the cap- tain-to have the wretch put in irons and send a wireless to the United States, ordering the authorities to re- lease my poor brother from that horrid prison immediately? ”’ “ Well, not exactly,” replied Ed- wards with a deprecating smile. ‘“ I’m afraid we can’t move quite as quickly as that, Miss Sudbury. There’s quite a difference, you see, between knowing that the fellow is guilty and being able to prove him so. Unfortunately we haven’t any proof at present; or, at least, not enough proof to warrant our demanding his arrest.” CoOMmicbook CO