Argosy, Vol. 85, No. 3 — page 43: what you’re looking at

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

AMERICANS she, as he noted dizzily, sat in a chair and rocked, whining the while! ‘* What—what—” Hemmett choked. ‘What the devil’s the matter with you? Where’s Ramon?” “Gone, senor! And evil comes to this house, for—” ‘Gone where?” ‘““In the automobile—the white auto- mobile!”? the woman chattered. ‘ And I know that evil comes to this house, senor, for the gift has been given me to know when these things are to come. My mother, senor, was one of seven—” “You'll find that gift has some red-hot personal application to yourself if you don’t calm down!” her employer said savagely as he shook her. “Stop that howling and tell me what has happened! What white automobile! Where was it? Why did Ramon go in it?” “ How is it given to me to say that, sehor?” the woman choked. ‘See! It came, this milk-white wagon of the devil, and stopped behind the house—out there, senor! The ever-sneaking, listening Ra- mon laughed as it came, senor, and sped away as if possessed, running up the stairway. ‘“ After that, I do not know. There was a struggle of some kind just over- head, I think—and then, upon the stairs a sound of feet, and after that the white wagon went, senor, swiftly as the wind, with Ramon sitting beside the driver!” ‘And your senora somewhere else in the car?’?’ Hemmett forced himself to say. “The senora?’”? The woman’s_ eyes rolled in scared amazement. “I do not know, senor. They carried something, I think. There were two men in the back—one a white man, the other a mighty brown man I have never seen before. I have spoken, senor! I know no more, but the gift was given me early to know when evil was about to befall those who—”’ Edward Hemmett had left her. Car- men’s personal maid—where was she? He looked up and down the corridor; he raced back to the open air and to the AFTER ALL. 385 side of the house. He saw her, flecing, just turning into the back street. But at least she carried nothing, and _ his heart bounded in momentary relief; for an instant an overwrought mind had assured him that, even in these few seconds, the maid had secured young Edward. - Straight up-stairs he went without drawing breath, through the boudoir, _and into the bedroom. The boy still sat there with his book, and Hemmett snatched him up and held him fast as he made for the main stairway, down this and into the room below where Barton sat and wrung his hands, and Girton spoke what were intended for soothing, reassuring words. “You're ready to start, Mr. Hem- mett?” the American minister cried. ‘“‘ Mr. Girton says that—”’ “My wife’s gone, too!” exploded. “Carmen?” cried Girton. ‘“‘ Snatched out of this house while we were talking in this very room!” Car- men’s husband told them. ‘“ Don’t ask me how it happened, Steve—it did hap- pen! Ramon, the little devil, must have raced up-stairs and thrown her opera- cloak over her head and carried her down to Jones’s own car, evidently with Jones himself in it!” He laughed insanely at the sight of Girton’s face. ¢ And Ill kill Jones and Jil kill Ramon and Jl kill every other dirty little Guanaman that ever took a penny of Jones’s money, or [’ll—”’ ‘“* Hush!” “ Hush!’ Wemmett fairly screamed. ‘“Good God, Steve! Haven’t you any conception of what it means to have one’s wife stolen and—”’ “Yes, I’ve a darned better conception than you think,” Girton said. “ Better than I might have had myself six months ago. Ned, you’re going to leave the boy over with his grandfather?” (¢4 Yes! ) “Then I'll telephone Mercedes and Hemmett MICLOOOK C©