Argosy, Vol. 85, No. 3 — page 45: what you’re looking at

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

AMERICANS Edward Hemmett laid a hand upon his arm and smiled—a smile so awful that Barton gulped and dropped back limply. “Mr. Barton, we'll start just as soon as we see what we’re starting after,” said Hemmett. ‘I’ve been thinking pretty hard this last minute or two, and it seems to me that perhaps a frenzied rush is just what is expected of us—and the last thing to do. The impulse—yours, Girton’s, mine—is to tear out and kill everything in sight.” “ But, Mr. Hemmett—” “Just a minute! We're up against something here that’s looking bigger to me every minute. In half an hour our wives and Steve’s sweetheart have been abducted in broad daylight, and they’re all women of prominence and way, up in Guanama circles. Ordinarily a stunt like that would ‘be enough to start a revolu- tion, and the fact that they’ve gone about it so brazenly must mean that everything has been arranged for ahead of time. If we're to get those women back unharmed wits ‘ll have.to do the job!” “But yowre not going to stand here and deliver an oration about it until they’ve been—”’ Girton began. “T am not!” Hemmett corrected sharply, picking up his little son again. “T am going to take Neddie over to his granddad and rouse Fernandez, Steve. Meanwhile, you call up the barracks and. get Carmen’s brother, Colonel Fernan- dez.”’ ‘You want him here?” “If the Second Cavalry is as absolute- ly right and as absolutely loyal as it has been since I put it together, I want him to come up here-with a full troop and stand guard on all four: sides of his father’s house. That ‘Il take you about two minutes. Then call up Domez, and tell him that I want him here at once! I want Domez personally, Steve, and. I want him here by the time I’ve returned from Fernandez’s!”’ One arm around the boy, the other hand on the butt of his automatic, Hemmett strode out. AFTER ALL. 387 The street was perfectly placid as he crossed. The hour of the siesta was long over now, and early-dining Guanamans of the better class were strolling out, on their way down to the plaza and the evening promenade and band concert. They stared at Mr. Hemmett and his fierceness as they saluted him, and for a moment it seemed that none of the recent nightmare could have taken place —-and then he was confronting his father- in-law and barking forth the first words of the awful news, and the spell was on again. Fernandez did not collapse; neither did he scream or wring his hands; for Fernandez owned a certain solidity that had gone a long way toward making him the richest man in Guanama. Rather, he paled and listened quietly—broke forth for a moment in a torrent of dreadful promises for the man who had taken his younger daughter—then controlled him- self and bade Hemmett speed away and have no fear for the boy. Feeling the tiniest shade of relief on ,one count, at least, Hemmett raced back to his home. “The kid’s coming with his entire regiment, I take it,” Girton reported. “He had bugles blowing before he rang off.” ‘“* Domez?” “He said he would speed here on the wings of the wind, but he didn’t seem enthusiastic about it.” ‘We'll give him five minutes,” Hem- mett announced, glancing at his watch. ‘“‘T have a notion that we can learn some- thing from him, but it’s not worth waiting longer than that on the chance. You see, Domez— Hello! Somebody else calling, eh?” He picked up the telephone. “ This is Hemmett. Well?” ‘This is Jones,” said the voice at the other end. ‘ Well?” “Your You damned hound, I—” “The time to stop that sort of tommy- rot Is right now, Mr. Hemmett,’’ the voice interrupted, and even in the surge of fury MICLOOOK C©