The Argosy, Vol. 90 No. 1 — page 174: what you’re looking at

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

168 crouched through the long hours before the glowing coals of her grate. At twilight she had demanded a large cooking-pot which she placed upon the fire, and with an earth- enware jar of liquid and sundry packets of herbs from the conglomerate heap of her luggage she had brewed a concoction that piqued -her landlady’s curiosity. It had not pleased Tia Juana, however; and after glowering darkly into its depths, she had flung it, pot and all, from the win- dow down into the back-yard. She had retired passively enough, but when the Sefora Rodriguez came with her morning coffee the room was empty. There were no signs of a struggle, the silence had remained unbroken throughout the night, and the front door was found to have been unfastened from the inside, although the Sefora Rodriguez asserted that she had locked and bolted it before retiring. This argued that Tia Juana had of her own volition slipped away from the house on some unknown mission; but to Willa such a hypothesis seemed unlikely. In the first place, the old woman was heart and soul in the plan in which Willa herself was the moving spirit, and well content to leave all things to the guidance of her idolized young friend. Then, too, she dreaded the strange, new city as one who had followed a long and open trail, and, in her right mind, would scarcely have ventured forth to brave it on ber own initiative. Had some cajoling or threatening message reached her which in- duced her to play into Wiley’s hands, or could it be that Senora Rodriguez had been bribed to aid in her abduction? Fierce and implacable as Tia Juana’s will was, age had taken its toll of her mental strength and resiliency, and Willa shud- dered to think of the coercion which might be brought to bear upon her bewildered and shaken sensibilities. Dan noted his mistress’s profound des- pondency, but ventured no remark until she addressed him just as they reached the bridge once more. ‘Dan, -you drove a car once for a de- tective agency, you told me. Did you ever do any detective work yourself. Do you know anything of their methods?” THE ARGOSY. “IT do, miss!” he responded promptly, a sparkle dawning in his eyes. ‘ Not that I ever did any of it, but I used to watch the other fellers at work, and I’m thinking I could go them one better at it. I’ve seen them make some bonehead plays in my time, and some wonderful hits, too, I'll ad- mit that.” ‘““Do you want to try a little of it for me?” Willa asked. ‘An old Spanish wo- man disappeared early this morning from that house back on Second Place, and I want her found without delay. It’s she whom those other men are after; she used to live with her grandson, a hunchback, in that cottage upon the parkway. There will be double wages in it for you while you’re working on it, and a thousand dollars re- ward if you find her and bring her to me.” She went on to describe Tia Juana, and Dan listened in rapt attention to every de- tail, fired with instant enthusiasm for the new job. ‘You leave it to me, miss!” he an- nounced confidently when she had finished. “Tl get into that house to-morrow, one way or another, and have a talk with the landlady and the kid. I’ll soon find out if they know more than they’ve told. In the mean time, I’ll make the round of the hos- pitals to-night and have a look-in at head- quarters to see if she’s turned up missing. “* Those fellers trailing us this afternoon don’t make it look as if they or the man they’re workin’ for could have got hold of her already, and there’s a chance that she just wandered off like, on her own hook. I'll let you know the minute I’ve got a line on her. Wish I spoke her lingo!”’ “Oh, Tia Juana understands English well enough when she wants to, and speaks it, too, but only when necessity compels it. She hates everything American but me. I— I could not bear to think of her wandering about, destitute and dazed and freezing in this storm. Dan, you must find her for me!”’ The erstwhile chauffeur promised, with extravagant protestations of assurance, and it was evident that he was in earnest, with illimitable faith in his own powers. His attitude of mind was infectious, and when Willa descended before the Halstead house her own natural buoyancy of thought oO Comicbooe S CO