Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 4 — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

WHISPERING ROCK. Serviss never spoke of how Dorothy had overcome her panic and gone back to fight —too late, it was true, but she had gone, although almost in collapse from fear. From the servants Rex had. heard of that part of the incident, but when he had mentioned it his father had dismissed it with an angry sneer, declaring that the girl had lied in an attempt to make her cowardly pose heroic. So, as Serviss wished, there welled in the boy a resentment against his dead sis- ter’s chum which bordered on hatred. It was at the Rock that they met. She was there when he came down the path from the road. | Frowning, he stopped on catching sight of her, for Dorothy was on her knees, her head bowed in prayer. His lip curled in scorn. Remembering what his father had said, he told himself that ‘she had need to pray there at the death-place of the friend and the scene of her own fatal cowardice. He did not approach until she had risen to her feet and was moving slowly away. Without looking at her he would have passed, although they were within a few inches of each other on the narrow path. 66 Rex! ”» Even then he would have gone by with- out acknowledgment, but she caught his arm. Flushing, he swung his head to face her. His eyes smoldered. Why should she be here and Jacqueline dead? Lips tight, he stared at her. “ Rex,” she spoke softly, ‘‘ why can’t we be—friends? We—both loved Jack—” — It might have been his father laughing, so harsh was the note— “ Loved her—” he derided. ‘ You loved her—and you ran and left her to be—to be killed!’” He laughed again and would have gone on, but she held his arm. Her gaze compelled him to meet it, and, unaccount- ably, he became restless before the clear eyes that were so rich and still so sorrow- ful: Grudgingly he saw that she was pretty —and hastened to remind himself that Jacqueline had been beautiful. Watching her eyes grow moist, he smiled and tried to convince himself that he was glad he had hurt her. But he could not be 52 sure that he was glad. Had his father wit- nessed this he would have nodded wisely and mentally commented that he had been right in holding Rex not yet old enough nor strong enough in his hatred to take part in the exaction of vengeance. ‘““T did run, Rex—yes,” she said quietly. ‘“¢ J—I thought Jack was running with me, But—I—as soon as I could make my body move, I went back. Jack was—was—” Her voice broke, and all the horror of that minute three years ago crept into her ex- pression. The boy stood still. His father had said that she lied in telling this. But, hearing it from her own lips, it seemed that his father must be wrong. To hear her affirm it and meet his accus- ing, condemning gaze so frankly as she did, gave her words the brand of truth. | He wanted to resent that—knew that he should resent it. To believe her he must disbelieve his father. She had a reason for lying—to conceal her cowardice—his father had—none. Of course he hadn’t. Why should his father wish to arouse hatred against this girl? ‘“Why don’t you believe me, Rex?” she asked. ‘I was a coward—I know that— but I did the best I could. When I ran, I thought Jack was with me. Then when I fell—there,” she pointed a few yards along the path, ‘and saw Jack was struggling with the man, I—I could not move, I was so frightened. Then—then I did go back—”’ She paused again, unable to speak of that moment when she had found that Jacque- line lay battered in the gorge—of the climax that had occurred in the tragedy while she was scrambling to the summit of the rock. “Look, Rex.” She was pathetically eager to convince him. She pushed the hair from her temple. ‘“ Look. There is the scar he made when he felled me as I tried to stop him—or make him kill me, too.” “You got that before you ran,” blurted the boy. He was angry now, not at her, but at himself. He was thinking, against his will, how little difference it would have made had this girl thrown herself into that death-struggle. His glowering eyes went over her small mM (SO) NOOLK