Argosy All-Story Weekly, November 13, 1920 — page 83: what you’re looking at

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

THE PICTURE ON THE WALL. again. For coming again I am just as soon as this blows over. Good night, nevvy, and for a little while, good-by.”’ CHAPTER XVII. ‘THE COMING OF GLAXTON. FEW moments—long enough for Blearstead to leap the fence and dis- appear down the alley—John stood stunned. Then he rushed into the house to find Lucia hysterical over the burglar, whose face she had caught reflected in her mirror. Virgie, too, had seen him, but had not cried out. ‘Virgie was so brave,’ Lucia gasped. “ She actually ran after him—yes, tried to stop him.” Mrs. Abbottsfield amended her phrase. “ Brave? No, reckless; wilfully reckless. She was wickedly reckless!” Her voice rose shrilly. All of them were in their night- robes and it seemed that with her conven- tional clothes she had laid aside her careful gentility. Terror rendered her vicious. “Virgie,” she cried, having no other way to vent her emotions roused by the midnight intruder, ‘‘ you are so fall.” In fact, her daughter looked less pleas- ing than by day; and there was a certain inexplicable solemnity of countenance less natural than the mother’s agitation. Of course one instinctively looks solemn over a burglar, but the ghostly figure seemed con- cerned about something else. Virgie spoke to John, not with the free- dom that usually characterized their inter- course, but with an inscrutable withholding of comradeship: “ You hadn’t gone to bed.” The dry words were not spoken as a ques- tion, yet seemed to call for some sort of explanation and he had none to offer. He hoped the point would be overlooked. However, there was something much more dangerous to be faced. The robbery, when published, would bring detectives and other officers of the law, and search would be renewed for the young man who had been seen to leave the train at the Lagville sta- tion on the day of John’s arrival. Though profoundly disturbed, John was struck by the immense advantage to which ») o6L Lucia appeared. Too highly wrought up to think of her disheveled state, her charms were revealed in all the innocence of a little child. His breath was caught in his throat. Bettie, running barefooted on the river sands, faded so completely from memory’s wall that he couldn’t even see the spot where the picture had hung. The vision of Lucia’s loveliness was pro- longed in the search through the house for missing objects. Blearstead had perhaps slipped through the back door while the box was being buried under the summer- house—probably it was he, not Simmons, who had made the noise in the shrubbery. If so, doubly important had been the second hiding of the money-box. When an inven- tory had been made of-.missing valuables it was found that all the jewelry—a pearl necklace and the diamonds—had been stolen. John addressed the agitated ladies in his most persuasive manner. He knew, he told them, an expert detective—his life of hard- ships had cast him among many kinds of people—a detective who would undertake to recover the jewelry provided the theft were kept secret; thus he always worked to best advantage. As sure as the alarm was given, the robber or robbers would dis- pose of the gems—possibly fling them into the river. ‘Don’t say a word about it to any one. I want to be here in the morning when Mr. Glaxton comes; I want to see him. But as soon as that’s over, Ill go after my man. If Glaxton finds out about it, he’ll inter- fere. I give you my word that if anybody can get back your things my friend can.”’ This sounded reasonable, and John was so earnest in asking them to promise secrecy that they agreed amid sighs and tears. But after that they remained together for some time overwhelmed by the loss of the won- derful necklace and the diamond rings. John, who felt confident of his ability to make quick restoration, tried his best to soothe their agitation and bring a smile to Lucia’s lips, and it was not until they separated that he became definitely aware of Virgie’s Cool aloofness—Virgie, who had not been frightened by the night’s experi- "Ecomichbooks. com