Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 16, 1921 — page 122: what you’re looking at

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

THE TEMPTING TANGLE. I saw her, when,-as a boy of fifteen or six- teen, I left Maitland Port. It was early morning, and I went with my parents in a hack to the station. “ August,” he went on dreamily, “ an Au- gust morning, toward seven o’clock. Glory came down to her gate as we drove past— she lived a few doors from us—and she waved her hand to me. I was crying at going away—I was a soft-hearted young- ster, I guess,” he added apologetically. “Well, what I’ve gone through these last few years has knocked a lot of the nonsense out of me. I did not wave to her. I felt too miserable. There were trumpet vines all over the porch, I remember—the porch ran down one side of your house, Glory, and the vines were all in bloom. | “Well,” he added, “I remembered Glory Adair most vividly just as she was then, and she must have remembered me most vividly as the boy I was in those days. I changed more than she did, I suppose, in those ten years.” Glory Adair nodded. All these things he told them were true. She then turned to Cassilis. : “Tt is just as he says, and just as I said,” she told him again. “I would not have known him had we met in a strange place, but even in a strange place his face would certainly have seemed familiar.” “But his hand?” exclaimed Cassilis. “The lines?” ‘IT knew nothing of palmistry then.” Mrs. Ferintosh intervéned. ‘Surely she urged in her steady tone, “there is no need to argue any further?” Grant again proffered his hand. But Cas- silis stubbornly refused to take it. He mut- tered something under his breath. Grant flushed at the insistent insult. He stood a moment, glowering angrily at Cassilis; his even temper seemed to have at last succumbed to this persistent antago- nism. “Very well,” he said. ‘“‘ You see, Mrs. Ferintosh, our friend here refuses to be satisfied with proof that would meet the demands of any normal person. Yet I am willing to furnish every proof that you, or any one—even Mr. Cassilis—can require.”’ 113 “But I am sure I am satisfied,” said Mrs. Ferintosh. ‘“ We are all satisfied.” This time Ruth Ferintosh did not echo her mother’s conciliatory -words. Glory Adair flashed a glance at the girl, and was amazed. If looks told anything, Ruth was siding entirely with Cassilis and against her own fiancé in this unseemly controversy. Perhaps, though, the girl’s attitude was merely another expression of her under- current of revolt against the rule of her stately, well-poised mother. ‘We are all satisfied,” agreed Grant, “exgept Mr. Cassilis. I mean to satisty him, Miss Adair ”—he turned again to the nurse—‘* knew me when we were little, ten years ago, and for some years before that. She will remember a great many things that happened then. “IT would suggest that she ask me what questions she likes regarding those times. You can catechise me as severely as you like, Glory.” He smiled. ‘I can answer right, nine times out of ten—yes, ten times out of ten. If I make a single misstate- ment I am willing to leave this house in disgrace. Will that satisfy you, Mr. Cas- silis?”’ Cassilis did not answer. Mrs. Ferintosh frowned ever so slightly. The thing was unprecedented in her social experience. ‘As a personal favor, Mrs. Ferintosh?”’ urged Grant. ‘“ My honor as a soldier and a gentleman has been impugned, and I re- gard it a privilege to vindicate myself to the utmost—always with your kind con- sent Mrs. Ferintosh inclined her head ever so slightly. Glory Adair seated herself at one end of the table, and Grant took his place at the other. Cassilis drew his chair forward, where he could watch his antagonist close- ly. Ruth—so Glory Adair noticed—settled herself next to Cassilis, on the side farthest from Captain Grant. Mrs. Ferintosh kept herself in the background. “May I smoke, your lordship?” asked Grant; and, at a permissive nod ‘from Glo- ry, lit a cigarette. “ Now,” he added, “I am in the witness-box. You may proceed, Miss Adair.” (To be continued NEXT WEEK.) 8A COniclbooolK< (C@