Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 16, 1921 — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

68 sah stepped from the knives’ hedge and praised him. “ Well done, my friend, well done. That last throw! How perfect! Your eyes must be all well by now. A little lower and inward and it would have found my heart, mon chéere. But I fear not; you never miss.” She came forward, bent to inspect his eyes. He closed their lids. She touched them with her finger tips. He thought her lips touched them. There was a little commotion near the door. A soldier came in, flicked an envel- ope at old Martin, who cried out in anguish. Pierre opened his eyes and turned to the , exempt, who was holding out to him the envelope, one with a mourning border. ’Leesah ran to him and took it. Pierre came. She broke the seal for Martin and read: * DEAR GRANDPAPA: This will inform you of sad news. Blanche, whose last letter told you she was so very, very ill, has since died. I am sending this by special post, learning a transport with mail leaves Marseilles to-morrow, so you should get it, perhaps with her letter.” There were further homely phrases. Old Martin heard them with head bowed. As she read the missive Pierre remembered seeing the girl in the Normandy coif be- hind the old man when he had been writing the letter for him earlier in the day. There was no appearance of the sort now though. And he rememberéd the words of Merim, as she had kissed his eyes upon their awaken- ing: “ A kiss that will give you vision to see me when I am gone—io see those who are not!” He could not control the tremor of fear that swept him. *"Leesah noted this tremor—the whiten- ing of features—and asked him anxiously if he ‘were not ill. He answered her hastily and strode to the street door. She came after him and was about to question him further, when there came a warning cry of camel folk. They glanced up the narrow, twisty way to see a group of racing drome- daries coming. They were made to kneel before the café, and their riders—bronzed, ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. alert Frenchmen—alighted and strode away toward the barracks that were reached by use of a side-passage off the main thorough- fare of El Yaoub. ‘“It is Major Cherimande, here to take command,” a gossiping sous officer informed Pierre. ‘‘ The major and his aides.” “ But Troiville—” “Must go to Algiers to answer charges of undue oppression upon the natives-— something about that affair of the old Sheik Ben Yousef’s daughter, hein! He could not hush it up; that great lady, La Belle France, may seem to nod sometimes, but she hears all her children, white or black, in good time.” By now Pierre felt normal again. ’Lee- sah, sensing this, went, at his suggestion, for a bit of a stroll about the near-by quar- ters. A new feeling of nearness, of shy. regard for her, filled him as he gave her his arm past muddy places. Her slight limp, from her awry foot, seemed te him as a plea for his ‘attentions to her. A strange peace took possession of him—a peace blended with certainty of resolve. Merim, and the old sheik, seemed to fade from his mind, together with the fantasy of the previous night. Now and then he had recurrences of the strange thirst; his eyes were easeful, his nerves steady, his flesh warm. CHAPTER V. “THE EYES OF THE DEAD,” HEN Pierre and ’Leesah came in together for their performance, it was to find the café full, lights turned high. The coming of the commis- sion from Algiers, the buzz of gossip, had drawn all El Yaoub to the café. Major Cherimande and party were sipping iced drinks near the front of the café. Bazar sellers, sous officers, date buyers, rug deal- ers, chattered in a dozen tongues farther back. At a table apart, silent, scowling, was Troiville, his hat slouched over his brows. He-did not give them a glance as Pierre piloted "Leesah past him, to the lit- tle alcove behind the target board, where they made ready for their act. Pierre need- cConmicloool< C@