Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 1, 1922 — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

876 business,” he said, regarding her shrewdly from the corner of his eyes, ‘‘ and then you will know all that is bad about me and some that is good. “I’m a bit of a rough lad, but the blame for that is not all my own. I never knew my parents, and I grew up in the streets of London with never a soul to teach me right from wrong. Small good I got from that, and it was an ill training I brought to this country ten years ago. You know what Africa is, Miss Celia, and you'll know what I mean when I say that I found more to tempt me than I could resist. Faith, the devil knew what he was about when he brought the temptations of Africa to the blessed Saint Anthony! “ Still, I might have kept straight if I’d not met with bad company on the Rand. There I was accused of a crime that an- other man committed, and though they couldn’t convict me, the suspicion turned every man’s hand against me.” He paused to search for some sign that he might be arousing her interest. He was scarcely doing that, but as the minutes passed Celia was gradually forcing her mind from the contemplation of her mother’s fate to the consideration of her own plight. An occasional shudder was the only outward sign of life that she gave. “T drifted along the coast, even as far as Cairo, but the bad name I’d been given stuck to me like a brother. “It was there, in the north, that I met a scoundrelly Boer named Smale, as rare an omadawn as ever dirtied the earth— and the villain did me more than one good turn. Finally we pulled off a trick on a ras- cally Jew, the proceeds of which will set me up for life if ever they reach the eye of a Parisian jeweler.” He burrowed in his shirt amd drew forth the little buckskin sack that lay always next to his breast. “ Look at these!’ he commanded. She obeyed indifferently, glancing stupid- ly at first at the dull objects that he was shaking into his palm. As their significance slowly penetrated to her confused brain she caught her breath with a gasp of sheer as- tonishment, and her eyes opened wide as they stared at the amazing size of the stones. He sensed her emotion and a smile ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. flickered about his lips. Satisfied that he had aroused her interest, if not her cupidity, he forbore to press his advantage, but as he carefully restored his treasure to its accus- tomed place he was mistakenly. convinced that Celia Holden was just as mercenary as: every one of her sex whom he had known intimately. “We came south to Mafadi,” he con- tinued, “leaving a hard trail for any one who might follow, and intending to strike down the Congo to the west coast. But that devil of a Smale got wind of your father’s gold and the place it came from, and nothing would satisfy him but we should make a try for it. I’d be hard put to it now to say whether I’m sorry or glad that I listened to him. I’m sorry enough and to spare for the trouble it has brought to you, Miss Celia, but I’m glad for an- other reason. It led to my meeting with the only woman I’ve ever loved, even if she did introduce herself with a bullet that clipped the lobe from me ear!” He accompanied his declaration of pas- sion with a smile that was meant to be winning, but it was lost on the startled girl. She flushed with quick anger and turned upon him a gaze of withering contempt. “How dare you talk like that? How dare you tell me in one breath that you have killed my mother, and in the next that you love me? I didn’t know that such a fiend existed out of hell!” “I can’t help loving you,” he replied, unmoved by her fierce denunciation, “ and I didn’t kill your mother. She fired the factory with her own hand, and died before ever we knew she was in the building. But that’s getting ahead of the story, Miss Celia, and you’d better learn at once how serious your position is. I’ve worse news to tell you.” ‘“* My—father?” breathed the girl. He nodded soberly. “It was a Bololo that did it,” he said simply. No artist of the stage could have told the lie, and acted it, with a more convincing air. It seemed to him the next moment that the girl’s body collapsed upon itself as though every fiber of her being was turned to water. Her face sank into her hands and a moan of anguish parted her comicloool C©