Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 55: what you’re looking at

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

The Blond Spiders ‘°S right, Mr. Westlake,” he said. in a weak voice. “I’ll come clean. I tried ter do yer dirt and that——” Sawyer’s vocabu- lary was still strong. ‘Sure there was poison in the syringe. Bodiker meant it fer the ol’ guy ’cause he knew us both out in Frisco. “Bodiker had it on me fer a job back in Chi, and we took some dough off that Plex- ington feller. I held him up and Bodiker frisked him. The same night the bulls raided a dive and pinched us both; but that there rat planted the goods on me. That old guy knew him all nght, but he’d bought a alibi and got away wit’ it, and I got five years. I broke out and came after him. —! If Id ha’ killed him I’d ha’ had two up against me and murder, too, so I took five thousand off him, and he brought me in on a game which he said was all velvet. That was you, Mr. Westlake. ‘“‘Knew yer brother, so he said. He was wise to yer fam’ly anyway. He’d got a pull wit’ a feller called Jack Gunner; had some split game wit’ him ter get ol’ Silas Gun- ner’s dough. Dunno ’zackly how Bodiker got his hold on Jack Gunner. Card game and a woman, I heard, which would ha’ put him in bad wit’ the old man. Anyway Alick took it on. ; “Docs said the old guy hadn’t a week ter run. They was right toa day. But then Jack Gunner fell down and got hisself ironed out by a automobile and died half an hour before the old gazoo; and his going ter grab the whole works if he’d ’a’ lived! What d’yer know about that?” “‘Alick was crying crazy. His cut-in on five million bucks gone blooey! Then he comes back wit’ a wonder. Dunno where he got the dope—shyster lawyer, I guess— but he’s wise that the old man has a what- jercallit to his will.” “A codicil?” suggested Boulters, very much interested. “Sure, that’s it. The darned co-dee-cil said that if youse two, yer brother and yer- self, Mr. Westlake, was ter survive Jack Gunner you was ter get the whole works fifty fifty.” “Good God!” interrupted Tony.”’ Then I’m a millionaire!”’ “Sure y’are, now yer brother’s dead. But yer wasn’t ter get it until yer was twenty-five. Y’are worth a cool five mil- lion bucks, and that’s what Alick was after.” 33 “__!” said Tony. “Then Bodiker raced across to Paris, dug me out and put over the elephant-hunting trip and the mutual- will stuff! You see,” he added in explana- tion to the strangers,” I joined up with the Canadians under another name, so the lawyers would not have known my address, not even through the army, and down on that dump in Soissons I never saw the American papers. He never intended I should come back; and you, Sawyer, meant to get me that night of my birthday!” “You got it, mister,’ acknowledged Sawyer callously. ‘But I didn’t know then yer was a regular feller. ’Sides, I was soused. Anyway, what could I do? Alick had it over me good and proper. I was ter do the dirty work and get a lousy hundred thousand. He hadn’t no guts, Alick. Allus scared ter death. “Tf I git a dirty job ter do I likes ter get it over,” stated Sawyer naively. ‘But him! He was scared stiff of that—of Ples- sons there. Don’t yer remember how he kicked when yer wanted ter take Plessons on? Didn’t want no witnesses. Then he reckons it ’ud be safer and got sore wit’ me ’cause I butted in before the bell rang? But ye’re a regular feller, Mr. Westlake; and yer give me all I was asking fer that night, yer did!” He smiled feebly. “Then, as I said, when he ain’t got no need to bump that old guy Plexington off he reckons maybe you’d get sick and use that fer quinin. But he never had no luck, Alick hadn’t.” Sawyer paused for breath and resumed with the tone of one not caring. “T wanted ter bump yer off right then, Mr. Westlake, ’cause I was through wit? this wild nature stuff; give me the willies, that did. But Alick was scared stiff, wanted regular witnesses and all that kind of bull. Reckoned he could buy Plessons if he had time; but, ——! He wanted a operating table ter get a couple o’ bits outer him!” ‘‘When them squareheads come up Alick had a hunch we could tell ’em a tale and get "em ter put yer away; or I was ter do the job and put the goods on them; see? And then he reckoned he’d have them on Ples- sons as witnesses. Nuts, he was. “But me, I’d lamped more’n a lousy hundred thousand wit’ them di’monds; but Alick, he wouldn’t listen ter reason; wanted Comicbook C© 5}