Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine — page 84: what you’re looking at

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

426 ARGOSY AND RAILROAD MAN’S MAGAZINE, “Sure now. Miss Dor’thy,”’ he said, ap- pealing to the girl, “‘ you don’t think it was me that done it?” Dorothy had seated herself at the op- posite end/of the table. When Mankus addressed her she glanced quickly in his direction. ‘‘ Can’t you see the case is just as strong against you as it is against Mr, Letcher?” she cried eagerly. ‘“ You won’t refuse to help him now?” “Oh! Aye! So that’s the lay?” he snorted, closing one eye in a tremendous wink and hooking his thumbs into his sus- penders. ‘ Guess I’m commencin’ to tum- ble. He cooked it up to accuse me so’s to clear Letcher an’ git me to help him. But seein’ ’s I never done fer the skipper, it must ’a’ been Letcher, an’ that’s the an- swer to that question.” Falkens lit a cigar with the slow delibera- tion which was the only mark of his im- patience, and resumed his seat. ‘“Your denial, Mr, Mankus, has little weight,” he said slowly. “ There’s more evidence against you now than against Letcher—” “ What of it?” demanded Mankus hotly. “T know what / done an’ what I never done. You kin count me outen.it; an’ see- in’ I’m boss here, I ain’t, a goin’ to leave him git back, because there’s more evydence ag’in’ him than anybody else, barrin’ me.” “Not at all,” returned Falkens, smiling. ““There’s less evidence against Letcher than almost any one you could mention.” ‘What ye givin’ us? Do ye mean to say there’s less evidence ag’in’ Letcher than ag’in’ the doc here, fer instance? Or ag’in’ yerself? Or old Dan’l Gaylord, or Miss Dor’thy there—or Ul’quist, or that darty little devil of a steward, Omura, fer in- stance?” “Yes, that’s what I mean.” Mankus grinned expressively and. turned to me. “Wouldn’t it beat ye, doc!”’ he cried, holding his sides and rocking with laughter. ““ Where’s the logic in that? Why, I never heard o’ sitch a think! Prove it! Prove it!” ; “ Certainly.” ‘« Prove it ag’in’ the darty little devil of a steward, fer instance,’ said Mankus satiri~ cally, selecting the one last mentioned, “Very well. Omura had received a beat- ing from the captain for failing to bring his Scotch on time. It’s not going too far to say Captain Jessup treated him like a dog. Japanese-Malays are the most revengeful creatures living. Omura had access to all the staterooms. He, more easily than any one, could have taken the spider-case from Mr. Letcher’s room and the string from yours. You force me to say some ugly things, Mr. Mankus. But come; admit it. Why couldn’t it have been Omura who dropped the spider-case into the port, even more readily than it could have been Mr. Letcher?” “That’s so!” I exclaimed, all but con- vinced by this skilful manipulation of the evidence. ‘ Why haven’t we thought of this before?” “We ain’t thought of it before,” retorted Mankus bluntly, “ because it won’t hold salt water, an’ that’s the truth.” “Tt seems plausible to me,” I contended. “ What’s the matter with it?” “Worms an’ barnacles—that’s what’s the matter-with it. Mr. Falkens—he’s purty darned smart to trim sails.to fit that darty little devil of a steward, an’ I ain’t sayin’ but what his lingo answers the helm an’ seems ship-shape enough in fair weather. Why, it’s jist like a purty picture of an, old-style four-master, spankin’ full rigged up the channel before the trade wind. But let a squall strike her—she'll veer galley-west about an’ turn tuttle, bein’ et through hull an’ ribs with rat-holes. Mr, Falkens, he’d make a top-notch lawyer, but he ain’t no sailor, an’ that ye kin see without a glass.” Mankus grinned broadly, as if at some amusing recollection, and continued: “Ve see, Mr. Falkens, ye ain’t studied yer man, That darty little devil of a steward ’d been homesick without the skip- per raggin’ an’ man-handlin’ him. He growed fat offen it, like jackies offen duff. The trip before this the skipper jumped him twicet as hard as this, an’ the darty little devil-could o’ signed off at Hong-Kong. “But did he? Nit! He tooken the pen an’ signed on agin, the skipper cussin’ him the while an’ he only grinnin’ like mad. The night of the murder, when I passed the steerage abaft the galley, there was the ~ comicbooks.com 2