Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 3 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

ow wee. | —_ ats ny a — , me “ : . 894 “air” of the well-dressed mob, thé arrest- ingly gowned women took up all her time. By hearsay, Julie was aware that the Mo- golia had a reputation, but never had she dreamed she herself would figure as a guest. She liked the reality.. Mr. Falwell had brought her there. Therefore, Mr. Falwell was a prince. Meanwhile— ° “She’s got the lamps,” decided Artie. “It’s sure the little boob works. That’s easy tovet on. Cheap get-up, but puts on a front. Kids herself some. Fell for the ain’t-I-seen-you-before? stuff right off the bat. How’s that? Am I stmnging her or is she putting one over on me? Guess not. Them headlights is too dolly. She don’t see nothin’ but the diamonds and bright lights now. Guess she’s been living most of her time in the dark. Who’s her folks?” An all-important, vital question this to gents of Artie’s ilk; but in lis slick apprais- al of Julie’s charms, Artie had failed to note the shape and length of her face from ear to chip-tip. Rounded contours, skin texture and absence of bunches of muscle often disguise basic and undeveloped quah- ties. There are masculine brows of seeming noble proportions that are domes of solid, mock ivory, or hollows of inanity. There are rosy, cupid-bowed lips that conceal a firmness of character greater than the mas- todonic jaws of some of our generals of soap, beef, oil, and steel activities. Having got Julie as far as the Mog, Arthur knew he was pretty nearly the arbi- ter of her near future. On him would de- pend much; but what he was going to do he didn’t quite know. So far as the law went, the girl was evidently over the bor- der-line of protection. There was no pun- ishable crime committed in bringing her to a notorious cafq@ Oh, no! She was mistress of her comings and goings. She might be a child in judgment, a tenderfoot m venturesomeness; but the law only cov- ers the young in years. After that—vwell, legal protection does go further; but there are ways of dodging it. ‘‘ Folks,” such as big brothers, a hard-fisted father, a tena- cious tigress of a mother; these were not so easily evaded if once they got on the war- path. Artie found himself OramE over a mess ‘ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. of potentialities. Now—a closer view of Julie’s youthfulness rather pleased, ap- pealed to him, but—how about her folks? Before this matter could be cleaned up, the waiter deposited’ a tray on the table, and put a temporary period to Artie’s cogita- tions. On the tray was a teapot of fine ware adorned with a circlet of ‘roses and bearing the‘ Mog’s monogram. There were cups and saucers to match, a sugar-basin, a cream-jug, and a bowl of neatly sliced lemons. ‘The silverware shone as if it had never been used. One could say: tea in the English way or tea in the Russian style and expect fulfilment of either desire. There was cream and sugar or lemon, but— CHAPTER IV. SUB ROSA. RETTY! ”” exclaimed Julie, and put the tip of her forefinger on the roses circling the teapot. ‘“ Why, it’s cold!” she finished. “Sh!” warned Artie with a wink that was meant to be indicative of a secret to be shared only by the few and trusted. “Sure it’s cold, but it ain’t tea. Looks better in dinky teacups all dolled up with flow’rs. Maybe you noticed they gave us the double O as we come through the lobby. They gotter be careful, and you bet they are, but now and again some crazy bug who can’t look at a beer-bottle without getting soused, crawls in and the manage- t have to dig to muffle the squeal he sets up. See? No one don’t get in here without being O. K.’d by one of the reg’- lars. By and by when there ain’t no-cas- uals here, they won’t bother about the tea- pots. Lemme help you.” The cocktail poured into Julie’s cup was not of the finest rye and—its kick had a nauseating tang to it; but Artie liked it and the girl made believe she did, so everything was all right. Everybody satisfied, espe- cially the Mog management. Illicit teapot cocktails represented a profit of somewhere about three thousand per cent which went a long way toward defraying the high cost of graft. It is allowable to say that if the comiclooolkks (COL