Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 3 — page 55: what you’re looking at

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

by Jack Bechdolt of Burke’s Summer and Winter Re- sort - Hotel on Skookum Inlet, leaned in the door of the hotel garage— once a wagon shed—eying the two men be- fore him with a look that assayed their re- sources down to the last fraction of a cent. He was not displeased with the result. The pair were obviously loggers and as HH or se: JOHN BURKE, proprietor obviously loggérs on a holiday. One could tell that by their dress. Convention, estab- lished probably when the first tree was felled, prescribes that an honest-to-goed- ness logger, when he is all dolled up, shall wear a suit of diagonal black serge cut to give him plenty of room. The coat is dou- ble breasted and square; each leg of the trousers has a full yard of material, and is creased along the seams to give the limb the effect of a squared timber as it drapes with a plumb-line directness from the hip to boot-top. Added to this the men wore -the logger’s hat, round and of black felt, and white boiled shirts, severe collars, and plain, black string ties. Yes, they were loggers, at leisure, and with money, for they were inquiring the price of the decrepit old Tin Lizzie Honest John had kept in his garage for five years past in the hope of passing it on to some- - body so deaf, blind, and innocent he would pay money for it. “What you boys going to do with a car?’’? Honest John wanted to know. “ Aim- ing to start a jitney, maybe?” Wally Newell, whe acted as spokesman, sheok his head. “Going to freight stuff in for old man Merris, down to Klahowya Bay?” ce Nope.” “Well, what the Sam Hill—” . “Well, it’s this way, Burke,” Newell grew confidential. ‘‘ Me and Bruce Ray has quit old man Morris. We ain’t workin’ for nobody, now. We’re done. Glory be to prohibition, we don’t need to work no more for a time. We've re-tired.”’ Burke’s glance brightened. ‘“ Hello! You don’t mean you're bootlegging?” ‘Hell, no. We got rich, that’s all. We aim to spend it now. Y’ see, Burke, it’s this way. After the State went dry a couple years back, me and Bruce took a solemn vow we wouldn’t go to town again till we had enough to go to some State where they sold something beside this damn hog-wash like Beer-O and ice-cream soda. Before we got right well agreed on where we was goin’, and when, the whole dog- gone United States goes to the drys, and there ain’t nothin’ left for a logger to do but work. We kind of got the habit, and old man Morris get to holding our money for us till it piled up somethin’ scandalous. T’other day we find we’re rich, and we can’t stand the strain no more. We just naturally got to do somethin’ with all this money, so we re-tired, and decided to buy us an automobile and see the country. “See America first, that’s our motto 429 Digitized by (Go gle Original from (COO NOO S C@ nin THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY