Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 69: what you’re looking at

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

= THE OLD ROCKS. pretty face, but she was quick to hide her feelings. -“ All-right, Ronald Donn, you may take me in for a dance.” Sweeping across the floor she had eyes for only one. Yes, there he was, seated apart at a little table gazing upon the dancers, with that same distracted air, so interesting and yet so tantalizing to the curious sex. With his chair tilted back, his thumbs in the armpits of his vest, his countenance serene, Red Alec looked anything but a man marked for death. Now and again he gave a quick, imperious toss to his head as a slight outer sign of some inner volcano, The more Raymond, regarded this lovely devil, the more her interest was aroused. Every time she swept past in the dance her eyes were searching his. In spite of herself she was carried away by that imperious tossing head. Before the evening was far spent a most expressive pair of eyes were sending flashes to Red Alec, declaring boldly, ‘I am yours.” — These infatuated flashes were scrutinized by one Ace Bolce, King of the Hairleggers, a gang of adventurous jailbirds, who joined the fishing fleets in order to escape more strenuous labor breaking rock ashore. These ocean gangsters possessed an unsav- ory reputation. - The King of the Hairleggers, incensed by these intercepted flashes, dispatched one of his minions to tell Red Alec to quit. “ Our skip says ye gotta keep yer lamps off his gel. If ye don’t we'll give yer yours.”” The Campbell spoke no word, but a long, sinewy hand reached under the table and grasped the fleshy part of the gangster’s leg. Red Alec, as a feat of strength, had often pinched his thumb clean through a deck of cards, and now with equal ease he pinched away a piece of the gangster’s quiv- ering flesh. The victim fled precipitately with a howl. A moment later Ace Bolce himself sat at the table opposite Red Alec, glancing across at his new rival. As the gorilla took his place Raymond felt a flutter, but one contemptuous toss of the Campbell’s nae was reassuring. “Ye don’t know me, do-ye?”’ 539 ae ae ee gc 5 ees “Na, I dinna ken ye, nor ony o’ yer lice,” | “Down this way, ye Judique pigs have got all the pride of all the world. But there ain’t no pride left when ye’ve turned to a corp washed stiff and cold on a black lee shore. I know ye. Fer alll -yer airs ye’re goin’ to git yours, mister.” ‘““Of course I will. I was born to be drowned in the sea, like all the rest of my folks down North, and when I go it ’ll be fighting, not squealing like -ye and your brave rats.” “'That’s all right. Just wait tll youse guys comes into East River some time. a load o’ fish. We'll be waiting fer ye, an’ there’ll be a nice mess 0’ Jadique stiffs, laid out on the marble slabs when we re | finished wit’ yez.” “Ye dinna need to wait till we set to East River. can accommodate ye. is on the floor, all ye need ta do is to say * Peek-a-boo,’ and yer coffin ll be hanging on the collar beams.” = ~ The gorilla burst into an ugly aah = “Laugh in a dance hall if yer please. But yell no laugh on the Sunnyside wharves: when the Hielan fleet is in. more will ye laugh when ye buck into a giant’s gale just around o’ Glasgow. Head. Fer longshore fightin’ or fer deep sea racin’, Judique is ready fer all the Hairleggers this side 0’ hell. into my table for, anyway?” “T’ve come over here to telk ye to keep yer lamps off my gel.” ““Aye, that’s your lay, is it? Well, these here wimmen that won’t be held do give us the time o’ it, now don’t theye And who’s yer lady, onyway?” ) At the Highlander’s banter the sorill grew incoherent. sailor’s sheaf knife on his hip. | “Ti’s knives, hey?” said Red Alec, rising suddenly and kicking the stools away from: his feet. brave one, and we'll send ye home in rib- bons.” Ace Bolce was a good judge of how far to go in quarreling with Judique. He read- ily dropped his hand from his hip. The _ Other just as readily sank back into his y= 3 Right here in MacNairs we Whenever Judique — No An’ what are ye abuttin’ He began to finger a long “Well, come on then, me i m Eomilecbooks (EC)