Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

42 “Yes, sir. Don’t stagger through any dark streets, sir,” replied Eddie evenly. Val looked at him in inquiry. “Why, what do you mean?” he asked. “Anything up that I don’t know about?” Eddie, as Val well knew, was not accus- tomed to making remarks at random to his employer. Eddie stepped closer and whispered. There was nobody near them, so there was no reason for whispering, but it suited the moods of both men. ‘There was two men, sir.” He paused and looked at Val significantly, mysteri- ously. “Two men!” Val gazed at him. “ You mean—”’ “Yes,” came back Eddie. “They fol- lowed us in a taxi. I kinda thought you might of took notice, sir, but I guess you was too busy thinking. They was hanging around across the street from our last stop, with a cab handy, and when we beat it I looked back and noticed they give ’er the gas and followed.” ‘“H-m!”? Val cleared his throat impor- tantly. So there were mysterious men fol- lowing him in taxicabs! That was good. He could have wished for nothing better. There might be adventure later—fighting, and blood, and kisses. “Js that all, sir?” broke in Eddie. “All right, Eddie. You can go. watch out for them.” Seated at a. window of the club he watchee the kaleidoscope that is Fifth Ave- nue, and pitied the passers-by who prob- ably passed such uneventful sordid exist- ences that nobody shadowed them, nobody made attacks on their lives, they did not Know Jessica Pomeroy, to say nothing of never having made up their minds to marry said Jessica Pomeroy—which, by the way, Val had already decided to do. For some people life was very drab and lusterless. “Some filly, that,” remarked a drawling voice next to him. He turned, roused from his reverie, and beheld Freddy Vanden- burgh, who lived, thought, and expressed himself only in terms of the race track. Freddy nodded to a girl getting into a ma- chine at the curb. “Oh, fair,” admitted Val, hesitating to i ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, admit that, with the exception of one, there were any good looking girls in the world. ““T say, Val, you’re just the man I want- ed to see,” said Freddy. “ You see, I’ve got a good, first hand, sure-fire tip on the third race at Belmont to-morrow, and—” “Well, why don’t you play it?” inquired Val, though he knew the reason as well as Freddy did. “Well, the fact is, Val—the reason why 3 —that is, you know, my next quarter’s al- lowance isn’t due for three weeks, and—” “What about last quarter’s allowance, Freddy?” = . Freddy smiled ingenuously. “ The last quarter’s! Ha! That’s rather rich—must of it went to you when it did finally roll around. So I sort of thought—” “You sort of thought that maybe—” Val looked at him pointedly. “Exactly!” Freddy sighed with relief: That was just what he had thought. “Well, there’s nothing doing, Fred, old kid,” he said with decision. “Why, what do you mean, Val?” said Freddy with alarm. “Oh, nothing,’ yawned Val, “ except that the last time you had a tip that was sure to come through it cost me just fifteen hundred berries—too much money to put on a racehorse that won’t race. The poor plug is probably running yet. I—” “IT say, Val, I didn’t mean I want you to go in on this with me, you know,” pro- tested Freddy. “I just thought you might help me out with a loan, seeing I’m so short myself. This is different—this is a dead- sure thing—¥ got-it from the owner himself. This here Jessica filly—” = “« Jessica?”’ asked Val, sitting up with in- terest. The other nodded. “Keep it quiet, though. No use everybody being in on it. Only brings the odds up, y’ know. If you’d only let me have, say, five hundred, Val—” “All right, Freddy. Five hundred it 1 He pulled out his check book. A sud- den thought occurred to him. Freddy had been following the races—to the great de- struction of his generous quarterly allow- ance, for many years. Perhaps he would know— ComicoookSse©