Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

THE FOURTH CHUM, ly mocking smile. ‘ Soldier, did ’e give you a tip?” This was the eae thought the batman. She took the stranger to be a bookie, and she took it that he was in the stranger’s confidence. If only he could sing out; “‘ Whitefoot, twenty to one. Hurst Park, You cawn’t miss!” Instead he stood still, shifting from one foot to the other, and said: “ ’E didn’t give me anythink this time. But ’e’s going to, and I'll pawss it along.” “°R’s a Namerican, ain’t ’e?” asked Kate. ce Yes.” “J thought as much. You can tell by the ’igh way of talking. There’s another ere in the garrison, young chap by the nyme of Morgan. ’E’s a queer, sad lad, and big—Gawd, with ’is ’at off, ’e looks like a drum major of the Guards with ’is ’at on, °E’s been driving the adjutant’s car.” “°F’s in the clink now,” growled Bill from his corner. “ ’E drove it into a stone wall and made a bloomin’ -pork pie of it.” “ Ah, poor lad,” sighed Kate. “ ’E knows wot it’s like by now and maybe ’e won’t mind it so much. This other bloke,” she said to the batman, “‘ ’e’s a bookie, ain’t he? And ’e’s getting you for his aigent inside the garrison. You cawn’t fool the old Kyte. Wot ’ll it be?” This to a small soldier from the Veterinary Corps, whose head scarcely cleared the bar, “ Pint of stout!” bellowed the little sol- dier, and pushed the batman out of the way. The latter finished his whisky, hung about the fire for a moment, then put up the collar of his overcoat and went out into the wet night. Kate watched him go, and her lips formed the words: “ Keep your —— tips to your —— self. "Oo wants ‘em? / don’t. I don’t like that bloke—’e gives me the shivers.” | __ A mist with scattering rain was blowing up from the Thames. The gas lamps glowed within halos of fog, like fog-bound stars. The touch of the harsh brick on his hand told the batman that he was Thomas Scutt, living, with one thousand pounds in sight. He felt bigger, stronger, and that Oriental fifth of him became a fourth. To-morrow he would get himself in the clink—there was nothing easier in the Brit- 645 ish army, where a man, simply for being silent under the cursings of his sergeant, could be spun for “‘ dumb insolence.” There was a bombardier in charge of the dining hall whom the batman hated, and who on his side loved nothing better than to send a soldier to confinement. The bombardier thought himself the lineal successor of “ Old Bill”; he was always saying: “ ’Ullo, *ullo, ‘ullo, *ullo!” and he was always rapping the batman on the knuckles when the lat- ter tried to palm a second piece of bread. CHAPTER II. IN THE CLINK. T was easy. The dining hall bombardier had lost his week’s pay at brag the night before and was in an ugly humor. It took only a word to fire him. The only trouble was that the batman went a little farther than he expected—he laid his hand on the bombardier, and the hushed chewing about him and the looks he received as he passed out of the dining hall under escort gave him a momentary chill. days. But he was Captain Angelsey’s ser- vant, and Angelsey would see to it that he was not punished too severely. The batman had not known that he could be so insanely angry—he was still shak- ing with it when he marched into the bar- racks jail, whither the major had consigned him pending his trial. If the knife he had carried into the dining hall had been a real knife, things might have happened— The clink was a small square of a build- They looked at him as if he were go-. ing to the gallows, not to the clink for a few - ing tucked in between the coal yard and the © depot bathhouse. Its door opened out onto a cobbled walled lane. Within there was the guard room, where the corporal was toasting bread over the coal fire; one gunner stood guard at the door, while the others lay about on two wide wooden shelves on which they had spread their blankets. 3 The batman’s eye was already exploring the guard room as his officer gave him in charge. There was not much chance of hid- ing anything there, nor was there in the small cell to which the corporal of the guard . Eomrlebooks (EO)