Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 19, 1924 — page 84: what you’re looking at

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

Do4 shouldered with his lugubrious face un- adorned with hirsute camouflage. It was not the same person, however. This individual walked with a different step and bearing, his expression was entire- ly changed, and from top to toe he was dressed with ultra-elegance which bordered on the vulgar, although a second glance would have revealed the ravages of time and wear and the pathetic attempts to con- ceal them. Out of sight of the boarding house he purchased a carnation for his buttonhole from a flower-seller and, swinging his stick more jauntily, he straightened and strode off toward Broadway with the lithe, -trained step of the old time actor he represented. He lost himself in the crowd, disentangled himself, and merged with another moving group, and so proceeded down town to the neighborhood of the Fresno.once more. The block to the westward sported two hotels side by side on the south and a third one directly opposite them. It was to the lat- ter that George directed his steps, paying in advance for a third floor front room and incidentally casting his glance quickly down the page of the register. There had been only a scant dozen ar- rivals during the day, no ‘‘ Radwick,” of course, and no writing which to his un- trained but keen eye even remotely resem- bled that signature at the other hotel. Should he reconnoiter a little, or go to his room, order some food, and start his prob- lematic vigil? He decided on the former, despite its risk, and strolled back to Broadway in an aimless fashion, but within the next half hour he had made a circuit of every block in the immediate vicinity. If Radwick were watching for him, he was keeping under t00 close cover to be near enough to identif this changed personality. e Ordering a quick bit in an obscure base- ment restaurant, George strolled about till nearly midnight, and then stopped at a news-stand two blocks above the Fresno for a last edition, before returning to his room. The quarter he deposited on the narrow counter before the youth who stood in the little kiosk rolled over the edge and down to the floor inside. cago after all? ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, George bent forward to help look for it. His lean frame tensed suddenly and then he straightened. ‘“ Never mind, my lad!” he remarked in a grandiose manner. ‘“ Here is a dime in case that quarter isn’t found. Good night.” Tucking his paper under his arm, he strolled away, but once around the corner he quickened his steps until he had gone completely around the block and halted in the doorway of a closed shop directly oppo- site the news-stand again. When he had bent forward to look for the coin his eyes had lighted on a bag just beneath the edge of the counter—the identical bag, unless his vision failed, that he had seen through his peephole in the next room at the Fresno. It was by the sheerest accident he had spied it. Radwick could not have anticipated that. In five minutes it would be midnight. Already the newsboy was stacking up his few remaining papers preparatory to closing for the night, and he had only to wait. At that precise moment hurried footsteps sounded along the almost deserted sidewalk and a man came into view making for the kiosk. It was Radwick. His head moved from side to side as he glanced quickly about him. George shrank further back into the shadows of the doorway, but the other passed unseeingly and halted before the counter just as the youth was putting up the shutters. The bag and a coin changed hands. Then began a_ chase the intricacies of which even George’s wide experience had not prepared him for. Subway and tube, elevated, taxi, and sur- face car all came into play during the next hour as the man with the bag crossed and recrossed on his trail, doubling back and striking off at a tangent. But always the down-at-heel actor hung on tenaciously be- hind, by a miracle unseen. It wound up at last at the Grand Cen- tral Station. Was Radwick going to Chi- George’s mute question was soon answered, however, for his quarry broke into a run for the gates beyond which the Albany local was just pulling out, and he swung himself aboard the next-to-the- last car while his shadow made a sprins for the platform of the final one. oe =, Commie ooolkKs (C@) S|