Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 117: what you’re looking at

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

THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL. in it since I couldn’t see any more of Bessie. We're getting along nicely and I don’t think it “ll take long to find out all she knows.” “What did you learn so far?” Cliff asked when their order had been taken. ‘“ She looked like a shy little thing.” ° “She is, but Johnny Franck knew me, of course, and so she took me on faith. And the candy helped to break the ice. If they’re not both sick from it to-morrow, I’m going to show her how to fold and cut a new kind of paper doll. That won’t amuse Johnny, and he’ll run off and play by himself when he sees there isn’t any more candy; so I'll have a better chance to talk to her. I didn’t want to ask her too many questions at first, for she’s been warned not to talk to strangers, but she'll forget after a while.” : Ethel paused to spear an oyster daintily and then went on: ‘“ A friend of her mother made that dress for the doll she was carry- ing, and brought it to her last night. Did you see her?” Cliff nodded. “ Ves: she came with a man who looked like a typical young tough.” ‘“ He’s a short-change artist with a carni- val!” Ethel laughed. ‘‘ You would have died at the simple way the kiddie gave it away without dreaming what she was talk- ing about. The doll was given to her by ‘ Joe,’ whoever he is, and she seemed aw- fully fond of him. I gathered only that he was a pal of her uncle. She mentioned an ‘Al,’ too, and somebody called ‘ Lefty.’ ” ‘“‘ T’ve heard of them both, and seen them, too.” Cliff told her of the letters he had opened and the snatches of conversation in the saloon, and when he had finished he asked: ‘‘ Was that all Bessie told you?” “No. She’s staying home from school this week because she’s just_getting over the mumps; her mother lately sold out a little fancy store she had around on the avenue, and that’s why they’ve had a phone put in the flat. They used to use the one in the store, I guess; it would have been better for her uncle if he’s carrying on any crooked business.” Ethel sat back while the soup was sub- stituted for the oyster plates, and then con- tinued: 147 ‘T asked her what her mother was going to do now, and she said she didn’t know, but she herself was going to be sent away to school next year and only come home for the holidays. She chattered a lot about somebody named ‘ Annie,’ who was ‘ awful pretty and stylish and crazy about seeing the horses run.’ She’d won quite a lot of money on them, too, and Bessie’s Uncle Charlie was just wild about her. ‘* There isn’t a more superstitious woman in the world than the one that follows the races, Mr. Nichols, and I got Annie’s last name and her address from Bessie, and went around to see her in the afternoon.” Cliff stared. ‘“ What excuse did you make, and what does her being superstitious have to do with it?” : ‘“ Everything, for I brought a pretty well soiled pack of cards with me and told her I was a fortune teller that Mrs. Farley had sent to her.” Ethel laughed again. ‘‘ She is a big, frowsy looking blonde, but very pretty, with a lot of small-stoned rings on, and she fell for my game like a baby. If made two dollars, but it was worth it, for I'd looked up the dope sheet in the paper first, and honestly I picked the winner for her to-day! What do you think of that? I shouldn’t wonder if you’d see her pretty soon, for I told her a dark young man was mad about her, and that something had happened that was going to get him into a terrible lot of trouble; something con- nected with a message he’d expected but didn’t get, and that he was frightened to death about it right now.” “You didn’t go too far?” Cliff asked anx- iously. ‘“‘ We don’t want to frighten him any more than he is now.” “No. She'll find out, of course, that Bessie’s mother never heard of me, but that won’t matter as long as she doesn’t catch sight of me, and I’ll take good care of that!” Ethel exclaimed as she cut the juicy filet mignon before her. “This girl Annie Leonard was scared herself when I told her, but I saw that it didn’t surprise her, and she honestly be- lieved I read it in the cards. ‘““T moved them around a little the way Mr. Roper has showed me at odd times, Comicoooks (<@)