Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 136: what you’re looking at

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

926 Dan glanced in our direction, and brought the machine to a stand. Felipe promptly hopped out. ‘ Say—stop him!” Danny exclaimed in a tone of tense excitement that carried my glance swiftly to his face contorting into a consternation-struck mask. ‘Stop him, what for?” Jim questioned, grinning—and abruptly paused, arrested as I fancied by Danny’s: expression. ‘And now you’ve done it, darn it,” the boy panted. ‘‘ Watch him! See where he goes!” For Felice was trotting placidly along the pavement, and a moment or two after Danny’s panted suggestion, he turned as one on long accustomed ground, into the entrance to a building—the narrow hall- way of what I knew would be a stair lead- ing to an upper story. ‘“An’,” Danny almost whimpered, “I was takin’ him to the hotel.” “You was takin’ him to the hotel?” Bryce repeated. ‘“‘ What for? See here, young sleuth, what’s the matter?” “"You’ve gummed the whole game. That’s what’s the matter,” Danny gulped. ‘“‘ Because I drove down here to the wire fence to test the car, and just as I turned around to come back, I saw that dog. He was comin’ through the gate as nice as you please and I whistled to him and he got aboard, an’ you can see how he was all trimmed up—an’ I examined that thick, heavy collar—to see what it was like and— Mr. Jim—there was morphine in it—at least, I think so. It was a white powder—an’ bitter an’ I took some of it out an’ left the rest, an’ was takin’ it back—an’ you called—an’—I’ve got to tell Mr. Dual.” “Go tell him,” I said sharply as he came to a half sobbing pause. “ Jim—go with him. I'll watch that door. That dog’s gone to meet his master. Hurry up.” Bryce gave me a single glance of com- prehension and swung himself to the step of the car. ‘‘ Go on, son,” he directed. Danny took him at his word. The ma- chine leaped ahead literally jerking Jim backward into the seat at Danny’s side. I turned my attention to the entrance hall- way, I had given my word to watch. Stanley, the negro sergeant, and Felipe, ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. the Red Cross dog. In a way. The thing was amazing and in another way it was not. We are so apt to overlook the thing that lies directly under our nose. And this —this explanation of the conveying of drugs into the camp, had lain under our noses from the first. We had seen man and dog the first day after we reached town. I had set him down as an addict at the time. But I had thought of him as no more than one of the several drug users in the camp. Judson had said the negro frequently put the harness on the dog and brought him down town but I had set that down ex- actly as Judson had suggested, to the ne- gro’s known penchant for showing off—at- tracting attention—a characteristic of his race. Stanley and Felipe, the dog. I smiled a trifle grimly as I stood on the sidewalk, waiting for one or both to appear. The thing had gone on under the noses of the whole town until Danny had met the dog this afternoon. My smile became a grin. The thing was so natural that it was almost ludicrous. A boy and a dog. The dog had taken a fancy to Dan that first day in camp. And that night at the concert, he had tried to get into the machine, so that Bryce had needed to shove him off. And to-day—Felipe returning from the uncon- sciously nefarious errand across the line to which he had been trained, had heard Dan’s whistle and had treated himself to a ride. My grin became a laugh. It was funny —and yet in a way it had a tragic side. Here was another instance in which good had been perverted to evil ends. Stanley and Felipe, the dog—the dog trained at a time of human stress to serve as a messenger of mercy, trained to carry upon his back the means of human relief, to aid human suffering. Felipe with his faithful instincts betrayed—turned to the conveying of the means of human deg- radation from one nation to another— trotting blandly to and fro—through a wire fence—while two men and a woman lay in prison, because of his master’s evil schemes. And suddenly my amusement died and left me a trifle narrow-lidded. I stood on the pavement practically midway of the en- trance J was watching and the garage. They oO comicbooks ©