Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 60: what you’re looking at

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

850 = gratified by the achievements of his humble assistant in Sleaford that the town greeted a new acting sergeant within a week. Thus it happened, by seeming chance, that a slim, olive-skinned, black-haired man of about thirty had no sooner settled him- self in a corner seat of a first-class carriage at Euston next morning at a quarter to seven, he having caught the train by a bare margin of a couple of minutes, than a slim- mer and much smaller man, probably ten years his senior, hopped into the same com- partment just before the warning whistle signaled the departure of the train. The olive-skinned person looked slightly annoyed; but the later arrival grinned amiably and said: “ Close shave, that! I nearly missed it.” The first man in possession said nothing. He was probably regretting his earlier in- ability to get the carriage door locked by the help of a half crown, but the train was gliding out of the station already. His diminutive traveling companion, arranging a couple of portmanteaus on the luggage rack, rattled on cheerfully, though his back was turned: ‘“ Queer world, isn’t it? Here am I, by the skin of my teeth, in an early train for Birmingham, yet I actually have a seat booked in the Continental Express from Charing Cross to-day for Calais and Ath- ens! Just imagine—Brummagem instead of the Acropolis! A Mid-Victorian town hall substituted for the Parthenon! Don’t you sympathize with me?” Oi course, his back being turned, the traveler who had changed routes so cu- riously could not detect the startled look which flitted across the other man’s eyes when Athens was mentioned. But if it ~ were his simple intent to force conversation from unwilling lips, he succeeded admir- ably. His concluding question, now that he had turned and was seated, brought the instant retort: ‘You certainly seem to vary your desti- nations rather remarkably. Do you know Athens? Would it have been your first visit?” “No. Yes. You put two questions, and I have answered them in sequence. I have ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. never been to Greece. I am longing to go there, though the wretched country seems to be always in hot water. Some affinity between Greece and hot water, eh?” “Was Birmingham the only alterna- tive?” “That, or Sheffield. When dynasties totter to ruin, the dreadful people who fashion guns, big and little, are apt to come into prominence. Birmingham is a place of evil activities. It manufactures articles which are abhorrent to art, but it also pro- vides highly efficient weapons for warfare. What a repute for any city—that it should succeed in destroying mankind in both soul and body!” This strange little man apparently had it in mind to puzzle, even to worry, one who was an utter stranger. If so, his impish humor was gratified. The tint of olive in his hearer’s face passed quickly from ripe gold to a sickly green. Indeed, the most casual onlooker might have concluded that here was one profoundly disturbed, even frightened, by something which sounded like aimless prattle. For a moment he was wholly at a loss for the most commonplace of words. He produced a cigarette case, fumbled over it nervously, took out and lighted a cigarette, and, as a sort of polite afterthought, proffered the case to his VIS-A-VIS. “Thank you, no,” came the prompt re- ply. ‘I have many vices, but not that one. Don’t think me rude if I say that the smoking habit atrophies the finer qualities of the mind. I believe it clogs certain delicate brain cells. Tolstoy held that it dulled the conscience. Perhaps that is going far, or it may be the theory assumes the existence of some attribute lacking in abnormal mentalities. All of which means that I personally don’t smoke, though I have a respected colleague who not only burns choice Havanas all day long, but chews at least half of them. “So I avoid generalities—beyond this— that scoundrels never positively revel in cigarettes. Nor is that a happy remark, seeing that you are now inhaling a ciga- rette, and a Turkish one—a prime offend- er. I’m only a small chap, and talk this way in a vain effort to impress people. > oO Comiclooks.€© nl «