Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 7, 1925 — page 127: what you’re looking at

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

his foot on a revolver. nerve. by that reputation on which McCall and ae preemet: looked askance. HIS milky rose skin, that coronet of faming hair, those amazing gray-green eyes with the twinkle in-them. _ Neither. the shoddy tenement where ee mother shuffled about the household tasks, nor the noise bedeviled- factory where she - herself worked among the fili ng cabinets, drove that twinkle from Kitty’ Ss & 2s. Noth- — _ ing scared it away till she met. Sling” Devitt. Hurrying through Keegan’s alley one — evening on a shart eut home after work, Kitty ran plump into the tail end of what _ had started out te be a murder. In the . garbage-strewn crevice between the bigh buildings stood a group of yeung men in poses of unconscious melodrama. The center of the ‘group. was a — — to look frightened stood by his side. posite the youth loomed a scowling an- tagonist, whem Kitty recognized as Tiger Costello, the prize fighting pride of the dis- trict. Tiger, nursing the fingers of his fam- ous right, turned towaad: the youth a face divided between rage and coneiliation, a face rapidly swelling around one eye. — “What’re you gettin’ sore about, any- ways?” Tiger inquired. “‘ Gimme my gun.” The first words Kitty ever heard from Slim were calculated to fry the garbage where it lay on the alley bricks. “ Are you going to give the kid his cut?” Slint finally demanded. Tiger looked the youth over deliberately. Kitty saw now that Slim held in his left hand the muzzle of a gun, the butt of which had all too clearly: descended on Tiger’s cheek. Any one born in Hell’s Kitchen knows enough about revolvers te realize that a man who holds his by the muzzle instead of by the butt is at a distinct disadvantage. Slim might almost as well have been holding a mere club for his only weapon against five men. ‘As he stood there, tall and alert, his foot on the other’s revolver and a try-and-get-it | look on his dark face, something in Kitty’s heart stirred. Graceful as a panther, and about as pleasant at the moment, he seemed — to be holding the five of them off by sheer It was, in fact, sheer nerve backed - WEAK SPOT. hearts had stood still at a eyes, but usually net. because the flash was— itty wondered afterward how a. man ould have such a clean look and such a2 black reputation.. At that instant, however, what she noticed most were from them was the thing she loved most in the world: courage. She hadn’t. known till that moment how much she loved it. There was nothing in Kitty’ S ancestry that bade her keep away from a fight. _In- stead of backing out of the alley, she stood : spellbound, pressed against the brick wall. Some of the men had ‘their. hands i in their. pockets. The fingers of one began to slip ~ inside. ee If he drew—- < If some one could divert. their attention— “T hope I’m not. interrupting,” she heard herself say clearly. Those with their backs to her jumped like startled cats. Slim stared, the blue- steel of his eyes. slow); y softening. “But if youll step aside,” Kitty con- tinued, smiling as if the affair were not to be taken seridusly, ““so I can get past—” “ Here, you! Make room for the lady.” That was Slim. With alacrity they siecped aside. Kitty sailed through their midst, dropping a crisp: “Thanks!” Behind her she heard Tiger Costello in- gratiating of tone. “ Sure, I'll give the kid his cut. What’re you sore about?” “OK. Here’s your gun.” Slim again. The noise of a revolver kicked across the ‘bricks. And then some one else. Harry Mc€all’s sweetie.” That made her angry. She wasn’t Harry Mc€all’s sweetie. sweetie. She didn’t mtend to be.anybody’s sweetie for years and years. — : Nevertheless, every time she had seen Slm Devitt since then her heart stood still at the flash from his eyes. Many people’s ash from those “Her? She’s the sort which Slim directed toward Kitty. _ Fermal introductions were not insisted upon in Slim’s set. “ Hello, cutie,” he said to her one’ day. — Kitty. disliked the tone. She elevated her. = 597— iS eyes. They were dark blue—cold and dark as blue steel just. then—and the thing that spoke. to her She wasn’t anybody’s - ‘comicboo KS..€O