Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 4, 1925 — page 124: what you’re looking at

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

914 shouts of the sailors sounded faint and in- distinct and far away. Two Step Lou was bending over the Professor. “Are you much hurt, daddie?” she whispered, stanching the blood flow with a perfumed handkerchief. ‘‘ Oh, I could kill that rat for hitting you like that. I could kill him with my fists and—”’ She stopped, and glanced around at Watts, lying so still behind her. Then she suddenly laughed—a strange, wild -laugh, mirthless and hard and bitter. “Why, I did kill him,” she said softly, while a startled expression crept into her eyes. “I did kill him, daddied—the dirty rat. Daddie, I just killed him.” The Professor struggled to a sitting pos- ture and blinked uncomprehendingly for a minute. Three times he repeated the word “kill” as though trying to place its mean- ing. The fiddle was suddenly silent, the piano mute. Downstairs some one was calling drunkenly for Two Step Lou. “Oh, daddie, what'll I do?" said she. “ Get thee to a nunnery—fiy!” said the last of the Farnsworths, unconsciously re- peating the words of Shakespeare’s Ham- let. Then his voice became calm and poised as he took the young woman's hand. ‘Don’t be afraid, my little Tullia,” he told her soothingly. ‘“ I won't let anything hurt you. I’m a lawyer. I know how to deal with such actions at the bar of justice. But you must leave at once, my Tullia. Fly from the city while I make such arrange- ments with the district attorney as may be necessary.” He rose unsteadily, and looked at the body of Terry Watts. For an instant one trembling old hand stroked his gray stubble of a beard. ‘A simple case of torts,” he announced decisively. ‘‘ Blackstone cites innumerable precedents. Why, the corpus delicti is al- ready established, my dear, and all you need to do is keep from sight. But you must go at once.” He smiled cheerfully at Two Step Lou, who stared at him with hope and question- ing mingled in her eyes. ‘Honest, daddie? Will it come out all right if I hide for a while?” ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. “Yes, my little Tullia. I can handle this case verv easily.”’ She kissed the old fellow then, and rushed to her room. A minute later her light footsteps sounded on the stairs. There was a faint click as the rear door snapped to its lock again. VII. For an hour, the last of the Farnsworths sat on his cot. and stared at the man who had been Barbarv's political boss. As the time passed by he felt easier. His little Tullia—the girl that was famed in Pacific Street as Two Step Lou, queen of the dance and light o’ love to sailormen ashore— should be out of the city by now. Where she was going the Professor did not know. But there were mountains, and mining camps not many hours’ ride from San Fran- cisco Bay. There were ranches and forests, and the primitive friendliness of the Mother Lode country where Jimtown and Hang- town thrived in California’s days of golden glory. Yes, there were plenty of places close at hand where a lady in distress might find shelter from the world. Once the Professor rdse, and started to move past the dead man towards the door. He wanted a drink to steady his nerves, but the sight of Terry Watts made him change his mind. Some one in the dance hall would be sure to inquire for Two Step Lou. Sigh- ing, the old vagabond sat down again and Waited. It was just a matter of time now. Sooner or later they would come for him. They would carry Terry Watts awav to the morgue. They would pluck the knife from his chest as evidence. They would throw the last of the Farnsworths into a cell. This was an open-and-shut case of homicide. The Professor knew it. His elaborate legal training in a day long dead, was scarcely necessary to tell him that. Suddenly his nose began to bleed again, where the knuckles of the politician had Janded their jarring blow. This gave the Professor an inspiration. MHastily, his old hands trembling, he smeared the blood over fingers, and palms, and wrists. Three o’clock had passed before some An CO GIOok