Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 11, 1925 — page 80: what you’re looking at

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

Ne v a) yh : Oy Via 234 A man’s hand clutched her right arm and yanked her up to the vestibule of the last car. Her face was averted. She was writhing her shoulders, but Steve could not tell whether she were struggling against the man or merely striving to get through the passengers in the vestibule. Steve rushed to the glass door and opened it. He ran across a flagstone area and up to an open gateway where friends of pas- sengers were returning. Savagely he bucked against the human stream. “Hey!” yelled a policeman, grabbing his coat. ‘ What’s the rush?” Steve shook off his captor, dodging around three chattering women. The train was two hundred feet away and gathering momentum. He raced up the cinder path, gained, then lost. “ Paula!” he panted, coming to a ‘halt. “Oh, hell!” . Beat it!” rasped the cop. Dejected, Steve beat it. Slim was in jeg waiting room. “Tough luck!” commiserated Slim. Steve’s face was set. He took off this broad-brimmed hat and knocked its dust off against the crook of his arm. His sandy hair was rampant, his cheeks were hollow, his chin was stubbly, and his eyes glared redly. “Tm mad!” he proclaimed to all the world. ‘“ Dammit, we’re beaten by an eye- lash! I -won’t stand for it! Dammit, I’m going to solve this mystery of Paula’s if we have to battle for the next year! ‘Come on—get a move on! Catch that train!” Slim groaned. “What! To-night?” 24 Now! ») “ But that train’s a flyer!” Let ’er fly!” “Vou'll burn up the auto!” “ Change the oil. Come on!” They found Shorty at the wheel of the dusty car. “We'll be pinched,” pleaded Shorty. “Yes; and Paula may be in trouble! Step on it!” It was dark before they left Los An- geles. The car zipped along the forty miles of turns on the famous Ridge Road, racing Ze __ to the summit and over it, > —>~ '‘ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. “The train’s fifty minutes ahead,” in- formed the agent at Bakersfield. Slim took the wheel. The car roared along the straight roads of the great San Joaquin Valley. The speedometer regis- tered 50, 55, and 60. Trees, fences, wagons and cars flew past. The car boomed through Fresno and roared past small hamlets alongside the railroad tracks. A siren shrieked. A motorcycle cop whizzed past and into the light, holding up his hand. “You “were doing sixty-two!” he ac: | cused, “‘ We thought the road was clear!’ bleat- ed Slim. _ “Yeh. We stay up late for just such birds as you. Well, you'll prob’ly do from thirty to sixty days in jail. We’ll get your cells ready. Our judge is one hard-boiled egg! B) The raging Steve produced bail and took a receipt and.an arrest tag, all of waich consumed time. _ The car started again. “Which one of us goes to jail?” pleaded Shorty. There was a long’ silence. Dawn came. Fields became gray and then green. “But who goes to jail?” persisted Shorty. “I do,” accepted the sleepy Steve. “We can’t catch that train now.” “No. We'll get ahead of it. We go west. The train has to make a big loop north- ward around the bay. We’ll nail it in Oak- Jand.” The car finally sped along a level plain and then threaded through the streets of Oakland. It reached a highway where a great maze of tracks, signals, and switch towers appeared at the left of the road. The bay was sighted. The highway ran Straight toward deep water, alongside the tracks. A Jong train of Pullmans drawn by a monster locomotive moved leisurely along the mole. The auto raced past it. - “That’s her!” exulted Steve. won!” The car slid up to a small building and “ We've a Se = as — erage ee : & —— = f — oe Ps, for ) | et . i = Matti Eloy ook -com ~— “i sent 4 = a on aa =a np a xs S -