Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 18, 1928 — page 120: what you’re looking at

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

918 “Are you Mr. Trevington?” the tallest of them asked. It seemed to Dick he had never seen a man so powerful. ‘‘ The Hon- orable Archibald Trevington?” Dick’s ques- tioner amplified. Dick flushed, and then turned pale. In a panic, he looked at Anna; but her mask hid her expression. Her eyes were fixed on the face of the man who towered over Dick. ‘““ {—I don’t know—am I?” Dick replied. In appeal he looked to Anna. She did not reply, but bowed her head. Her shoulders shook with emotion. “You came in on Mr. Trevington’s card?” persisted the big man. “Why, yes, you see—” Dick stammered, in an effort to explain. Who was this fel- low anyhow? Should he confess. the truth? “Well then, you both can step out with us!” snapped the leader of the three. “If you come along very quietly, no one will know the difference.” “Tf you'll listen just a moment—” Dick was thoroughly frightened. He had visions of cells and handcuffs. That bulge in this man’s evening coat would be a gun or handcuffs! “ Get a move on!” came the order. Ten minutes later, Anna and Dick stepped from a side entrance of the Hud- sonbilt. Their three big escorts guided them to a waiting cab. Two got in with Anna and Dick. The other sat beside the chauffeur. “ Precinct station,” Dick heard him tell the driver of the cab. Except that they were under arrest, Dick had no conception of what was about to happen to them. Neither as yet had re- moved the masks. Anna sat in silence and Dick hoped that she was not crying. The cab shot swiftly forward through lanes of twinkling lights. It seemed to Dick that as long as he lived, never again did he desire to ride in a taxicab. Anna’s silent mood made matters worse. She would never forgive him for this. And yet, he tried to excuse himself, it was partly her own fault that they were in this fix. If she hadn’t sent the man to the shop they wouldn’t have been at the ball. Confound this fellow Trevington! ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Just what was the big idea? When they reached the proper officer, Dick was deter- mined to protest against this brutal outrage. Hadn’t a man with admission cards a per- fect right to take a girl to a dance if it suited him? But when he entered the hearing room of the precinct station, Dick’s belligerence left him as a duck’s back sheds a shower. Trem- bling and clutching at the rail, he and Anna stood before the desk as the sergeant ex- amined them. ‘Take off them masks!” he ordered. With a graceful gesture, Anna bared her features. |More clumsily, Dick complied and tried to look more self-possessed. “Well, I'll be junked!” exclaimed the detective who had arrested them. He stared at Anna like a man who thinks he has seen a ghost. Dick was too dazed to wonder what would take place next. “Is this the bird?” the sergeant asked, indicating Dick. “Certainly not!” chorused the three men in evening clothes. “You mean that—the real Trevington— has given you the slip?” The sergeant taunted them. “Go roll a hoop in Central Park!” sniffed the red-faced giant. ‘ You're talk- ing to house detectives from the Hudsonbilt —not a bunch of sleuth hounds of the police department. The real Mr. Archie Trevington’s at a polo tournament. This morning this girl tells me that a guy comes into her shop—”’ “What shop?” asked the sergeant. “ Barber shop, Hudsonbilt. She’s a mani- cure. The guy who came in wanted her to varnish up his nails. While she’s workin’, he asks her where he can get a costume. If she hadn’t told me, he’d have pulled the trick.”’ ‘Have you any idea what you’re talking about?” The sergeant was impatient. “If you knew how to listen, you’d find out! And don’t forget you’re addressin’ Tim O’Shaughnessy. I discovered that some one had jimmied his way into Trev- ington’s rooms. Nothing seemed to be taken, but whoever had been there had gone through his correspondence case. That gives me a bright idea—on top of Miss Anna’s Gomichooks (EO)