The Argosy, Vol. 75, No. 4 — page 245: what you’re looking at

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

A DOUBLE-ACTION. BURGLAR. “After a while he says to me: ‘ Say, Jimmie, are you good for a walk out to Holland Park this evening? Miss Muriel Peterby, only daughter of Colonel Asa Peterby, is to be married to-morrow noon to Mr. William Col- lins Archer, of San Francisco.’ “* Tm afraid I'll have to side-step you this evening, old top,’ I says, be- cause the colonel and me had a per- sonal row over a card-game at the club last week and we're not on speakin’ terms. Any, other weddin’ we're in- vited to,’ I says, ‘TIl be there with bells on.’ “* Well, I've got a particular and peculiar reason for pickin’ this one out,’ Keller says, ‘and that is because I see here in the paper that Miss Mu- riel is goin’ to be attended by a cousin of hers from Delaware, and another one from Vermont, and that one of Bill Archer’s sisters is on from ’Frisco for the doin’s. “*« Now, it’s a cinch that all the girls are puttin’ up at Colonel Peterby’s tor a few days,’ he says, ‘ havin’ a slant at Muriel’s trossaw; and when there's that many females in one house pre- _parin’ for a weddin’ there’s sure to be a fair to middlin’ amount of junk lay- in around on bureaus and one. place and another. Do you get me?’ ““T get you, Bill,’ I says; ‘ just show me the way to the colonel’s.’ “When we got out there that eve- ning along about dark it looked like an easy second-story job. The colonel had been gentleman enough to furnish up his suburban retreat with a big front and side porch, having four pil- lars on each side and a roof right un- der the bedroom windows. To save visitors from any extra climbin’ he had also rigged up a vine-trellis affair, leaning against the side porch with cross-pieces that made a ladder out of it. The only thing it lacked was a sign sayin’: ‘ This Way In.’ “Me bein’ more deft of foot than Bill, and havin’ in general a quicker eye for the valuation of loose property than he has, I elected myself to do the 947 inside work, and Bill was to stall— that’s the best thing he does, anyhow. We waited until we saw the merry party that was to pull off the weddin’ the next day sittin’ down to dinner, and then | went at the vine - covered trellis. “[ was up about two feet when [| found out that Colonel Peterby keeps a dog on his place—not a blue-ribbon winner for looks, but great on speed. He suspected that I wasn’t one of the regular weddin’ guests and made a fly- in’ leap for me that carried away part of my riggin’ as he went by—lI didn’t know just how much, but [ could tell by the feelin’ of the cool summer eve- nin’ breeze that something important had happened while my back was turned. ‘** Come in here and argue with this fool dog, I says to Keller, who was just outside the hedge; ‘ you ought to know his language if you haven’t out- growed it, and.I can’t remember any- thing but his pedigree.’ 7 “*VlL talk to him from here,’. Bill says; ‘come, Bruno,’ he says, ‘nice doggie.’ : “ Bruno was meanwhile tryin’ to re- peat by doin’ high jumps that missed me. about seven inches, and reportin’ progress as he went along, so that it was a cinch the yard would be over- flowin’ with’ curious and _ interested parties in about a minute. “I climbed up three more steps of the latticework ‘ee got me pretty near to the roof of the porch before I heard a side door open and some flunky come out on the porch. ‘“*T wonder what’s the matter with Prince,’ he says; ‘he seems to be ex- cited about something. Come, Prince,’ he says, callin’ the dog off; ‘come in here.’ “IT was crouchin’ there among the erape-vines, expectin’ he’d have sense enough to come out and take a look to see what was the matter with Prince, but hopin’ he was too lazy. He was. _“* Maybe it’s the big crowd in the Eomichbooks (E@)