The Argosy, September 1915 — page 225: what you’re looking at

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

THE BLINDNESS .OF JUSTICE. That night Finny the Fish and Baldy Newton waited until Schwartz took his wife from the second floor of the corner tenement to the beer-garden. They went every night and would not be back for an hour. So the two mem- bers of Pete’s gang made their way to the Schwartz rooms, pulled down the window -shade, and _ placed their weapons on the ledge. Mark Ferris, the policeman they were to kill, was due almost any time now. ~ Neither of the gangsters ex- changed a word. According to the arrangements Finny the Fish was to shoot first because he was the better marksman. If he missed Baldy would open fire. Out of the shadows Ferris was com- ing. He entered the zone of light cast by the corner lamp. There was a shght chug from Schwartz's window, and Ferris fell, shot through the head. Finny and Baldy softly made their way through the rear of the tenement, climbed the area-wall, dropped to the alley, and in- five minutes were far enough away to begin breathing more easily. When the coast was clear they raised the manhole of a sewer and dropped both revolvers into the open- ing. Meanwhile a man not more than half a block away had seen the officer fall and had run to his assistance. Ferris was dead when the man reached him. The man began to shout. In an incredibly short time the street was swarming with policemen, detectives, and the usual crowd of curiosity- seekers. “It’s the Boo Gang,” declared De- tective Hendricks. “I heard they were carryin’ silencers an’ nobody heard this shot. One of ’em done it, because they had it in for Ferris. He’s been tryin’ to break ’em up.” A police captain gave an order to round up every member of the gang. Officers started in all directions. One of the first ran across Joe, who was slinking on the outskirts of the crowd. In a twinkling the policeman had the youth’s hands pointing skyward while he “frisked” the gangster for a weapon. Out of Joe’s hip-pocket came the revolver, fitted with a silencer and loaded with smokeless cartridges. The policeman broke the gun and looked at the chamber. ‘Two of the shells had been fired. “Honest, I never done whined. “I kin explain where them shots was fired. Honest, I never croaked nobody.” Joe was bundled into a_ patrol- wagon. Fifteen minutes later he was facing a rapid fire of questions. Was he not a member of the Boo Gang? Why was he carrying a weapon? Where had he fired the two shots? Haltingly Joe explained that he had fired once at a tomato-can and again at a dog that bothered him. Suddenly his drawn face brightened and he of- fered to take the police with him and show them the can. Knowing they would have to pay a visit to his home anyway, two detectives slipped the nip- pers on his wrists and rushed him in a department automobile to the tenement where he lived. His mother threw his arms around his neck and began to weep. A de- tective pushed her to one side and di- rected Joe to go ahead. The boy led the officers to the back yard and point- ed to the can. Inside, where it had flattened against the brick wall, was a bullet. Sallie Kemper looked through her window, saw that something was hap- pening, and hurried down three flights of stairs. At the door she stood with her arms akimbo, panting a little. ‘“ He’s tellin’ the truth, officers,” she declared. “I seen him do it. I was jist throwin’ out some dish-water an’ some of it fell on him. An’ when I it,’ Joe _ looked out again he was pointin’ his gun at somethin’ and he says: ‘ Ye fat- mecked bull! Ye will git in the gang’s way, will ye?’ An’ jist then I hears a little chuggin’ noise an’ the rattle o’ the tomato-can, an’ that’s the can.” The eyebrows of the two detectives Gomichbooks 439 (E@)