The Argosy, Vol. 81, No. 4 — page 130: what you’re looking at

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

696 “Oh, I understand,” responded Lansing. “That was perfectly all right. I am glad you looked me up. I guess I had a fairly clean bill of health, didn’t 1?” “Absolutely,” replied the detective. ‘But now to get down to particulars: you were at Francois’s place last evening. You, or some of the party you were in, did up a waiter and assumed his clothes—something, by the way, I had in mind to do myself— and then when we tried to break into the place you all beat it out of the window. You were seen leaving with that red-headed girl.” “T was seen leaving!” exclaimed Lansing. “T saw you myself,” retorted Griscom. “Now, you are doing a foolish thing, as- suming you are not mixed up in what this bunch is trying to put over. You were in- terfering with government processes and, believe me, that’s a pretty dangerous thing for a young man, however adventurous, to tamper with.” Lansing decided to be frank. “T know nothing about the activities of this crowd, but Ill say they look like a slimy set. But there’s one thing: you’ve got that girl wrong. She is innocent—that I firmly believe.” “Do you know anything about her, that makes you willing to say that?” asked Griscom. “No, I judge her only by what I have seen of her. She is mixed up with that crowd, but I doubt very much if she real- izes what she is doing.” Griscom laughed. ‘And so you decided oé to give her the chance to prove to us that what you believe is actually the case. Isn’t that taking a person pretty much on trust? You know if she could convince us there would not be the slightest trouble for her, so far as we are concerned. What happened was that when we thought we had the proper evi- dence, you spoiled our plans by making off with one of the persons we were after; not the principal one by any means, but just the same one of them.” “T was trying to save her reputation, to save her being arrested and publicly ex- ploited,” explained Lansing. ‘As for the rest, I did nothing to save them. Why were they not caught?” “They had a motor-boat in the creek which runs back-of Francois’s place. They went in this to Allendale and entered their car there. We did not think of that; we THE ARGOSY. thought their automobile was in the garage. As Allendale is nearer New York than that restaurant they beat us in by a good margin.” “But suppose you had captured the girl?’ queried Lansing. ‘“‘You say she is not the principal.” “We'd have got the main people once we laid hands on her,” was the answer. ‘We were not ready to make a move on that bunch until last evening, and now—well, any papers they may have had have been destroyed anda witness against them, a soldier at Fort Hamilton whom we were holding in Castle William under arrest, es- caped last night along with a trusty. That means we have weeks more of work ahead of us; and if the gang have got what they wanted and stop their activities then we are dished for good. Thanks. to you, Lansing.” “I’m sorry,” Lansing declared earnestly. “We had them working under our eyes all along, never suspecting they were being watched,” grumbled Griscom. “Now they'll scatter like a flock of quail, and probably delegate their further designs to a new crowd.” Lansing’s heart beat swiftly. In this - event the girl was in no further danger, and he could proceed at his leisure to establish. the impression, which persisted, despite his recurrent efforts to dismiss it, that she was an innocent dupe in the hands of Count Ap- ponnetti and the rest. “By the way,” he said, ‘‘this chap Ap- ponnetti ought to be easy to get hold of; he’s a regular rounder, isn’t he?” Griscom glanced quickly at Lansing at mention of the name, then affected a lazy attitude as he answered: “Apponnetti, the count, you mean? Why, he’s all right. That is, he is loyal ‘enough. What he is after is the girl.” Lansing’s face burned and he rose to his feet. “Griscom,” he blazed out, ‘‘pardon me, but of all blundering. Why, Count Appon- netti is her—” Griscom glanced upward at his host. “Ves,” he smiled, “he is her—what?”’ Lansing threw himself disgustedly down in his chair again. “Vou make me sick, Griscom. (‘That snake is no more—” “Vou were going to say that Apponnetti was something to her,” interrupted Gris- com. “Now would you mind telling me what you had in mind?” EOMMICLOOOKS (E@)