The Argosy, Vol. 82 No. 2 — page 100: what you’re looking at

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

282 The little driver was standing squarely before Jane, hands outstretched appealing- ly, every inch of him denoting supplication! “Lady!” choked Mr. Cragg. “I guess I squared it now! Say it, lady! Say I squared it now!” “Cragg, you’re—you’re a dear!”’ difficult voice said. “Lady, you’ll never squeal on me now?” begged the strange driver! “T’1]—what, Cragg?” “Vou ll never squeal!” said Mr. Cragg. “Because, I wanter tell you, lady, I never done a crime before, and I never done one since. I’m an honest, hard-working guy and always was up t’ the day I met Thomp- son and—”’ “Huh?” gasped Mr. Farnham. “Tt’s on the level, boss! I hope t’ drop dead if it ain’t on the level! And I dunno what got into me that night, except he scared the wits outen me. But, I wanter tell you, I ain’t had an easy minute since! My conscience has been burning inside 0’ me like a stove full o’ hot coals.” “Crage!” Jane cried. ‘“‘What—whatever are you talking about?” “Why, lady,” the chauffeur said, rather blankly, ‘‘don’t you know me? Didn’t you know me when you first set eyes on me?” “T never saw you before you came around with the car, Cragg.”’ “Well, lady, I’m the guy that was with Thompson in that house that night, and I dropped out the back window while he was hauling you in at the side! I thought you seen me—lI thought you knew me when you looked at me first!” the person with the astonishing conscience stammered. “I thought you was waiting, for your own rea- sons, t’ squeal on me when the proper time came. And then, when I heard we was headed for Batesford, I was dead sure you was wise and—and trying to get me back where the crime was committed.” Unable for the moment to speak, Jane said nothing at all! Her driver came nearer and rushed on: “Lady! You know Thompson — the heartlessest, cold-bloodedest murderer that ever walked in shoes! Well, he come back to me that night and gimme that marriage certificate, and I thought you must ’a been crazy to marry him, but it looked genuine. “Well, he gimme that certificate and said he didn’t want it found on him, in case he couldn’t make a getaway. He said if he did want it, though, that he’d send me a postal, Jane’s THE ARGOSY. and if it wasn’t ready for him, he’d kill me and cut me up—and he meant it, too lady!” ‘Well, wait—” Mr. Farnham began. ‘T’ll wait in a second, boss, when I get this off my chest,” Cragg said pathetically. ‘IT guess you dunno what it is to have a thing like this on your conscience, waking you up in the middle of the night and scar- ing you stiff every time you met a guy over five feet tall on a dark street! So I stuck that paper away down in my pocket and it’s been pinned to my shirt every night when I was asleep! ‘“That’s right. I’d rather have lost my hand than lost that paper and—well, I didn’t see him for more’n a minute when he came back, and then he beat it and I dug straight for Brooklyn, where nobody’d ever look for me, and I been working in a garage there ever since, up to last week. And then I came over. t’ New York t’ work an’ when I see this lady walking out o’ the house and she looked straight at me, I thought I’d drop dead there in the seat!” A great, soul-deep gulp left Mr. Cragg, shivering off to a sigh. “So I couldn’t dope out what was hap- pening to me, except that I wanted to get loose and work for somebody else,” the driver pursued. ‘And then—back there in the camp—when the old gent says Thomp- son was here in Batesford, I got a line on what I wanted to do. All I wanted was to hand Thompson that paper again and run like mad, and I thought most likely I’d get to Africa or somewhere and start life over again—that’s why I hopped on the freight that was pulling through here.” “Cragge—” Mr. again. ‘So to-night, only an hour ago, down there at the hotel—to-night when I heard that crazy little guy with the mane and their rube cop and a couple more hicks talking about you being locked up here, I just listened and it seemed like it was Fate, for I could see how I could square the thing. I couldn’t dope out how you happened to be in jail, but I knew it was you people. And I wanter say,” Mr. Cragg ended sud- denly, “that I’d have come up here and pulled this stunt just the same, even if you’d never had anything on me!” ‘Well, I—I never did have anything on you, as you call it,” Jane said, ““but—” Far away, floating through the still, dark 3 CORnNICLOOOKS Farnham attempted - (C@