The Argosy, Vol. 84 No. 1 — page 59: what you’re looking at

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

THANKS TO THE B. R. T. stress, he dropped it into his pocket and found his nickel. — “Sorry, boss, but I couldn’t take a chance like that, you know,” the con- ductor concluded languidly. “ Us fellers have trouble enough the way it is. Trans- fer?” ““T guess so,” mumbled Dr. Jim, accept- ing the slip and entering the car, with the step of an old man! ; He was likely to be less conspicuous, sitting in there in the corner, affecting to drowse after the manner of the three or four other passengers—and that was going to count for a good deal now. A number of years had passed, you see, since Dr. Jim’s last intimate contact with the affairs of a big city; his conception of Greater New York’s modern police meth- ods came largely from the feature articles he had read with such avidity, up there in Hallas. He knew full well that, from Coney Island to the other end of the Bronx, the old clumsy order had vanished, giving place to new police efficiency. Nowadays, he believed, thanks to tele- phone systems and the like, each member of the ten thousand patrolmen could be put in quick touch with the other nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine. There was a real detective bureau, too, to spread its net over any given section or over all sections, at an instant’s warn- ing. And before this, he verily believed, Harrison’s summons to the constabulary had started the net to spreading over such portions of Brooklyn as might be expected to yield the misguided physician who had given Harrison the greatest bruising of his life! : As to what the end of it might be, if they actually did arrest him, Dr. Bowen declined to speculate. Nothing, allegedly, can happen to the innocent man, but at the same time so many things do happen to a man whose capital is limited to one twenty-five-cent piece that—Dr. Jim, with a grunt of genuine exertion, forced the police aspect of the matter from his mind and tried to think of other things. 4A 49 This, for one of them, was the net re- sult of his new policy of push and un- scrupulous diving after the money that had been denied him all through his pro- fessional career! Had he but used a little less of the new policy, he would have in- formed Catterson—or whatever the elder- ly one’s name might be—that Dr. Whin- nys was not at home and that the man — answering the telephone was a mere im- poverished medical stranger. That, so far as he could guess from the girl’s hurried words, would have ended the whole affair before it ever started. And yet, had he done so, he would never have met that particular girl! Dr. Bowen, with a mighty sigh, felt the bitterest smile creeping to his lips. What a girl it was! And who and what was she? She was sweet and good as she looked—so much he knew and no more. She had feigned insanity to serve some- body’s end, and then had repented; and if his data concerning the young woman ended there, his thoughts did not. Not, assuredly, that Dr. James Bowen was absurd enough to think himself in love with a girl he had not known ten hours ago and had known since then only under the most unusual conditions. But- just the same, the lovely face danced before him as he sat, head bowed, in the car, as no other face had ever taken the liberty of dancing! This, though, was no time for mooning, was it? profound sigh, turned back to his per- sonal affairs. He was headed—where? Anywhere the car happened to be going, so long as the police kept off it. At the end of the line, very likely, he could transfer to some other; but if it came to a point of break- ing his last quarter for further riding— Dr. Bowen winced visibly. He might be tired and distraught with all that had happened since rushing up tc Rimborne’s house, but if he wished to travel further he would have to walk. Once, as he boarded this car, he had had a Go .OO mie cS Dr. James Bowen, with another | GO!