The Argosy, Vol. 84 No. 1 — page 61: 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. officer was after him full tilt. He caught the faint glint of the shield in the light from a far-away street-lamp as the officer crossed the first lawn; he himself, failing to breathe, dodged to the shadow of the big house and, keeping close to the wall, sped on. Very dimly, he discerned the steps just ahead, leading to the vestibule of some one’s back door. Soundlessly, Dr. Bowen laughed as he dashed the drops’ from his eyes. There was a chance, if he could get in there until the officer passed—yes, and he could get in there, because he was in there now! The door, whether locked or otherwise, -had opened under his frantic fingers, and Dr. Jim was standing in the little en- closure, feeling about. Outside, the officer had stopped! Over this way there was another knob. Dr. Bowen, fingers closing over it, found that its door was locked—and yet it rattled loosely under his touch. He came very close to it, and, winding both hands about the knob, lifted and tugged. The door, bolt slipping past the nosing in the dried-out jamb, opened, and he was in somebody’s kitchen. And now, could he but stand here'until the officer had finished his brief inspection out there and convinced himself that the fugitive had gone farther, there was at least a chance of dashing away again in the direction from which he had come. Dr. Jim, teeth bared in the most remarkable smile, held his breath and clenched his hands until the nails went into the palms. The steps out there, almost inaudible, were moving gloriously farther off! Al- though now, hideously, they were moving back again—-and now they were upon the wooden flight itself! Dr. Jim Bowen, entirely irresponsible, backed away, panting. If there was one chance in ten thousand of finding a front entrance and leaving by it, he would take the chance! He turned, poised on tiptoe. And having turned, he came down hard on his heels once more, because lights had blazed out in the kitchen, and the muzzle o1 of an automatic pistol was being poked directly into his white, wet face! CHAPTER XX. THE WHY OF IT. BLINDED for the moment by the light, Dr. Bowen’s eyes closed tight as his hands went into the air. In considerably less than one second, he realized that this time he had finished the night’s unearthly work; ¢/is time he was done for! Friendless, penniless, and all the rest, he might still have had some small chance of escape from the moneyed trio, even though one of them had hinted at charging him with attempted safe-cracking; but with a burglary charge to top it and that backed by the evidence of the policéman just entering behind and the armed house- holder just before— “Jimmy!” boomed into his maltreated brain. “ Jimmy!” It sounded like the voice of a friend! | An instant Dr. Bowen fancied that he had been shot and that this was one of the lightning delusions of the dying—but his eyes opened then as he caught: “Why, Jimmy Bowen! You pie-eyed old scout, what in—” ‘““Why, Polly!” Dr. Jim said faintly, for the fat, smooth-shaven, red-cheeked, simple countenance above the velvet smoking-jacket was the Polly Whinnys of college days. “ Polly, I—you—” “Say, what’s the matter with you?” Polly Whinnys asked, with deep concern, as he laid his pistol on the kitchen table and gripped his old friend. ‘‘ You—the old midnight oil trust!—you aren’t hitting the booze, are you, Jim? Why didn’t you come around to the front door and ring?” The policeman was at their side and without a smile. ‘“ Excuse me, doctor,” he said, ‘“ but— maybe you’ve got the wrong number on this party. He ducked in here to get away from me!”’ Dr. Whinnys stared at him angrily, quite in the old, simple way. COMIC KOOKS (EO)