Argosy, Vol. 117, No. 2 — page 145: what you’re looking at

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

JERRY THE SPIRITED. me a single lie, I'll drill you, so help me God. You see, I know a good deal about this game, or I wouldn’t be here. But I don’t know all about it. You can lie and not be found out about some things. About some other things you can’t. So you see, if you lie, you’ll be trapped. I won’t say a word. I'll just fire when you tell the first lie. Is that satisfactory to you?” The man looked at the cold, lean, pale face in which the eyes gleamed as if they reflected fire. A shiver ran through him. “T’ll do the best I can,” he said. “I ain’t goin’ to monkey with a man that can save his life when he’s bound hand and foot and has had a big dose of chloroform.”’ ‘““ Where are you from?” Jerry asked. ‘“ Buffalo, last,” the man answered. ‘““We’re sailors. We sail the lakes in sum- mer and the sea in winter. But we got stranded in Buffalo last November till we was afeared we would be too late to get a berth on the coast. here jungle before and had seen some things done that meant easy money. So we come here, and Jensen picked us up. He seemed to have several deals on that he wanted to pull off.” | “And you go into ‘ deals’ without ask- ing any questions,” Jerry suggested. ‘A man has to live,” the other retorted sullenly. ‘“What’s the idea in kidnapin’ Miss Mc- Bride?” “The girl in there? I give it up. Jen- sen framed that an’ told us where to take her. He said not to harm her. I suppose he wants her for hisself.” , ‘“ Do you know a man named Manners?” *T dows.” “ Look out!”’ The man cast an appealing glance at his companions. ‘‘ T swear to Gawd I don’t know no such person,” he said. “ Ask them.” : “ How about it?” Jerry asked the two men. ““ Never even heard of him,” one of them growled, and the other nodded affirmation. ~“ What will be Jensen’s next job for you?” Jerry demanded. “He didn’t say.” . Jerry wished to know if there had been We had been in this ~ 295 any development of Manners’s suggestion about the pay-car. He stepped quickly up to the man and put the muzzle of his re- volver against his chest. “The truth;” he gritted. An agonized look of helplessness came into the fellow’s eyes. “He didn’t say,” he whimpered. Jerry saw that he was telling the truth, and he reluctantly gave up his questioning. Evidently Jensen had used these thugs for the purpose of attempting to dispose of Jerry and of kidnaping Mamie. If he was developing the pay-car plan, he was doing it with other aids. But, Jerry now bitterly reflected, he had a host of those. “Is that door locked?” he asked, point- ing to the door of the room in which Mamie was held. “T got a key,” the man said, and he puiled it from his pocket and advanced to the door. ‘* Just.a minute,” Jerry said. expect Jensen down here?” ‘““He didn’t have us steal that girl for nothin’,” the man answered. They had neared the door and his voice sank to a whisper. “If you think Jensen has some- thing else on, You better get on his trail,” he went on. “ He’s nervous since the night he thought he had you put out of the way. I think he was goin’ to keep this girl here till he pulled somethin’ off and then he was goin’ to force her to go away with him.” ‘What th’ hell you whisperin’ about, Buck?” one of the men at the table de- manded; ‘“ Tryin’ to make yourself solid all! by your lonesome? Huh?” The man at the door gave the other a venomous glance. “Shut your mouth,” he said. He re- sumed to Jerry: “‘ What is this here word you say when things begins to pile up? Well, I do’ know. But you can see what I mean. This here Jensen is poisoned with his own whisky an’ his nerves is rotten. He didn’t know he would be bothered by hav- in’ killed you, but he is. Things iscomin’ to this here what-d’ye-call-it-kind of a cli- max. That’s it. He will be movin’ lively on whatever job he’s been figurin’ on. You understand me, Jerry?” | “Don’t you ‘ Jerry’ me,” Jerry ground “ Do you COMMicloooks C@