Argosy, Vol. 119, No. 2 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

PARE Ls A Ty OW we SEVEN MINUTES AFTER, He had never been very much famed for his mtellect, jogging along through his classes with a fair average only, but he had been a sportsman and an athlete, and now, with the keenness engendered by years of life in the old world, battling against evils unseen and monstrous, David realized that Tony’s brain was a fine weapon, too. Since he had discovered who had been under the clock that morning, he’d been doing some thinking, with a vengeance. He held out his hand for the letter. “ Let me read it first, Tony.” “ Wait a minute.” Tane turned the en- velope so that his friend could see it. “I know this isn’t your handwriting; you dis- guised it on purpose, I suppose, or got some one else to address it, and then you typed the rest. That isn’t what I’m complaining about, Dave, it’s the way you sent it. Why did you let it go to Willard? I tell you I felt like a skunk when he gave me the . thing. ”) “Did Willard Fane bring you that?” “ Yes, gave it to me last night, came-over . to the club on purpose, found me on the point of gomg home. ‘ Say,’ he said—you know that nasty, sneering way he has?—‘ I imagine I have inadvertently opened a let- ‘ter intended for you, cousin; but it was brought to my chambers ’—the bally idiot always speaks of his place as ‘ chambers,’ some ridiculous word he brought back from London—‘ and naturally —he cocked up his eyebrows in that affected way he has that always makes me want to punch his head, and handed me your letter. I opened it while he was there, too, and let him watch me read it. when I’d done, said I’d better turn the thing over to the police.” “* Instead—”’ Tony fidgeted uncomfortably. ‘Oh, i’m not a charitable institution; I thought of it, of course. Anonymous letters never made a big hit with dad; they don’t with me, either. But that letter had something about it that touched me; when I had read it 1 said to myself that whoever the per- son was who wrote it, he was in trouble, and on the verge of something desperate— if I could help him—” Fane broke off in embarrassment. ‘So I drove down here He gave me some free advice - and made Feo Chah get me up early. I’d have been at the clock in time, but for the jam in the traffic.” David nodded. . “ When I caught sight of you racing past every one and defying all rules I didn’t know who it was, of course, but I had the feeling that the driver of that blue car was headed for me. I watched you for a minute; then I thought I’d bet- ter get out of the way; I’ - not very fond of the police.” He bent over the letter, It was badly typed on cheap paper, but it had the ring of sincerity. To Mr. Antony Fane. My dear Sir: I just come out of prison, I done four and a half years and that was six months off for good conduct. JI come out with a new suit of clothes and a little money what I earned but they won’t let me go away from New York ’til I am off parole. I got to report to the judge every month for three months more. I swear before God that what I was in for was a plant and I never done it. Some of the police high up knews this and won’t leave me go. If I start to get a job they are after me; I can’t get no work, and I ain’t a city man, I don’t know the ways. ‘The gang of a man J was in prison with is the only friends J got. I learnt a lot while I was in prison, and five of the best criminals there—I mean the clever- est crooks—told me thei dream jobs. That’s what they call them. It means the big crime they want to do more than anything, the big, sure-fire scheme they have brooded over and thought out and thought out until there isn’t any place it can go wrong. When they come out they are gomg to pull them off. ‘The gang got a scheme to have me tell them about each job, then they'll pull ’em off and make me master of the gang. The men whai thought ’em up will have half the money. They won’t have no need to tramp the city locking for work with all the bulls against them when they get out of jail. That influences me some, because it’s a hard thing to do. I came from out West right near where you mines are, out at Shepherd, Mr. Fane, and I know’d you when you was a kid. I sure would - like to get back to that country. It is out open and .a fellow can breathe some without auto- mobiles swallowing up the air. Also there ain't no police only the sheriff. His name is Bill Ponce and he knows me real well. If I'd been jailed there I could of come out and gone to work for him right away if I’d a mind to. Folks is built different away from the cities. Mr. Fane, I will not take up with the gang and be master which is a compliment after all (€(0) comicbooks ee: wet es ty ERE Betty + wy dea Sabie = Sibutrs v ae ba ye