Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 6, 1923 — page 39: what you’re looking at

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

Se ee THIS 1S ‘WEDLOCK! temationak See as Sealea more than = an elaborate and highly specialized scheme — ~~ _@f ward politics, based upon unquestioning _-__ service, supporied by graft, and rewarding its units therefrom. The saffron journals = read supported — this view, the soap-box orations strength- ened it, and its complete reasonableness appealed to his intelligence, which was that = a precocious and observant urchin. Meet Mr. James ‘“Slapper” Dunn, if you are not over fussy whom you meet, _ And that you may at the outset see him as — - completely as possible, meet him in Porky _ Phelan’s School of Physical Culture, over __— $tein’s garage on C Street. He wears only sketchy trunks, gym shoes, soiled eight- ounce mitts, and a tantalizing smile. << He is just turned twenty-one, and has = been a voter for three years. He Steps at a hundred and thirty, has a flat ch -__thin, wiry limbs. He is pasty colored, ‘but = with that strange vitality of the slum dwell- - er who succeeds in weathering infant mor- = tality. His features are unmarred, and not unpleasing, hair brown, eyes ditto, teeth sound though stained with nicotine, as are several of his fingers. and manicured, and maintaining silence, he would pass as a college sophomore or a _ bank or hotel clerk or automobile ae man, or almost anything undist 127 , yet respectable. ____ Just at present he is squaring off at Kay- — _@ Dugan, a husky welter nearly as hairy ; and quite as grouchy as a young gorilla. Whatever he hits, falls down. Porky Phe-_ jan is trying to make a- boxer out of him, — = and the Slapper is giving him a workout. --- _Qbserve him closely, and learn how he Saaee acquired his moniker. _Kay-O moves about - flat-footed, hunched up, with outthrust. jaw and a jook of grim determination. He — __ is always willing to take two. wallops to -__geore one. Trouble is, he usually takes -_ more than two, without scoring any. The lighter lad circles him as a sub-chaser - on the balls of his feet, his hands moving oe Be ties “Kay-0 up in knots, and then Properly ches = ——s a ‘to detect. might dart. about a coal barge. He dances b in and out, the aggravating grin never leav- 3 Bas ‘the oiher shaasis | over a haymaker, he falas eh Peay the merest fraction of an inch, or side-steps, making him miss by a hair. Then he ee out with open glove, and stings nose or eye. Finally, beheld! He brushes Kay-O’s good — right lamp, turning in 2 couple of winkers and making it water. Like a flash, the Slapper shifts ever to the blind side, while — Kay-O flounders clumsily. about, Se ee ig 68 paiente. = = ee =. You say: For the - finishing For Kay-O is wide Open, and — blind a on one side. And now appears aie reason for Dunn’s alias. He doesn’t pac Zz any wallop! He can’t _punch, and a While Kay-O carries the deep sleep, but can’t connect. If Dunn had his kick, or Dugan his speed, a new star would — twinkle in the fistic firmament. But the— Sapper Deis. Ses 22 ee 50, = “Here eae ihe inst les som; f — hich Porky Phelan enact ais the Slapper two fish. Merely that we may get 5 > kaa = hima little better, let us follow him for the _ remainder _ at ae a int as ausual die eee ie The Slapper goes- ‘inte Jocko’s pool room, pausing * wolf = couple of corned beef sandwiches, a “dill — pickle and a cup of coffee at the lunch counter before stig down to bottle po pool his two alas Se tne 2 more. lle “drifts down the line, and sits into a two-bit game — with the chauffeurs in a garage specializing s ain stolen cars. Ae Heals: a es eaee = At eleven, he rises from the on = can he is sitting on, tosses his hali-smoked — cigar into a pile of wate aes 4 = Shadow Rosoff, who « eals in case lots bear- — ing forged z ss els. He has just had two. hurry-up Orders, ar be in a places at once, he stips- the lappe a sawbuck to deliver two =e cases. oe a