Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 6, 1923 — page 41: what you’re looking at

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

es WEDLOCK! | = Si ae big boss Selects an her father, Anding ~ him home one night. had kicked him all ——= the way down two long flights of stairs and Onto the street. Pe knew - The Slapper was not offended. = that there was nothing personal in it. Merely O’Toole’s perfectly natural anxiety = to forestall a mesalliance. In the natural course of things young = “Dunn would have drifted either higher or lower; have become a gentleman bootleg- get, or an odious stool-pigeon, or, ceasing ___to be a mere cog in the organization, have = burgeoned forth. as one of its directing heads. Te was mere. chance rather ‘than : steps in a new_and anpapected Reaction. __-. He was down by the abandoned car barn -___ the night that Iron Reedy shot and kiiled Joe Watts. More than that—he was the sole witness to the last act in the fot ____ bitter rivalry of these two, both ex-gang- -___ sters and gunmen, later prominent in mu- __-_nicipal politics. Slapper Dunn was a partisan of addiek had no interest: in the result, and no desire yy = —— of. -_ Bennet, handy man for the big boss, who -- looked up: when he pushed: t : to testify. He lost no time in getting away | - from the place. Late that night in focko’s pool room, a ___ furtive lounger sidled up as he was chalking his cue, and whispered a half dozen words in his ear; whereupon he nodded, finished — his game, and without making any display about it, sauntered over to another joint in whose little back room he found Rhino ‘ough the swinging door, motioned to a ae beside __ his table, and shoved across a black bottle == ada sticky tumbler. —- “§ this way, kid,’ Rhino mumbled. — “Ya gotta beat it. : Now!” =e Who? Me??— — & Yeah. You. it’s orders” - ‘Fhe Slapper nodded uncertainly. — - Where to?” he asked. Rhino Bennet relighted his cigar. “TIL come to that. A place ya never - Dunn’ $ jaw slackened. _ * But I gotta get my duffel first!” | = ev ue Bennet denied xe “ Home is the oe ‘Up in the kerosene belt. eee = _ train leaves in one hour.”. one “place ya gotta ay off. = Prob'ly = they’s an office man up there now, waitin’. “They got nothin’ on me!” ——— Rhino nodded. ‘Sure. I know. But = you got something—and they. aims to choke SSS it outa ya. See?” a “The Slapper saw at once. No Beet: to” mention names! 3 = = “Yall be took care of: “proper. Tih = after the trial—if there is one. A hundred = bueks a month. I got the first. stake right _ in my—poke, now. The rest “i come by SS reg’stered letter every thirty days. Course, = ya gotta have anew name tag.” “ Smith?” suggested. Dunn. -“ Naw!” Riino spat in disgust. y stranger labeled Smith or Jones is under suspicion even in a hick town. Joe Harris. How’s that? Might be Yid, or Yank, or- Limey. or Diam coon. Joe Harris, of Wed- “There are ae 50 > utter ye desi stit titute as tc lack some little treasure, some mementos — that cannot be abandoned without a pang. : Slapper Dunn never left anything of in — trinsic value in: his room. with its broken ee ing ‘records of famous pases ola vere ‘pu- ee gilists, porch climbers, and politicians’ he = = had known, or seen in action. And there — = was a brilliant green necktie with yellow. - Se ka dots, a pair of easy < SS I se ‘some souvenirs SE “race” meets, a doze a aa and a gee zobd set of — = knuckle dusters. These he could not pee = -to see ‘pass out of his life. forever. — = He explained it all to Rhine Be also that he owed two dollars Tent to the Polack. “TH square him,” “ And when it’s safe, Tl cop. yer ju | shoot it on to ya by. parcel a ste f 3 dicks leave.” = == SS A trifle- shawetacedly, ‘the aa went _ on to epee how, every Saturday night— thing like that—he brought home a boxof i candy for the four youngest Polacks. ——— « ee miss. it somneties ee he