Argosy All-Story Weekly, March 15, 1924 — page 50: what you’re looking at

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

678 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. lanky, except for his fists—there wasn’t nothin’ loose about them. If I: took any. weather forecast it was the quickest on record, for I had barely looked at the blue sky when Jimmie come up to my side. He was folding up some bills. “Collect it?” says I. . — “Voluntary contribution,” says Jimmie. “ Well, so much. for that. Let’s see, I’ve quit my job and beaten the town shark at his own game. What next?” .. He stood staring down at the sidewalk for a minute, his eyes glinting. Then he laughs i in that funny, new, hard way he has. “T’m going to take these forty dollars and buy me a new car,” he says. ‘“ Come on along to Bentress Brothers, Mr. Tom Hall.” Fentress Brothers’ was the town’s auto dealers. I fell in step with Jimmie, and we went up the street toward their place. ‘* Jimmie,” says I, OREIEA “are you crazy?” “ As a loon,” he says, quite cheerful. CHAPTER IV. “] AM THE TRUCK HORSE. 9 ITHOUT no dickering, but with a “Very good, Mr. * Will you take the car now?” ! - “That’s me,” says. Jimmie. ‘“ Pile in, Mr. Tom Hill, and we will see what the real nature of this old boat is.” ‘Can you drive her?” I asks, kind of worried, for riding in a new car with a crazy man has possibilities—in finite possibilities, as the fellow wrote in a book. . “ Huh!” Jimmie exclaims. “ Haven’t I , been running “Lije’s truck off and on for a snap and speed that made my old. eyes pop out, Jimmie buys himself a new car, paying sixteen hundred and some odd dollars for it. He gets a slight reduc- tion on it because it is a car that has been used for demonstration purposes. I could see that it was as good as a new car. Gee, it was a bird!. It was a slender, graceful bird—a bluebird, in fact. Jimmie pulls out a check-book and dash- es off a check for the full amount. _“ Er—” says one of the Fentress Broth- ers. ‘“ Call up the bank, if you want to,” Jim-. mie says. “Well, it’s a rather big check, ” the man says. I could see that he was kind of worried by the way Jimmie had dashed off the check -—for Jimmie had no reputation in our town for handling money so free and easy. But in a few minutes he comes back, all smiles. — Tom Hill. number of years? Ifa man can run that truck, he can run anything.” I. loaded myself on board, and Jimmie got in behind the wheel. Fentress shows him a few things about the gears, and one thing and another, and we go out into the street. Well, Jimmie must have been one of these here born drivers, sing. It was the smoothest running car J] ever had been in. The cushions was deep and wide and fitted a big man like me better ’n usual. I lolled back. The thing wasn’t my funeral—at least not so far—and I was keeping an eye on Jimmie, which was my main object in hfe on He just made.that car day. We came out on the boulevard pretty soon, and there wasn’t no cars in sight either way. The boulevard is new and smooth as glass. I didn’t know we were doing anything special in the way of speed till I happened to look at the speedometer. It was showing forty-eight. miles.” - “ Jimmie,” I says, “ you better slow down. J am an officer of the law, and the limit on this road is twenty miles.” “ You are an officer of the law all right,” Jimmie says, “ but not whére you are now. We have passed out of your township, Mr. Don’t worry.” Well, I had been having so pleasant a time that I hadn’t noticed we had passed the township limits; but it was true, so I didn’t say no more about speed. Jimmie drove thirty miles before he turned. around. “Fair kind of a boat, Mr. Tom Hill,” he says. “J didn’t know you kept a checking ac- count,”’ says I, speaking of something “that had heen on my mind ever since he had wrote his check. “I thought you was keen Fraser,” he says.. this particular. comiclbooks.coni y |