Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 3, 1924 — page 125: what you’re looking at

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

THE HANDWRITING ON dow. He had noted in the afternoon that the flat roof of a little porch stretched a few feet below. Now he dropped lightly to it from the sill and slipped down its trellised side to the ground. Stooping low he crept around the house. The car, a low-swung roadster, stood dark and apparently empty before the steps, but a tiny gleam of light came through the shuttered window of a front room which Cliff had never entered. He crouched be- neath it. Nothing reached his ears but the low, indistinguishable murmur of voices, Mrs. Dobson’s harsh tones subdued but quick- ened, and a deeper, masculine one. Then a shadow crossed the shutters and a third voice, whining and shaking but masculine also, joined the other two. Cliff tensed suddenly. front him and found him missing a hue and cry would be raised and he would have to take to the woods across the way or com- mandeer the car. His chances of ultimate escape in either case were extremely prob- lematical. He waited in an agony of sus- pense but not for long, for the door opened suddenly and in the glow from the lighted lamp within Al’s heavy figure was outlined for an instant with a stocky figure behind him, gesturing excitedly with long arms. It was obvious that neither intended to waste time then in evening the score with him, for Al jumped into the car, and when the other endeavored to scramble up beside him he thrust him away with a force that made the stocky figure reel. “Give me a lift, Al, for God’s sake!” A choking cry came from the man as he steadied himself. “ Just for a few miles till I can hit a trolley line! You wouldn’t beat it and leave me with them as close as this!” “Nothing doing, Joe!” The answer sent a thrill through Cliff’s veins. ‘I’m on the square with you boys and I’d do anything in reason but I ain’t getting caught with you on board! You'll be all right if you lay off the snow and this time to-morrow you can be miles away before the word goes out. Don’t try any rough stuff. Good luck, and watch your step. I'll come across if you need any more. So long!” If they went upstairs to con-, THE WALL. The motor started and the car slid off down the road, while the man left behind with a smothered sound between an oath and a sob went off at a shambling run in the opposite direction. Cliff jerked apart the string of his shoes, slipped his feet into them and followed like a darker moving shadow in the night, while from the farm- house behind them a sudden cry went up in the Dobson woman’s hoarse tones: “ He’s gone!” CHAPTER XXII. THE CELLAR ON HESTER STREET. HE pawnshop of Mr. Lazarus on Hes- ter Street was brilliantly lighted on Wednesday night, its cheap jewelry and pathetic household goods displayed to the best advantage but revealing nothing that could by any stretch of the imagina- tion be looked upon as possible stolen goods. An examination of the smaller compart- ments of his safe would have told a different story, for they contained a respectable for- tune in diamonds and colored stones all curiously enough without their settings. And the packing cases in the cellar were filled with costly ornaments and a hetero- geneous collection old silver and gold. Mr. Lazarus himself, greed struggling with fear on his bearded countenance, sat before his desk in the little back room and thoughtfully contemplated the banknotes laid enticingly before him. “IT couldn’t do it!” he asserted at last. “Not for a century, anyhow! I give you boys an even break always. Many a time things I take that it isn’t easy to get rid of and I lose often on the deal because you fellows have got to turn them over quick, and I wouldn’t disappoint you, but this is something else again, and more risky! Stolen goods is one thing, Charlie my friend, but hiding a wanted guy is another and how do I know you tell me all the truth?” “‘ Say, look here, Lazarus!” The young man he called ‘Charlie’ leaned persuasively forward in his chair. ‘I’m giving it to you straight and you never knew me to be yel- COMIGD OO! 915 — S (©