Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 3, 1924 — page 136: what you’re looking at

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

926 Rex smiled too, but there was a gentle rebuke in his tone. ‘“ Sit down and assure Cliff for me that I tried to obey his in- structions.” ‘‘ About bringing me to the office here in the mornings and seeing me home?” Ethel seated herself. ‘‘ We both obeyed him, for you couldn’t help it if I wasn’t here to be taken home, and Mr. Nichols hadn’t told me I couldn’t go out alone dur- ing office hours if I liked! He only said for me to be sure he found me here at my desk when he came back, and I would have been if I hadn’t got sick! You re- member when I gave you his message that Tuesday? Well, afterward I got thinking and I knew we’d have to get little Bessie and hold her as a witness before her mother and uncle rushed her out of town some- where. I stayed in the office most of Tues- day afternoon and then went up to her house to see if I couldn’t get hold of her. I didn’t have any luck. I came back in time for you to take me home, Mr. Powell, but I was up where Bessie lived at seven the next morning in the vestibule when she slipped out with a kitten in her arms. “She was afraid to speak to me at first and said her mamma had punished her for talking to me the day before. They were going away right off, to the country, but ker uncle said they’d have to leave the kitty behind and she had run out to give it to a little girl across the street. “ T told her Joe was in trouble, that Mr. Nichols really was a friend of his, and I’d come to take her to Joe, so he could give her a message for her uncle. I piled her and the kitten into the taxi that had brought me up there and took them both to a woman I know down on the East Side, who --who don’t ask many questions. She kept Bessie for me till Friday when the case came up, and in the meantime I sent Mr. Lazenby to Bessie and he explained what she was to do to help Joe and her uncle. It—it was a kind of a mean trick to play on her, but after all it was justice, wasn’t it?” She glanced appealingly around the table and Rex said: “It was necessary, vital, and her uncle himself will get off lightly. But I don’t understand! I called for you on Wednesday ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. morning and brought you to ‘he office. You were gone when I called for you in the evening to take you home.” “T know. After I left Lessie in good hands I hurried home so as to be there when you came for me.” Ethel flushed. ‘““T was worried all the morning because Mr. Nichols didn’t come in, for I knew he was on trail of that ‘ Joe’ and I was afraid something must have happened to him! In the afternoon Mr. Howe came and left word for Mr. Nichols that he was on Lucy Regnier’s trail, and it came to me in a flash that if I followed him I could find Joe myself, for Mr. Nichols had spoken of the Regnier woman to Bessie, a I knew she was mixed up in it.” ‘“‘ Holy cat!” Phil Howe stared. didn’t trail me to Al’s—”’ ““T followed you to a cheap flat away up near the Concourse, and I was right at your heels that night when you trailed a woman and a young man who'd called for her down to Hester Street and back uptown again.” Ethel’s tone was meek, butanirrepressible dimple showed in her cheek and her down- cast eyes were twinkling. ‘ Then they separated and you and I followed the woman to that saloon that was wide open. I saw Mr. Nichols then, hanging around outside, and when the woman came out with another young man and you started to follow them Mr. Nichols slipped in “ You behind, and I—I finished the procession! . It was good they took the subway, so there were cars enough on the train for all of us, and I only had to watch Mr. Nichols, who was up front in the same car with me, to keep in line. ‘““T was just half a block behind when we ali straggled to that alley back of the pawnshop and I saw Mr. Nichols slide around past where you were hiding and watching the woman, down into the cellar where she had left the young man. I wanted to go after him, but I was afraid Mr. Howe would spot me. Then the woman went into the cellar next door with, him following and me just behind, and the shoot- ing started! ‘“‘T was the last one through that con- necting door when he turned on the lights, COMIC DOO! (©