Argosy All-Story Weekly, August 9, 1924 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

POOR LITTLE PIGEON. of cause and effect, the effect of the inter- change of electro-magnetic waves between the spheres, upon the life that moves upon them—the life which of necessity they bathe. That, as I knew, was the animus back of Haddon’s letter—the thing by which its contained request was inspired. At first glance, it might seem odd that a govern- ment agent should turn to such a source for information. In reality it was not odd at all. More than once, Norman Haddon had come into contact with Dual in person. More than once, he had seen justice.done with Dual acting as her agent, until in the end, as he now stated, he had become convinced of the dependability of the meth- ods Semi-Dual employed. And because my partner, James Bryce, and I had brought the two first in contact, he knew Dual as our friend. Friend? It seems a weak word to employ. Rather, 1 might say, Dual was the god in our machine. I had met him as a news reporter, going to interview him years before at the direction of my chief, and remaining to marvel at his philosophy of life, his control of forces and mowers the average man in his wise un- wisdom so little understands. Later, it was on his advice that Jim and I had formed our association; since when we had un- raveled many a baffling mystery—thanks to him. There was even a little private tele- phone back of my chair as I sat, leading from his quarters in the tower to my private room. Such things fled in a series of mental pictures before my mind’s eye quickly, and then I turned back to the case in hand. Haddon had appealed for help. His letter boiled down to that one thing. He had arrested three fellow beings, and yet for some reason, he was not wholly satisfied with what he had done. Therefore he had sent the names and the other necessary data concerning two of the three, in order that Semi-Dual should determine from their horoscopical figures the circumstances into which they were apt to be drawn at this time. That’s all there was to it. And it could be done. I knew it and so did Had- don, and so did Bryce. It was that very thing we had known Semi-Dual to do in the 163 past. And it was that very fact that made Haddon’s request seem less strange. I spread out the second sheet and ran my eye along its two typed lines: Bernice Rand, born near Nogales, Arizona, in 1904. Phillip Newton, born at Baltimore, Mary- land, in 1895. Followed the month, day and hour of birth of each. And then, still holding both it and the letter, I reached out and rang a buzzer for Jim. It brought him to me along a little back hall that led from his private room to mine. He came in, heavy set, ruddy-faced, with a black cigar clamped between the lips under his stubby brown mustache, and a question in the brown eyes that me: my glance. ‘“What’s broke now, son?” he demanded as he found a chair. I handed him Haddon’s letter and watched him read it. He had been an in- spector of police before we formed our part- nership and I knew him like a book. I saw interest wake in his face—the interest of the trained detective, when faced by the unexpected or the unknown. Then he folded up the letter, holding it toward me. “ Well, what are you sitting here for?” he asked, rolling the black weed he was smoking across his mouth by a sort of long-practiced lip legerdemain. “IT wanted you to know about it before I took it up,” I explained. He nodded. “ Well, I know now,” he said, speaking slowly. ‘‘ Haddon, eh? He’s pinched them three, and they won’t tell him what he wants to know, so he’s askin’ Dual to come in. There’s a reason, as was once remarked by a former resident of Battle Creek, Michigan. Haddon’s no fool. As a rule, he’s able to stand on his own pins. Which is another way of sayin’ that regardless of his lookin’ like a collar ad most of the time, he’s a lot less sheik than he is he-man. He don’t indulge in star- gazin’ very much either. So—if he’s askin’ Semi to take his Little Dipper an’ skim the Milky Way, it’s a safe bet he’s badly in need of cream.” GOMIIGIOO S (C(O)