Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 18, 1925 — page 54: what you’re looking at

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

204 Mr. Fitch, then and there, assured Pan- cake that so far as he was personally con- cerned, he would not be likely to press the charge. Pancake nodded. “IT seen a pitcher of the frail,” said he, “that they say you cooked the mayor for knockin’. Boss, I never owned a steel mill in my hull life. But take it from me, if I owned a dozen bigger than them youse have in your hip pocket when youse are outside, I’da cooked him myself. She is some frail! Not that I believe you done it, either. Hello, here’s the supper bell for the petty larceny ghosts and the hop-head brigade. ’Scuse me!”’ CHAPTER VII. IN LIEU OF OPERA, ENIED the privilege of visiting grand opera in the city that night as he had planned, Mr. Fitch was not averse to a substitute performance staged after his evening meal. | Pancake served his supper with deft steps; even offered him a home-made ciga- rette, which Mr. Fitch declined with thanks. “Tl send for some of my own cigars,” said he, “ when my lawyer comes over to- morrow.” “Well,” said Pancake, “ lawyers are all right to lug in stuff and if a guy is plannin’ a crush-out, he can use an off-color lawyer to slip a note to a pal; but I never thought they earned their money myself. Out in Denver, once, I was grabbed by the gorrillas and I hadn’t even sized up a box to blow yet. I’m a peter man, you know —safes only. “ The gorrillas grabbed me, as I was say- in’, and into the hoosegow I went. Havin’ nothin’ on me, they stuck me in a cell wid a big steam pipe runnin’ through it, and I was parboiled before being took down to court. The court give me a lawyer. The next court give me a year less one day, because of that lawyer. I wouldn’t give a lawyer the bone left from your lamb chop to try to git me out of here.” Pancake Hearn removed the bones in question. He took them down to the end of the hall, out of sight of any other pris- ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. oner. Ere depositing it in the garbage can, he wrote a short note and wedged it in a sinew still clinging to the bone. GOOSE-EY¥E: I got a hunch I'll leave the boardin’ house in a day or two. Have the mob by the blacksmith shop on the crick. Ill lam right down that way. Keep under cover, but have tools ready. The moke that owns the dump has agreed to give me pertection. He’s in here for cookin’ the mayor. PANCAKE, Escorted by Jailer Avery with a drawn gun, Pancake took the carefully covered garbage can down the stairs and out be- hind the jail. He left it, still carefully covered, took an empty one, reéntered the jail and walked sedately back to his post as majordomo of the top floor. Barely was he within the structure when a shadow flitted out from behind Sheriff Butts’s barn. It whipped off the cover to the can, seized the note and melted away into the umbra of the night. Pancake procured a deck of cards and shuffled them. From the opposite cells several faces came and went. Pancake handed each of them five cards, took five himself, and also dealt five more face down on the table, one at a time. He scanned his hand. The three men inside the other cell did the same. The first said: “ Give me the widow!” Pancake passed in the five cards lying on the table and dropped the other five, still face down, in their place. One hand reached out and picked up one card, replacing it with one. Another did the same. Then Pancake said: “ I close it!” From within the man who had demanded and received “ the widow ” declared: “ Two pair, nines and sixes.” ‘“ Three jacks,” said the next in turn, and the third announced: “Three deuces.”’ Pancake grunted: “TI only got a pair o’ aces.” He pushed the table aside a little, straightened himself up near the door through which came derisive laughter and jeering admonitions to “ stand close.” “Aw, I’m game!” asseverated Pancake, covering up his eye with his five cards and submitting to five welts from each of three hands on the tip of his strong nose. It glowed like a beacon of hope to Mr. Gomichbooks (E@)