Argosy All-Story Weekly, June 27, 1925 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

S12 store, of how many dollars were being flung recklessly away down here where the smoke af the roundhouse hung heavy and acrid and the noise of the shunted cars, banging coupler to coupler, sounded loud. He won- dered if these men had ever known the sharp pinch of hunger, of the cutting winds of December turning their bodies blue with cald. No, he decided, they were ignorant of the want he had known so intimately. He made up his mind that once pay days and fat checks came to him, he would save every penny he could. For a picture rose vivid in his mind, a picture of a log cabin, a smoky open fireplace and his mother and sisters in their drab working clothes and their drabber, monotonous working lives. He'd bring them to town, he’d dress them up. They'd be ladies and— They were walking across the street, when on the sidewalk before them a wom- an hesitated, turned toward Jim and smil- ing stopped. Jim whispered: ‘There's Sidewheeler. Tl give you a knockdown.” Zeb studied the woman. Young she was, not over twenty, full bosomed, broad hipped, a strong, healthy looking girl just turned woman. She reminded him of a ripe winesap apple, the red of her lips, the glow in her cheeks, the perky, saucy way she surveyed the two with snapping black eyes as they drew nearer. No, not an apple: Zeb changed his simile. A gray squirrel in the autumn with coat full and sleek, eycs sparkling, every movement a thing of swift action. When they drew nearer, Jim greeted ber with a curt “ Hello!” “ Heyho yourself,” came the offhand an- Swer. “Meet my friend,” Jim presented Zeb who took the outstretched hand where a couple of rings sparkled in the sunshine. “ Heyho, kiddo.” Evidently Sidewheeler with her quick wit saw Zeb was not in- terested in her, for after a rapid survey she said: “Oh, Jim, come here a minute. I want to talk private to you.” They stepped off across the sidewalk and Zeb watched them conversing in low tones. Fmally the woman’s voice rose louder so ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. that Zeb caught the words. ‘‘ Yes, I want a five spot. No, two won’t do.” He saw the flash when a bill changed hands and with a “ by-bye, kiddo!” thrown over her shoulder to Zeb, she was gone. Zeb gazed after her as she went up the street and scarcely heard Jim’s words. “Yep, Sidewheeler’s an awful gold dig- ger. She hit me for a five spot just now, but she’s not so bad. J’ll touch her for it back in a week or two. How do you like her looks? She’s some jane, old head. Some jane, all right,” repeated Jim with zest. ; Zeb did not answer, for he had seen that the color in her face was the color of rouge and the carmine of her lips was too bright to be natural. And the quick vivacity that had struck him so favorably, that, too, was foreed. Zeb had caught the odor of raw com whisky when she spoke the few words to him. He dismissed her from his thoughts. The words of the old doctor returned to him—“ Keep away from the drink and women, son.” Sidewheeler was one of the women the doctor meant. There was no mistaking her. They went back to the hotel where a crowd of men lounged in their chairs tipped back against the wall of the big front room. A hum of voices buzzed loud and the thick cloud of smoke that hung overhead denoted to Zeb that here was another bunch of Tailroaders, waiting between runs. They found seats and Jim lit a cigarette. “Well, Zeb, I'll run over and turn in your application and to-morrow you can come out with me and lear the road. You wait here. I'll be back in a few minutes as soon as I can give this to the old man.” Jim left and Zeb sat listening to the talk around him. A phrase here, a sentence there. . “Yeh, we was batting it heavy when, blue-ee, the automobile run right in our facel Say, we twirled it sixty times over an’ over. Yeh, it was. full of guys. They all went to hell. Sure, they was drunk, pickled for fair. Never saw our headlight nor heard the crossing blow.” Interested, Zeb glanced at the speaker. Evidently he had been on an engine when they hit an automobile. The casual wav COMmica@oo SS Co