The Argosy, Vol. XXV, No. 3 — page 130: what you’re looking at

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

514 THE ARGOSY. that we may send him up for a good long term of years. ‘The fact of the matter is he and his pal have bothered the department too much of late, and we waut to get rid of them. Ah, burglar alarms, I see. Just help me remove them. ‘They will only drive our men away. I will be burglar alarm enough for tonight.’’ ‘“ You are not expecting to deal with them single handed, are you?’’ I asked uneasily. ‘Well, hardly,’’ he answered in a tone that quieted my apprehension ; *““T have help on the outside.’’ After that we went to work arranging our trap and baiting it. ‘The ' burglar alarms were removed and the windows arranged so that an entry could be easily effected. After which we repaired to the room on the second floor which I habitually occupied. Here we had cigars and wine and played cribbage until midnight. I had always slept with my light burning as a matter of greater precaution, soeven after my usual retiring hour we were not compelled to sit in darkness. Our visitors would no doubt bargain for a light in my room, and be put on their guard if they did not see it. As the hour approached at which we might expect the burglars, the sergeant became particularly garrulous and entertained me with many a story of detective triumph and some of unpunished crime. I divined that he was talking to keep my courage up, and inwardly thanked him for it. It seemed a foolish thing to do nevertheless, for he made so much noise with his high pitched voice and boisterous laugh that a clever burglar could have entered the house, transacted his business, and quietly departed without being heard by either of us. Again our game might be frightened away upon discovering that there were people in the house so thoroughly awake. But I said nothing. I am somewhat diffident and too prone to take it for granted that other people know their business. To my dismay, too, the sergeant began to lose control of his appetite and drank copiously and frequently of the wine I had so foolishly supplied him with. ‘The more he drank, the more and the louder he talked, and the more he talked the more vulgar he became. His language in the early part of the evening was more refined than I expected a man of the status of a detective to use. Now it had descended to’ -the jargon of the thief and the thick boasting of the drunken man. ‘“Open ’nother bottle, Mr. Lawson,’’ said he, in the middle of a drunken dissertation on his own acuteness. I was afraid to deny him, especially as there was still another bottle in plain sight on my dressing table. I went to get it, and as I did so the sergeant reached over to the table by which I had been sitting and took my revolvers from the case in which they had been lying. ‘‘Pretty good barkers,’’ said he, eying tHiciss fondly. ‘“‘T wish you woul@ put them back,’’ I said in mild remonstrance. ‘‘ They are both loaded—and they are all I have to defend myéelf with.’’ ‘“Glad to hear it,’’ he answered with a leer. ‘‘In that case I’ll keep ’em.’’ ‘“ But suppose the thieves come ?”’ conmicboolks (S@)