The Argosy, June 1904 — page 45: what you’re looking at

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

IN THE DRAGON'S CLAW. Dol come together, see? Dat lets us out, besides savin’ de county de expense of his trile. Say, I knowed he was crooked de minute I put my lamps on him, but I wouldn’t put youse on becos you got no nerve an’ you'd left him dere.” “It wasn’t us dat soaked him!” whined the Kid. |. . “Yon’t you go for to make no cracks like dat!” snarled Punk, in an ugly voice. “ Youse know me! I’m de boss of de road from Oakland Mole to de Jersey yards! Youse heard what hap- pened to Flatcar Slim an’ K. C. Red at Union Tanks! An’ dey wa’n’t de first. Are youse goin’ to do what I say, or will dere be tree of you for de coroner stid 0’ one?” The pair were so exhausted by their exertions, and so unnerved by the ter- ror in which they held the leader, that flight was out of the question. As for fight, they were unarmed; neither did they belong to the class of tramps which fights. That Punk had killed more than one man in the horrible duels that tramps fight with razors wads a fact well known to them. Besides, the crime he had so recently committed and carried off so hardily increased the awe in which they held him. So when he drew his weapon they did his bidding. White and whimpering, they laid the editor across the rails in front of the hand-car. “ Now that’s done,” he said at length, “T don’t say anything to youse about keeping your faces closed, because if youse was to peep, de only safe place for youse would be de inside of de pen. Youse done de trick, an’ I can prove it, if I has to. Now drill, an’ if one of youse ever lets on to have seen me, he’d better crawl into a safe jail an’ stay dere!” The tramps set off up the track, stag- gering as they ran. Punk knew that his secret was safe so far as they were con- cerned. He had so far involved them that they could not betray him without im- plicating themselves in the full measure of his guilt. And they would reason that with his superior cunning he would fasten the crime upon them while es- caping himself. As he stood gazing after the shadowy forms of the fleeing men, the far off rumble of an approaching train was heard, and the distant gleam of a head- light became visible. At his feet lay the editor, his white face discernible in spite of the gloom, and the back of his neck resting upon the steel rail. CHAPTER XIV. A CHANGE OF LUCK. Romeo Powers’ twenty-fourth semi- annual tour from Victoria to San Diego was crowded with incidents of a dis- agreeable nature. There was a time when the tramp printer was the aristocrat of the road, recognizing no equal save the type of telegraph operator that became extinct after the great strike. The general in- troduction of the type-setting machine put an end to the typographical tourist as an institution. It was gradually manifest to Romeo that the old order had indeed changed. Here and there, like an oasis in “the inhospitable desert that the world had erown, he found a welcome savoring of old times, but for the most part his re- ception was cold, if not hostile. He had been ordered out of composing-rooms in which, upon his entrance, work had been wont to cease; twice he had been arrested on the charge of vagrancy; col- lections were meager and grudgingly be- stowed. | Worse yet, old comrades of the road were found working at the case, and these profanely held up to him the error of his ways while refusing to meet the assessment he levied. He was classed with common hoboes, and to crown all, his garbled quotations and lame parodies met with sneers more frequently than applause. In view of all this Romeo, after deep thought, came to a momentous decision. He abandoned the route he had devel- oped as a provision for his old age, and headed for Arizona, where the last ves- tiges of the old West. surviv e, following the trail of the gun-fishter, the « square gambler” and the camp-boomer. Though it cost him a bitter pang to abandon the old road, there was com- PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG. eomichboo ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED S CO@