Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 4 — page 67: what you’re looking at

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

PEMBROKE’S PARTNER. business hours, and call myself ‘ Tony Guf- fanti.’ Don’t worry, old-timer. As I told you the other day, I am fully alive to the vital necessity of maintaining the dignity of the eminent legal firm of Pembroke & Mcllvaine, and am most careful not to take any unnecessary chances.” I was somewhat reassured; and when three weeks had sped by without anything startling occurring to disturb the new order of things, I began to lose my sense of fore- boding that no good was to come of this erratic idea of my partner’s. Gradually, in fact, I came to agree with him that he had hit on a very practical and satisfactory solution of our problem. Every evening McIlvaine came down to the office—clad, of course, in his normal at- tire, with all traces of his window-washing activities carefully removed—and conferred with me regarding the progress of our legal work. During the daytime he, naturally, never put in an appearance, and I had to explain to such of our callers as inquired about him that he was engaged on some im- portant outside business. That was easy enough—for fortunately there was none of our clients who had any particular reason for insisting on dealing personally with my partner. It made no difference to them which member of the firm attended to their cases, Miss Boynton, our stenographer, might have proved a more difficult proposition. To have lied to that girl outright would, of course, have been out of the question, and I expected to have rather an embar- rassing time of it accounting to her for the continued absence from the office of the other half of the firm. As it happened, however, my apprehensions proved ground- less; for she was taken ill on the very day that McIlvaine started out on his window- cleaning enterprise, and she did not come down to the office at all for the next few weeks. She was suffering from an attack of nervous prostration, according to the sharp-featured young woman whom she sent to serve as her substitute, and her physician had ordered a complete rest. One afternoon, as I was dictating a sum- mons and complaint in one of our vacuum cleaner cases to the above-mentioned young ‘compel me to take an afternoon off. d07 lady, and inwardly making some unfavor- able comparisons between her and the charming girl whose’place she was filling— more or less—I was surprised by the sud- den entry of Mcllvaine. To say that I was surprised is putting it rather mildly. Not only was his presence there at that hour of the day unusual, but his face was pale and haggard, and his manner obviously agitated. He kept pac- ing nervously up and down the room while, at his suggestion, I continued dictating, and I observed that he was making a des- perate effort to regain his normal poise. “ Anything wrong, old man?” I asked, presently, after Miss Boynton’s substitute had gone out to her machine. “Wrong!” he almost snapped at me, ‘Certainly not. Why should you imagine that?” “Well, seeing you down here, in your best clothes, at this early hour in the after- noon, I naturally thought—” “Oh that!” he interrupted. ‘“ I sprained my hand, and had to quit window-cleaning for a while. That’s a good enough reason, isn’t it?” ‘Of course,” I assented, marveling more and more at his strange manner. ‘“ Bad sprain, old man?” ‘Not particularly. But bad enough to It’s my right hand, and I can’t afford to abuse it.” He paused, “ Anything stirring down here? I thought I might as well come down and give you the benefit of my sage counsel.” More like his customary self now, he seated himself beside my desk, and began to take over office matters with me. Pres- ently, as we discussed some impending liti- gation, he picked up a pencil to make a note on my memorandum pad. This sim- ple act of his gave me a bit of a shock, He was writing with his sprained hand. It was evident that he had lied to me. It was equally evident that his usually keen legal mind was not functioning nor- mally. He was making a desperate effort to appear interested in thé business we were discussing, but obviously his wits were wan- dering. Finally he got up. “ Guess I’ll go down- nn (C(O) Giook