Argosy, Vol. 122, No. 1 — page 94: what you’re looking at

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

84 wood ” on one, and the explanation of the other mysteries would fall into line, he was sure. Besides, he was anxious to see the girl again. It never crossed Harry Vale’s mind that Allaine might be considered beyond his attainment, whether she were rich or poor. He had known a number of girls who socially were quite on a par with Allaine Maywell. The democracy of the city public school is a great breakerdown of social barriers. Allaine was the first girl, to tell the truth, that Vale had ever given much thought to. It did not appear to him that falling in love with her would be either a difficult or unreasonable matter. And he very well knew that his feet were set on slippery places if he renewed his association with the beautiful young woman. As he came out of the station-house a slim, rat-faced fellow with the peak of his cap cocked over his eyes sidled up to him and out of one corner of his mouth whis- pered hoarsely: ° “T say, fella, what’s your monniker? Ain’t it Vale?” ‘ That’s what it is,” replied the patrol- man, eying the tough with disfavor. ‘‘ There’s a party wants to see youse in the back room of Chirotti’s coffee-house.”’ Vale eyed the fellow dubiously. ‘‘ Who is it?” he asked. “I don’t know you, do i “You ain't got to know me, _ bo,”’ sneered the other. ‘“ This is somebody you'd better keep your eye peeled for. It’s Smooth Dick Prandle, if yuh wanta know. yet busy, fella. No harness bull can af- ford to give Smooth Dick the go-by—you oughta be hep to that.” The fellow swaggered away without fur- ther observation. Harry Vale knew his breed well enough. He was a stool-pigeon -——one of those despised creatures who keep out of jail by furnishing information to the detective police of the movements of greater crooks. And this fellow ran errands for other people besides the police, it was evi- dent. Smooth Dick Prandle was the leader of the district on which a part of Vale’s beat bordered. Prandle had been a notorious THE ARGOSY. gang-leader in his youth, had reformed— finding it easier and safer to make a living within the deadline of the law—and had finally become influential in ward politics of the party now in power. His connection with the worser side of police affairs was intimate now that he had risen in the world of politics. Chirotti’s coffee-house was in an old saloon corner at the end of Vale’s beat, facing a wide avenue that teemed day and night with a foreign population. The side streets of the neighborhood were given over to warehouses, interspersed with foul tene- ments. The coffee-house was the rendezvous for young toughs of the neighborhood—the Frog Holler gang, so called. But thus far Harry Vale had had no trouble whatsoever with the gangsters. It was not danger from these corner bullies that the rookie cop’considered as he meditated on the message that had come to him. He had never spoken to Dick Prandle; but he knew him by sight well enough, and he was aware of his power in the district. ‘ Practical politics,” so called, is always the bane of the honest policeman. The headquarters complaint Vale had seen in the skipper’s hand, and the knowl- edge that he was due for a ‘“ pounding ” before the trial deputy commissioner as- sured him that he was already in wrong with the system that so frequently inter- fered in police affairs. The appointment to meet Prandle—lit- erally a command—dovetailed with the matter of the headquarters complaint. What was wanted of him he could easily guess. He had crossed Mr. Andrew Maywell’s determination. The criminal lawyer was too sharp to appear personally in this mat- ter; but he was immediately bringing to bear on the rookie cop a pressure that the latter could not~-fail to recognize. It was the part of wisdom to answer Prandle’s summons, and at once. He went directly to the coffee-house and entered the back room. The man sitting there alone was a hard- faced, well-fed man in the early forties, wearing a hard hat on the back of his cComiclbooks.com