Argosy, Vol. 123, No. 2 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

146 “When I got back to the window,” he concluded, “ the other fellow was shuffling off down Crescent Avenue.”’ The policeman looked around at the group gathered on the sidewalk. He was wise enough not to ask them if any one had heard blood-curdling cries or shots, but he wondered just the same if some of them wouldn’t imagine even more complete de- tails if given a little encouragement. The woman whose husband was a travel- ing salesman had just begun: “ Now that I think of it—” “You say the doors are locked?” asked the policeman, opening the gate. Several of the neighbors answered ‘“‘ Yes,”’ and all followed as he started up the path with borders of pansies, ragged sailors, and bachelor’s buttons beyond the edging of brick. ; It was not the first time this particular policeman had been sent out to investigate a case of the kind. He tried to force the door with his shoulder, found it didn’t yield, and, looking around, saw a fence-post lying beside the woodshed. The door burst open at the third blow of the battering-ram. Past the policeman and the neighbors bounded a scrawny cat. The animal wav- ered uncertainly as it struck the path, but recovered and scooted out of sight. The little kitchen and living-room was spick and span, but in the shadows of a far corner lay the little old lady, face down. And beside her crouched her dog, a tan-and- white terrier. The policeman expected the dog to spring, but it just watched him, its eyes two burning fires in the dim light. “‘ Stand back, all of you!” directed the policeman, and stepped into the room. The _dog never moved, its eyes on the advancing intruder. Now the policeman had almost reached the body. | Without a sound the dog flew at him, the policeman stumbling back in time to escape its snapping fangs. The dog fell rather than landed from the spring, but struggled up to his feet as the policeman backed toward the door. Instead of fol- lowing up the attack, the dog retreated to the side of the body. The policeman ad- vanced again, this time with his revolver in readiness, THE ARGOSY. The breathless neighbors waiting outside ° heard the crash of a shot. * The drum- mer’s wife screamed, another woman fainted. The bolder spirits pressed close and peered in at the door through which a pungent whisp of smoke was drifting. The man from the corner house saw the policeman looking down at an inert huddle of tan and white. “Poor old fellow,” said the policeman, ‘““ you couldn’t do the old lady any good.” Then the officer turned from the body of the starved dog to that of its mistress. He knelt, but there was no need of disturb- ing the body. He could see that the skin at the left temple had been broken, and there was dried blood on the flesh. Looking over his shoulder, the policeman said: “ She’s dead. Would one of you mind calling the county physician?” The woman whose husband was a travel- ing salesman rushed off to telephone. CHAPTER II. THE OTHER GIRL. A YOUNG doctor, Philip Brent, was the acting county physician, the old prac- titioner who held the appointment being at the time incapacitated through illness. As Brent hung up the receiver of the telephone he frowned at the card on which he had written: “ Mrs. Emily Spalding, 81 Maple Street.” The name was vaguely fa- miliar. ‘‘ Maple Street?”?’ He remembered now. There was a little cottage, an old lady, a cat, a tan-and-white puppy, and a parrot. He remembered especially the parrot. Several years before, one of his first calls, Dr. Brent had been summoned there to at- tent a young girl who was dying—a girl named Elsie. The physician remembered the name because of the parrot. When the doctor entered the house the bird had screamed: “ What’s the matter! What’s the matter! What’s the matter!” It had startled him, but the girl’s con- dition was too acute for him to think of anything else. Within an hour the girl ‘died. As Brent led the little old lady from the room of death the parrot called: “ Go cComiclboooks C@