Argosy All-Story Weekly, November 13, 1920 — page 137: what you’re looking at

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

A JOB FOR MR. FINNEY. somebody had throwed him a life-belt when he was a going down for the third time. ‘Jake, if you stop this here wreck of my life, P11 do anything. I’m wore out worry- ing about it.’ 7 “So, after a little more talking about the matter, it was arranged that Jake should go out with Pharaoh that evening to the farm, where Daisy went every night—it being only a short ride—and call on her. “Vou see, Jake, he believed he had Daisy Spiffel’s number down fine. Her and Pharaoh, when they got engaged, had come to the station to see him off when he went to camp. At that time he couldn’t help but notice that Daisy looked at him kind of longin’, for, though he wasn’t no beauty, he was a sight better looking than Pharaoh Evans. But now, in his khaki, with his divisional decoration on one shoulder, and his sassy little overseas cap cocked over one ear, he was more allurin’ than ever. And that’s what he was counting on to help get Pharaoh out of his hole. Not that he wasn’t sorry for Daisy, knowing how Pharaoh had made a sort of goat of her; but as he says to. hisself, business is busi- ness, and if I don’t look out for myself, who will? 3 “*This is the way we'll work it, Pharaoh,’ he says, as they boarded the trol- ley. ‘When you get up to go home, [ll stick on, like I couldn’t bear to leave. And ‘to-morrow night, when Daisy comes out of the hotel to take the car, I'll happen to be around there, too, and ride out with her. Then later you come out. And when you find me setting in the parlor again, you act like I'd stabbed you in the back or some- thing, and scowl the worst you-can. And every time after that you find me there, you get madder and madder. See?’ _ “Sure, I see,’ says Pharaoh, grinning like it was Christmas. ‘* Of course,’ went on Jake, ‘ I’ll have to give her presents and things, I s’pose; so if you'll slip me twenty-five dollars or so—’ ““« Twenty-five dollars!’ yelped Pharaoh. ‘ Twenty-five—say, are you out of your - mind?’ ‘““* Well,’ says Jake, ‘if I don’t give her something now and then, it ain’t likely to work, that’s all.’ A15 “*ll give you five dollars,’ growled Pharaoh, pulling out his wallet. ‘ Not one cent more. Why, I ain’t spent that much on her altogether, except for the ring.’ ‘““* All right,’ says Jake, tucking the bills in his pocket hurriedly. ‘ I’ll do what I can, but it don’t pay to be too tight in—a des- perate case like this.’ : ‘Well, everything worked fine. ‘When Daisy seen him come up the walk with Pharaoh, a real, live hero fresh from lick- ing Kaisér Bill, her eyes just ate him up. She was standing on the porch with her dog, Bingo, a wopping red-eyed bull, along- side her. “Oh, Mr. Finney,’ says she, ‘ ain’t it grand you got back all right and looking so fine, too?’ “No finer than you, Miss Spiffel,’ says Jake; ‘ and I see you got Bingo still taking care of you.’ “His name ain’t going to be Bingo no more,’ says Daisy. ‘Soon as I seen we was going to win I decided to change it to Pershing, and I believe he’ll like it better. Won’t you, Bingo?’ ‘“ And when she says that the bull blinked his red eyes and let out a rumble like some- body was moving furniture indoors. Bingo wasn’t no beauty and the way he sort of sneered, showing a big, shiny tooth at each corner of his mouth when he looked at Jake and Pharaoh, made the both of ’em feel kind of creepy. ‘““ Gee!’ says Jake when at last they was in the parlor and he was setting on the sofa with Daisy, the bull underneath it and sticking a growl into the conversation every now and then. ‘Gee, Miss Spiffel, but’s it’s good to see an American girl once more.’ “* Oh, go on, Mr. Finney,’ says she, tick- led something terrible. ‘ You’re just talk- ing! What about them French girls in France?’ “French girls is like French fried pota- toes,’ says Jake. ‘You get tired of ’em after a bit. No, Miss Spiffel, there ain’t none to beat our girls here.’ ‘““He spread his arm along the back of the sofa and give her an eager look that set her gasping. ‘I often used to think of you and Pharaoh, Miss Spiffel,’ he says. Gomichbooks (EO)