Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 21, 1922 — page 102: what you’re looking at

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

92 borne, get on your feet and if you have any manhood in your system, display it now.” Osborne got slowly to his feet. There was a dark-red bruise on his forehead. It was the only spot of color in his drawn face. CHAPTER X. THE FARRIC, HE night chief appeared in the door of the chief’s office. He stood staring at the risen men. “Wires all down, boys?” he asked. “ ‘What's the racket, Silent?” The despatchers and the lone copier went back to work. The operator at last heard a call on one of his wires. “Can I use your office for a minute, Mack?” Simpson asked. “Walk in,” the night chief said. “Go on, Osborne,” Simpson said. They went in and sat down. Mack closed the door. Osborne sat looking at the floor. ‘‘'Where’ve you been, Shelby?” Mack asked. “ Knocking around,” Shelby answered. “ Shelby,” Simpson said, ‘“ tell Osborne what you know.” Shelby squirmed in his seat. He saw that Simpson was going to live up to his reputation for silence. “Well,” Shelby said, ‘‘ it runs about like this: Osborne and Thornton were pals. They cookéd up a blackmail scheme. The person they were trying to blackmail stood out against them. . “Thornton forgot an order and said he had sent it to me. He and Osborne quar- reled about it. Osborne said he wouldn't cover up Thornton. Thornton said if Os- borne didn’t Thornton would tell what he knew. So Osborne shielded Thornton. ““Qsborne is married, though nobody knew it. Thornton boarded at Mrs. Os- borne’s. Thornton and Osborne had a quarrel at Mrs. Osborne’s, and Thornton, losing his temper, told Mrs. Osborne a lot about her husband. “Osborne wrote a message on his ma- chine in his rooms and sent it to me, sign- - ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ing Thornton’s name to it, and saying Thornton wanted to see me. Then he had Thornton leave the house for a while, so that Thornton wouldn’t be there to deny he had sent me a message. I asked for Thornton, and Mrs. Osborne said he wasn’t at home. I left for a while. When I came back Mrs. Osborne set a policeman on me. Thornton had been murdered and it looked as if the man who had been asking for him might have had something to do with it. Say, Silent, why did Mrs. Osborne set that policeman on me when she knew I was innocent?” “She had been threatened,” Simpson said. ‘Why didn’t she tell the police that Miss—Miss—” “ Had been there?” Simpson finished for him. ‘“ Because she was sorry for the girl. They had had a talk, and Mrs. Osborne knew that Osborne was to blame for every- thing.” “The note that Osborne sent to me had been written on a machine that the period was missing from,” Shelby went on. “I got that machine from Osborne’s room. We found that Osborne had telephoned fer a messenger to deliver his message to me, and that he had telephoned to Thornton to get Thornton out of the house. ‘““'You see, I had struck Thornton, like the chump I was, and Osborne thought he saw a chance to establish a motive for the killing of Thornton. Gee, I wouldn’t kill aman! TI guess that’s all, isn’t it, Simp- son?” Osborne raised his head. There was a little light of hope in his eyes. “Tf that’s all, what’s the use of staying here, chewing the rag, Simpson?” he said. “If youre going to arrest me on this trumped-up blackmail charge why don’t you do it?” ‘You think the charge is trumped-up?” Simpson asked. “I know it. I can prove it.” ‘Then I’d rather not arrest you on that charge, had I?” Simpson asked. There was a sneer on Simpson’s lips. His eyes were contemptuous. Osborne shivered as if he were cold, despite the growing heat of the morning. comicloool C©