Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 21, 1922 — page 92: what you’re looking at

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

82 guns!” he told himself. ‘“ I’d like to know her when she had nothing on her mind to trouble her. I bet she’d be a jolly pal.” On his way to his boarding-house he met no one. As he came to the railroad tracks a freight-train whistled. He stood watch- ing it till it had passed. ““ Gee,”’ he said, “I’m homesick for that stuff—mighty homesick! Won’t I be glad when this thing is straightened out and I get a chance to pound the old key again?” He walked slowly along till he reached the boarding-house. There was a rickety fence in front of the house with a sagging gate set into it. A rope had been looped over a picket in the gate and one in the fence. As Shelby was lifting this rope to open the gate he heard the sound of an automobile approaching. In a moment its light came into view. It was running fast. Shelby pulled up the rope quickly, threw open the gate, and entered the yard. The automobile was near. He saw that its light might pick him out if he mounted the steps. He dodged around to the side of the house. There was a barrel here set under a waterspout, and he crouched behind the barrel. ‘He was astonished when the car stopped out in front. There were footsteps on the pavement and then on the sidewalk. He bad left the gate open and some one passed through it. He mounted the steps. There was a sharp rapping on the old door. The echo rang in the bare hall be- yond. The rapping was repeated several times. Then footsteps sounded behind the door, and it was opened. “ How do, ma’am?” said a heavy voice. ‘I’m from the Second Precinct. Have you taken any new boarders lately?”’ A moment’s silence followed the ques- tion. Shelby could imagine his fat and stolid landlady eying the policeman with suspicion before she answered. He had a notion that she would not be very friendly toward policemen who came prowling in the night. “No, I haven’t taken no new boarders,” she said tartly. ‘“ The housg: is full—has been full for ’most a year now. All reg’lar boarders, workin’ in the factories. What is it ye’re lookin’ for?” ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Shelby could hear the cop shift from one foot to the other. “‘ Hey, you,” he then called, “‘ come ’ere a minute!” Some one came across the pavement and the walk, as the policeman had come. “We're lookin’ for the man that was mixed up in the murder of the despatcher on the railroad,” the policeman said. “ This man give us a tip that he had seen the man to-night. He was in disguise as a working man. Carried a dinner-bucket. This man didn’t tumble to who he was till just a bit ago when he was settin’ up in his office workin’ his reg’lar trick. Then it all come back to him that the man he had met and the man we're lookin’ for was one and the same. You know most that come to this neighborhood, I have no doubt, ma’am, and belike you have seen this lad. Tell her, man, what he was like.” Osborne’s voice followed. “* He was dressed in overalls and jumper. He carried a dinner-bucket. He has red hair and a red beard starting now.. He’s as homely as a mud fence. Got a kind of a flat face with brown eyes and a snub nose. About twenty-two years old. A square-shouldered, husky-looking fellow, but not above medium height.” “I have not seen him nor nobody that looks like him at all,”’ the woman said. “Well, that’s all,” the policeman said re- gretfully. ‘ The sergeant got a hunch that this lad, bein’ dressed like an honest work- ing man, would hide in the factory district. We was just lookin’ around. We been look- in’ other places, but we ain’t found nobody that resembles him yet. Sorry to rout you out, ma’am.” The woman made no reply. She merely closed the door in their faces. Shelby hearc them return to the machine. It sped away down the street. Shelby came from behind his barrel. He waited till the machine crossed the tracks. Then he went up and rapped on the door. Plainly the woman had no use for cops. Whether she would be friendly to one whom cops hunted remained to be seen. Shelby determined to find out. She opened the door in a minute. At sight of him she reached forth a large, hard COMmiclboo SS C©