Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 7, 1922 — page 55: what you’re looking at

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

THE BIRD OF PASSAGE. In the center of the quarry was a mound of pulverized rock, and on the apex of that mound was a cleared open ring about forty feet across where the outdoor community life of the place went on. Here Durkin sat with his back propped against a pile of railroad ties. He had a pipe in his mouth, which he pulled at in long, deep-throated puffs; his hands were clasped behind his head, and although the news had leaked through that Roller was coming with blood in his eye, Durkin was his usual calm, languid self. Outside it was windy, but sunny, for the breeze had blown away the drizzle of the morning; within the quarry everything was as quiet as a tomb, and the warmth of the sun seemed to flow through the place in currents as bland as the Gulf Stream. A small group came into the entrance of the quarry—Roller, with Springtime beside him, and a half dozen others who had caught the fight special at different points along its route. They walked forward gravely until within twenty feet of the group on the mound, who had turned with one accord to look at Durkin. Durkin looked up, saw the advancing group, tipped his hat forward to keep the sun out of his eyes, and went on with his smoking. “There he is! There he is!” said Roller hoarsely, as he stripped off his coat and threw it to the ground. “The yellow snitcher! Tell him what I think of him, will you, Springtime? I ain’t got the words for it.” Springtime walked to Durkin, trying for the sake of Roller to preserve the dignity of the occasion. Durkin looked up at him; his long, thin aristocratic face was unmoved, but in his steel gray eyes there was a faint point of light, and at sight of that Spring- time felt that there was to be a fight worth seeing that day. “ Durkin,” he said, “‘ Roller figures you have done him one dirty trick by leaving him in jail with the idea that you were using your coin to go home on, and then spending it all on a drunk. He allows he’s always split with you, and even when he was in jail he gave you a couple of dollars to get fruit with and a palm leaf fan. It’s his idea that any guy who would do to him 201 what you did is a plain no-good guy and ought to have the tar beaten out of him.” Durkin took the stem out of his pipe and looked at the sun through it, and then blew into it to clear it of some obstruction. That calm action seemed to drive Roller into a frenzy; he snorted, and his face grew distinctly purplish in hue. Evidently it was impossible for the tall man to see the father of light through his pipe stem, and he be- gan to hunt about him for a straw with which to clean it. ‘“* Maybe so,” he said. ‘ Why doesn’t he come over here and pass the time of day with me the way he ought to?”’ “* He figures,” said Springtime, “ that it’s time he got a little of his own back, and he’s waiting to take it out of your hide.” ‘Durkin put his pipe in his pocket and got to his-feet. There were certain signs of gentility about Durkin that every man not only noticed but respected: long hands, @ quiet, inoffensive manner, a subtle humor, clean grammar, and his table manners, even in such a place as Snug Harbor, were perfect. He walked over to Roller and said pleasantly: “Tf [ve done anything to offend you, old chap—”’ “There you go again!” roared Roller like a hoarse steam whistle. ‘ Don’t you ‘old chap’ me! Did I or did I not stake you when you were broke? Not once, buta dozen times.” “Yes,” said Durkin mildly and looked around the crowd. ‘“ Show me the man that denies it.” There was a snicker which goaded Rol- ler beyond the limit of human endurance. He bellowed, ‘“‘ Put up your dukes!” and waded in. . Up on the hillside the Professor and Ga- hagan cornered Johnny again. His manners told him that he should not interrupt Springtime when he was as deeply inter- ested as he seemed to be, so instead of putting his elbow into his ribs, as Bender had advised, he climbed to a resting place on the side of the quarry, from which he could look down upon the ring in the middle and see what was going on. Gahagan got on one side of him and the Professor on the other, and the old man began it. comiclbooolx C©