Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 150: what you’re looking at

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

hip. 1 simply hi | the grit and rebb S never did run before. I came to a § foot fence and I went over it like a bird, but on the other side was a ditch full of water. Durk, it’s an outrage! You'd think this country was Germany the way these cops carry on! Something ought to be done about it!” ; There was a faint light of amusement in Durkin’s eyes, but he controlled his merri- ment until he saw a corresponding laugh in Springtime’s eye, and then the two joined in laughter that became almost a yell when they thought of the second part of Spring- time’s joke, the first being that he had been soused in water, and the next being that any hobo should think about legal redress. Durkin lighted a twist of paper in the fire and they smoked, like boys at boarding school, hunched up and blowing the telltale smoke up the chimney, where the draft sucked it up and it disappeared without trace. “Springtime,” said Durkin, “do you know what it is that keeps chaps like you and me chained to the road? It’s because there’s always something to laugh at. I haven’t had a good laugh since I’ve been in this town until you came in just now. Thanks for that one. I remember one time when I was ditched away off in the desert and I slogged it to a little place where there was a water tank and nothing else. I got there in the middle of the day and it was so hot that you could have fried eggs on the rails. I went over to the tank to rest in what shade there was and there was a bindle stiff fast asleep. Gee, he was a crumb! I never did see such a wreck— fourteen toes sticking out of each shoe, and he’d been sleeping in the same hat for years. But he was dreaming sweet dreams and he would smile and smile and all of a sud- den he said: ‘ Sixty days!’ and sat up. “IT asked him what it was all about, and when he finally got it through his head that he had been dreaming and this water tank was real life, he told me that in his dream he was a judge. ‘I dreamed I was a beak,’ he said, ‘ and a swell was fetched up before me for breaking the speed laws. And I says to him: “ What’s your name?” and he says, “ Percy Rockerbilt.” “‘ Where do you says, madder n het tleman!” ‘“‘ Well,” says live no place and don’t ha’ opinion of the court that you re vag. Sixty days!”’” . Springtime and Durkin doubled uj laughter—silent laughter, as though it bootleg stuff and there was a revenue ¢ just outside the door. There was a W look in Durkin’s eyes and a wistful fe Springtime’s heart. Durkin put his handon — his pal’s knee and nodded mysteriously, as though reminding him of an appointment he was likely to forget. “Yn the spring, bo,” he said, “in the spring!” From that their talk turned to other things than roaming, for it was a ten- der subject, and too sacred for that dark mission. One doesn’t speak of a dear, dead friend in a boiler factory. When Springtime’s clothing had dried, Durkin, the universal genius, hunted up a flat iron and did 2 good job of pressing them on the table where, in hard times that might in some future centuries to come fall upon Napoleon, the soup line would be served. When that was done he pulled out a gold watch, and slipping it back in his pocket, said: “It’s almost five—have you any place to spend the night?” Springtime said vaguely: “ I don’t know.” ‘“1T’ll be back about eight, and if you aren’t better suited, old fellow, by that time, I can fix you up a flop here that won’t be so bad. Do you need any money for chow?” Springtime shook his head, for in his pocket was Pasquale’s good money. Durkin put on a good overcoat and a derby hat and walked to the door, where he turned and said again: ‘‘In the spring, bo, in the spring!” After he had gone Springtime sat for a time until the dark smell about him—a smell made up of the scent of old hymn books, old carpets, old soup, old walnut chairs—drove him to the street. Once there he began to wander aimlessly, feeling like | the small boy who has sworn to run away from home and finds himself at dark 1 out the courage to go ahead or come back y comicbooks.co