Adventure Magazine, March 1916 — page 177: what you’re looking at

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

Ethics something happened that caused a sudden hush like the lull in the gusts of a hurricane. Any one familiar with wild resorts in frontier places knows the significance of that sudden calm, and looks quickly to determine the location of the trouble, flexing his muscles to leap out of the probable range of fire. Two men came to their feet on opposite sides of the faro-table, and stood poised. One of them was the dealer. The other was Fritz Altgelt. 3 Things moved so quickly then that no one had a chance to interfere, if any man had wished to. “T will say it again, if you did not under- stand,” called Fritz, in his sonorous gut- tural. “You slipped two cards. You are a crook!”’ The dealer half drew his gun before Alt- gelt moved. Then Fritz seemed only to lurch sidewise. The pistol flew undis- charged out of the gambler’s hand with the report of Altgelt’s shot, and blood spurted from his right wrist. He fell to cursing. “Did you see that throw?” in admiring tones, demanded a hard-looking citizen near me. ‘He hit where he aimed, too. He could have killed him just as easy as he winged him.” Some sort of peace officer—deputy- sheriff, probably—came bustling in, gun in hand. Fritz had put his pistol back in his belt and stood waiting. There was conversation and movement about the table. The dealer was being helped to a back room, and some one was going for a doctor. Bystanders told the of- ficer their stories of how Altgelt did not draw until after the gambler. Then the crowd parted as the players settled back to their games, and Fritz, headed toward the door, caught my eye. “Ach! Holden, I’m glad to see you!” he exclaimed, shaking my hand. ‘But I can not stop. The sheriff advises me to take the night stage out. So we are ships that pass in the night, yes?” “Great shooting,” was all I could think of to say. He laughed grimly. “Practise makes perfect,” he said. The manner in which I have run into Altgelt in unexpected places almost leads me to perpetrate the bromide that the world _ is a small place. What strikes me as more unusual, though, is the brevity of the meet- ings. 175 It was in the late Autumn of ror10 that business took me to the City of Mexico. Deceived by a hack-driver, who assured me his horses were the fastest in the Federal. district, I arrived at my hotel late; most of the other passengers on the train, I gath- ered, had passed us on the way. The tourist season was on. It was impossible, the clerk informed me, that I should get a room with bath. There were only two in the house, and both—— ‘“Well met, friend,” said a strong voice at my elbow. Fritz Altgelt, from somewhere in the lobby, had seen my entrance. And what a gorgeous Fritz Altgelt! He was in evening clothes, and the glad raiment set off his muscular figure and mili- tary carriage. The outfit was well-fitting and expensive. You could have bet a gold eagle against a revolutionary peso that a Fifth Avenue address was sewed into the lining. Obviously Fritz was come upon prosperous times. He was holding his age well. His blond hair, grayed a bit at the temples, was still thick and wavy. His eyes were clear and bright. “T have to go on,” he apologized at once, as I was expressing my delight at the meet- ing. “Let us have lunch together tomorrow at, say, Sylvain’s. There are friends I want to ask about. Too bad I have an engage- ment for this evening. I’ll call here for you, if convenient. Shall we say at one?” ““T’ll be tickled to death, old man,” I ac- cepted, and he lighted a cigar and went swinging out of the door and toward the Avenida San Francisco, as handsome a figure, I’ll be bound, as ornamented the most beautiful city in North America that night. i turned back toward the desk to find the same clerk, but, oh, how different a manner! ‘“‘The room for the sefior—with the bath —it will be ready in a few moments,” he said deferentially. “Huh? You found one?” ‘Sz. For the sefior we desire to present the best. It will be soon ready.” They showed me up, after a bit, to the best suite in the house. Finding a room with bath in Mexico City is no cinch, for all its reputation as fhe Paris of America. I won- der who they put out of that suite. As I ate the chico-zapote that topped off — 00 MIE Ss) (EO) » GAN