Adventure, February 1917 — page 122: what you’re looking at

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

=e of the scoundrel. 120 “T simply have to have it!” he said with a gesture of helplessness. “My father is now suspicious because I’ve gone through - so much more than my allowance. I thought I could win it. I’ve been playing _ at the Bristol—that’s Findley’s hang out. He gambles there all the time. But a fellow there that took a liking to me, one of the house men I think, told me to try Johnny Blix’s. Said I could get a square deal there.” “Findley suggested that you play poker = for it?” tes VBS. aes gets a commission on what you lose there, and sees that you never have a chance to. win. How much does he have tO have tomorrow morning?” He told me: Iwas surprised at the nerve Inside of a month he had made that boy dig up something over $5,000; and that didn’t include another $1,500 that he had dropped playing poker in an effort to raise funds. No wonder his father was growing suspicious. “How do you know he has the certificate?” . “Pm not that green. I made him show it to me. Bristol.’ Sometimes my mind works with amazing rapidity. I deserve no credit for so-called rapid thinking. It is done automatically. He keeps it in a safe at the Almost in an instant I had considered the feasibility of getting the Bristol raided, of holding it up—I have done things as des- perate for no more cause—of kidnapping Findley and making the certificate the ransom price. But the aftermath to each of these was likely to be embarassing. However I had hit upon a plan that could be tried and would be harmless if it failed, in which case something else ae be done. It is not exactly natural in me to be sus- picious, but I. have cultivated suspicion until it has become instinctive. I had no reason for not thinking the girl was all right, but it was just as well to make sure. I told Norcross that if he could arrange for me to meet her I would try to get the _ certificate away from Findley. “Tl pay you anything—anything—if you giveme time.” He grasped at my offer of assistance as a falling man grasps at a spider’s web. “We'll discuss my fee after I ‘see Miss Rankine.” Adventure : (EO) “But I can’t pay him that thousand tomorrow.” ‘*Tell him not to get excited; that you are doing some planning to get the lump sum he asked: “But that’s impossible!” “Lknowit. Hedoesn’t. He knows your father—or knows who he is.” » ~“That’s it. He says if I don’t pay up regularly that he’ll go to father.”’ It’s a very small detail, perhaps, but I -Tiked to see that the boy didn’t call his father “the Old Man.” “He won’t be in a hurry to go to your father. You tell him—Findley—that you have explained the situation to a friend, and he is trying to help you out. But that Findley will have to part with the certifi- cate. Sell out for a lump sum.” “You wouldn’t trust me——” “No. Not even if I had that much money. But the fact that he keeps it stowed in the safe of William Bristol’s palatial gambling joint has given me an inspiration. Poker players and diplomats have to use their heads. Most people simply use a checking account. You say this house man that tipped you off that Johnny Blix’s was a square joint took a liking to you?” Ves, 93 : I knew that Johnny—as does every other gambler doing business under police pro- - tection—kept ringers scattered through the rival joints to tip players off that such and such a place is a square house; but Johnny had that reputation. “Did this fellow seem thick with Findley?” “T should say not. Every time they got into the same game they bucked each other. Just like you did me.” “‘What’s his name?” “Watson.” I told him to wait a minute, and going to the telephone I called up Johnny and asked him if he knew a fellow named Watson that loafed around the Bristol. Johnny said that he did. I asked if he was all right, and the answer was satis- factory I didn’t ask if Watson was a ringer. That was none of my business. But I did ask Johnny if he would get in touch with Watson and say to him that “I am a friend of yours and that he can go the limit with me. That I am O. K.” Johnny said he would do it ee away. | ONOOLK (Ec) ~~ =