Adventure, January 20, 1922 — page 117: what you’re looking at

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

Men of the Night “Don’t t’ink he is, but——” Silkeen gave a long low fss-s-s-st and waited with ears alert for an answer. “He mus’ have gone in. I tol’ him not to be a fool. Ill give ’im de office an’ 3) Silkeen ran a skinny hand into his pocket and brought out two dried peas. He sent one upward so that it struck against the window with a noise that seemed very loud in the silence. It was a good cast. Any- body on the alert for a signal could not have failed to hear it; and night workers are al- ways on a strain to catch the faintest click, scratch or cluck. Silkeen dropped the other pea thriftily back into his pocket. Little pebbles would have done as well, but they were not al- ways easily found, so he kept a supply of peas. They waited, and no answer came from Billy. “Tf dat guy queers dis job Silkeen left the threat unfinished. “Tt is easy enough to wait,’’ Middleton said. “Maybe he is behind a curtain or something and can’t move without being seen.” “Bet I c’n make ’im move,” Silkeen an- swered with faint accent of menace. They waited, listening for any sound. They knew all about the Holder house, and how it was equipped with burglar alarms and slip-bolts. With forged references, and some dex- terity in luring housemaids away one after another, Middleton had sent Dolly after a place in the house; and she got it. Dolly was Silkeen’s girl. It was a plain case of Beauty and the Beast. She had a weakness for him, though she was as pretty a little blonde thing as ever smiled at a mir- ror. Quite recklessly she kept Silkeen, whose ugly face she adored, jealous as a Turk. She often said, quite cheerfully, that some day he would croak her. She was generous, weak, kind-hearted, faithless and audacious. Without doubt she had winked at the doctor when he was helping her into the world, and she had just kept right on flirting. Having learned as much as her friends needed to know of the Holder house and habits, it was up to her to get out of the way. If she remained in the house when the servants were lined up, looked over, quizzed, bulldozed, by the professional meddlers ) 115 in other people’s business, the detectives would have grabbed her. If she vanished, the detectives in making inquiries about the servants that had lately left would surely have got onto her; and the word would have gone out to all the stool-pigeons between the Battery and the Bronx, “Turn up Silkeen’s Dolly.” And the first time she poked her little nose out for a breath a fresh air, somebody would have grabbed er. So Dolly merely fell and sprained her back. It was very serious; she was removed to the hospital. Doctors can’t tell anything about a sprained back. They had to believe what she told them about the pain. They even saw wrenched muscles in the X-ray, for she was very pretty. So they made her lie flat and drink through a tube. A young doctor tried to interest her in nursing as a career. He lectured the nurs- ing classes on sickroom hygiene. An older and wiser physician offered her a place as his secretary. When she said that she did not know typewriting or shorthand he said that was all right as he was a widower. With Dolly suffering in the hospital, where she had been for ten days, nobody would be likely: to think about her when the detectives began their querying about servants. So it hapened that Middleton knew where all the alarms were—fastened to the windows of the first floor and basement. But the seeming security of the up-stairs, which was without porch or vines, had made similar precautions there seem unecessary. Besides, alarms had been put on both the ‘front and back stairs. Almost anybody who did not know any- thing about such things would have _pro- nounced the house burglar-proof. But any fly-cop, if consulted in the matter, and Billy the Dude had happened to be mentioned, would have said something like this: “Listen. ll tell you something. Id like to bet twenty dollars, real money, that the Dude would be into this house and ready to leave again in less than that many minutes. “Give him a dark enough night and he wouldn’t care how-many people were watch- ing for him. He’s two-thirds monkey any- way; and he would put on rubber gloves— give him a grip, you see—and run up that COmMicloooks (C@