Adventure, January 20, 1922 — page 93: what you’re looking at

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

Men of the Night. . - divided his time between valeting, acting as chauffeur and blowing safes. Billy the Dude, whose reputation as a second-story worker was scarcely rivaled by any gun outside of prison, was in an odd position regarding this expensive apart- ment. He used it as a sort of sanctuary, owing to the fact that he was very much wanted by certain members of the police department—though this did not keep him from stirring about, both night and day; and he brought back gossip to the stay-at- home Jerry. And though the lease of this extravagant apartment was in his name he moved about in it with circumspection, made no unnecessary noises, and invited none of his friends to call. In other words he did not feel that it was his. It wasn’t. Next to making trouble for the cops Billy enjoyed gossiping above the other pleasures of crookdom; though, as most fastidious dressers are, he was unwarily susceptible to the beckoning smile of a pretty woman. “W’at’s all dis scandal about dem Holders y’say? Listen. I knows all about it. Aw-ll. See? “Listen. Dere’s a howl. Oh somet’in’ awful, Jerry. Y’know why? Y’know why dat geezer marries ’er? An’ him wit’-all dat money? I'll tell youse. He loves her, see? “Dere was four hun’red fits. Each 0’ dem swells had one ’r more. Y’see, he loves her. Dat’s why he marries ’er. An’ all de society bugs is scan’alized. “T’m in de know about w’at goes on "mong dem Four Hun’reds. Bet your life. I'll say so.” Jerry grumbled sleepily, and settled him- self in an attitude of pretending to listen but with his hand shading his eyes so he could doze—without the light being in his face. Billy the Dude was at one of the happy moments of his troublous life. He lighted a cigaret with flourish of gesture, laid a silken ankle on his knee, and slouched back in his chair with the pride of recital upon him, : A wolfhound, lying on a rug under the window, attracted by the movement, looked up inquiringly and paused in a tender gaze, half sadly, before he again crouched be- tween his paws and dozed. “Wsée, it’s jus’ dis way. When Frank Holder grabs off dis, dame from the GI knows where, a lady frien’ 0’ mine is swingin’ a feather duster in his sister’s house. “Y’see, she’s a shop-lifter w’at’s had to lay off work at her regular job till a lot o’ ginks forget ’er. She’s hooked up wit’ a second story gun, good friend o’ mine— used to work wit’ ’im. O’ course after the judge says, “Mame, you’d better do all your tradin’ wit’ some mail-order house fr’m now on,’ her man don’t want ’er layin’ off, doin’ not’ing but eat. ‘So wit’ an eye on future jobs f’r himself as well as to keep her fr’m t’inking he loves "er so much she don’t have to do no work, he says: ‘Mame, listen. Nix on this pairocite stuff; not by a sight.’ “So he makes ’er a present o’ some rec- ommendations fr’m a guy w’at does a busi- ness in furnishin’ ’em to servants. Some pen pusher, b’lieve me. “Little Mame waltzes along an’ lands right. She was dere when somebody pulls de big robbery. Somebody, get me? I ain’t sayin’ who. But give me two guesses, an’ I won’t need de second one. Ain’t nobody but him got de noive to pull de stunt like he done it. ‘An’ as I was sayin’, Mame is dere when de big doin’s breaks; an’ maybe you t’ink cher man don’t pan ’er f’r muffin’ her play. Gee, she could ’a’ cleaned up right—jus’ grabbed off ever’t’ing the minute she heard there’d been a robbery, an’ it’d all been put down to him. An’ youse know who I mean, too.” Jerry looked about uneasily. He be- lieved in ill luck, bad dreams, hunches, fortune-tellers, and that the Black Wolf had a sixth sense by which he knew what “was said behind his back. “Say, Jerry, an’ youse oughta hear Mame tell about what goes on ’mong family an’ frien’s after de weddin’. Oh, boy! We was down to Dutch Louie’s one night on her day off, an’ she tell it all. She’s full oO pep, an’ ’s got more sarcasm ’an a traffic cop talkin’ to a flivver that’s tried to do a. sneak on him. ““Tisten,’ says Mame. ‘Frank ’s got that batch o’ relatives so high in de air dey don’t know whether the sky’s above ’r b’low ’em. He sure knocked the socks off Sister Helena. An’ dear ol’ Pop Louden, he’s jus’ about chewed his side-w’iskers all off. “*V’see this sis I runs the vacuum f’r COMmicoooks (C@