Adventure, January 20, 1922 — page 98: what you’re looking at

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

96 A figure in a long overcoat emerged from the darkened interior and stood for a mo- ment at the door, held open by the driver. “When you get to the garage, Harry, look it over pretty well. I dropped something on (he floor. A ring I think. I couldn’t find it. If somebody at the garage spotted it— you understand?” The inflection was a little cynical and partly amused. ‘“‘Yes’r, Misser Mid’ton,” said the chauffeur, who was known under the Bertillon system as Harry Devore, alias Silkeen Harry, alias Chink-Eyes. He was lean as an alley cat and about as noiseless. A dangerous man witha gun too, and suspected of being part Chinese. There was a slant to his eyes and a lithe, slithering movement to his walk. He was known to have nerve, to hit the pipe and to use cocain. | When he worked by himself he pulled off daylight holdups in down-town entrances— and got away with it. He had genius for being quick on the move and was cunning as a lynx. Sheer impulse was all that ever guided him. He closed the door quietly and turned to mount his seat; then hesitated and stared over his shoulder. He had heard something. He did not know what and could not have been sure whether it was his ears or his imagination that touched the senses of hearing. Like an animal made uneasy he waited, tense, uncertain, dangerous. Half a block away an arc light clicked and chattered to itself. A splotch of light glowed in the apartment entrance. All else was darkness and shadow, with leafless trees ranged along the sidewalk like great candelabras, extinguished. Silkeen Harry looked after the man, wrapped in a long coat, with both hands in his pockets. It had been a successful eve- ning. Very. A king’s ransom was in each of the pockets. Two living shadows flashed from the darkness and became men. ‘They had knives. Half-crouching, they leaped. Silkeen got the situation by instinct and acted long before a thought could have reached him. He was two-thirds jungle creature anyway. He poured an automatic’s dumdums into both the shadow men and threw the gun away as he leaped to the seat. An empty gun is of no value to any one but the dis- trict attorney. mr 4 ie Adventure At once the heavy car plunged ahead— plunged as if jerked forward by a tow-rope, and vanished at the nearest corner. Silkeen and the gray limousine were out of sight before a startled face peered through any of the windows that lined the street. Middleton was not less rapid in his move- ments, but there was no blind impulse in his way of work. He knew what he was doing and why as he hurried along the narrow trademan’s walk toward the rear of the Wellington-Dane. He stopped, listened watchfully when deep within the shadows. A crowd gathered, quickly, even at. that hour. The dead men were runty dark tellows of an Italian type. . sure shot to pieces, ain’t they? . oo . gang battle. Getting to “he awit ..47" . . Lheard ’n auto—didn’t chu? .. .” . . must ’a’ been fifty shots’. . .” . dagoes, ain’t they? . : I wonder what . It was a shivering, excited crowd; men a: in pajamas with overcoats about them; “ women in robes; others more dressed. They came tumbling out of their warm beds to look at dead men on the pavement. Middleton edged out of the shadows, joined the crowd, pressed close and looked down into the circle about. the bodies. All about people chattered wonderingly. The police in time came and learned nothing. They were mystified then and later as to how it came that two low-browed Italian gangsters had been killed at the entrance of a place like the Wellington- Dane. VITl AS THE first shot cracked the night, Billy the Dude sprang from the chair and stood alert as an gone animal. Report on report went bursting through the air so fast that the sound was confused. Billy cried to Jerry Peete: “Dat’s Silkeen’s gun! He’s tearin’ off somet’in’—it’s cops sure’n ’s a foot deep. Dey’re tryin’ to make a pinch. Fr ’s sake——” Billy yanked out the heavy gun he was carrying and with a bound went through the library door, where the woman and dog were up, motionless, tense, listening. GOImMGoIoOok (C@