Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 178: what you’re looking at

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

176 Paolo nodded. “Mees Dam,” he echoed thoughtfully. “Mees Dam.” “So you don’t know anything about him?” she asked again, nodding toward the corner where the ‘‘Hot Dog” had disap- peared. “But yes,” Paolo answered eagerly. ‘‘Thees man,” he informed her, tapping his forehead portentously, “he is—what you call smart—oh, very smart.” “Ketches fireflies for a living, eh?” Paolo shook his head. ‘“‘Hleem, he maka the grr-eat idea, and he weel sell thees idea for wan—mebbe two— mebbe t’ree t’ousand dolla! He weel be the reech, reech man some day!” Paolo stuck out his chest and smote it with his fist. “Bully for him!’ Miss Dem commented. ‘But if he doesn’t eat more than a hot dog and a roll for lunch he won’t live to know about it.” ‘““Yes, he ees lika the starva cat—so thin,”’ Paolo agreed. ‘And some days I must even trust heem for the nickel.” He put up one brown hand to conceal this damaging statement from a possible listener. Two schoolboys came flying round the corner. “Gimme two vanilla cones!” one de- manded. “A stick a’ peppermint!’ bawled the other. Miss Dem picked up her bag and de- «parted. F| quite often. Always, as on the first day, he was in a desperate hurry. Occsonally she passed the time of day with him. Once when Paolo had a stress of customers and the Hot Dog stood chafing, he confided to Miss Dem that he was anx- ious to get back home, because an invention he was perfecting was almost done, and he could hardly wait to finish it. Miss Dem noticed that he stuttered a little. Before he could say more, Paolo handed out his frankfurtered roll, and he bolted it as a hungry dog bolts a chunk of meat. In a moment he was gone without another word. A few days later, Miss Dem, passing down a side street, was almost knocked off her feet by a crowd of men, women, and children that poured yelling from a battered brown- "Fe, n AFTER this she met the Hot Dog__ ing. Adventure stone house in the middle of the block. after them came a cloud of smoke and an acrid odor. “Fire! Fire!’ they cried as they came. Some one sent in an alarm. A man came stumbling down the steps. His hair was singed, his eyebrows burned, his face black, and his clothes smoking— the Hot Dog! “There he is!’ some one yelled, and the crowd made for him. In the excited chatter, Miss Dem made out that they held the Hot Dog responsible. They grabbed him at all points, but his singed clothes gave at every pull. He kept rescuing an arth or a leg from the mauling, and smilingly explaining to the crowd how it happened. And in all that porridge of dialects and fierce cries, he was quite una- fraid, even cheerful. The crowd increased. It filled the street from curb to curb. The din was terrific. The Lord only knew what those on the out- side of it thought the Hot Dog had done— murder, or roasting babies, or something of the sort. He was in a fair way to be damaged. Al- ready a Hebrew fist had put one eye out of commission—the brown one—but the blue one still beamed courageously. They were pulling at him as dogs pull at a stag at bay, and battering his thin body wherever they could reach him. Some one shied a stone from the outskirts of the crowd. It hit him on the cheek. The blood streamed down his face. He reeled and staggered against the rail- This was the last straw for Miss Dem. She had held off as long as possible. Now she fought her way to him, jabbing with her elbows, hitting out with her feet. In another moment she stood beside the Hot Dog, a little out of breath, but full of ginger. She grabbed a wrist descending with a vicious fist on the end of it. ‘‘What’s the matter?’’ she demanded of the owner, a soiled man with a black beard and a pirate’s nose. He wrenched his arm out of her grasp and waved dramatically at the Hot Dog. ‘Him, he iss purn our house down!’’ he shouted passionately. Miss Dem turned and took a look at the house, which still stood solid behind them. “T hadn’t noticed it,’ she observed, shrugging her shoulders. COMmichoooks (CO