Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 89: what you’re looking at

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

By WILLIAM J. FLYNN, Former Chief, United States Secret Service, and GEORGE BARTON. VI.—THAT AFFAIR EABODY SMITH lay back in a pad- Pp ded armchair in his den drinking in the wit and wisdom of Josh Billings. He always contended that thorough knowl- edge of the Bible, Shakespeare and the in- imitable Billings would give any intelligent man a liberal education. And now with a rainy afternoon and no work to do he was having the time of his life reveling in his favorite humorist. He had finished about a quart of tea, and was lighting his fifth Pittsburgh stogie when the telephone bell began its monotonous ringing. The detec- tive picked it up grudgingly and said yawn- ingly: AT THE BALDWIN. “This is Peabody Smith—what do you want?” The answer that came over the wire, in a clear, steady voice, not only stifled the yawn, but caused him to sit up with the suddenness of a man who has had a bowl of cold water thrown into his face. The voice on the other end of the tele- phone was saying: “This is the Hotel Baldwin, on West Eighty-Seventh Street. Barry Caldwell is talking. I have just murdered a man, and want you to come up here at once. Say you'll come.” For one of the few times in his life .the The first story of this series appeared in the Argosy-Allstory Weekly for October 28. 559 CommicoookxS. CGO