Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 151: what you’re looking at

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

REFLEX. Morrison Soe it, knew that the instant for which he had been planning was _ only seconds away, but faintly through that blurring haze of far distances. He moved forward again. In the mid- die of the sidewalk he heard the purr of the oncoming motor and a pace from the curb perceived the shadowy bulk of the car, but still dimly. The car slid across his path and halted, veering toward him. The door burst open and a man swung out, only eyes visible above a high turned collar, seized the suit case, gripped Morrison’s right elbow, and jerked forward. Morrison resisted. Resistance had been agreed upon, but this resistance was not that sort. Atlas money, eighty-four thou- sand dollars, intrusted to him, was being taken. Without decision and so swiftly that his blurred faculties could not have checked it, an impulse flashed through brain and spinal cord over shunts and turns worn deep by previous impulses. He bent back. His right arm shook off the smothering grip, and his right hand came out of his side pocket, finger closing on the trigger even before the pistol was quite raised. But there was only one click, and the big quiet voice of Higgins said through the upturned collar, ‘“‘ Never mind, Bruce, it’s all right.” An hour later in the chief’s little private office adjoining the Atlas police headquar- ters, Higgins took his pipe from between his teeth and leaned forward, his big body stiffening with the flash of scorn that light- ed his blue eyes. | ‘““Why, they haven’t got nerve enough to be stickup men,” he snapped. ‘‘ They’ve never done a thing but a lot of dirty yellow frameups. night and asked me if it was worth five thousand: to the company to know it was going to be robbed to-day, I told them to prove it was going to be robbed. They told me about the job they said you’d planned with them, and I told them they lied. Then they said for me to take their places and see. So I got hold of Fitzhugh, and we told them we’d pay them their five big body relaxed. So when they came around last ” 621 thousand if you did what they said you were going to do,” He chuckled and his “Only we were playing a sure thing, because we knew you never would,” Morrison shifted slightly. He was sit- ting, head sagging, face stamped with numbness. He moistened his lips, “But I was,” he repeated, voice duil and mechanical. “I—I wanted to—but when the time came I—I just couldn’t.” He made a rattling noise in his throat, vaguely like an ironical laugh. ‘ Guess I’ve been straight so long I ant pe crooked when I want to.” 7 Higgins considered, then nodded. taking deep puffs at his pipe. ‘“‘ Yes,” he replied with quiet. conviction. “ I’ve seen a good deal in my time of men that were crooked and wanted to be crooked, and let me tell you, Bruce, when a man’s gone straight as long as you have he gets into a habit of going straight that’s just about too strong for him to break.” His eyes shadowed somberly. “ Of course it can be done,” he added. “‘ That’s why I put dead cartridges in your gat and had all the cars out this morning so you’d have to insist on having one at ten sharp, and took your cash bag so you’d strap the Suit case to your wrist. Those little things might have been useful evidence in case—”’ He smiled. “ But we'll simply go ahead as if this had never happened.” Morrison gaped at him stupidly. I—T intended to! I planned—” Higgins leaned forward and laid a big hand on his knee. “ Forget it, Bruce,” he said, eyes softened understandingly. “You demonstrated this morning that you’ve built up a guard rail that can keep you from going off the road, and for my part I’d sooner trust a good guard rail than a driver that can’t handle his car. Don’t you see?”’ Morrison sighed bewildecslly and gripped Higgins’s big hand with spasmodic pressure. “ Tt’s sure pighty—wiehly white of you, = But Frank,” he said huskily, and producing a cigarette, reached as usual into his lower left waisteoat pocket for a match. Habit, of course, had taken care of that, too. =COMIEDOOKS-=CO