Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

808 it could not have sailed far, in spite of the hill there and the gutters running over. "Tis not like you—” “Damn the hat!” McCarty interrupted irascibly. ‘“’Tis the man himself I’m thinking of; now, if the cold, muddy rain water in the gutter had anything to do with it—” He mumbled and lapsed into silence and after a discreet interval his companion ob- . Served in an aggrieved tone: ‘“Through more than muddy rain water have I followed you on many a case you've dragged me into, but if the grand education you’ve been getting lately from those books has made you talk in riddles, you can keep the answers to yourself for all of me! By the same token, if that fellow was not run- ning away from anybody or hurrying to meet them, but was just chasing along like that through the storm, staggering and stopping and leaping forward again, he must have been out of his head entirely and the asylum would have got him if the morgue hadn’t!” “ True for you, Denny; that’s what was in my mind just now,” McCarty replied with a quick, contrite return to his habitual geniality. ‘‘ Not about him being a lunatic, maybe, but delirious from sickness and suf- fering. When he fell, with his head hang- ing over the gutter and the cold water rush- ing over his face I was thinking it brought back his consciousness for that minute there at the end. You could see by the look in his eyes and the way he fought for breath that there was something he was trying his best to tell, something that filled him with more horror than the fear of death itself!” “ Tis a lot to see in a man’s eyes,” Den- nis remarked in unusual skepticism. ‘“‘ May- be he’d no notion of dying; he seems to have been a pretty healthy looking fellow from what you tell me. If those books are getting you to read meanings in people’s faces that are not there you’d best be stick- ing to the newspapers.” “Tis small meaning anybody could read in yours, my lad!” the indignant student retorted. ‘‘ Here we are, and the gates are shut, just as I told you. What’s the next move? You started this, Denny, and it’s up to you!” . ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. - But it proved to be up to neither of them, for as McCarty descended from the taxi be- fore the great gates of wrought iron which spanned the side street a tal! figure emerged from the deeper shadows and a well known voice exclaimed in accents of satisfaction not untinged with amusement: “There you are, Mac! I’ve been wait- ing for you.” ‘ Inspector!”” McCarty gasped, gaping at his former superior. ‘‘ How in the world did you know—” Inspector Druet laughed. “How did I know you'd be on the scent with the trail fresh and the wind your way? Good evening, Riordan; it’s like old times to find you following Mac’s lead again.” “°Tis Denny that’s leading this night,” averred McCarty with a chuckle as Dennis turned to pay and dismiss the taxi driver. “In spite of the rain and all he was pos- sessed to come and have a look around here when I told him about the drunk that fell dead across the street from the station house down by the water front!” “The ‘drunk,’ eh?” ‘Inspector Druet tapped a leather case which he carried. ““T have the man’s hat here which you found in the gutter, and I needn’t ask if you saw the initials inside, though you said nothing to the boys at the house. When {1 found out you’d been on the scene, and got a line from them on the way you'd collected all the dope on the case and then quietly faded away with a pathetic refer. ence to rheumatism, I knew you would be on the job. “Then your phone didn’t answer a little while ago and | was morally certain you had read that identification tag correctly and were on your way here, so I waited. It looks as though this was going to be big- ger than it appeared at first.” They had drawn under the comparative shelter of an overhanging cornice on the south sidewalk just outside the towering grille work of the gate fence, and Dennis, who had turned to gaze reproachfully at McCarty when the hat was mentioned, asked with lively interest: ‘“ Do you mean, inspector, that the fellow didn’t just drop dead by accident? What was the initials? Who was he?” GOmMIGDOOKSEEO