Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 19, 1924 — page 167: what you’re looking at

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

STOLEN Slippy paid much attention to the heavy, bushy eyebrows. They were another strik- ing characteristic not difficult to imitate. He covered a front tooth with gold-leaf. Trammers showed an eye-tooth made of gold when he spoke. Slippy next donned the tortoise-rimmed spectacles and a suit of clothes he had been at some pains to procure from one of Trammers’s own closets. He laughed at the ease with which he had lifted the suit. And he beamed on the result when he surveyed himself criti- cally in the merciless, unshaded light. He was Trammers to the teeth. He addressed himself in Trammers’s slow drawl, raising his head in a manner which he had studied so carefully the night be- fore. Then he walked past the mirror with Trammers’s long, loping stride, one shoulder slightly raised. Slippy was absolutely satisfied with this dress rehearsal. His trunk and suit cases he had checked to Omaha. They were al- ready en route. What were a trunk and suit cases? Besides, the things might do a pal some good. For he had sent his claim checks to Jim Rutby out there. Jim was a member of the profession who had once done him a good turn. Jim would merely claim the luggage and keep his mouth shut. So Slippy descended via the fire-escape into the dark alley below the cheap board- ing house. When he emerged into the light swinging a gold-headed cane with a mono- gram S. T.—he was Saul Trammers beyond doubt. He knew that Mr. Trammers was dining at home alone that night with no one in the house. He had declared that he was a bit tired from the constant jollifications given him—that he would retire early and would not see any one. A caterer sent up his dinner. ? So Slippy kept from sight. He helped himself to the automobile which usually stood neglected in a side street for the night. Soon he was speeding away, his hat pulled low. He deserted the car two blocks away from Trammers’s house. No one could possibly associate its discovery with the departure of Mr. Trammers for Aus- tralia. SHOES, 637. Slippy crept through a break in the hedge at the rear of the house. He had taken an impression of the basement keyhole the night of the reception. It was but the work of a moment to force the key out on the inside, apply his new one, and enter, He carefully replaced the real key in the lock and turned it. He listened carefully. It was only ten o’clock. If Trammers had carried out his plans he had already retired. Slippy crept noiselessly through the cor- ridor with which he had familiarized him- self. He pushed the swinging-door to the dining room. A shaft of light from the are outside showed him the remainder of the meal on the table. So far, so good. Then Slippy unerringly crept up the thickly car- peted stairs. Once a motor roared by with an open cut-out. Slippy wondered if Tram- mers were asleep and had been aroused by it. Without untoward incident he reached the all-important room—that room housing an independent fortune in the great safe— and ‘Trammers.. He listened outside the door. Stentorian snores fell upon his ears. Was there ever a safer plan? Slippy slunk in. He brought from a pocket a bottle of chloroform. He had snatched a napkin from the dining room table. This he fashioned into a cone. He took a plain handkerchief from his own pocket.. After saturating it with the chlo- roform, he pressed it firmly to Trammers’s nose, then clapped the cone over it when he was sure that Trammers was helpless. As I say, Slippy was fastidious. He shrank from blood or butchery. He watched Trammers quietly with a hand on his pulse. Minute by minute ticked by. At last, after what seemed an age the wrist was nerveless. He then stuffed the chloroformed handker- chief and cone into one of the pockets of the dead man’s pyjamas and surveyed the result. A painless death, swift and certain, with no ugly telltale reminders. _ Although Slippy was of the dead man’s height and build his muscles were like steel bands instead of flabby fat—as were Tram- mers. So he shouldered the lifeless body and retraced his steps quickly. He paused cS oO Eomichoo co