Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 19, 1924 — page 81: what you’re looking at

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

THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL. handled it more tenderly had it been the rarest fabric in the world. Ethel would hear of no suggestion that it had been blown on the wind and caught by the fence spike. ‘ That’s a piece of a trouser leg!” she de- clared. “You can see where it’s ripped from the seam on this side, and if it hadn’t been so old that it gave, the man would probably have been found tied up in a knot on the other side of that fence with a broken kneecap! He’s left handed and his pants are torn; that’s something to go on, if he hasn’t been able to get hold of another pair. And couldn’t you tell about how tall he was from the distance between those figures on the wall and the floor? People usually write on a level with their eyes unless they’re looking down, don’t they?” ‘By Jove, youre right again!” ex- claimed Cliff. ‘Anybody else but me would have thought of that at once, but I was so taken up with the writing itself that it never occurred to me. The fellow was rather tall, I should say those figures were scrawled .a little above the transmitter, as I remember, and quite far out at one side.” ‘That means his arms are kind of long!” Ethel nodded. ‘ He’s farsighted instead of the other way, and he isn’t used to bending over a desk—he likes plenty of room. Mr. Nichols, we’re getting on!” “But that number!” Cliff thrust the fragment of cloth into the table drawer. “ There’s one still that you haven’t tried. What exchange is it? I'll give it a ring now myself.” “ Parkside,” she responded promptly. “ That’s up in that neighborhood of cheap flats around Hillside Park, isn’t it? I left it till the last because they aren’t exactly tenements like you’d expect a crook of that sort to come from, nor flash joints—l mean, common, showy little places where hard working families wouldn’t live.” She flushed slightly at the lapse, but Cliff turned to the telephone beside the array of inks and acids on his table. “ Parkside 6ogo.” He spoke into the transmitter and then added in an aside: “ Don’t go away, Ethel. I may need you.” There was a pause and the girl beside him drew in her breath sharply while he waited -in mounting suspense. at our house! “ Doesn’t answer.” The mechanically twanging tones of “ central”? came to him at length. “They must answer!” Cliff retorted with a desperate eagerness. The last number left! ‘Keep ringing them, please. I'll hold the wire!” A faint, whirring buzz sounded in his ears and then there came suddenly a small, sweet, piping voice. ‘Hello! Who is it?” A child! Cliff’s heart sank like lead, but he asked: “Ts Harry there?” “No, thir,” the childish treble lisped. “You don’t mean my Uncle Charlie, do you?” ‘JT mean Harry. I was told to call him up there. What is the address of this num- _ber?”’ ‘““T guess he must be one of Uncle Char- lie’s friends; so many of them call up here It’s 840 West One Hundred and Tenth Street; mamma only had the telumphone put m last week ’cause Uncle Charlie wanted it. When she comes in do you want me to tell her anything for the other man?” The child was all by herself and lone- some, evidently; glad of some one to talk to. It seemed hopeless ground, but Cliff ven- tured on a bold stroke: “Your Uncle Charlie telephoned to Harry last night and gave him the new number. Harry expected to be there and I was to call him, I guess your mamma knows.” ‘“T gueth tho.” The child seemed to lisp only when in doubt or embarrassed. ‘‘ Uncle Charlie expected somebody else, but they didn’t come and he was awful. Oh, I for- got! I wathn’t to dare thay a word! Tl tell Uncle Charlie thombody called up for Harry. Good-by.” The distant receiver clicked in scared haste and Cliff faced his new partner with shining eyes. “We've got it at last, Ethel! Put down this address, quick!” He repeated it to her, together with the gist of the brief con- versation and added: ‘‘ That little girl’s Uncle Charlie expected somebody last night and when they didn’t appear he was either ool MEK I OME ORE UE ere ARt aN oT SPs pt oP, ere ee Pepe 4 Wi be ee, bt rd ASS 81 COP CORMICE OOO KS.€©