Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 139: what you’re looking at

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

POOR LITTLE PIGEON. “ Misser Stanley—no sabe,” the oriental grunted. “* All right, we’ll come in—take look, see.” Haddon thrust a shoulder against the door, forcing it inward and back. We followed him through. The Chinaman made no move to resist. “ Watch him,” Haddon prompted, and Jim and I drove the fellow with us as we went through the place. There was no one there, but there was a reek in the air of the squalid rooms. I! sniffed and glanced at Haddon. He smiled grimly. “ Opium,” he said. “ Somebody’s been hitting the pipe. Looks like this was a regular joint. You can see for yourself. Well, here’s where we bust it up for the present at least. Bring the fellow along.” We took the Chinaman with us, back down to the street, loaded him into the car and took him over to the jail. There Had- don arranged for a guard to be set on the place Stanley had used as a hang-out, and _ we drove back to the garage and-stabled the car. Judson came clattering down the stairs from the rooms we had looked through as we stood on the sidewalk in a little group. “ Hello!” he exclaimed. ‘‘ Holy smoke! You fellows are sure keeping me busy. Say —give me your side of it. I missed out on the whole works. Just heard about Stan- ley’s arrest—and that he’s been using that place upstairs as a hang-out. Who brought the stuff to him—Lolita?”’ “The dog,” Haddon said. “ The dog?” Judson’s eyes widened. We explained. “ Clever,’ he made comment, “ darned clever. Nobody suspected the mutt.” Haddon smiled slightly. “As a mat- ter of fact, you know, Judson, our friend Dual has suspected it all the time. The trouble was to nail it down. But Dan here turned the trick this afternoon, without ex- pecting to at the time. Examined the poot’s heavy collar after he’d hopped into the ma- chine. Curiosity killed a cat, and Dan’s youthful interest in things busted Stanley’s scheme. A bit of all right, what?” ‘“ Rather.” Judson grinned. Haddon in his satisfaction had dropped momentarily into the somewhat affected manner of speak- 9A 929 ing he employed at times. “ You say Dual suspected it all along?” “Oh, yes.”” Haddon nodded. ‘“ From the first morning he visited the camp. He spotted Stanley as an addict and he spotted the dog. The possibility was a sufficiently close parallel to the pigeons and they were plainly a plant.” ‘Well, anyway—lI suppose this will take a load off Newton’s mind,” Judson said. “In a way,” Haddon assented. ‘“ Of course I’ve rather kept Newton informed of the progress of events. This will, how- ever, prove conclusive, I imagine. Now I think I'll go out and see Stanley and tell him a few things he doesn’t know I’m aware of yet, and see what he says for himself.” He strolled away, and Judson eyed his retreating back. “Smart chap,” he re- marked. “ And that friend of yours is the limit. Was wise all along and kept it to himself. Talk about throwing dust. Ram- bled all over the map, so to speak, while they looked up Stanley’s record. Well, I reckon Neptune’s hardly in a position to harm Miss Rand any longer.” “Neptune?” said Bryce. “ Why, yes.” Judson nodded. “If Stan- ley isn’t Neptune, I don’t know who is. Didn’t Dual say he dealt with drugs, and didn’t he say he was responsible for the girl’s and Newton’s predicament? And now he’s grabbed he’s hardly in a position to do any more dirty work.” ‘ Admittin’ all that, I don’t know.” Jim narrowed his eyes. ‘“ Dual also remarked that Neptune was rushin’ toward dissolu- tion. They ain’t goin’ to shoot Stanley or hang him for this. They'll simply jail him.” “Unless he tries for a get-away,” Jud- son suggested. ‘“‘ That way he might get shot. But at that rate, you think there’s something else?”’ “I don’t know what I think,” Bryce ad- mitted, frowning. “I’ve done a lot of thinking on this thing, but it hasn’t got me anywhere. So far I haven’t called the turn of a single card from first to last. I’m throwin’ no bouquets at myself. From now on I’m goin’ to quit guessin’. I’m goin’ to wait. Here we start out with pigeons and end up with a coon and a dog.” Judson laughed. “ Well, anyway,” he Ccomicboooks (©