Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

= he made a pretty convincing figure as he stood there, too, and it was funny to watch the sheepish grin that went around that table and the way they avoided looking directly at him. He had shamed them! He’d done just that! Mr. Bennett coughed. “Tom’s right, of course. He’s always right,” said he. ‘ Good luck’s what a man works like the devil to get and finally does get—and bad luck’s the fitting reward for the scamp! Quite right—quite right.” ‘““ And even so, Bennett,’”’ Macpherson in- sisted, ‘‘ it does happen—”’ “No, it doesn’t, Mr. Macpherson,” the president laughed as he sat down. “A man’s bad luck is the punishment he’s earned for bad acts. A man who’s right— clean right all the way through!—doesn’t have any bad luck! Now, is there any fur. ther business to be looked after before we adjourn?” Craven cackled out a sour little laugh. ‘“Only to pass a resolution of thanks to you for being the sanest man present, I guess, Thomas,” he said. And it was just exactly at that moment that it began to happen! I always sat beside Mr. Berford at meet- ings, taking down whatever had to be taken down, trotting out now and then for docu- ments and all that sort of thing, and my chair faced the door of the directors’ room. Well, the excitement having all subsided and there being nothing of a stenographic nature to record, I was just sitting and look- ing at the door—when it opened about four inches and Jimmy’s face appeared. That kid never had any idea of the sol- emnity or importance of any occasion; he would have walked straight in if I hadn’t caught his eye at just the right second. As it was, he stopped and beckoned to me; and I shook my head “no” and Jimmy . shook his head “ yes” and beckoned again. T waved a hand, trying to tell him to close the door; he merely stood there and went on beckoning; so that finally I laid my book and pencil on the table and went over on tiptoe—and pushed him out and followed him and closed the door behind me. “Well, what’s the matter with you?” I asked. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, The blamed little clown put the tip of his forefinger under his chin and curtsied! “Oh, Morsey! I hate t’ tell ya!” he said. “What?” , ‘‘ Say, lissen!”’ said the boy. “ As a rule, this place ain’t what you could call inter- esting, but to-day things is different. This is our day for cuties, Morse! First the chicken in the gas-wagon—and now this bimbo!” ‘What bimbo?” “Oh, Morsey—wonderful! Shall I tell you about her or would you like to give her the up-and-down first and hear about her afterward? She’s right out there in the hall - by your office door.” ‘“* A woman?” ‘““A dream!” said James. to see the main squeeze and she says her business is personal. What it must be to be rich like Berford, Morsey, and have ’em buzz you like this—huh? What it must be—” Well, I left him just then and made for the corridor—and she was there, all right enough! She couldn’t have been much over twenty ‘She wants and she was pretty. Phew! but she was pretty, too! Not like the Storm girl, you understand; that girl was just pure class; but she was a mighty attractive young per- son, all the same. She had huge blue eyes, rather darker than they are usually; she had a funny, straight little nose that looked as if she’d be likely to finish anything she started; and she had a chin with a big dim- ple in the middle. When it came to clothes, she was not so striking. That is, she was very nicely dressed, but—oh, sort of plain and severe, I suppose you’d call it. There was a fur thing around her neck and there were little shiny buckles on her pumps. The whole effect of her at first was quiet respect- ability; but when you looked hard at her _—and it was part of my job to look hard at people and save time by guessing what they wanted before they explained, there was something about this girl not quite as soft and refined as it might have been, I don’t know what it was; maybe it wasn’t there at all. | Meanwhile, she was looking me over just me comicbooks e com