Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 28, 1928 — page 40: what you’re looking at

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

470 pleased. “I knowed Sadie was a good scout, and would do the right thing by you! Where is she?” I asked real eager. ‘“‘ She’s gone, Rawhide,” Ma tells me solemnly. “ Gone!’ I cried, my heart taking a drop. “ Not for good, Ma?” “T’m afraid so, Rawhide. State Prison.” She’s in “Huh!’ That knocked the wind plumb out of me. I couldn’t say a word. “Come inside and [ll show you all about it,” says Ma, and I followed her, too dumfounded to speak. ‘The old lady took some newspapers off the shelf and turned to me. ; “When things started going wrong here at the ranch, and I had to give up most of the comforts of life, I made up my mind that there was one luxury I wouldn’t let go, and that was my Chicago daily newspaper. I been sub- scribing by the year for that paper ever since the rural free delivery started in this section. It turned out to be a darn good investment in the long run, Rawhide. Just you take a slant at them pictures.” She handed me one of the papers. Right on the front page was the pic- tures of a young man and a lady side by side. I was that surprised [ near keeled over. “Recognize ’em?” asked Ma, grin- ning. “Why —why—this here one’s Sadie,” I answered, staring.at the page. “And this guy next to her—he looks like he might be her twin brother.” “Well, it ain’t,” chortled Ma. “ It’s her.” “Her!” I gasped, plumb bewildered, “Yep,” answered Ma, complacently. “ She’s him and he’s her. Both the same party.” “ But—but—” I stammered, getting wilder all the time. “ Why don’t you read what it says?” asks Ma, evidently getting a lot of fun out of it. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Then I took a slant at the top of the page, and there in big print, read the following: McLEAY, NOTORIOUS BANK BANDIT, IN TOILS! a ee The “Golden-Haired Bandit,” Who Has Terrorized Local Banks for the Past Three Weeks, Captured Single-Handed by Aged Widow, Owner of Far-West Cattle Ranch! { skimmed through the rest of the story in a hurry, and it was sure high- ly enlightening. One paragraph in par- ticular held my attention: Before entering on his career of crime a few weeks ago, McLeay was well known on the vaudeville stage as an actor of exceptional ability, and was rated as one of the cleverest fe- male impersonators in the country. 19? “Why, Sadie was a man!” says I, as the truth began to dawn on my be- fuddled brain. “Correct, Rawhide. Go to the head,” chuckled Ma, who was getting a whale of a kick out of all this. ‘‘ Why, you big boob, I saw it the minute you brought her in here! He had his yel- low wig on crooked, and his real hair showed plain on one side! That’s why { straightened his hat for him; so you wouldn’t notice.” “But how’d you happen to know so much about it?’ I asked. “Why, the papers was full of it for weeks. I’d seen his picture a dozen times before you brought him here, both as man and as girl. Having been an actor it wasn’t hard for the paper to dig up old photographs of him. “He had a swell time for awhile, sticking up branch banks around Chi- cago, disguised as Sadie; but one day he tackled a bank at the time when an actor was making a deposit there, and this party recognized him and spilled the beans. He had to vamose in a hurry. “There was a couple of detectives Gomichbooks (C@)