Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 7, 1928 — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

(164 is there. So, meantime, we'd better wait until the excitement dies down a little, and then we can strike for it.” There was a chorus of protests at this. One man, bent and prematurely old in appearance, with a suggestion of prison pallor in his face, voiced the sentiments of the rest. “T tell you, Redfern, we can’t take any chances on waitin’. I’m in favor of settin’ fire to the house and burnin’ it down, cops or no cops. Then we'd have a chance of findin’ the safe in the ruins. It’s worth a try, even if we have to fight the cops off while we do it. “ Why, Redfern, think of what this means to us crooks, especially us old stir bugs, who ain’t got a chance at makin’ a living if we had to go straight. If this televisor is what they claim, once put it in everybody’s hands and the crook game is through. Who’s goin’ to risk crackin’ a safe if there may be a little mirror stuck somewhere in the face of it that he can’t tell from the rest of the safe, an’ that’s flashing a movin’ picture of what he’s doin’ right into the office of the chief of po- lice while he’s at work? If this thing’ was in use now, we wouldn’t even dare to meet here to-night and be talking this thing over, fer fear the bulls might be listenin’ in on us. “Why, they tell me they'd have these mirrors stuck in windows along every street and connected up with headquarters, so that the cops can sit right at a desk and hunt up any man that’s wanted in the city if he dare stick his head out of doors. And sup- pose a man does pull a job an’ make a get-away? How far is he goin’ to get when in about two seconds they can flash his picture into every jerk- water town in the world, and post it where any hick that happens along would be able to identify him? “ You remember what happened less than a year ago, when they were just experimentin’ with one of the first of these dinguses between New York and ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Philadelphia, a thing that cost so much only a millionaire could own it, an’ couldn’t do anything but carry a pic- ture to the other end of the wire when a fellow was stuck right in front of the mirror and held still for a minute or so. “They'd caught a guy in New York that couldn’t be identified except by a man that was dying in Philadelphia. What did they do but put this guy in front of a mirror in New York, and have the guy in Philadelphia identify him about two minutes before he croaked. We’re gettin’ every crook an’ real liberty-lover in the country lined up against this thing. ‘“T understand all that, Zornow,” Redfern broke in. “It’s because we want to put a stop to the damned con- trivance that we've formed this or- ganization, and you want to stop wor- rying right now. We'll do it yet. The International Company owns all the rights on this instrument, but they can’t manufacture it without Ward’s secret. Ward is dead, and we’re going to find and destroy his secret. That will wreck the International Company, especially when we’ve made doubly sure by blowing up their plants, as we are all ready to do the minute we've copped the secret. “Why, nobody’s more interested in this thing than I am. I’ve never told you just how I came to be in this. I'll tell you now. ‘Twenty years ago, when old Thomas Ward was just a poor in- ventor, I was an associate of his. [I made an invention that he never gave me full credit for. of it, and [ left him. I am still a poor man. Ward’s son is one of the richest men in the world, and owns a monopo- ly on the whole radio business. I’ve been waiting for years to get my re- venge. “Now, as I’ve told you, Vice Presi- dent Coddington, of the International Company, is ambitious to side track young Ward,and get control of the company himself. Of course he doesn’t Go NOOLKS ANIC He gypped me out . (E@)