Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine, Vol. 107 No. 3 — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

ALIAS THE ANGLEWORM. down at the roof of the old shed. Having been in the lot during the afternoon, and having inspected the shed from within and from motives which had nothing to do with his present look at it from above, Jimmy could orient himself very easily. It was no trick at all to drop to the roof, some four feet from his sill; to walk along it to the far end and thence to the ground, without a sound and without ruffling his clothing. Once on the ground it was very simple to walk directly over toward the Olympian Theater, pass between it and the adjoining building, emerge quite the best-dressed man on the street, walk to the box-office, and . ask for his seat. Walking ‘into the theater, Jimmy felt slightly better. He wondered what the bantam and Mr. Bugbee would think of this. The bantam, from the way he strut- ted out of the hotel when Jimmy walked over to the desk from the supper-room, evidently held Jimmy in some slight dis- dain; while Jimmy felt that no rooster of that size could route a mere angleworm like himself, even in the character of James “ Indigo ”’ Stuart. He dropped that middle name the mo- ment he leaned back in his seat and caught Miss Baldwin’s gratified smile of welcome flashing to him from a small, oblong mirror on her piano. _He returned her bow and smile in kind. A delicious, rippling rhythm came to his ears—to him a haunting melody, touched with romance. | , He was almost happy until he thought of those sinister shoes. ; They returned as if to vex him, but van- _dshed as a stream of calcined light spotted the screen just above his head with the an- nouncement: “KING ROBERT OF SICILY,” Nine Parts. Jimmy forgot the shoes instantly. “TI wonder,” he mused, ‘‘ what ghoul so viciously dismembered the king?” 40d Then, while Miss Baldwin played -her special music, her auditor, dismissing the picture for the moment, preferred to close his eyes and picture her as he had first seen her on the trolley, inbound to Coalport; and recall’ as well the mood that had wrapped him round like incense sweet as the music she played—at. once stupefying and exhilarating. His thoughts returned to his adventuring since coming to Coalport, and in them there persisted the image of a tall, saturnine-faced man, with a coal-black mustache, and wearing a hat so black it reminded Jimmy of the wing of a bat—be- cause it flitted always somewhere behind him. At last Jimmy had concluded that he was being followed. Why any me should ‘trail’ him when he was engaged in fol- lowing a “ blind trail” himself he hadn’t the least idea; in fact he wasn’t altogether sure. To make sure, he had walked into the lot, inspected the shed, the ancient’ phaeton within it, and, peering through the wheels, he had discerned the black hat still in the offing, simultaneously with the wearer’s discernment that he was also being watched by Jimmy. That was the last Jimmy saw of the hat for a time. It had not been visible on the street when he went back to the office of the public stenographer. That, primarily was one reason why Jimmy climbed the stairs. He had inspected that stairway before going back into the lot and behaving as mysteri- | ously as if he had some reason for going there. He had half hoped to find the black hat and its wearer in the hall on his return, and had given him plenty of time to be there. - The wearer of the hat had not been there. It was even possible—although hardly probable—that the wearer had been in the shoes behind the bookcase. But that theory no longer held good, once Jimmy and Vivian had reached the street. The wearer of the black hat had been across the street. Thereafter Jimmy pretended not to see — him at all, although he was reasonably sure he had been followed back to the hotel. COMICEDOO© ie) S (C(O) mM