Argosy All-Story Weekly, March 15, 1924 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

645 He turned to the wounded ‘man again. “Get a doctor,” he ordered. “Vil get in touch with Grimshaw, and we’ll run Broderick over to his home by water. Don’t be afraid about the doctor. You'll have to disappear to-night, anyway, and the doctor - contortion of rage and baffled avarice. - won’t know who his patient is.” Welsh turned to the butler. | “Fear that?” he barked. “ Get a doc- tor, Noylan, and quick!” The man fairly ran from the room. demanded Welsh suspiciously. “Runs rum in a rotten motor boat. ready to leave in fifteen minutes.” - Be Five minutes later a speeding car wheeled to the edge of a dilapidated wharf and the single passenger leaped out to pound on the door of the shack that stood on the wharf end. The door was opened and the- frowzy head of a man as dilapidated as the rotten old wharf peered out. “It’s Corvan!” snapped the motorist. “Get out that old tub of yours, Grimshaw, and get the.motor going. [ve got a job for you to-night.”. Oo The wasted, ruinous face of the wharf rat took upon itself .a cunning leer. . “What kind of a job?” he mumbled. ‘Got to get a man home. Over to Port Washington. He's sick.” “ How sick?” “ That’s my business, How~much?”. ““ How is he sick?” persisted the besotted _ Grimshaw, obstinately.. Corvan thought quickly. The man must inevitably discover that his passenger was ~ wounded. standing. : fs “ Shot in a brawl. How much?” There was something of the animal in the greed and cunning which entered -Grim- shaw’s countenance. . “ A thousand dollars,” he said. “Five hundred,” snapped Corvan; “ make it fast. We’ve no time to lose.” “ Time costs money,” sneered the old ruin. “A thousand dollars.” “ Five hundred and fast, or you'll never run another load of booze! Don’t you think I’m on to the other traffic you’ve done with Wade and the rest?” At this, Grim- shaw unconsciously imitated many others There must be no misunder- and _ whined. “ Who is Grimshaw?” : _ boat, ARGOSY-ALLSTORY’ WEEKLY. of his kind in that he cringed before this man. “If I had my way you’d have gone up the river a year ago. Now get that en- . gine going, and you’ll make the easiest five hundred you’ve ever seen.” Grimshaw’s bloated face writhed in a ‘All right, Mr. Corvan, all right,” he “ Ain’t I doin’ what you say?” And Corvan, after seeing Grimshaw ac- tively engaged with the ramshackle craft beside the wharf, turned back to his car with a sense of infinite distaste. gretted profoundly the indiscretion which had forced him to have traffic with such a character as Grimshaw. In all his dealings he instinctively avoided touching the scum of that underworld upon the upper crust of which he moved. Aside'from an innate disgust, he foresaw darkly that such an association might eas- ily involve him in repeated calls from the depths that could include all the grime cf blackmail, extortion and unimaginable claim of comradeship.. Yet he reflected it was a fortunate thing that this henchman of the less fastidious Wade should have- been so close at hand in the tight fix to which the night had brought him. Twenty minutes later he was again at-.- the wharf with Welsh, and the bouncing butler, Jim Noylan. bore the limp form of Charlie Broderick, who looked with glazed_eyes upon a fan- tastic and unfamiliar world, and breathed with a noise that was not pleasant to hear. Grimshaw awaited them with a lantern,. and Noylan joining him on the deck of his ~Corvan and Welsh lowered the wounded man to their arms. the bloated face of the wharf rat gleam green in the lantern light, and caught that light reflected from the glazed eyes of Broderick. It was a foul ending to an un- fortunate night, he reflected, and felt dis; gust well up in his throat like a veritable substance. “You land. at Macy’s ‘dock,’ ” advised Welsh coldly, “ and there’ll be a car. wait-.. -ing- for you. - Just put Broderick in the car, make the He re- - Between them they - Corvan was © visited with a sense of nightmare as he saw — (CO and the man who’s driving eonui