Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 3, 1924 — page 132: what you’re looking at

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

922 “And where was Joe, Bessie, when he called your uncle up at Al’s? Do you know?” Lazenby leaned toward her. “No, thir.” The child shook her head and the neatly braided loops of brown hair flapped about her ears. ‘I gueth he wath vithiting in thombody’th houth where there wath a baby, cauth Uncle Charlie thaid thomthing about a ‘ crib.’”’ This time the murmur became an uproar and it was with difficulty that the magis- trate quelled it. The associate counsel for the defense gave Bessie a moment in which to recover from the embarrassment that had tripped her tongue to lisping again, and then inquired gently. “ Did Joe call you up on the telephone the next day—last Friday?” “No, sir. Uncle Charlie went dut early and bought a paper and when he came in he looked terrible white and sick. My mamma, cried out, and then they went into the kitchen and shut the door and talked ever so long. I was playing with my doll that Joe gave me when they came out, and Uncle Charlie said if anybody called up and I answered the telephone ‘I wasn’t to talk to them if I didn’t know who they were, and I wasn’t to say a word about Joe to anybody, ever! I wasn’t to let anybody know [I had heard his name. “ Uncle Charlie said that the Bad Man would come and get me if I did! He looked awful scared and my mamma, too, and—she cries a lot!” The piping voice trembled and Bessie’s sensitive lips quivered a little. “My Uncle Charlie don’t play with me any more, either, and I was glad when the lady that talked to me in the park said I was to come and help Joe.” The lady! This time George and Henry ventured a second questioning, suspicious glance at each other. It could not have been a female operative of the police, for the authorities had known no more than they of this sudden turn of events—but Ethel? Had their enterprising secretary added kidnaping to the list of her enor- mities in the interests of the Shadowers? But Lazenby was going on in his smooth, fatherly tones. “Who is ‘ Joe,’ Bessie?” “He’s a friend of ours—Joe Geiger. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, He’s awful nice!’’ Her round eyes sud- denly shone. ‘‘ He gave me a lovely doll, and once when he was showing us some jewelry—rings and things—he wanted to give me a bracelet with pretty blue stones in it, but mamma wouldn’t let him; she said a—a curse would go with it, but Joe and Uncle Charlie just laughed.” “‘ Have you seen Joe since last Thursday night?” Bessie shook her head again, dolefully this time. “No, and Uncle Charlie says we won’t; that Joe’s going away—!” Then her eyes suddenly lighted and her small finger pointed straight at the sallow stranger who had entered with Cliff Nichols, and who now sat cowering in his chair. ‘“ Why there he is now!—Hello, Joe!” In the silence that followed this greeting the man leaped wildly to his feet. “YT done it! I killed the old man, but Gawd knows I didn’t mean to!” When the prisoner had been released, the self-confessed murderer of De Puyster Monckton led away, and a semblance of quiet restored to the hysterical throng, one of the guards who had attended Richard Monckton turned to the other. “IT never saw the beat of that in the homicide court!” he exclaimed behind his hand. ‘“ The child not even knowing she was sending a man to his death! —For what do they allow kids in court? The Gerry Society should have put a stop to it!” “Twas not the child done it, Jawn. "Twas fate workin’ ag’in him!”’ The second guard shook his head. “He'll get the chair and serve him right! Ain’t there a sayin’ that out of the mouths of babes and suckers comes the word that’ll put you wise?” CHAPTER XXIV, ETHEL’S REWARD. FORTNIGHT later the six Shad- owers were holding a meeting in the central council chamber presided over by Rex Powell, gravely regarding three objects which were assembled on the table COMG DOO! (©