Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 18, 1925 — page 40: what you’re looking at

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

\ ——— — EEA ——— Se 7 - \ ———— ———— —— ul CN) gag ee = = nn — eee ee —— ———— By FRANK BLIGHTON Author of ‘ Ballast,’’ *‘A Hatful of Troubdle,’’ etc. A NOVELETTE—COMPLETE IN THIS ISSUE CHAPTER f. O'BRIEN INVESTIGATES. =: X-EXCELLENCGCY!” stammered the Ek little man in front of the desk. Sergeant Timothy O’Brien peered through his spectacles from his perch in Precinct Station House No. 3 at the under- sized visitor. The chap held his hat in his hand and his fingers crumpled its soft brim. He was swarthy and unkempt. His clothes were greasy. His nondescript features betrayed his foreign blood. “Well, what do you want?” gruffly de- manded O’Brien. The swarthy chap gulped. He was plain- ly timorous amid the unwonted surround- ings of the station house, Mechanically O’Brien’s gaze flitted to the clock on the opposite wall above the visitor. The sergeant was a methodical soul. It was already ten-thirty, he would be “ off ” at twelve and he had plenty to do with the big sheet before him. The set of his stodgy shoulders with its close-fitting. blouse, the poise of his huge hands, one of which gripped a dripping pen, were not conducive to confidences. Which was as it should be, for the push- cart men were such a nuisance. Here was another of the pests, with the oft-told tale of being driven out of the residential park district in which Precinct No. 3 was sit- uated. O’Brien knew the type. They were all alike. If this chap had a complaint to voice in jargon like most of them, he much preferred that Acting Captain Overton should hear it, since he would pass on it, anyway. Overton was just now in the rear of the station house. He would be back presently. So, O’Brien “ stalled.” B-b-r-r-r! went the buzzer on the switch- 190 Gomichbooks (FE)