The Argosy, Christmas 1912 — page 141: what you’re looking at

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

FLIRTING WITH DESPERATE HAZARD. “Go on,” he said noncommittally, after a brief pause. ‘Which means I’ve got you right,” the fat man nodded. “ You didn’t know there was anybody else on it when you took hold of this graft. And that, lemme tell you, is one good thing for you. If you'd cut out me and him ’”’— with a nod at the grimly silent Brady —“‘intendin’ to shove us inter the dis- card, well—you wouldn’t exactly have no cause to be glad afterward! ”’ His hands doubled on his knees into two menacing fists; then quickly re- laxed. Shifting his quid, he went on: “ But you didn’t know you was goin’ to run foul of us. It ain’t your fault that both you and me and my pal, here, was workin’ on this at the same time. Nobody’s to blame for it but that there bonehead bunch that hired us. Oh, you have to hand it to ’em, all right! They’re a fine set of brainy lads, I don’t think! ”’ Lewis was trying to keep his eyes from being pushed noticeably out of their sockets by the force of the idea that struggled in his brain. He had to clear his throat before he could speak steadily. “As I get it, you believe I was hired by somebody to—to murder Perkins? ”’ The fat man slowly grinned. “My, but you’re the wise one, ain’t you? Want to be sure you ain’t givin’ away no information before you open your face to say a word. Well, it’s all right—you’re among friends, and you needn’t hold back. Yes, we ‘ bee- lieve’ you was hired to do away with that guy, some way.” “And, at the same time, somebody employed you to murder him, too—in case I fell down on the case, I pre- sume?’ Lewis added. Pete frowned impatiently. ‘Say, what d’ye want?” he de- manded. “A diagram of this whole deal, from start to finish, before you can get down to cases? I tell you, you don’t need to be leary of us. We know what you was hired for. Ain't it enough, when we say we was engaged 127 for the same job?—even though we didn’t carry it through, on account of you gettin’ in your licks first. You can talk right out, without any risk of spillin’ the beans, blabbin’ any se- crets—” “Make me <believe that,’ Lewis eagerly interrupted. ‘ Do as you said —run over the facts in this case for me, so I can be sure of how much you know.” Brady, with an oath, started to his feet as one at the end of his patience. But the fat man waved him back into his chair a second time. “John S. Perkins is the only Inde- pendent concrete manufacturer in St. Paul, ain’t he?” counted off Pete on his fingers before the reporter. “ Sealed bids is asked on the new work of pub- lic improvement that’s goin’ to be started by the city gov’ment—right? The Concrete Trust wants to get the contract, don’t it? And—it knows it wont get the job if Perkins puts in his bid.” He-sat back, doubling the five pudgy fingers of one hand over with the other, and looked inquiringly at Lewis. “All right, so far?” he asked. “Go on,” the reporter requested again, regarding the fat man steadily. “Well, why has Perkins got a stran- gle-hold on that contract? He's only goin’ to put in his bid along with all the other sep’rate comp’nies under the trust’s control. So it don’t look, at the outset, as if he stood any more chance than anybody else. Yet, as sure as day comes after night, the work’s goin’ to him the minute them bids is all opened—there’s nothin’ else to it. “And the answer’s this: Perkins, after tryin’ for years, has fin’ly doped out a way to make concrete fifty per cent cheaper than it’s ever been made before. He’s kept quiet about his invention, had it patented, and all, and now he’s goin’ to spring it at last. His bid’s goin’ in on this city improve- ment job at a figger that'll make the trust’s look like bare-faced robbery oO cComicbooks CO