The Argosy, Christmas 1912 — page 142: what you’re looking at

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

128 alongside of it. And that’s why he’s got a lead-pipe cinch.” Pete stopped, and replaced his hands on his knees, lolling back. ‘“ Well,” snapped Lewis breathlessly, his reportorial instinct aroused through force of habit. “‘ The rest of it—the eat of the story, man? ”’ “Well, there’s where me an’ my pal comes in,’ resumed the other, survey- ing him with quizzically lifted brows. “Of course, the trust ain’t goin’ to stand still and let that juicy plum of a city contract get out of its hands. The way to turn the trick is to get rid of Perkins. He’s got to be put out of the way—till after the date set for the close of all bids on the job. “ So me and Brady, we hears through the boss of our ward that headquarters wants to see us. Nothin’ said about what’s wanted. Just word to report right away to the big mogul. “We hustles around, and we sees the chief. Besides bein’ the chief, it seems he’s a heavy stockholder in this here Concrete Trust. He gives us a line on what’s up: the city contract, and Perkins’s invention, which is bound to make his bid the prize-winner. Even the boss wouldn’t be able to stop it, if it came in cuttin’ the others square in half. Only one thing’s to be done. Keep Perkins from biddin’ at all. And the way to do that is to railroad him— soak him under cover till after the twenty-eighth of the month. “The chief says he’s heard of us through Lafferty, the boss of.our ward. ‘A couple o’ men who're purty sure to bring down what they go after, he’s been give as our number. Now, can we get on the trail of this Perkins guy, lookin’ him up from his photograph, house and business address, nab him, and see to it that he don’t show up till after the day the bids close? If we can carry out the job—five hundred, dollars cash, is comin’ to us. “Five hundred iron men, to be div- vied between Brady, here, and me— say! We jump at the chance to collar that wad. We grab at it. And’— THE ARGOSY. sorrowfully the fat man shook his head at Lewis—*“ we don’t get it. We lose that easy coin—why ? ‘ Because, as it’s easy to figger out, somebody else on the inside of the trust thinks he can get rid of Perkins, too. "Stead of leavin’ the whole-thing to the boss, as a three-year-old would know was the right move to make in a case like this, the rest of them bril- liant business leaders go ballin’ things up by lettin’ everybody take a crack at the game. They hire you to put this ~inventor-feller out of the road— “ But that’s gettin’ ahead of the way things happened. We'll go back to me and Brady, startin’ out from the pri- vate office of the boss to find and kid- nap this Perkins. “We locate the guy without no trou- ble. Then we start shadowin’ him. Thé time, you see, ain’t just ripe for runnin’ off with him yet. We can’t never catch him alone. And it ain’t goin’ to do to be too bold about turnin’ the trick. Shanghain’ a man in front of a lot of witnesses would only get us inter hot water. So, layin’ for our chance, we foller him around every- where he goes. And then—all of a sudden he disappears.” Pete nodded at the reporter. “‘ And that’s where you come inter it. Workin’ for the trust at the same time with us, you must’ve sent some kind of a decoy telegram or letter to Per- kins, tellin’ him to come over to Min- neapolis in a hurry, and without sayin’ nothin’ to nobody about it. He fell for it, landed over here, and then you and your crowd got him. Me and Brady was dished—shut out in the cold. “Soon as we read in the papers what happened, we was on. Other parties had been hired to do what we was to get paid for handlin’ alone. But,” and here Pete leaned forward again, look- ing up at Lewis with his jaw outthrust, ‘““we made up our minds, my pal and me, that we wasn’t goin’ to be side- tracked this way. Not if we knowed it, we wasn’t. “We wanted to be in on this deal. CoOMmicbook CO