Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 4 — page 116: what you’re looking at

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

586 gering along with a lug-stretcher on which were piled: metal parts. They were dis- tinctly unhandsome individuals. The weight of their burden was causing them to twist up their faces with horrible grimaces. Those faces were smooched with smut from chins to the slewed, striped caps. “What dreadful-looking creatures!” gasped the girl, viewing them from the window. ‘Their looks do not belie them—they are very wicked men,” was the chaplain’s endorsement. “I have talked much with them, but they do not see the error of their ways.” The influence of the unhampered library surroundings had been having their effect on Nina. For her own peace of mind she had been sticking to her own conception of her lover’s prison life as he lived it day- times. “ Barron, it makes me nervous to think of your living in a place where there are such wicked men. Do be careful to lock your door every night before you go to sleep,” she entreated earnestly. ‘“There’s a man who attends to all that very carefully, sweetheart,” the prisoner assured her; he put his palm to his mouth to control his twitching lips. ‘Oh, yes!” corroborated Chaplain Allan, bestowing his smile on the blank ceiling instead of on her troubled face. ‘“ Those two wicked men are very, very carefully locked up every night.” “Who are they? What did they do, sir?” “Tt is against the prison rules to identify convicts to visitors, my dear young lady.” Then he broke upon her confused apology. ‘But in your case, no harm can come from my telling you that they robbed a safe and were caught in the act. They are bad men, even now in prison breathing fire and fury through their nostrils, declaring a venge- ance they will take when they get back into the world.” A little later Douglass stood in the li- brary door with Nina; her time with him was up; the chaplain had gone to the closet for his hat and overcoat, preparing to ac- company the girl .across the prison yard. Again the uncomely men passed the building, on their return to the smithy. THE ARGOSY. This time Nina stared full into their faces; there was no interposition of dingy glass. She clutched her lover’s arm after they had passed. ‘“‘ Barron, I have seen those men before!” ‘“ Where?” “They came to our back door one day to beg for food. Uncle Swinton drove them away. They were ragged and dirty like tramps! I could never forget those faces. It was only a little while before you came back from the war.” ‘“Do you suppose—” but he checked his query. The chaplain had joined them. This was assuredly not a matter to be canvassed at that moment before a third party. Douglass pressed her hand and she went away. He wondered whether she had really recognized those men or had simply con- founded those ugly faces with others of the same type. It would be easy for a fright- ened girl to err. In that milling of human- kind in which he had found himself when he joined the army, he had learned many facts regarding the various castes of the crooks. He understood pretty well the queer whirnsies of pride among malefactors. Men who blew safes were not the kind who abased themselves at back doors, “ mooch- ing” for grub. On the other hand, it was easy to credit the notion that they had disguised them- selves as vags and had come to the Tingley door, hoping to spy out the lay of the land. Four men had engaged in that ferocious set-to in the night under the Norway pines. He became’ more and more certain that here, penned in prison with him, were two who were ‘actually guilty or possessed guilty knowledge! How was he to seize upon this oppor- tunity, if it were such? How could he identify these men, whom Nina had claimed to recognize, with the vague shadows that flitted before him in the night? Shadows! he was ready to grab even at shadows. “How could he extract their knowledge for his own salvation? . He went on with the tasks to which (S| Q) mM NOOLK In his desperate helplessness.