Argosy, Vol. 122, No. 1 — page 131: what you’re looking at

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

BREAKFAST, DINNER, AND SUPPER. Martha Anne quietly dried the tears, which had flowed afresh; for Jimmie’s re- cital had brought the old grief suddenly near the poignant. “But how did you ever find me?” she asked. ‘ Did Fred-—”’ He drew the little five-by-three photo- graph from his pocket and handed it to her. “‘ He was lookin’ at this when I first seen him,” he said. “I kept it. I went to Kingston when I got back across. A nice old lady there told me you’d come to New York.” ‘Mrs. Colton,” said Martha Anne. Jimmie nodded. ‘Well, I come back down here, an’ sorta trailed you through the employment bu- reaus. It took me an awful long time, an’ to-day I found out where to find you, an’ I come here.”’ “That was awfully good of you—to spend all your time and money, just to find me and tell me about Fred,’ said Martha Anne, out of a full heart. She had made the discovery that there were still men in the world who were not black- hearted and nasty. ‘‘ How can I ever thank your” Jimmie’s hour had struck, and he knew it; but he had again become miserably afraid. He put it off cravenly. “ Let’s eat,” he said, and jabbed a fork into his sirloin as viciously as though he were bayoneting a boche. “Gee! this looks better a heap than old Micky Mc- Cue’s stew!” A middle-aged female customer, who had overheard portions of the conversation, and who, scenting a prospective romance, had lingered at her end of the table, got up with an audible sniff and started for the cash-desk. That left Jimmie and Martha ‘ Anne alone. Martha Anne hadn’t thought that she could eat after hearing about Fred. But she was young and healthy, and she was also tired and hungry. To her surprise, she made out remarkably well. Jimmie sauced the meal with rapid-fire humorous accounts of camp life, told desperately and without sequence, but interesting and com- ical, nevertheless. hea | Ice-cream and cake came and went. It was time to be going. Martha Anne grew suddenly sober, thinking of the round of employment agencies which must be begun all over again on the morrow. Perhaps her next job would be even worse than this one, which the woman manager of the agency had assured her was “ first-class.’ Martha Anne shivered. Jimmie was silent for other reasons. When he did speak it was with the frantic haste and the sensations of a rabbit break- ing cover. “ Say, I didn’t hunt you up just to tell— I mean I’d a done that anyway—but—well, you see, it was the picture.” He paused, as though that statement must have made matters perfectly clear. Martha Anne looked surprised, seeing which Jimmie groaned inwardly, and went on: “You see, I toted that picture around with me for a long time. I kinda got to think about it as if it belonged to me, I guess. I—my name’s Jim Candee. My gov’nor’s got a sheep ranch out near Mc- Gill, Wyoming. My mother’s dead for some years, an’ there’s only him an’ me; so you see—”’ : Jimmie halted, gasping, and stared at his empty saucer. This wasn’t the way he had meant to manage this affair at all. Why couldn’t she say something? Slowly he raised his eyes until they looked into the blue ones of Martha Anne. What he saw there untied his tongue. He leaned forward, and his brown fingers lay over her white ones. “Say, we’re going outta here an’ go to the best show in New York,” he announced masterfully. ‘‘ Then I’m goin’ to take you home. An’ to-morrow we’re goin’ down to the old City Hall an’ get a marriage license.” There the Candy Kid stopped and glared belligerently. But Martha Anne did not gainsay him. She withdrew her hand and began to fumble with trembling fingers in her pocketbook. “ Here; what you goin’ to do?” inquired the Candy Kid, seizing the checks jealously. ‘““T’m going to tip the waitress,” an- swered Martha Anne, firmly, and she laid a fifty cent piece beside her plate. cComiclbooks.com