Argosy, Vol. 123, No. 1 — page 152: what you’re looking at

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

142 think everything was all right, and noth- ing was going to happen. But it was. “ “Now, young lady,’ he says, ‘I got a daughter your age, and she’s a sweetish girl like you —I never noticed it before Satur- day afternoon, Mr. Thatcher, but isn’t it strange how often some people put ‘ ish’ on everything?” “Tt is, indeed, Maggie,” replied the boss; “but you must be a born orthographist to notice such a thing at such a moment.” Maggie nodded, making a mental note to find out through the dictionary or others wise what an orthographist was, and went on: “So he says: ‘ Now young lady, confess, and everything will be all right.’ And that, Mr. Thatcher, was when I got mad. Imagine him imploring me to coniess to him? I wouldn’t confess to anybody but the priest for anything or anybody! So I just drew myself up pretty straight and looked haughtily at him, and said: ‘I won’t do any such thing.’ “And then, Mr. Thatcher, was when he showed his real nature. He never stops smiling, but just shakes his head and sighs, and says, very gently: ‘ Then just step this way, young lady.’ And I stepped, thinking he was going to get Jennie’s ring out of the safe and give it to me—and I stepped right into a little back room he had, with bars all over the window, and he following, but only to the door. And then I heard a noise —behind me—and when: I turned, I knew the worst. I wish I could describe my feel- “ Try it,” begged the boss, leaning for- ward in breathless interest. Maggie shook her head. “T couldn’t do it in a thousand years —all I knew was that I was alone in that little room, locked in, and that the awful sounds I could hear just beyond the door was Ornstein, telephoning for the police!” ‘The police!” reiterated the boss in a tone indicating horror. “The police! There was I, a prisoner— who, before I had heard of Mrs. Graham’s wedding-ring and Ornstein’s refusing to pawn it for her, had never done anything to get myself into trouble—at least, such trouble as this. Ain’t it funny, Mr. FHE ‘ARGOSY. Thatcher, what a little thing will turn the whole course of a peaceful life?” ‘Tt. is indeed,” said the boss sadly. ‘In this case that wedding-ring was turn- ing the courses of a whole lot of peaceful lives,” Maggie went on. “ In the first place, Bessie did a noble thing. She got so scared _ because I stayed in Ornstein’s shop so long she came in after me—and Ornstein seized her and threw her into the little room with me—until the police came. And when she saw me and realized that life was over for both of us, she flopped all over me just like a rag doll, and down we went on the floor together—and stayed there, waiting for the police and our doom. ‘““And the thoughts we thought, Mr. Thatcher! May you never suffer as we did then—all on account of that pig-headed Jimmie Blaine! I could see mother trying to bear up under the disgrace of having her only child in jail—and growing weaker and weaker, with no one to support her, and finally dying of starvation, just as I emerged from my cell, old and pale and emaciated! And Bessie said afterward she could see all those five children gétting into trouble without her—one of them burning to death from playing with matches, an- other boiling to death in his mother’s boiler —and the baby falling off the fire-escape where she’d been put for air! ‘‘ Jimmie said afterward it was a funny thing that we didn’t think of sending for him, because he knows both the policemen ‘of Medford, and could have got us fixed up in a minute. But all I ever thought about Jimmie just then ‘was that I prayed to God that he’d never find out that I’d got into trouble through my fondness for jewelry—just as he’d said I would. Don’t you hate to give those ‘ I-told-you-so’ peo- ple any satisfaction?’’ “TI should say so!” agreed the boss. “But there were you and Bessie on the floor, waiting for the police, and you never thought of me!”’ “Yes, I did,” insisted Maggie; “I thought of you more than once. But I didn’t want to bring you into anything dis- graceful unless it was absolutely necessary. Besides ”—she paused and sighed—‘“ I was afraid you wouldn’t be any match for Orn- Co OO nN) SS C© 5}