Torchy

ine? And now I'm in with the Corrugated Trust. Why, say, two moves more and I'll be

a peek at Mr. Piddie. Anyone that gets past Piddie's a bird. He's the Inside Brother, Keeper of the Seal, Watch on the Rhine, and a lot more. He draws down salary for bein' confidential secretar

ad ten of us lined up for the elimination test, and was puttin' us through the catechism and the civil service, when in pad

t'd look a hole through a chilled steel vault. He runs us over without losin' step, s

e for the door. I was the one best bet; so what was the use? See what it is to have a thirty-two candle power thatch? H

ored top and a girly voice. Them's the kind that forgets to bring back change and always has stamps to sell. Oh, I si

is as good as seein' a strip of pingpong pictures of him! He's mostly up and down, Piddie is, like he'd been pu

, too. You know these mush eaters, with their, "Ah, I'm su-ah, quite su-ah, doncher know"? He's got that kind of lingo do

ollows 'em, I'll be made over new in a month more. He begins with my name. Torchy don't fit right with

ike Reginald b

your baptismal name

g., and me noble relatives would be shocked if they knew I was really workin'. You can call me Torchy,

and goes off to chew it over. But he gets even all right. Sometimes he'll take a

idea Mr. Robert was the pulley that carried the big belt, and that when he stopped there was a general shut down. I got nervous watchin'

d take the hot baths regular, and then Mr. Robert will get acquainted with an eight o'clock breakfast. See where Piddie comes in? He's takin' out insur

te unless they belonged inside or had a special permit. Piddie wan

from the Sunday editor's door, and there was times when nothin' but a club would keep some of 'em out.

these dinky, leather-covered canes, and lookin' like money from the mint. He didn't make any play to draw a card, same's they generally does; but steers straight for the brass

n't no ferryh

ys he. "A n

says I; "but I'm over seven. Was

's a joke. "Why," says

I. "You ain'

rfectly right, young man," says he; "but I

you was Mr. Robert I'd have been struck by light

cken bone, and I squints around behind. There was Piddie, lookin' l

ps you will introduce me to your ne

ands and knees doin' it. And say, blamed

I, "that was

up the best part of an hour tryin' to tel

he says. "You're as good as

u worry. I've had that happen to me so often that I get uneasy without it. If I should wear a stripe for every time the can's been tied to me, my

mes out to me, as solemn as though he's servin' a warrant for

a true friend of mine. When you hear me hit the asphalt, sen

in "Old Sleuth's Revenge"

that's piled up while he's been gone, and as the girl goes out with the record

ll that," says I, "I'll w

talking to you, I

hing but say mass

--" then he pulls up. "Where

findin' him; but if it hadn't been for your old man's

ns the mystery. By the way,

hrough it. "Just Torchy, and it suits

ive," says he. "How long have

uld lift a waste

ambitious

aitin' for some bank p

cting to be discharged

ght you was goin' to ask me over

y, for the kind, he ain't so worse. Course, I wouldn't swap him for Mr. Belmont Pepper, who's t

t, "I'm inclined to think th

he blue ticket

ever graced the offices of the Corrugated Trust, and once in awhile we have use for just such a quality. For

out!"

e kind to go off half cocked. He's got somethin' on his shoulders besides tailor's paddin', and when he set

the place who would know how to go abou

nds me an express receipt and says he wants me to go over to J

dle. It looks like a side of veal; but it isn't. It's a deer, one that I shot four days ago up n

for shootin' craps

y?" sa

me queer stunts, hangin' around the club of an afternoon and lookin' out at Fifth-ave. through the small end of a glass. This w

t, I said, 'Of course I can,'" says

's it! They was wonderin' if there was anyone left that could take a relic like that out in the woods and hit anything besides the atmosphere. And the first thing Mr. Robert knows he has been joshed into bettin' a hatful of y

on the broad grin. The joke is handed across billiard tables between shots, and is circulated around the boxes at

an old b'gosh artist that was brought up with one of them guns in his hand, and he takes a private course. After he's used up a keg of powder shootin' at tin cans they st

e club. Then he has his game sewed up neat in meal bags and expressed to John Doe, Jersey City. See how cute he was? He'd heard about the game laws by that time; so he lays

Torchy, is the situation up to the present moment. My venison is under guard over in Jersey City, and if it isn't delivered at the club by six o'clock to-night I shall not only lose my bet, but h

in typewriter girls from fire escapes, and lied the boss out of a family row; but I never tri

r side," says Mr. Robert. "He w

nyway. I gets him to give me a line on what kind of a looker the warden was, and he throws me a couple of tens for camp

ish out the week," says I. "

pen, and Mr. Robert wrapped up with the idea that, some way or other,

him up. He had an undershot jaw, a pair of eyes that saw both sides of the street at once, and a head like a ch

tin'?" says I to a guy behind the chicken wire, jerki

," says he. "Better look out or he'll break

gave you any license to make funny cra

losin' proposition. He has one of them eyes nailed to what I wanted to take away and the other trained on the

o flat, I'd have quit then. But I couldn't lay down with just a look; so I take

so long since I wore the cap; but who should I pipe off, sittin' on the call bench, but Hunch Leary! And, say, between the time I'd give him the nod to come out

ys I, "this

s he. "Have

of habeas corpus. I want to know who was the gen

a deal with one of them ferry hawks to back his chariot up near the e

Hinkey Tolliver, tellin' him to chase to the nearest 'pho

ny answer. Tolliver, he reads it over two or three times, first with one eye and then the other. One minute I thought he was goin', and the next he settle

hem box jugglers? They took their time about it-and me lookin' for trouble every tick of the clock! But I got an O. K. on it after awhile, and for a quarter I hired a wagon helper to drag the bund

down to take a look at the baggag

a money on this? And when you fetch up at the club,

ave. I'd stopped once to put Mr. Robert next; so he was waitin' for me out

Mr. Robert shows up next mornin' and pats me on th

it is to be born handsome a