Torchy

ugated Trust here, I'd made J. Hemmingway Piddie my one best bet. He's been with the concern ever since Old Hickory Ellins flim-flammed

n' to make parlor comp'ny out of kitchen help; so Piddie's just trailed along, bein' as useful as he knew how, and

tract, and the way he keeps watch of the towels and soap and spring water you'd think our stock was fallin' below par, 'stead of payin' nine per cent, on common. Gen'rally Piddie don't handle anything b

s frequent, so I was gettin' used to his makin' a noise like a balloon,

9 Broad and get the

seven-eighths don't you want to u

ers," says he, puffin' out h

I. "Don't play s

ir lids. You can't spend pipe dreams, if you win; and if you lose, it don't shrink the size of your really truly roll. It's almost as satisfyin' as walkin by the back door of a bakery when you're hungry. That kind o

of Blitzen?" I'd say, and Piddie would prick

you?" Pi

that lives on the same block with a man that runs a hot dog

d go off and call down some one good a

Thanksgivin'. They'd get together in a corner of the reception room and whisper away for half an hour on a stretch. If it hadn't been Piddie, I'd put it down for a hard-luck tale with a swift touch for a cu

e's really been rung in. He was goin' through all the motions, though, of a man that's shoved everything, win or lose, on the red, and it was a circus to keep tabs on him. He makes a bluff at bein

o need wringin' out, if

as usin' the roller towel or runnin' over the ticker tape. Half an hour before

for you I'll tell him he'll have to shut

yday is goin' to seem a long ways off. If I'd been asked to give a guess, I should have put it as about two hundred bucks that Piddie had t

d as gentle actin' as the heroine in "No Weddin' Cake for Her'n," just before she gets to the weepy scenes. You could see by the punky mill'nery and the last season's drygoods th

mama! Bu

ys she. "I am surpris

. "The kid's got it dead ri

z!" when I touch it off. That gets a laugh out of litt

such good ones so often? Why, if she'd been got up accordin' to this year's models, and could

"Did she pick Pi

hypnotize him into loosenin' up. It was a c

oes, an' new coat wif

gallery before they can feed themselves, and others I could name; but clean, grinnin' youngsters, with big eyes that take in everything, they're good to

soon, won't he?"

er somethin' before I can push out a cold dope. Course, I knew he'd got to be back before long; but I see right off that this wa'n't any day for a fam'ly reunion. Piddle

I, "but there's no tellin'. You see, there's a bi

es shinin'. "Then he has some

Trust and half of Wall Street holdin' its breath while hubby, J. Hemming

't say pos'tive that he'd be a

," says she, "Come, Hemm

my new s'oes?

for him! Pop might be a big man, and all that; but his size didn't cut much ice alongside of the new-shoes prosp

aybe he's left a note

eans? I slips through into the main office, gets one of the typewriter girls to a

ad long green in it," and the last I heard of little Hemmy he was t

at's the diff? That kid's got his hopes set on bein'

ot somethin' more now. Just sittin' at the desk doin' nothin made the dew come out on his noble brow like it was the middle

t firmer'n I ever see it shut before, and a kind of shi

o that address just as soon as you ca

and coat. "Free track for the Piddie special! Honk, honk!" and I

was one of them times. I started in by rollin' a pencil under the envelope flap while the gum was moist. Not that I'd

atty, from 14th to Wall. Do you know what that mush-head of a Piddie was at? He was givin' an order to bolster up Blitzen

gauge, dime-pinchin' ink-slinger, doin' the bull act like he was a sooty p

buildin'. That was enough. There was some good names on the hall directory; but most of 'em was little, two-room, fly-by-night firms, with a par

the doorknobs off the Subtreasury. The ear-muff brigade was lettin' themselves out in fine style, tradin' in Ground Hog bonds, Hoboken ga

say, it wa'n't so long ago that Abey was wearin' sky-blue pants and a Postal shield, trottin' out with messa

w long since they lets the l

!" says he. "G

h 'em," says I

"It's on the seesaw;

a wildca

ie," says he. "Goin' t

t my brokers has to

hes the curves Blitzen was makin'. First she'd jump four or five points, and then she'd settle back heavy. The Curb was pl

nd showin' Piddie up to Mr. Robert,-that's out of my line,-but I didn't like the scheme of just chuckin' the bonds back at him and let him get away with any bluff about my interferin' with something I didn't

was worth savin' from the scrap basket, and when I strolled into the office just

d all over the desk, with his head in his hands, and his hair all mussed up, and his shoulders lopped. I always suspicioned he was built out with pneumatic pads, and blew himself up in the mornin' before he buttoned on the

ast quarter of an hour of tradin', had gone bumpin' the bumps from twenty-eight down to almost nothin' at all. I didn't stop to read the whole thing; but I read enough

m that's in need of the acid bath and sawd

first hears me; but after he finds who it is he goes

ungs, or too many griddle ca

sort of sprung kneed near crook he was, I didn't. He was scared mostly, and he was doin' all th

n't get there in

tcher take me for? Think I got mucilage on

s he. "Torchy, I

up. You never was much account any

th a sick headache. "It wasn't my fault," says he. "I was led into it.

vit I seen 'em snap the ring in y

he wails. "It's too terrible to talk about. You'll

a buttonhook, h

ally notice that at about such a stage they play that card, the wife and kid. Your real tough citizen don't, nor your real gent,-they shuts their mouths a

healthy plunger, you are, sneakin' bonds out of the safe to stack up against a crooked game, and the

uy through the buildin' loan, and the second-hand bubble he wants to splurge on 'cause the neighbors have got 'em, and how he was tipped off to this sure thing in Blitzen by a party

put them back!"

ime I s'pose you'd swipe the

'd think practicin' a little crooked work now and the

ut you act to me like a weak sister. If I was to do what

e don't!" says he, scrabblin

s. Piddie and the kid this noon, and after seein' them I can't rub it in like you deserve. What I've seen and heard I'm

," he groans

so I didn't dump the bonds. There they are.

e was havin' one, all by himself-when the inside

f those bonds, Mr

in there all the time, writin' private l

inside. He says he's mighty sorry to hear how near Piddie'd come to goin' wrong; but he's glad it turned out the

sick, worked himself up desp'rate, and had finished by doin' something th

hen you get home to-night tell that kid of yours I want to see