The Boss of Little Arcady

ow of the little wash-room, where I saw that he was polishing a pair of shoes, he had winked at me from over his task, and then erected himself to make a puzzling gesture with one hand. Again, while

this strange line of conduct. I would turn a corner, to find Billy apparently waiting for me a block off. Then would follow a signal of no determinable import, after which he w

n years old, had happy access to our world of fine fabling; and to this I knew he resorted

us literature of his craft and living in the dream that crim

an open eye. Billy had once proudly confided to me that the star was "pure German Silver." A year before he had answered an advertisement wh

five dollars for a badge. After that you were their confidential agent, a

d appear, for now there were mockers of Billy among the irreverent of the town. As he sat aloft on his boot-blacking throne, waiting for crime to be done among us, conning meantime one of those romances in wh

lt of his dignity, our h

ou g'wan out a' here now

arched the columns of the police paper in Harpin Gust's barber-shop, fixing in his mind the lineaments of criminals there advertised as wanted in various corners of our land. These were counterfeiters, murderers, embezzlers, horse-thieves, confidence men, what not-criminals t

h to hope that his own likeness might one day grace that radiant page-himself in a long, fashionable overcoat, carelessly flung back to reveal the badge, with its

bout the sinless corridors of the City Hotel. All he had been able to do thus far was to regard every newcomer to the town with a steely eye of distrust; to watch each one furtively, to shado

he American Bible Society. Some day would his keen gray eye penetrate the cunning disguise; some day would he step quietly up to his man and say in low but deadly tones: "Come with me, now.

of the City Hotel, and he believed that some of those who had joked him ab

before. But when I mentioned the thing to Solon, thinking to beguile him from his trouble, I

here?" he asked. "Pe

ew to

eered to work up the Potts cas

it a sleuth as relentless a

ir in lov

reall

y Keyts if he t

ime then that the Potts affair wa

ve been a stroke of genius. But I don't mind telling you that this thing has robbed me of sleep for three months. Potts has got me talking to myself. I wake up talking of him, out of the little sleep I do get. I'll te

t what can Bi

ontinents as 'Smooth Jim,' wanted for robbing the post-office at Lima, Ohio. Of course that's nonsense. Potts hasn't the wit to rob a post-office. But I didn't have the heart to tell Billy so. I told him, instead,

this afternoon. He was fizzing like an impat

er time he shadowed Marvin Chislett to get a message to me. If you're

s thrown over the evergreen hedge, bounding almost to our feet, and a

ped a sheet of paper. This he took off and smoothed out. By the fading light

er. "Why didn't he co

t have been d

raveyard a

hurry along, we can catch up with him and have it out by the marble works there instead of g

signation, pulling our hats well down, in

ho wrought monuments for the dead of Little Arcady. In front of the shop were a dozen finished and half-finished stones, ghostly white in the dusk. It seemed ind

this do

ally, turned back upon

u must not be seen addressing

that swept its sable flow down his youthful chest. The

you a

with deadly grimness, and with a

me, but at

r and anon, we pursued him at an interval so great that not the most alert citizen

it to find Billy seated on the steps that lead ove

him. "Our man has his spies out, and my

d?" we

ig fat one, lettin' on he's agent for the Nonesuch Duplex Washin' Machine? He's another. You know that slick-lookin' cuss-like a minister-been here all wee

's get down to busin

continued Billy, looking closely, I thought,

hest darned case in my whole

for this t

you take off those whiskers, now that we are alone and

he night. A weak wind fretted in the cedars back of us, and an owl hooted

ad to git my ske

s door was never locke

ou got to know just how. First I looked under the aidges of the carpet, clear around. Nothing rewarded my masterly search. Then I examines the b

tch to bay and land him safely behind the bars of jestice. But it seemed like I had the cunning of a fiend to contend with. No objeks of interest was revealed to my swift but thorough examination. Thence I directed my attentions to the

very I sprang at the girl's throat and hissed, 'How much will it take to silence your accursed tongue?' She draws her slight girl

n overwhelmed by his passion

Solon. "This is business, you know-t

pect anything after all. Tilly ain't so very bright. So at length I continues my researches into every nook and cranny of the den, and jest as I was about to aba

growing a little impatient. But Billy c

vin' the dockaments carelessly exposed like they didn't amount to anything; but havin' the we

ghtened w

He ain't the one that done that Lima, Ohio, job and ca

at did

clew to anoth

it? Let's

driven faster than a det

metallic object which he drew from under his

nt out-darn t

efore us and triumphantly across its surface he directed the rays

be baffled, foiled, thwarted at every turn-and yet something tells me that the man is in our power-that by this prec

is Beauty a Curse to a Poor Girl?' That sounded just like the detective in that-you remember-where he's talkin' to Clarence Armyta

taneous, though perhaps a shade influenced by having listened to your own graphic style. But come, men! Let us sepa

f the few perfect momen

tter end," said he, with a quiet dignity. "

not safe a moment with my every step dogged by

lly, you shall not be unavenged. We s

o-git me a good forty-four Colts. You can't stop a man with this here little twenty-two, an' it's only a one-shot at that. I'd be in a

er one later. We can't do anything to-night. And sell y

uld only believe forever, what a good world it could be-"a world of fine fabling," indeed! Also I wonde