Adventure, Mid March 1919
F YOU had asked “Squint-Eye” Lewis —
engaged in his means of livelihood, though
the same who ran a saloon in Comber
ordinarily he would have scorned such
I Alley—about “Whitey Dick,” he would shoplifting tactics as had provided him with have told you that Whitey was a “square guy
the ivory-and-gold-handled umbrella that he
what never took a dollar off a goil er left a carried.
frien’ in de lurch.”
But a few seconds before he had taken
If you had asked the police, any of the
it from the side of a silk-shod, dainty-faced Central Office detectives would have told you lady of the other world whose slumming party with that offhand, casual positiveness that was chaperoned by a Central Office Dick who characterizes police the world over, that was proudly and continually assuring the Whitey was one of Squint-Eye’s gangsters
white-breasted dudes and rosebud-faced
whose sole means of livelihood was through
dames that they were as safe under his care in taking other people’s property; that once in his the haunts of gangland as by their own
career he had been in a set that operated with a firesides. Having certain vivid remembrances moving van on houses closed for the Summer,
of an official introduction to that particular but this “business” had failed due to the detective, Whitey made off with the umbrella lengthy retirement of several of the partners.
as a kind of oblique revenge.
“A nervy little crook an’ he lays off skirts.
And coming out of the side door he
Says there ain’t a lad behind the bars but some bumped into the bedraggled girl, her wet skirts female put him there.”
clinging to her legs and her soaked hat
Such is often the conflicting testimony
dropping over her face. He probably would
regarding a man’s attitude toward women.
not have bumped into her except that he had
Here is an episode out of Whitey his eyes cast over his shoulders in a parting Dick’s life, and you may judge for yourself.
glance at the detective who was volubly
It was late and raining and Whitey was
enlarging on the terror in which evil-doers, stepping out of the side door of “Dago Jim’s”
particularly in this neighborhood, held him.
place in something of a businesslike hurry
Also, the edges of the girl’s wet hat drooped when he bumped into a girl. Whitey may be
so that she could not see him coming through said to have been, at that moment, actively
the doorway.
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2
“Why the —— don’t youse look soon as he.
w’ere——”
“Might ’ve knowed it,” he remarked
But Whitey broke off abruptly. He was
cynically to himself, meaning thereby that all wise to the way of women, and knew that
women at that time of night around Comber
many considered bumping into a man as good
Alley were alike, though some of them might
as an introduction—sometimes better than an
not look it.
introduction, for it permitted swift fingers to
“Oh,” she said breathlessly, “I—I’m in
empty a pocket. But this girl raised the edge of trouble.”
her hat and gasped from fright. She was
“Muh usual complaint,” he answered
nothing but a child, sixteen or seventeen.
coldly as his eyes wandered casually up and
Whitey had seen many children on the
down the dim street.
streets, but these girl-children, that slunk into
“I’m a stranger and I haven’t a friend.”
dark corners at the padding footsteps of a
“Huh,” said Whitey, eying her from tip
harness bull, never gasped from fright when
to toe.
any one swore at them. They swore back.
She had a pretty face but she had been
Whitey had made a mistake. He could see her
crying. Funny, he thought, that a woman with lips trembled as she stared at him.
her face couldn’t have “friends.” Whitey was
“Par-don muh!” said Whitey, cynical with the wisdom that is acquired in the exaggerating each syllable to show something byways and shadows.
of how much he realized that he had been in
“I was put out into the street an hour
the wrong. And in a determined effort to be
ago without a cent.”
polite, he thrust the handle of the umbrella at She said it simply; not like a
her, saying: “Here, youse take it. I’m just
panhandler; not like one out to play the
beatin’ across the street. Youse need it.”
sympathy racket.
An umbrella would not do her much
“Huh?”
more good than a sieve for she could not have There was a new note in it, something
been more wet.
that bespoke the possibility of high
“No, no,” she protested, perhaps not
indignation if her story were true. Whitey did fully understanding his intentions.
not know whether to put faith in her or not. It
“Take it er leave it,” he said, opening
would not do any harm to listen—at least until and dropping it to the sidewalk. “Somebody’ll she asked for money and gave her hand away.
grab it if youse don’t.”
She was wet through and through. The
And raising his coat-collar and pulling
water streamed from her clinging skirts and
his cap lower, Whitey started across the street.
dripped through her shapeless hat and ran
He did not have the righteous feeling that such down her face as they stood in the entrance
gallantry might be expected to have inspired way of a pawn-shop.
within him. He was wondering what she was
“Where youse from?” he asked
doing out alone where scarcely a woman that
tentatively.
walked the street at such an hour did not have She mentioned some little
her moniker on the police blotter.
pumpkinville place down in Kentucky.
Whitey glanced back and saw her still
“Where ’s you goin’?”
standing by the umbrella; and she was looking It was not so very easy to understand
after him. He quickly turned his head and
him. His clipped words coming as though
went on.
from the side of his mouth were strange to her But she was across the street almost as
ears. She told him that she had not known
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3
where she was going, but a man had spoken to into a good family, do a little housework and her a block or so away and had started to
use her money for lessons. At the suggestion follow, and that she had been walking fast for of that same precious choir-leader she had put fear he would catch her, but that she had
an ad in the paper. She had said in the ad that hoped to find a policeman.
she had a little money and that she wanted to
“No bulls loose on wet nights,” he
study music and to live with nice people. And assured her; and she thought that a very sh
e gave her name and the address of the strange remark, but said nothing.
cheap little rooming-house where she was
So standing there in the entrance of a
stopping until she could get settled.
pawn-shop she started to tell him her story; It is not difficult to imagine what
but before she had got far along with it, he happened. The first thing the very next
saw how she shivered from the wet and cold
morning a woman, middle-aged, richly
and invited her around the corner to a little dressed, imposing, arrived even before
hash-house with “tables for ladies.” She was a Roxanna was out of bed, and said that she had little reluctant to go, but she had a tale of woe seen the ad, because she was always on the
and had found friendly ears. Besides, where
lookout for a chance to help lonely girls,
else was there to go?
particularly girls who were musical.
WITH a cup of steaming coffee, made of
In less than ten minutes this Mrs.
chicory and boiled to blackness, in her hand, Washburn, by her own account a widow who
and untouched fried eggs before her, she told had lost her only daughter, had her arms
her story. It was an old one. Babylon knew it, around Roxanna’s neck and was calling her
and Rome. It is daily in the papers of New
daughter; and also in that same ten minutes
York, of Chicago, of any city. The details vary she knew that Roxanna had exactly three
a little from day to day; but as long as the hundred and forty-seven dollars and fifty-four fame of cities is noised throughout the land, cents, was from Flemings, Kentucky, did not
firing the young with desire, ambition, hope, have a friend nearer than that, and had nobody the story that Roxanna Blair told to Whitey
in the world to depend on except a deaf,
Dick will be common in the ears of men.
doddering old aunt. Of course, she also knew After her father’s death she had taken
about the choir-leader and what he had said
some four hundred dollars, all she had come
about Roxanna’s voice, and that he was a
by through his death, and arrived in New York school-teacher and had once proposed to her; to be in due course of time a prima donna. She but Roxanna thought him dreadfully old at
had a voice. The choir-leader at Flemings thirty-one, and besides she had her career.
thought it a wonderful, wonderful voice, and Mrs. Washburn had not expected to
advised that she go to New York—as deeply
find Roxanna a girl who would appeal to her
sorry as he was to have her go away. But
so much; and nothing would do but that she
matters of personal interest should not stand in get her suitcase and come right away home to the way of a career. The choir-leader was her live with her.
best friend. An old aunt who had not been able Roxanna had never been in what she
to hear for twenty years—and was glad of it, thought was so perfectly gorgeous a home. It because she did not like to be disturbed while was a rather large house too, and had so much reading tracts—was her only relative. Oh, yes, bright furniture and much red trappings that Roxanna knew that she would have to study
Roxanna thought surely she had fallen into a and work hard and all that. She knew her
palace to live, though there was only one
money would not go far. So she planned to get servant, a negro maid, and Mrs. Washburn had
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4
no company except a man, her business Go back to your old graft, you thief!”
adviser she called him, who came sometimes
She was half-pushed and half-
and stayed late. He had spells of heart frightened out of the house. The door closed trouble—Mrs. Washburn said when Roxanna
behind her. And there she was in the rain,
had once seen him staggering in the hall.
without a thing excepting the clothes on her Mrs. Washburn told Roxanna that now
back.
as she had a good home, and didn’t need any
And as she sat at the greasy oilclothcd
money anyway—because she, Mrs. table in the dirty little hash-house, she Washburn, was going to pay for the lessons
protested earnestly to Whitey Dick that she
just as soon as she could decide on the best had never touched that ring; that the negro
vocal instructor—that the money had better be maid must have taken it; that she was
given to her for safe-keeping. She would put it extremely sorry and distressed that Mrs.
in the bank, and of course Roxanna could have Washburn, who had been so good to her,
it any time. The girl readily gave it to her.
should believe she was a thief.
Then Mrs. Washburn lost a “priceless”
Whitey Dick inhaled deeply from a
ring.
cigaret and looked hard at the girl from under She accused the girl of being the thief,
the low-drawn visor of his cap.
and said that she had to give up that ring right
“Say, kid, youse is one grand sucker,”
away or the police would be called.
he muttered not wholly unsympathetically, but Roxanna was terrified. The idea of the
in an absent sort of a way as though his mind police frightened her into a panic, though she was on other things. “Wait a mo’,” he added
was innocent and protested and cried and and, getting up from the table, went to a implored Mrs. Washburn to believe her. But it telephone and called a number with which he
did no good. Mrs. Washburn must have her
was too familiar to need to consult a book.
ring.
“Dis is Whitey. Say, Squint-Eye, I got
Mrs. Washburn held a conversation a square goil on muh mits. Yuh, from de over the telephone with some one who she
country. Kintucky—where’ver dat is. String
said was the police and who was coming right me? Say, Squint-Eye, dis kid c’d fall in a
out to get Roxanna.
bucket o’ green paint an’ never show it. I
The girl pleaded not to have her don’t know whata do wit’ ’er.” Whitey’s voice arrested, and Mrs. Washburn said:
rose in accents of helplessness.
“Well, get out of my house. Get out! I
But the reply was what Whitey had
was like a mother to you and you treat me like expected it would be. He was told to take the this!”
girl around to Mrs. Squint-Eye Lewis. Squint-But Roxanna did not want to go. She
Eye said that he would telephone and that she feared the police, but she was innocent. would be waiting for them.
Besides, the great city terrified her.
Mrs. Squint-Eye—whose eyes were
And when Mrs. Washburn saw that the
not squinted in the least—was waiting with
girl was not going to run away, she became
open arms. She took that poor, wet, shivering furious. She slapped her, and pulled her to the girl into them welcomingly.
door. Roxanna mentioned the three hundred
“Say,” Whitey whispered to Mrs.
and forty-seven dollars and fifty-four cents.
Lewis as she was busy with hot water and
“Get out!” said the wrathful woman.
brandy. “She’ll spill ’er story to youse, but
“No, I won’t give you a cent. You’re young
don’t put ’er wise to that Washburn dame. It and good-looking. Besides, you have my ring.
hoits t’ be misjudged; but it hoits longer to
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5
know youse been a mutt. I knows, b’lievc
&nb
sp; to a maid.
muh. I’ve caught it both ways.”
“Madame Washburn isn’t in.”
Whitey went down to Comber Alley
“Naw? Youse take dis to ’er, an’ see. I
and had a talk with Squint-Eye, who told him comes from him.”
not to be a fool. But Whitey was stubborn. He Thereupon Whitey presented the
called it “his funeral,” said the “Wa’shburn personal card of a notorious young rounder
skirt” had it coming and he was going to see who, a few nights before while a bit unsteady that she got it. Whitey Dick’s blood was up, on his legs and somewhat thick of tongue, had and though he was not considered a insisted upon assuring Whitey Dick that he particularly dangerous man, Squint-Eye knew
was a prince of good fellows as well as a man him for a resourceful fellow who was willing of some importance. But he was only the son
to take a certain amount of risks. So finally of a man of some importance. Whitey Dick
Squint-Eye agreed to have some inquiries thought that if it came to a pinch the young made regarding Mrs. Washburn of 34 Dearing
rounder could prove an alibi better than he.
Place.
The maid let Whitey in. He looked like
The next day or two a friend of Squint-
one of the gentry with whom madame had
Eye’s did a little sleuthing on Whitey’s behalf often done business, and she went with the
and reported that Mrs. Washburn had lived at card to find her.
that address for some time, and had kept the Whitey looked about him. The house
sort of a house that is not supposed to exist; was rather well-furnished on the flashy plan, but that a few weeks before she had got into with every thing chosen for effect. There was trouble with the Federal authorities. Though a piano, a Victrola too, a number of solid
the police, for reasons best known to chairs, a large leather divan, curtains, some themselves, were willing enough to let her