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Quite a Picnic

By Lyman Seelye

IG, awkward Billy Burns was disap- unpleasant incidents of the day, and sev

B pointed and angry to such a de- eral days.

gree, that he believed a straightjacket would be required to keep him from making a fool of himself before everybody. So he wandered away from the bunch of picnickers hoping to regain self-control in the quiet of the woods beside the river.

But the further he went, in his solitary ramblings the higher rose his rage. Few people can bear to be laughed at in public without losing the mastery of their nerves.

To increase Billy's disgruntlement, he almost fell into the river when he attempted to seat himself on a plank, which projected from the ruins of an old mill, and was reached by a rickety ladder.

"A fine place to sit and forget those gresh guys at the picnic," said the muchdisgusted young man.

But when the plank-being nailed only at

one end-flipped up and all but plunged Billy into the stream, his rage became unutterable. Only that he was something of a gymnast, he would have done a diving feat, and as it was he found himself in a position, where he must slide down a slimy old pile into the water, and get ashore as best he could.

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A week before the Chamber of Commerce had decided to have a get-together picnic and Billy had hurried to mention the fact to Amy Lee, whom he, as well as various others, considered an especially good companion at such times. But he had received a rebuff positive. Failing in that direction, it took him two days to muster the necessary courage to request Miss Irene Shelton, "fair, fat and forty," teacher of literature, and president of the Purity Club, to furnish a basket of lunch, in return for the honor of having him for an escort to the picnic.

Billy's devotion and the fair Army's coolness to him were public property. No one knew better than he of the twisted heart, that he must be prepared to "stand the gaff." But the first thrust came early and unexpectedly, when he told his employer to be on the lookout for a substitute, as he was seriously thinking of going West.

"Going West, eh? Don't take it that bad, Billy, the little girl has some sense, and she will soon tire of 'Fatty.' He is an old fool, or he would not attempt to marry, or rather buy, a girl in her 'teens." So it was "Fatty" who had caused the rift in Billy's hate.

It had been hard to give Amy up, when he supposed that his successful rival was

re

young Tom Mason, whom he spected; but to give way to fat old Jabez Smart, whose money was admittedly the only reason for his being received in any home in town-well, the blow was too great for calm endurance.

In the arrangements for the picnic it was decided that the president of the Planters' Bank was to have full charge. All the automobiles were to line up in front of his financial institution. In that way the affair would have a good start, and the Planters' Bank a fine free advertisement.

Billy being too poor to own a car, had hired a cheap flivver for the day, and was purposely ten minutes behind the time, but to his disgust found the procession not yet started. To make matters worse the pompous master of ceremonies was waiting for him, to install a fat guest -Professor Muddlehead of the Mudville Polytechnic-in his hired flivver, although there was plenty of room in the banker's own big touring car.

"Young man, you're delaying the start," reproved the banker. "Put Professor Muddlehead in your machine right away, and drive up behind the Chamber of Commerce bus, so he will not get all the dust at the tail end of the line."

The professor, who weighed about a hundred pounds more than Billy, rolled into the driver's seat and almost squeezed him out of the car.

"You'd be more comfortable in the back seat, 'longside Miss Skelton," gasped Billy, but the professor after one squint of the portly president of the Purity Club, said he was all right as it was. Miss Skelton seemed to be well pleased to be left alone with the basket of lunch.

Billy, as he drove up to the place assigned him in the line, was conscious of a suppressed titter along the row of cars. What hurt him most, was to see Amy Lee snuggled up in a chummy roadster, beside old fat Jabez Smart, whose face wore a satisfied grin which extended from

ear to ear.

It's going to be an off day for me, sure, thought Billy, and his fears proved wellfounded, for as soon as they reached the picnic ground, his two companions in the flivver turned themselves

loose on the basket of lunch. While Billy was figuring where he came in on the feed, the master of ceremonies shouted out to him to fetch a pail of water from the spring near the river.

Billy used language that made the president of the Purity Club gag on a mouthful of cold corned beef and angel cake, and the professor looked over his spectacles at the young man, as if he would like to apply the discipline of the Mudville Polytechnic High School to him.

"Hurry up with that pail of water, Billy!" cried the master of ceremonies, and as Billy slunk off in the direction of the river he could hear the chuckles and bantering remarks of his acquaintances.

"I guess I'd better fade out of this scene for the afternoon," he remarked to himself. "Irene Skelton herself could eat all the lunch in the basket, and that big lobster of a professor would swallow the basket. It's up to me to lunch off some slippery elm bark, or go hungry,"

So instead of packing back a pail of water he chucked the pail near the well, and rambled on till he met the mishap at the old mill, and found himself dangling over the stream.

"Gee! if the bunch saw me now how they'd give me the laugh. I'll have to get out of this without letting 'em know what's happened to me," he panted.

He began to make a careful study of the ways of egress. There were crosstimbers directly below him, and the water above them did not seem to be deep enough to render safe a drop into it. He could crawl along the girder on which one end of the plank rested, and slide down a very dirty piling, or he could swing back and drop on the plank, which would cause it to tip until the end on which he stood caught another girder. Then he would be but little more than six feet above clear water. This seemed to be the easiest way to escape, but he thought it best to first dispose of his outer garments.

He threw his hat so that it landed on the bank a dozen feet from the water's edge. His coat he tied into a ball by use of the sleeves and it soon lay beside the hat. Then folding his vest around his watch and pocketbook, he laced it to one

shoe and tossed the bundle to the shore. Before he could do more he heard a great commotion in the bushes and saw Amy Lee running along the footpath leading to the old mill. A furious red bull with wicked-looking horns was chasing her. The huge animal was bellowing in a most terrifying way. Amy was as white as her picnic dress and her dark eyes were popping out with terror. She had no breath to waste in screaming, but was running for dear life.

How can I save her, thought the horrified Billy, but she did the trick herself. She glimped the ladder, which leaned against the mill and dashed up its treacherous rungs with an unavoidable display of fine picnic hosiery. In a moment the bull was hooking the ladder, and with a swing of his tremendous neck threw it into the river. But Amy had escaped, and was squatted on the shaky plank which had caused the unseen Billy such trouble. The position was the last a pretty girl would have chosen but that was her least consideration at the exciting

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"Billy."

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"Can you save yourself, Billy?"

"I am in no danger, but am puzzled to know how to help you, without letting you drop into the water.'

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"Was it true, Billy, what you once told me about always having loved me?"

"It was, and is Gospel truth."

"And you can forgive me, Billy, for listening to that horrid old Jabez Smart's talk about diamonds, and trips around the world. I never have promised anything-never-only listened."

"You had a right to listen, girlie, and need no forgiveness; but I have loved you all the time, and I love you nowmore than ever.'

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"Let the plank go, Billy, and fish me out, dead or alive. Hurry, please, for I

"Oh. Billy-Billy-ain't this perfectly don't want anybody else to help you." awful?"

"Are you hurt, Amy?"
"No-only frightened."

By his gymnastic ability Billy was able to get nearer to his former sweetheart, just as wild shouts and terrible bellowings were heard from the picnic grounds. "That bull will surely break up the picnic," he grimly predicted.

"Do you think he'll kill anybody, Billy, dear?"

"I sure hope so," muttered the aggrieved lover. "I wouldn't mind if he gored about three fatties."

Knowing that there were several husky

He flung his remaining shoe to the shore, and stretched along the girder toward the dirty piling, as far as he could and still hold down the end of the insecure plank, before he made answer:

"Catch your breath when you fall from the plank, and hold it as long as possible.'

He scrambled along the girder, and as the plank tipped, there came a cry that made his blood run cold.

"Oh, Billy, there is a great big nail, wow!"

It was too late to mend matters, and in his haste he so loosely clasped the piling,

that the jolt he received when he struck bottom, forced him to try a second time before he could stand on his feet. A trifle dazed, he hurried to the bank, and for a moment intently scanned the water for trace of Amy, but he could not wait, and made a strong dive in search of her. Before his head went under water, he heard her call: "Billy, can't you—" and came to the surface as soon as possible, looking toward one bank of the river and then to the other bank, wondering whence the call came.

"Look up, Billy, look up," and the suppressed mirth in the voice lightened his heart.

He looked up and was forced to smile, as at a glance he took in the situation. The big nail which had frightened Amy when she began to slide toward it, was a spike driven through the end of the plank, and protruding several inches above it. She had avoided striking it squarely, but it had caught in her skirts, which being of strong material, held her suspended full two yards above the water, with her head slightly lower than her feet. Seeing him smile, she said:

"If you laugh at me, I won't ever come down."

While this performance was in progress, the bull had come back unnoticed to the river bank after chasing the picnickers. He took the movement of Amy's feet to be a challenge to mortal combat. With another of his frantic bellows, he plunged into the water and chased Billy, pawing and striking right and left with his horns. But in the water the man was easily master of the swimming brute, and barring an accident could manage him almost at will. While the frightened girl was crying directions, and begging Billy to try to make good his escape, he was silently maneuvering for position.

Before she dreamed the meaning of the by-play, the king of the herd was made to swim directly under her; and as he did so her lover swung one foot over his broad back, and the next instant he was standing beside her. It was only a moment that he could maintain his position, but that was long enough for one strong arm

to

pass around her, while another wrenched the skirt from the spike.

Now luck favored them, for the bull caught sight of the coat which lay on the sloping bank, as a little whirlwind fluttered the sleeve, and he swam directly toward it. Billy allowed himself to drop

"If you won't come to me, I will surely into the water, and swam slowly to near come for you."

"And I'll be all the more pleased if you do so quickly."

As she said this, she extended her hands in mock supplication, and the pursing of the lips sent a thrill of joy through every fiber of Billy's frame. But banter could not completely cover the element of danger, which both knew existed. There was no apparent way by which he could reach her; or test the strength of the skirt; and knowing that she could not swim, he was very loth to leave even for the short time necessary to procure the means of assistance.

He tested the depth of the water, and found that when standing on his toes, his mouth would come above the surface, and then he asked:

"Can't you kick yourself loose, and I will catch you when you fall?"

She laughed at the thought and at the same time made an effort, and only succeeded in waving her feet.

the opposite shore; and before the bull had reached the offending coat, the two humans had slipped behind a clump of bushes, from which point of vantage they could watch his antics without fear.

He gored the coat and shook it, until it was but a rag hanging from one horn, and in doing so managed to step on the hat. As it lay in a soft place his foot went through it, and it formed a bracelet around his leg near the knee.

Suddenly the monster scented something, and threw his nose high in the air to make sure of its nature; while the remains of the coat fell like a veil over his face. Taking quick advantage of the blinding, a man sprang from the timber back of him and dropped a noosed rope over his horns; and in a very few seconds the herd monarch was tied to a tree. Farmers and picknickers gathered around the remnants of raiment, and speculated regarding the fate of the owner.

(Continued on Page 93)

How It Worked and Also How It Failed.

By Charles Horace Meiers

HERE were three or four beats in San Francisco, in the old days, where Red Hogan used to work brazenly, with little fear of interference by the cops, so long as he did not commit murder. This he was careful not to do, not out of any feeling of compassion for his victims; but for his own safety. To kill, or come too near it, in his work would call forth altogether too much investigation, and might lead to his undoing. Red was smart enough to know this; for he had been in the crook business for a number of years, during which time he had worked with some of the most brainy operators in the business from one end of the country to the other. But he also had his instructions from the crooked cops on these few beats, two of whom had come to San Francisco, from an Eastern city, to become policemen in order that they might help their pals by looking the other way. They warned him often about being too rough, for on one or two occasions he had nearly killed his victims when they resisted his brazen hold-ups. The cops had managed to turn the wrath of the law against the unfortunate victims by reporting that they had assaulted Red, giving trumped up reasons which swayed the sympathies of the police court to Red's side of the case.

No stranger who saw big Mike Hennessey swinging easily along on his beat, looking the part of a fine protector of the public, would think for a single moment that he would be the kind of man that would take money to betray them and, instead of protecting them, protect the crook who laid them out with a blackjack and deftly cleaned their pockets of money while Mike remained obligingly a block or two away on his beat; or, if he did appear, it was to arrest the other fellow, or to grab Red roughly, hustle

him around the corner, and turn him loose.

Mike's beat was Red's favorite. He could get away with more crooked work on that beat than on any of the others; for, in truth, Mike was one of the gang when Red was leader of the notorious Hogan Gang, which terrorized a certain Eastern city and made a clean get-away without ever having their identity known or having their pictures taken for the Rogue's Gallery.

Red seldom bothered to talk things over in advance with Mike. When he saw a stranger who looked good to him he simply got the gentleman's money, smoothly, if possible and preferably, but roughly if necessary. He got it one way or another; in this he was relentless. He looked upon them as his rightful prey, and his conscience never bothered him. His only anxiety was to get away with the job in some way that would not react against him. After finishing a good job of this kind he could count the roll, chuck it away in one of his several hiding places, and lie down to dreamless sleep. It is said to be a psychological fact that a person possessing a criminal mind does not dream. Whether it is true in all cases or not, I do not argue, but it was true of Red.

For two weeks Red had not been on Mike's beat. He had been letting it rest in order that there might not be enough. unseemly occurrences to call for protest on the part of the public.

One evening, the fifteenth of July, to be exact, Red appeared on his favorite beat, neatly dressed and appearing like a business man from some interior town who, like many others at that time of the year, was spending his vacation in San Francisco because the valleys were hot. He saw a big man in uniform almost a

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