Boy's Cinema (1930-31)

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: 12 . "Where ara I?" she whisiDered. "You're all right," Nick assured her. "We're taking you to hospital." She started up tut that. "Oil, don't take me there, don't take mo there!" she panted. "Let me out here. I'll go home. I can get a bus." ! "You're wet—you'll get pneumonia ; "Let her go if she wants to," Jack , broke in. " Wo might get in a jam, Nick. You don't know what her racket might be." Nick agreed reluctantly, and, as the car was drawn up, he let the girl climb out. But she had only gone a few paces when she reeled dizzily, so that Nick was just in time to leap from the limousine and oatch her as she fell. "Ah, the act's on .iigain," Jack sneered contemptuously. , "It looks to me as if the kid was stiarved," Nick jerked. " I suppose you think that's actin' too. Come on, he!p inc put her in the ear, and we'll take her home " So the girl from the river was carried to Nick's magnificent casino-residence. The little gambler laid her on a couch, Jack wa,tching him the while. Then the two men left a maid in charge of ■ het. In an adjoining room Jack appealed to the little barber's judgment for the last time. ".Just what do you aim to do about this dame?" ho demanded. "Are you runnin' a sanatorium, or something?" " Say, arc you still harping on that girl ?" Nick rejoined impatiently. "Why don't you snap out of it? Your face looks so long I'd charge you two prices for a shave " Before he could proceed further a door opened, and the girl with the golden hair oamo through from the other room, where she had been placed in the caro of the maid. "What!" exclaimed Nick. "You up ?" "I'm leaving," the girl answered. "I just wanted to thank you for being so kind." "But you can't walk out like this," Nick protested. "I had a doctor in to see you a few minutes ago, and he said you might get pneumonia." Jack put in a word. "I have a few questions to ask you, young lady," he began grimly, but before he could leam any more than her name, which was Irene Graham, Nick interrupted him. "Say, what do you think you are— a policeman?" he demanded. "You get ijut and leave mo to talk to her." Jack departed sourly, and as the door < iosed behind him the girl Irene stole a glance at Nick. "Your friend doesn't seem to like me," she murmured. "Aw, don't mind liim," Nick told her. " He's a swell guy, realFy. Say, listen, were you—were you working?" She bit her lip. "I lost my job, and then I got sick," (the answered. "I ha<l a few dollars, but everything .seemed to go wrong—and then, last night Oh, I was a coward!" "liots of people would be cowards if they went through what you've had to go through," Nick .'■aid gently. "But I'm straightened out now," she dec]arc<l, brightening a little. "I feel like a new person, and—and I must go. I (an't stay here." "You'll need some money, anyway," Nick said, and would not hear of Jier refusing the wad of notes that he od'ered. "But I'll probably never be able to geptcmber 26tb, 1031. BOY'S CXNEMA pay it back," she told him, whereupon he laughed. "That's all right," he announced. "I own the mint. My brother gave it to me. Well, good-bye, sister, if you're" bent on going. Keep off the bridges." He stopped, for all at once she swayed and diew her hand across her forehead dazedly. He started forward at once, concern in his manner. "Look here," he insisted, "you're stayin''here until you're better and can get some colour in those cheeks. You're set on keepin' that date with the under- takers, aren't you ? But there's nothing doing. You take mxlors from me, and I take 'em from the doctor. See?" So the girl Irene remained under Nick the Barber's roof, recuperating from the effects of her ordeal, and so far as Nick was concerned, a new sentiment began to play a part in his life. He knew wliat it was to be in love, genuinely and wholeheartedly. Then, one day, meeting him as he came into the lounge with some flowere for lier, she asked him to sit down while she spoke to him of something that was on her mind. "You've been so nice to me," she said, "you've done so much. And— there doesn't seem to be anything I can do for you." "Why, you've done plenty," he told her. "Just being around is enough. You don't owe me anything." Then, as he saw that her eyes were swimming with tcai-s: "Here, here," he cried, "what's all this about? Now, don't cry, baby—don't! What's bothering you, honey, anyway?" "I—I haven't been on the level with you, Nick," she sobbed. " You're not from the District Attor- ney's office?" he jerked. " No, but I haven't told you the whole truth about myself." Nick laughed. "Oh, Uiat's all right!" he answered. "I haven't told you the whole truth about myself, either. Say^ apart from bein' Nick Venizelos, the gambler, 1 used to play a saxophone in the Iron- town band." "I'm serious, Nick," she said dis- tractedly. "I'm wanted by the police—■ for blackmail! Oh, it wasn't really blackmail—I didn't mean to blackmail the man in the case at all. But I think you should know that I might get you into some trouble with the police, for I seem to be a jinx wherever I go." "Well, you haven't been a jinx to me," Nick giinned. "And as for the cops, they've got nothing on me. I'm just a barber-shop proprietor so far as they're concerned." She looked at him meekly. "And you don't want me to get out of here now?" she asked. "What for?" he rejoined. "I woiddii't; care what you'd done. I'm not exactly a Sunday School teacher my- self." The Snare. TJIE district attorney drummed his fingers on the edge of his desk. "I hate to do this," he said, "but it's the only way we can nail him." "Of course," the deputy pointed out, "it's really compounding a felony." The D.A. shrugged. " W'ell, what of it?" he reported. "The end justifies the moans, and we've got to drive Nick Venizelos out of town. The disgrace is wo have to resort to such round-about methods to get him. But if we can put him in gaol for only a few months, we can break up liis gambling ring. Then the Every Tuesday public and the Press will lay off me." There was a knock on the door, and a woman operator appeared. "The girl's here," she announced. "I picked her up at the Savoy." "Send her in," ordered the D.A., and, turning, the woman operator spoke to someone behind her. "Miss Graham," she said. "Come in." Pale and tremulous, Irene crossed the threshold hesitantly. The district attorney, politeness personified, drew up a chair for her and t^ien indicated to the woman operator and his chief deputy that he desired to be alone with the girl. "Miss Graham," he said, as the door closed behind his departing subor- dinates, "I have a warrant charging you with blackmail, together Svith enough evidence to convict you." "I—I didn't mean to blackmail him !" Irene cried, with a pitiful break in her voice. "That's your story," observed the district attorney, "but what you did was extortion in the eyes of the law, and you can be sent to the peniten- tiary. Now there's a way you can avoid going there. Miss Graham. A very simple way." She looked at him fearfully. " What do you want me to do ?" she asked him in a querulous tone. "Just a little favour," he said. "While we were checking up on Nick the Bar'oer, we found that you were staying at his place. The sentence for blackmail. Miss Graliam, is from;' two to ten years in the penitentiary, but you can avoid it if you will just do what I ask you." "Well, what is it?" she faltered. "Not much," the D.A. rejoined. "I want you to get some of those gold keys that Nick's customers use as an ' open, Sesame ' to his gambling house " "I won't!" she cried out. "I woii't do it! You can send me up for trial!" "Now, don't be foolish," ihe district attorney said.- "It's a case of you or him, and he'll never know you did it." , "I-^won't!" she answered again and again, yet somehow with more despera- tion than finality. "I won't! I won't!" "Don't get excited," the D.A. soothed. "All we want to do is to give Nick a good scare. He'll be out in a month. That wouldn't hurt him at all, while if you went to tiio penitentiaiy for a long sentence " She began to cry, and the sound of her sobbing made the D.A. set his teeth. He could not say that he had at any moment looked forward to this task with pleasurable anticipation, and it was proving as unenviable as he had imagined it would be. " He's the only person that's ever been kind to me," the girl moaned. "He's a public menace," the district attorney rapped out. "He's trying to corrupt public officials. He's put his filthy hands on policemen. State's attorneys—even made overtures to our judges with the intention of bribing them." "I don't care," Irene sobbed. "I can't help it. Let me alone. Please don't make me do it!" The tears streamed down her cheeks. "Oh. pleas© —please don't make me do it!" That night, in the lounge of his apart- ment above the gaming salon, Nick Venizelos sat on tlio edge of a thair and fondled Irene's golden liair. "You look swell, baby," he declared, looking at the fashionable evening gown and fur-trimmed coatco she was wear- (CoDtinued on page 26.) i iij