Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-04
CRIMINAL BOSSES,
ENGLISH STYLE
BY EDWIN pucH.


The constable raised an immense impas-
sivo hand, and shadow seemed to cross
ths sun as the traffic halted abruptly at the
crowded crossing.
An inch or so behind his broad back
motor-landauette throbbed and spat venom
ously, as II 1t longed to run the policeman
down. In the car, beside the usual chauf-
feur, sat a man, muffled In heavy, furred
apparel. whose face. under huge, mush-
room cap, instantly irresistibly drew my
regard. 1t was a face white as ivory, puck
cred and wrinkIed as shriveled winter
apple, and yet having a reptilian bagginess
about the chin and eyes. And save for the
eyes It would have been as the face OF
corpse; but they, half obscured under
heavy. loose lids. were dark and bright with
sort Of hot, feverlsh luster, and restless
as a rats. Indeed. the man with his PEN
dulous, dropping nose and recedlng chin
under thin. bristly mustache, and large,
prominent teeth, that bit into the under
lip viciOusly, had something of the look Of
a rat altogether.
A muttered exclamation from my COM
panion diverted my attention from the man.
Come away he breathed In tremu-
lous voice.
/ followed him down a bye-street.
You marked that bloke In the buzz
carr" he said; and, as | nodded, he added,
'Well, that's him."
"Who?"
Jerry Manders-the bossr' He had bent
down suddenly and tilted his hat forward:
DOG the scar on the back O. my head?" |
had often noticed 1t, and said so. "Ahp'
remarked Dummy, "he gimme that"
"No?"
lie did. Not with them soft, ladylike
daddlers of his. In course. 'Talnt likely"
said Dummy. But I'll tell you. 1t was af-
ter | had done my bit and was out on the
ticket Well him it was. you understand, as
4 me- QUAY md ha
IN my heart like a sore all the time | was In
stir. So when / comes out, having las the
chaplain says purged myself o my Of
lenses, goes to his house to tell him some
,lnwelcome facts about hisself. He received
me kind, and then l begins to give him one
o them straight talks to men Ike what
you see on play-cards outside O. Exeter
Hall. Only I'd forgot as he wasn't a man,
but n louise, He heard me with tired
smile and then he pushes button in the
wall and a long, calfy footman appears,
and Jerry he says to the doorstep orna-
ment. Take this rubbish away. will you,
please and the bird o plumage grabs hold
o. me, and tries It on. In course, said
Dummy modestly, IT drops It acrost him
In half o. no time. and there was mixed
trouble in that drorin-room for round
and a bit. about. Then Jerry he creeps up
behind and half carrots me, and then out
I goes and down the stairs and over the
boot-scraper like a circus clown through a
paper-hoop."
He mopped his face, heated with excite
ment.
1.-TWO days arter as I was strolin', Apply
and free, through my deer park down
'Oun sditch way, something cops me beau
tiful lambast back O. my napper, and then
there was a free frework display, and
knew no more till wakes UP In the 'ors-
pitaI 1t was bottle in a sock as ID done
all that day-o' Judgment business for me-
and no Iarks but what It was meant for
outIn' dues. But 1t appears 1t copied me
the undertakers friends palaverin' about.
Anyhow I lays there for nigh six weeks,
bein' fused up by the muses. till thought
I'd struck year o birthdays
"And IL was this man-this Manders! =
Not 'alf 1t wasn't But that's his play
full way. that is
And he drew deep, rending breath
Plainly the fear of this strange man of the
death-like countenance still abode WITHIN
him
"And what-who is he?" inquired.
Hes the Boss" repeated Dummy. He s
the speckled bloated spider as sits hid In
the darkest corner o. the web. all studded
WI dried-up skillintons OF his victims,
spinning-always spinning of his web out of
his clever wicked 'ead-a coil that stretches
ont hlaments ropin' in the whole DIM OF
u.s. land II Dummy did not express him
self precisely In these terms that was the
glst of his meaning All o theIn tnei re
gilt-edged barneys as you read ABOUT III
The noospapers-the big bank scoops that
talk In five or six figures of speech, the
choice plants as ruin p'raps hundreds
0nca nanny ONES the daredevil buns ana
fakes what seem as If some one d stretch-