The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1920-11-05
A SHORT STORY

against it. 1t shows plain in his pop
eyes and by the way his fingers is
twitchin'.
well, well, for the love of Mike,
what's wrong now?" l asks. "Is il
bad news from home, or have you
swallowed tooth, or is the buildin,
on fire? Come on, spill it."
"Say, Shorty" he whispers husky.
"it-it's that woman again."
Course, if I hadn't been fairly sure
that Swiftly had no particular past
of that kind might have suspected
some old scandal had come to life and
was wavin' bunch of faded love
letters or something to him. But
Swiftly Joe Gallagher amt that kind
His face might crack mirror, but it
would never wreck a home. And as
for writin a love letter, l doubt if he
ever got that foolish Besides, he's
about as skillful with pen as he
would be with crochet hook.
What puzzles me is his describin'
somebody as "that woman" for as
rule Swiftly is fairly consistent in
speaking of the henna using SEX
Startin' at the bottom they're either
female parties, or skirts, or tufts, or
just plain ladies. This is a new term
to me, though.
"Hey, whaddye mean, that woman"
l demands! (Which one?"
"Ah, the one with the shaky mo-
tions," says Swiftly, land the misbe-
havin' fingers. That Miss-Miss-"
GLADYS Tarleton?" says l, while
he's scratichin' his ear.
"That's herr" says Swiftly. 1.-THE
Tarleton woman" 10
"Say, where do you get that woman
STUFF" says I. "She's young lady,
Miss Tarleton is; perfectly swell
young person, fine old family, and
more or less of a plutess. Wants to
see me about something, I expect.
Tell her I'll be right out"
Nothing doing" says Swiftly de-
cidedly. "Tell her yourself. She's
alone in the front office and she can
stay there until you get ready to go
in. You'd better put on a coat, too"
Say, for all he was born and
brought up in South Brooklyn, Swiftly
can be easily shocked. expect in his
day he's lived as rough as anybody,
he'd be right at home on Sunday
chowder party of the annual ball of
the Red Hook Athletic Association,
but still he's got lot of old-fashioned
as a delegate to a Southern Metho-
dist conference. Just watchin' Gladys
tilt back in an office chair cross-kneed
and light up a cigarette will give him
a jolt that he'll be the rest of the day
recoverin' from.
Not that this is all he has against
her No. 1t was what she did that
other time, when she'd persuaded
Mrs. McCabe to bring her in for a
look at the Physical Culture Studio.
tried to steer Sadie off from doin' it,
for we don't encourage lady visitors.
Some of our finicky reg'lars might not
like it. But it seems Gladys was bent
on coming, and come she did
AS it happens there was nobody in
the gym but Swiftly, who was warmin'
up for the day with little bag
punchin'. It's an act he does well, I'll
admit, and in his trunks and low cut
top he amt half So bad lookin' as he
is in his street clothes. Anyway, his
performance brought the admirin'
squeals out of Miss Tarleton. She's
one of these gushy parties, you know,
and she simply cut loose over Swiftly.
He stood for that fairly well, as
long as she was content to exclaim
about his muscle development and SO
on, but when she stepped in and be-
gun to paw over his arms and Shout
ders he turns the color of ripe to-
mato. l thought for a minute there
he was goin' to dive under the wrest-
lin mat and roll himself up in it.
What really threw the scare into him
though, was when Gladys suggested
that he must pose for a young lady
friend of hers who was a sculptor and
tried to lure him down to Greenwich
Village.
mot a chance, Ma'am," says
Swiftly indignant, and stalks off to the
dressin' room.
He couldn't talk about it for week
after without blushin'. "Say Shorty,
he confides to me later, they're a bad
lot, them Greenwichers, eh?"
Course, I has to smile at the way
he has Gladys sized up. Near as l can
Judge the worst thing she does is her