The Thubway Tham MEGAPACK ®. Johnston McCulley

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СКАЧАТЬ up?” the suspicious officer asked.

      “I’m goin’ to turn over to you, if I can, a man who ith wanted at headquarterth.”

      “Go away!” the officer said, laughing. “What’s the joke, Tham? You turn up a pal?”

      “He ith no pal of mine! And it ith no joke—thertainly not for him!” Tham declared. “You jutht come along with me.”

      The detective obliged. Tham stopped at the entrance to Burke’s place.

      “You waith right here,” he instructed.

      “Want any help?”

      “No, thir! I want to thay a few well-chothen wordth to thith bird before I turn him over,” said Tham. “You wait right here. It’ll be worth waitin’ for!”

      Thubway Tham spoke the truth. This particular detective was a close friend of Craddock’s. How he would love to get his hands on the man who had shot Craddock down!

      Tham went up the rickety stairs and came to the little office on the second floor, where Burke, a brute of a man who was a character of the underworld, sat at a little desk. He nodded at Tham and grinned. He knew the little pickpocket well.

      “Attaboy, Tham!” said Mr. Burke. “Goin’ to pass up Nosey Moore and come here to live? I’ve got a dandy room on this floor—”

      “Pothibly thome day, but not jutht now,” Tham interrupted. “I come to thee Thnoopy Thallon. I have thertain wordth for hith earth.”

      “Um!” said Mr. Burke. “Friend of his?”

      “Not exactly,” said Tham.

      “I sure hope not, Tham. I don’t like Snoopy any too well. I wouldn’t trust him as far as from here to the corner.”

      “I wouldn’t trutht him ath far ath I could throw a bull by hith tale,” said Tham.

      “But he’s in trouble, so I reckon we’ve got to help him,” Burke said. “He told me that he cracked a crib and that the dicks were hot on his trail.”

      “Then he told you a lie!” Tham declared. “He thhot Detective Craddock for no reathon whatever, jutht for thpite.”

      “Shot Craddock, did he? Craddock’s the whitest dick on the force!”

      “And I wath hidin’ him, not knowin’ what he had done, and when the radio told me, and he knew that I had heard it, he thneaked away. He thtole all my money when he went.”

      “Why, the double-crossin’ skunk!” exclaimed Burke.

      “Tho I am goin’ up and thee him,” said Tham. “And, Burke, if you are a friend of mine, I want you to put on your hat and take a little walk, tho you won’t be here to interfere.”

      “That’s all right with me, Tham,” Burke replied, reaching for his hat. “Don’t wreck my place any more than you can help.”

      Burke disappeared down the stairs. Thubway Tham ascended to the next floor, and there he went slowly along the hall until he came to the little room in the rear. No light was coming beneath the door, but Thubway Tham, listening intently, could hear a man breathing inside.

      Suddenly, Tham knocked, and spoke immediately. “Hurry up! Thallon!”

      He disguised his voice effectually, his rage aiding him to do that. Snoopy Sallon believed that his friends had found him. He unlocked and opened the door, and Thubway Tham thrust him backward and entered the little room.

      “Quick! Turn on that light!” Tham snapped up.

      Sallon obeyed before he realized what he was doing. He beheld confronting him a Thubway Tham he never had seen before, a Tham with indignation and rage blazing in his eyes. The yellow streak in the makeup of Snoopy Sallon predominated in that instant, and he retreated against the wall.

      “You thkunk!” said Thubway Tham, the words mere rage-charged whispers. “You thhot Craddock—”

      “I had to do it to make a getaway, Tham!”

      “That ith a dirty lie! The polithe report thayth that you did it without provocation. And when you heard that come in over the radio you knew what I would do and thay, and tho you thneaked away. And you took my money!”

      “I—I only borrowed it, Tham. I didn’t have a dollar on me, and I have to make a getaway. I meant to send it right back to you. If you want it—”

      “You can bet that I want it!” Tham exploded. “You hand over that coin, and you do it mighty quick!”

      Sallon fumbled quickly in his pockets and handed Tham a bundle of currency.

      “I broke a five gettin’ here in a taxi, Tham, but all the rest is there,” he said.

      Tham pocketed the money, meanwhile not taking his eyes from the face of Snoopy Sallon. Then he buttoned his coat and advanced a step.

      “You double-crothed me!” Tham complained. “You thhot Craddock! You thtole from me! Why, you thkunk—”

      A certain amount of steam is good for a boiler, but too much spells disaster. Tham blew up! His fists whirled through the air. He sprang. Those fists struck home. Snoopy Sallon, fighting in self-defense, imagined that there was a wildcat in the room. Tham was small, but wrath had made him powerful.

      “There!” he said, as he smashed a fist into Sallon’s white face. “That ith for Craddock! And there! That ith becauthe you thtole from me. I’ll thhow you, you thimp!”

      Sallon squealed and started to fight back. Under ordinary conditions, he undoubtedly would have won. But Tham was fighting the battle of the righteously indignant, and he had no mercy. Back and forth across the room they fought, tipping over the table and the chairs. Now and then Tham smashed his man back against a wall and delivered a couple of blows before Sallon could evade him again. Sallon’s face became splotched with red. Great bruises already were standing out upon it. Tham battered it without cessation, sent in a few body blows by way of good measure, beat down his man until Sallon was crouched and whimpering in a corner, earnestly begging for an end of it.

      “There, you double-crother!” Tham gasped out. “Put on your hat! Come with me, you pup!”

      Sallon scarcely knew what was happening.

      Tham crushed his hat down on his head, gripped him by an arm, and led him forth. He rushed Sallon down the first flight of stairs, thrust him through half a dozen lodgers standing there open-eyed and wondering, and hustled him on down toward the street.

      “Double-croth me, will you!” Tham said in the victim’s ear. “A dirty crook, you are! Thteal from me while I wath hidin’ you! And thhot Craddock! Thhot a better man than you’ll ever be even if he ith a dick! You double-crothin’, bow-legged, knock-kneed, blind, deaf and dumb bunch of nothin’!”

      Tham yanked his man down the remaining few steps and out upon the walk. The detective was waiting.

      “Here he ith!” said Thubway Tham. “Here ith Thnoopy Thallon, the thcoundrel СКАЧАТЬ