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Show The Ascension of Jim Blunt . A Story By BRIANT S. YOUNG Jim Blunt was a "plainclothes man" on the local force and one of the best of its members not best merely because he discharged his official duties in the regulation way, but because outside them he was also a keen student of man ; was a clean man, morally and physically phys-ically too, because he hated crime for crime's sake. While ever ready to defend and aid the innocent he was no less hard on those whom he had determined were guilty. Blunt had started from the bottom from just about as low a rung on the ladder as a man conveniently could start. ITc had had no "pull" to aid in getting him into the department, so he did the best he could he applied for and got a job as janitor about headquarters, where by keeping his eyes open and his mouth shut he managed to learn much. In fact to such an extent had he applied himself to his menial position and to the acquiring of habits and other things that would ultimately aid him, that ere long even the chief himself had had his august attention called to him. After thus serving his apprenticeship he was at last put on the force. He was given a uniform, a billy, a helmet, a pair of handcuffs, a star and a few other necessary accessories, and was bid to hike forth and stop the evildoers in their many and varied forms of crime wherever they might be found. His first beat was in a residence section. "A place where crime never could start, because it- was so quiet that crime would be scared away by its own shadow," as the lieutenant assigning him said. The lieutenant was wrong. There were a number of burglaries around that section just after. Blunt went on the criminals evidently knowing there was a new man, a raw man, on the beat. Blunt didn't run around in those days with any flags on, but on the contrary, he did some quiet, effective work in his off liours that at last landed the whole gang in jail and inadvertently about $1,200 in rewards to his pocket. After that the other members of the force and the criminals looked at him with more attention, and while not fully appreciating him they at least took cognizance of his success to the extent of hating him a little more than any other man on the force. It seems to be a fatality among mankind that if one, by means of ability or brains, rises above his fellows he becomes the immediate target of their attacks. Blunt was of that kind. Soon after these events Blunt was made a "plainclothes man," a detective. He felt that he was on the top round of success and felt correspondingly corres-pondingly happy and elated. It did not raise him any in his own csti-; mation. He was so quiet, so reserved and loved his work so well that he took his promotion as an appreciation of his efforts only. The crooks had in the meantime, learning of his rise, sent around representatives to Blunt and in a gentle, real disinterested manner conveyed to him the fact that he was very much in their way ; that a removal of his person to another locality would greatly oblige them. In fact they were so much interested in his welfare .that they were willing to furnish him transportation and a few hundred dollars over, in order that he might live like a gentleman without bothering himself in any mere working method of earning a living for a year or two. To the proposition Blunt was blunt. He told them plainly and not very elegantly that he would see them floating in the scarlet ether first. They soon learned much of him and his habits; how straightlaccd he was ; couldn't be bribed ; that his square jaw, clear grey eyes and flat ears indicated just what he was, and if outward indications were not enough, a few moments conversation would suffice to place the reading of his physiognomy aright. It wasn't pride in his new position ; it wasn't arrogance nor was it the plaudits he had been receiving that made Blunt so strong in his convictions and opinions. Doing menial work for years around headquarters ; then the work on his beat and now the conflict with the different phases of crime and petty jealousies that he met in his new position were what had taught him many things. He watched with eagle eye the smooth politician and the sleek capitalist, big game, but none the less worth watching he thought, and he reasoned not unwisely. "The little thief is the one that gets nabbed. Why? Just because he is to a certain extent open and above board. lie takes an even chance for a 'getaway.' But the man with money and 'pull' conceals his wrongdoing under the shadow of 'legitimate 'legi-timate business.' If I ever get a chance, I will enjoy pulling one of that kind a great deal more than the poor devil with hard luck." (Continued on I'ncc 18) THE ASCENSION OF JIM BLUNT (Continued from I'ncc 10) He gloated over the losses of the pawnbroker when that individual sustained any; was ever ready and anxious to "pull" a saloon or "gambling joint," but of all his abominations the petty thief was the worst. When once he had his clutches on such of that ilk as he could get them on, it was simply a question of neither mercy nor quarter. So then Blunt went on his course, doing his duty in an honest way that won for him the respect of the newspaper boys and the public, who he found ever ready to uphold him in his manner of doing things, while the crooks and some members of the force were down on him. They weren't jealous but they just couldn't understand a man being honest. Political heelers too had waited on him time after time, but it availed them nothing. "Gentlemen," he would say, or if it was an individual, in-dividual, "I am not for sale. I know one kind of politics the kind that builds America not boodlcrs and grafters. When I vr te I vote according ac-cording to the dictates of my conscience, not the dictation of any 'boss' or 'ring.' " So time went on in this way until he had reached his thirty-fifth birthday, when one day he was walking along thinking. It was a clear day in November ; a bright, crisp day the sort of day that makes you love your neighbor as yourself. Blunt had been working hard all clay on a complicated case a very bad robbery. He had practically completed his case and found that it involved not alone a gang of criminals and thieves on which he had long had his eye, but also a very prominent politician, who through his interalliancc with the gang, was, it seemed, as badly implicated im-plicated as the thieves themselves. The arrest of the gang and their accessory would create an immense im-mense sensation, for the details would make good reading, as the man implicated was very prominent socially, financially and politically. The man in question had never really been thought of in connection with anything out of the way, unless it was certain little peccadilloes in politics that had landed him close to the bars of retribution several times, but Blunt, who knew this had yet never conceived that he could be involved to any extent in anything so very crooked as absolute proof now gave. Blunt wasn't feeling very good this day, owing to the fact that he was "busted," as some of the reward money he had been earning, also part of his salary had been unfortunately speculated with in some wildcat mining stocks that had turned him nothing but assessments. Blunt thought of all these matters as he was walking along, and was wondering what Molly would say when he told her of the loss of all his money. They had calculated on getting married Molly and he soon, and with the little money he had had on hand, and his current salary, they could sec their way clear, but now that was gone there was little chance unless she would take "pot luck" with him. He had reached the corner leading to Molly's home, when he was stopped by a rough looking man, who coming up and saluting respectfully, respect-fully, said : "Cap'n, the 'boss' wants to see ye." "The 'boss'?" replied Blunt, haif unheeding. "Yes. Dwight, ye know." "Oh," replied Blunt, light breaking in on him very suddenly. Dwight was one of the "bosses" of the city, and was the man against whom Blunt had such strong proof in connection with the matter he had just been thinking of so intently. "What does he want?" he asked sharply and tersely. , "I don't know," replied the man. "I was told to wait for you and catch you and to ask when I found you, for you to step over to Haggerty's that he would meet you there." "Tell him I don't want to see him now or at any other time," retorted re-torted Blunt quickly and with an air of finality, and turning on his heel started away, then after taking a few steps and evidently thinking the matter over, turned and retraced his steps, calling the messenger as he did so: "Hey." The man stopped, turned, then as he saw Blunt approaching, waited until he had come up. "Wait a moment and I'll go with you." The messenger in reply leaned over confidentially and whispered to Blunt: "It won't do f ns to be seen together. Maybe some o' me fricnds'll think I been 'pinched.' I'll go on, if ye don't mind, Cap. You know the way?" "Yes," replied Blunt shortly, "gp on," and he eyed the other as he went noiselessly ahead. Blunt had not accepted the invitation w: iout some little reflection. reflec-tion. He knew there was a danger that Haggerty's was a dangerous place, a rendezvous for criminals of all kinds. If he speculated on the choice the "boss" had shown in selecting such a place for a meeting, he did not allow it to deter him. He was accustomed to dangers of all kinds ; it was a part of his duties to visit and know them. One more chance wouldn't hurt so Very much. If his time had come, all right. He would at least forget the misery caused in contemplating his loss through that mining stock. He took some precautions, how ever. He felt and made sure that " his gun was in good position ; that his billy was handy and that his coat was left in shape for active movement. He did not want to be impeded in any way if trouble came. He wouldn't reach for it, but he would never dodge it. If his fists wouldn't do, then for his billy or gun. Reaching Haggcrty's he had but barely passed the front door when the owner of the place, Haggerty himself, met him and led him up the one flight of stairs the place boasted into a small, dirty looking room, entering which Blunt saw before him Dwight, the political boss and trickster to the police, capitalist, society man and philanthropist to the world. Blunt walked coolly in, and seeing a chair opposite the table by which the "boss" was sitting, sat down. fy- Haggerty looked at Dwight as. if for instructions, but Blunt watching closely saw no untoward signs. "He's on the square, anyway," any-way," he thought. "What'll you have to drink, Blunt?" asked Dwight. "Nothing, Dwight," retorted Blunt. "Give me a whiskey, Tim," said the "boss." Haggerty started for the door, stopped a moment and looked back, then asked: "Nawthin' else?" "That's all, and be quick," replied Dwight. After Haggerty had gone out and closed the door behind him, Dwight leaned on the table and gazed earnestly at Blunt. He was a handsome man, Dwight was, one of the sleek, oily, well fed style of shark that can be seen on any business street. He was dressed neatly yet not loudly. He was a rather tall man, rather large and somewhat florid, with a high forehead and black hair, while his nose, pugnacious and headstrong, gave index to the greater portion of his character. His eyes -were of that steely blue, "fish eyes," so marked among criminals and a certain class of business men or so-called so-called business men, which, while seeming to see nothing, see everything. every-thing. He was a good judge of human nature too, as instanced in his selection for his meeting with Blunt. He knew where he Avas and he knew the people about him : knew just how far he could rely on them, which was an advantage he possessed over them, for they did not know, never would nor never could know, how much they could depend de-pend on him. A man that mistrusts himself can never be relied on by other people. At any rate, where an ordinary citizen, respectable but not rich, would not be safe for an instant with a few dollars in his pockets, James Dwight could go even into the worst dives with thousands of dollars in his possession and come out without ever a cent being touched. He gazed intently at Blunt, then asked, quietly yet intensely : "What's it worth?" Blunt wasn't prepared for an attack of this kind. He was ready to meet craft with craft ; eye with eye ; gun with gun, but he was not schooled sufficiently in the finer arts of civilization not to be taken unawares. "What's it worth? What do you mean?" Those "fish eyes" began to wobble, and while they told things, Blunt wasn't' accustomed enough to be able to guess their meaning. "You've learned things things implicating a number of of criminals," crimi-nals," he halted a bare second, "and also me." Marveling at his learning the news so quickly, Blunt was yet shrewi' enough not to too openly tell anything he knew. "Yes?" he interrogated. "Yes, you have. For the criminals I don't care. Do with them as you like, but I want to protect myself. Every man has his price. What's yours?" Blunt studied the man carefully before answering, then replied, meditatively, studying his man all the while, "Did you ever see a rattlesnake and a tarantula fight?" he irrelevantly asked. "I ? No. I'm not a naturalist. I want an answer to my question." "They fight," Blunt went on, retrospectively and half musingly, "like nothing else in the world pitted against each other fight. You'd think the rattler would whip a tarantula, wouldn't you? But he don't. Why? Why because his antagonist is so small the rattler can't reach him." He reached in his pocket and pulled out a cigar and slowly lit it. He seemed to be half asleep, his words came so slow; he drawled them out so carefully. "Just like man. The big man thinks he can whip the little one. But he don't. That's why, too. See," he sat up, quick, nervous ; "the snake crouches, a spiral of black and yellow yel-low ; his rattlers vibrating, his beady eyes darting here and there, ever restless, ever on the lookout; his forked tongue shooting in and out li while his entire body seems to quiver and vibrate. But the tarantula on the contrary is quiet, remains in his corner with only the twinkling of his little starry eyes to denote he is alive ; his brown, fuzzy hair on end, his legs doubled, ready for a spring. The rattler notes this thinks his adversary asleep, then there is a rattle mind you, a rattler even if dangerous and vencmous is also fair. He never strikes without vibrating his rattles first so his opponent can hear and take warning then there is a streak of two feet of black and yellow, now merged into a blurred mass of brown motion, a line of color in an atmosphere of nothingness, hits where his enemy is, or should be. But the iH tarantula lias been watching all the time. As he hears the fatal rattling he bends, and as the body of his adversary comes, he jumps ; there is a bite in the back of the neck of the snake, and the tarantula- is over in another corner, watching, crouching, ready to strike again. But the 'H rattler is done. Owing to the law of nature and of God which ani- mals appreciate and understand, which men do not as soon as hit, the poison penetrates him ; he becomes mad and what the tarantula started he finishes. In a few moments it is all over the rattler is dead and his little, fuzzy adversary waits and watches, noting every- thing; taking his time to see that it is no hoax; that his dreaded enemy is done forever. Now, Dwight, that's just you and me. I'm watching every move you make; you may think you're a big one and the strongest, but sir," jumping to his feet in the vehemence of his emo- tion, "you can strike at me, but I'll win yet." Dwight sat perfectly still, a smile of cynicism and contempt on his face. "A very pretty description, Blunt. You're quite a story teller. But come. This is a matter of common sense. Do what you want with the others, but just leave me alone, and," drawing a huge wad of bills , from his pocket and beginning to peel off a few, "how much?" Blunt started for the door. "I wouldn't save you ; I wouldn't do H anything for you any more than I would for the others. You know what you've done, and you'll suffer and take your punishment with H them." He started to open the door but halted on hearing those smooth, even tones again, placid and calm as ever, with a menace H underneath it all : H "You'll leave me alone, Blunt, or I'll have you 'broke.' " H Blunt turned and went over to him. "Have ine 'broke,' eh? Me?" H As he came back he had mechanically doubled his fists, the tense H cords standing out on his forehead. "Me 'broke,' you devil you. Better H men than you ever could be have tried it and failed. We've got a H police commissioner that -protects the people and stands up for the H policeman in the performance of his duty. Don't you talk to me that !H way again or I'll break your jaw, that's what." He dropped his arm, H and turned and went to the door again. H "You are a young man yet, Blunt, very young. You arc also ,1 heedless. I believe though you'll do what I've asked. But I'll make H this definite proposition to you. As I said before, you can do what H you want with the others, but I want to be left alone. Keep my name H and connection out of the mess you easily can and I'll give you H $2,500." Blunt turned on him in a fury : "See here, damn you, you couldn't H keep me off if you made it $25,000. It's worth more to me than that, the satisfaction of it ; and I want to tell you Mr. Dwight that your race H is run your time has come. I'll have you up before this time to- H morrow, just as sure as my name is Blunt." He turned and hurried H from the room. H But as he went he heard Dwight's last words : "I'll wait here until i eight o'clock to-night, Blunt, with the money. That's three hours. If ! H you don't do as I say, I'll fix you, sure." j H But Blunt went raging down the stairs, mad, cursing, stumbling, H red eyed and close cared ; heedless of words and of sights. I H As he got out doors again he began to cool and ere he had walked h:H a block in the crisp air, he had almost forgotten his conversation with H Dwight, thinking of Molly and how he should break the news of his j H losses and the postponement of their wedding day. i H By the time he had reached the home of Molly Ferguson he was H calm and cool, and when, after he had rung the bell and the door was H opened and he felt a pair of warm arms about his neck and felt the loving kisses on his lips, he had practically forgotten such things as H Dwights, and "bosses" and "breaks" and bribes. H But as he entered the hall and saw Molly in the light, he went ;H white for a moment, and then red. J H Molly Ferguson was as neat a lassie as ever set foot in America. She was about five feet three inches in height. "Just tall enough to kiss you when she gets there," as Blunt had often told her with a l complexion as fair as the faint pink etchings of the daylight at dawn, I well moulded figure, plump just a good armful with beautiful, blue, I honest eyes, white teeth that she ever displayed when she laughed, H which was very often, laughter and sunshine being a part of her I nature; a low, broad brow and with hair of that peculiar tint that H seems to spring from a breath of the night. She was bright and well I educated and loved Blunt as devotedly and truly and honestly as he loved her, and that's some, all right. I H As Blunt entered he noted that she had been was crying. H In a moment he had her close to his breast, holding her tight in H his strong arms arms made to shield little bits of feminine daintiness H and then she was pouring her talc in his ready listening ear: "I shouldn't be so foolish, so soft," she said, "but," with a stroke H at a stray wisp of hair that floated over her eyes, "I just can't help "What's the trouble now?" tenderly asked Blunt, as he led her H over to a chair and then sat down, while she cuddled up on his lap, H laying her soft check against his. "What's the matter, little girl?" H "I'm so unhappy. It's mother and and father " H "No? Nothing wrong, is there?" asked Blunt, excitedly, for any- H thing occurring to them would be a blow to him, for not having any H parents of his own, Molly's were as much to him as his own would have been. H "You see it's this way: Father has been speculating, that is, he H has been taking, little 'fliers' 1 believe they arc called " H "Yes 'fliers,' " answered Blunt, thinking of some of his own folly. H "It has been going from bad to worse. At first he put in a little, then more and more until soon all he had saved was gone, swallowed up." She stopped to cry a little more while Blunt took occasion to H soothe her both happy in it, she, in spite of her grief. "Pretty soon all the money he earned too, was gone. Then he was told that $2,500 H more would make up what he had lost and more too, and so so " H more sobs and more caresses. "So he he mortgaged this this house H for $2,000 and now everything's gone all gone " H "Gone, all gone?" asked Blunt, bewildered. H "Yes, and that ain't all yet. It seems that father took he took sonic money from the man he was working for. unknown to him " Blunt, forgetting Molly, forgetting everything in the shock of this disclosure, jumped to his feet, dropping Molly unceremoniously, and who looked at him so sad and so pitiful. But he was trying to grasp it all. Ferguson Molly's father a H thief, and he, Blunt, was an officer of the law a man who never condoned crime. It went through his head, buzzing and singing, stag-fl stag-fl gcring him, and as in a dream he heard her continue: "And if it isn't replaced by to-morrow, father says he will be dis-covered, dis-covered, and then it's homeless we'll be, father in jail, maybe arrested by his prospective son-in-law oh," and she threw herself sobbing on the chair. Blunt, who had been so honest in all his dealings: so conscicn-lions conscicn-lions in the way he did things, so thoroughly a Christian as far as he could be, was disturbed to such an extent that he was for a moment totally incapable of intelligent thought. Mr. Ferguson, that grand old man. father of Molly a thief? A thief. He was shocked, numbed, and as he began walking up and down the room, his thoughts began to take tangible shape. There was one thing to be done just one. No matter who suffered, Ferguson should pay the penalty of his crime, fl for he was a criminal. The fact that lie had been led temporarily astray was no extenuation. lie should have thought it over carefully, before he committed the theft should have considered his family. His family? Blunt stopped right there in his cogitation. It was for their dear sakes he had done what he did, for their sakes he had risked fl everything his money his hard earned savings his home and even fl his honor. Blunt was slow to think but quick to action. "How much will it take to save him?" he asked Moll', abruptly. She looked at him surprised hurt at his tone: "Twenty-five hundred dollars." "And your father must have it by to-morrow?" "By to-morrow," she said. Blunt walked about a few moments, thinking intently, then, ten-dcrly, ten-dcrly, quietly, he drew Molly with him, sat down in a large rocker and after secinr that she was comfortable on his lap, and after noting that her sobs ere gradually ceasing, he asked her a question. "Molly, you know how strict I have been, how I have tried to uphold the law; have tried to suppress crime, shielding none I thought guilty?" She was alarmed in a moment. "You you don't mean that you will take take father?" There was a note of horror, of questioning agony in her tone. Unheeding everything but that on his mind, Blunt went on : "I want to ask j'ou a question. Now it is this : Suppose I had found a cer-tain cer-tain gang of criminals, was ready to land them in jail : that among them was one, a gentleman at least he calls himself such who was the worst of them all. Could I under any circumstances, never mind what they might be could I in honor to my calling, in honesty to myself, let him go, for any reason whatsoever?" i It was but a moment that Molly took to answer, but a moment in which some of the beauty of good womanhood came out. "Has he a W family?" fl' 1 1 "Has he a family?" The thought struck home. Blunt had never considered that phase of it. A family? Had any of the men he had tracked and followed, hunted and arrested, had a family? Had they some one depending on them? Some one they did criminal acts for, maybe for bread, for a roof? Some one who loved them even as Molly loved him and he loved Molly? A family? Some little ones who were anxiously waiting for "papa," who never came? "Had he a fc. . family?" Blunt gasped, then answered, slowly, hesitatingly, "Yes, I believe he has." "Is he very, very bad?" "So far as I know he isn't very good." "But he did it for them. A man docs everything for those he truly and honestly loves. Wouldn't you?" Blunt's resolution was taken in a moment. , He jumped quickly to his feet and rushed from the room and the i house, leaving Molly startled, surprised, anxious crying. He did not stop for anything, but rushed out and was soon lost in the darkness. Blunt has severed his connection with the police force. He has a nice farm in the West where Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson and Mrs. Blunt keep him company. As soon as the mortgage was paid on the home, Blunt induced the Fergusons to sell it, and with what little he could raise in addition they all went west together and bought a little farm. Mr. Dwight is still a capitalist, society man and philanthropist. "My son,' said an economical father, "an express train attains great speed, lightning is proverbial for its rapidity, comets are supposed to hurl themselves through space at the rate of millions of miles a day : but, comparatively speaking, all these things are snails, my boy all snails." "Why, father," replied the young man. lazily puffing a cigar, "what can possibly go faster than lightning?" "A five dollar bill after it is once broken, my son." sc fc ic fc See D. W. James for Plumbing, Steam and Gas Fitting, Steam and Hot Water Contractor. Estimates on all kinds of Plumbing gladly given. We give you honest figures. Both phones 379. 67 East First South St., Salt Lake City, Utah. |