Criminals -- Fiction; Social problems -- Fiction; United States -- Social conditions -- 1865-1918 -- Fiction
When Archie was out of money he could not buy cartridges for his
revolver, and he discovered by chance one afternoon, when he had drifted
into a little shooting gallery, that the proprietor was glad to give him
cartridges in return for an exhibition with the revolver, for the
exhibition drew a crowd, and the boozy sailors who lounged along the
Market in the evening were fascinated by Archie’s skill and forthwith
emulated it. It was in this way that Archie met the members of the
Market Place gang, and finding them stronger, braver, more enterprising
spirits than the Vikings, he became one of them, spent his days and
nights with them, and visited Nussbaum’s no more. He became the fast
friend of Spud Healy, the leader of the gang, and in this way he came to
be arrested.
Besides Archie and Spud Healy, Red McGuire, Butch Corrigan, John Connor
and Mike Nailor were arrested. A Market Place grocer had missed a box
of dried herrings, reported it to the police, and the police, of course,
had arrested on suspicion such of the gang as they could find.
Archie’s arrest was a blow to Koerner. He viewed the matter from the
German standpoint, just as he viewed everything, even after his
thirty-seven years in America. It was a blow to his German reverence
for law, a reverence which his own discouraging experience of American
law could not impair, and it was a blow to his German conception of
parental authority; he denounced Archie, declaring that he would do
nothing for him even if he could.
Gusta, in the great love she had for Archie, felt an instant desire to
go to him, but when she mentioned this, her father turned on her so
fiercely that she did not dare mention it again. On Monday morning,
when her work was done, Gusta, dressing herself in the clothes she had
not often had occasion to wear during the winter, stole out of the house
and went down town,--a disobedience in which she was abetted by her
mother. Half an hour later Gusta was standing bewildered in the main
entrance of the Market Place Police Station. The wide hall was vacant,
the old and faded signs on the walls, bearing in English and in German
instructions for police-court witnesses, could not aid her. From all
over the building she heard noises of various activities,--the hum of
the police court, the sound of voices, from some near-by room a laugh.
She went on and presently found an open door, and within she saw several
officers in uniform, with handsome badges on their breasts and stars on
the velvet collars of their coats. As she hesitated before this door, a
policeman noticed her, and his coarse face lighted up with a suggestive
expression as he studied the curves of her figure. He planted himself
directly in front of her, his big figure blocking the way.
"I’d like to speak to my brother, if I can," said Gusta. "He’s
arrested."
She colored and her eyes fell. The policeman’s eyes gleamed.
"What’s his name, Miss?" he asked.
"Archie Koerner."
"What’s he in fer?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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