"Read it," says the Boss.

"I could play it better on a flute," says I. "You try."

We didn"t have to try hard. The minute he skinned his eye over that his jaw goes loose like he"d stopped a body wallop with his short ribs.

"It"s Tuscan," says he, "and it means that someone"s in trouble and wants help."

"Do they take this for police headquarters, or a Charity Organization?"

says I. "Looks to me like a new kind of wireless from the wash lady. Why don"t you pay her?"

"That"s one of my cuffs," says the Boss.

"It"s too well ventilated to get into the bag again," says I.

"Shorty," says he, lettin" my Joe-Weber go over his shoulder, "do you know where I saw that cuff last? It was in North Italy!"

Then he figured out by the queer laundry marks just where he"d shed this identical piece of his trousseau. We"d left it, with a few momentoes just as valuable, when we made that quick move away from that punky old palace after our little monkey shine with the brigands.

"You don"t mean--?" says I. But there wa"n"t no use wasting breath on that question. He was blushin". We fiddled some on its having come from old Vincenzo, or maybe from Blue Beak, the Count that rented us the place; but the minute we tied that cuff up with the castle we knew that the one who sent it meant to ring up a hurry call on us for help, and that it wasn"t anybody but the Lady Brigandess herself, the one that put us next and kept the Boss from being sewed up in a blanket.

"That"s a Hey Rube for me," says I. "How about-cher?"

But the Boss was kicking off his gym. shoes and divin" through his shirt. In five minutes by the watch we were dressed for slootin".

"I know a Dago roundsman--" says I.

"No police in this," says the Boss.

"Guess you"re right," says I. "Too much lime-light and too little headwork. We"ll cut the cops out. Where to first?"

"I"m going to call on the Italian consul," says the Boss. "He"s a friend of mine."

So we opened the sloot business with a ride in one of those heavy weight "lectric hansoms, telling the throttle pusher to shove her wide open.

Maybe we broke the speed ord"nance some, but we caught Mr. Consul on the fly, just as he was punchin" the time card. He wore a rich set of Peter Cooper whiskers, but barring them he was a well finished old gent, with a bow that was an address of welcome all by itself. The way that he shoved out leather chairs you"d thought he was makin" a present of "em to us.

But the Boss hadn"t any time to waste on flourishes. We got right down to cases. He wanted to know about where the Tuscans usually headed for when they left Ellis Island, what sort of gangs they had in New York and what kind of Black Hand deviltry they were most given to. He asked a hundred questions and never answered one. Then he shook hands with Mr.

Consul and we chased out.

"It looks like the Malabistos," says the Boss. "They have a kind of headquarters over a bas.e.m.e.nt restaurant. Perhaps they"ve shut her up there. We"ll take a look at the place anyway."

A lot of good it did us, too. The spaghetti works was in full blast, with a lot of husky lowbrows goin" in and out, smokin" cheroots half as long as your arm, and acting as if the referee had just declared a draw.

The opening for a couple of bare fisted investigators wasn"t what you might call promisin". Not having their grips and pa.s.swords, we didn"t feel as though we could make good in their lodge.

"I could round up a gang and then we could rush "em," says I.

"That wouldn"t do," says the Boss. "Strategy is what we need here."

"I"m just out of that," says I.

"Perhaps there"s a back door," says the Boss.

So we moseys around the block, huntin" for a family entrance. But that ain"t the way they build down in Mulberry Bend. They chucks their old rookeries slam up against one another, to keep "em from fallin" over, I guess. Generally though, there"s some sort of garlic flue through the middle of the block, but you need a balloon to find it.

"Hist!" says I. "Hold me head while I thinks a thunk. Didn"t I come down here once to watch a try-out? Sure! And it was pulled off in the palatial parlors of Appet.i.te Joe Cardenzo"s Chowder a.s.sociation, the same being a back room two flights up. Now if we could dig up Appet.i.te Joe--"

We did. He was around the corner playing "scope for brandied plums, but he let go the cards long enough to listen to my fairy tale about wantin"

a joint where I could give my friend a private lesson.

"Sure!" said Joe, pa.s.sing out the key, "but you breaka da chair I charga feefty cent."

There were two back windows and the view wasn"t one you"d want to put in a frame. Down below was a court filled with coal boxes and old barrels, and perfumed like the lee side of Barren Island. But catty-corners across was the back of that spaghetti mill. We could tell it by the two-decker bill board on the roof. In the upper windows we could see Dago women and kids, but the windows on the second floor were black.

"Iron shutters," says the Boss. "And that"s where she is if anywhere."

"Got a scalin" ladder and a jimmy in your pocket?" says I. "Then I"ll have to run around to a three ball exchange and see if I can"t dig up an outfit."

A patent fire escape and a short handled pick-axe was the best I could do. We made the board jumper fast inside and down I went. Then there was acrobatics; swingin" across to that three inch window ledge, balancin"

with one foot on nothing, and single hand work with the pick-axe. Lucky that shutter-bar was half rusted away. She came open with a bang when she did come, and it near sent me down into the barrels. Me eyelashes held though, and there I was, up against a window.

"See anything?" says the Boss.

"Room to rent," says I, for it looked like we"d pried open a vacant flat.

Just then the sash goes up and something shiny glitters in the dark. I was just lettin" go with one hand to swing for a head when someone lets loose a Dago remark that was mighty business like and more or less familiar.

"Is it you?" says I. "If you"re the Lady Brigandess own up sudden."

"Ah-h-h!" says she, thankful like, as if she"d seen her horse win by a nose. Then she puts up the rib tickler and grabs me by the wrist.

"Guess your lady friend"s here," I sings out to the Boss.

"Have you got her?" says he.

"No," says I; "she"s got me."

But no sooner does she hear him than she lets go of me, shoves her head out of the window and calls up to him. The Boss says something back and for the next two minutes they swaps Dago talk to beat the cars.

"How shall I pa.s.s her up?" says I.

Just then she made a spring for that rope ladder of ours and overhands up like a trapeze star. An" me thinkin" we"d need a derrick or a bo"s"n"s chair!

It wa"n"t no time for reunions at that stage of the game, nor for hard luck stories, either. None of us was pining to hold any sociables with the Malabistos. We quit the chowder club on the jump, streaked up the hill into Mott street, and piled into one of those fuzzy two horse chariots that they keep hooked up for weddin"s and funerals.

"Where to?" says the bone thumper.

"Head her for Buffalo and let loose to beat the Empire State express,"

says I, "but hunt for asphalt."