FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132  
133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   >>   >|  
, as Spike would have said, he caught up with his breath. The smirk faded slowly from the other's face as he listened. Not even in the Bowery, full as it was of candid friends, had he listened to such a trenchant summing-up of his mental and moral deficiencies. "Boss!" he protested. "That's just a sketchy outline," said Jimmy, pausing for breath. "I can't do you justice impromptu like this--you're too vast and overwhelming." "But, boss, what's eatin' you? Ain't youse tickled?" "Tickled!" Jimmy sawed the air. "Tickled! You lunatic! Can't you see what you've done?" "I've got dem," said Spike, whose mind was not readily receptive of new ideas. It seemed to him that Jimmy missed the main point. "Didn't I tell you there was nothing doing when you wanted to take those things the other day?" Spike's face cleared. As he had suspected, Jimmy had missed the point. "Why, say, boss, yes. Sure! But dose was little, dinky t'ings. Of course, youse wouldn't stand fer swipin' chicken-feed like dem. But dese is different. Dese di'monds is boids. It's one hundred t'ousand plunks fer dese." "Spike," said Jimmy with painful calm. "Huh?" "Will you listen for a moment?" "Sure." "I know it's practically hopeless. To get an idea into your head, one wants a proper outfit--drills, blasting-powder, and so on. But there's just a chance, perhaps, if I talk slowly. Has it occurred to you, Spike, my bonny, blue-eyed Spike, that every other man, more or less, in this stately home of England, is a detective who has probably received instructions to watch you like a lynx? Do you imagine that your blameless past is a sufficient safeguard? I suppose you think that these detectives will say to themselves, 'Now, whom shall we suspect? We must leave out Spike Mullins, of course, because he naturally wouldn't dream of doing such a thing. It can't be dear old Spike who's got the stuff.'" "But, boss," interposed Spike brightly, "I ain't! Dat's right. I ain't got it. Youse has!" Jimmy looked at the speaker with admiration. After all, there was a breezy delirium about Spike's methods of thought that was rather stimulating when you got used to it. The worst of it was that it did not fit in with practical, everyday life. Under different conditions--say, during convivial evenings at Bloomingdale--he could imagine the Bowery boy being a charming companion. How pleasantly, for instance, such remarks as that last would while away the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132  
133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
missed
 

imagine

 

wouldn

 

Tickled

 

slowly

 
listened
 
Bowery
 

breath

 
detectives
 

occurred


suspect

 

suppose

 
England
 

stately

 
received
 

instructions

 
detective
 
blameless
 

safeguard

 

sufficient


looked

 

conditions

 

convivial

 

evenings

 

everyday

 

practical

 

Bloomingdale

 

remarks

 

instance

 

pleasantly


charming

 
companion
 

stimulating

 

interposed

 

brightly

 
Mullins
 

naturally

 
delirium
 

breezy

 
methods

thought
 

chance

 
speaker
 
admiration
 

lunatic

 

tickled

 
overwhelming
 

readily

 
receptive
 

impromptu