Page:Arthur Stringer - Gun Runner.djvu/221

 for 'em. And if one man doesn't tote in the fireworks, another damned soon will."

"And toting in the fireworks is your business?"

"That's my business! I keep supplying them with the nicest little pin-wheels that money can buy. They've got to have em, no matter where they come from. So I'm keeping their show going, and I'm making them pay for it good and plenty."

"You only supply the fireworks?"

"Not always; but ain't even that enough? It's revolutions and revolution-talk that run their cafés—for you'll notice these little distractions always start in the cities, where there's plenty of vino bianco and spare time. There's not a republic down there that's able to eat right, if it hasn't got a boundary dispute to take up its spare time, or a junta-fed patriot to keep handing out rebel proclamations. They live on em. And I keep their vaudeville going for 'em."

"But hasn't this particular calling its particular dangers?" McKinnon casually inquired.

"That's part of the game! There are even men down there who'd go so far as to call me a lawbreaker. If that's what I am, I'd like to know what you'd call those Yankee concession-hunters and wire-pullers and bribe-givers who