Page:Arthur Stringer - The Hand of Peril.djvu/152

 to mason-jar this sucked orange stuff an' freeze onto that old guy. I'm sick o' bein' a dip an' capper and livin' like a street cat!"

"And then what?"

"I'm thinkin' some of starrin', if things come my way. An' that old geezer is certainly crazy about me. He's got dropsy, an' a face like a Dutch cheese, but he's just famishin' for a female who'll be half-way decent to him an' tote him aroun' to the Broadway shows an' help him with his pinochle on rainy nights! A girl's always got a better chance with an old guy like that. They kind o' git grateful. So I'm goin' to kick in when the kickin's easy!"

"Cherry, you can't do a thing like this! I couldn't believe it of you!"

The other girl laughed.

"Wait until you see me steam down the White Lane dolled up like a Longacre Squab! That'll be better'n gettin' chased off the map by a bunch o' federal flatties, I guess. Why, I gotta do it, to save me neck! I've been sufferin' from chronic cold feet ever since this gink Kestner landed on us! I ain't got the nerve to break a plugged nickel for a postage-stamp without gettin' a chill wonderin' who's goin' to spring on me with the wrist irons! An' once they get your finger-prints down at headquarters, what chanct has a girl got? You can slide across the pond, an' blacksnake round the Loov an' take in early mass at the Madeleine. But I can't get away with that foreign stuff. First place, I git balled up on the languidge. Then I get so homesick I could fall on the neck of ev'ry Cook's tourist that buys American white-wear