Page:Fighting blood (IA fightingblood00witw).pdf/376

 nickel he had in the wide wide world. Queer, ain't it, that the drink Rags got mixed up with broke him and the drink I got mixed up with made me a fortune? Anyways, I run into him on the street shortly after he come out of the bootlegging thing, up against it and without a friend in Drew City. He stands in my way and greets me with a ugly snarl. Rags was drunk,—but with hate, not moonshine.

"Well, you squealer," he sneers. "How much did you get from the Revenue agents for informing on me?"

"Rags, you're crazy," I says, keeping my head. Why smack him down? I figure he's taking the long count now in more ways than one. "Even though you ain't exactly infatuated with me, you know I wouldn't do a thing like that. I ain't built that way. I'm light-heavyweight champion, you never had a glove on in your life. If I wanted to do you a real injury, I'd make you step with me here and now for that crack you just made!"

"Oh, no you wouldn't," he hisses, and shoves his right coat pocket forward. It's got a gun in it. I can see the outlines of a automatic as plain as day. "Oh, no you wouldn't," says Rags. "You make a step forward towards me and I'll blow you up. I'm dying to do it, anyways!"

"Rags," I says, "I won't cuff you because I'm sorry for you. You been your own worst enemy and evidently you're determined to make the feud with your self a finish battle. But if I did want to cuff you, Rags, that gun wouldn't stop me—remember that, in