Page:Fighting blood (IA fightingblood00witw).pdf/41

 By the time I got to the store I am in fine shape to commit murder, but old Ajariah is crazy to get to his checker tourney with Judge Tuckerman, and he hobbled right away without saying a word to me. If he had I would of surely lost my job right then and there, no fooling.

I'm just going to close up the store at half past nine when two fellows comes in and sits down at the fountain. They're a couple of tough-looking babies, for a fact. The youngest one of 'em has a flat nose and a cap pulled down over his eyes, and he's wearing a dirty white sweater. I never seen either of 'em before, and that's funny in Drew City, where I know everybody, you might say.

"A couple of ginger ales and make it snappy!" says the guy with the sweater.

That's no way to talk to me the way I'm feeling then!

"Take your time!" I says. "I got everything all closed here for the night and"

"C'mon, c'mon, don't give me no argument; get them ginger ales out here, yokel!" he growls.

I kind of trembled, and I see in the mirror back of the fountain that my face is good and white. I got my mind all made up what I'm going to do when I hear a familiar honk honk outside the door. That's the signal Spence used to give when he come down to wait for me to close the store at night. In another minute he comes running in, all dressed up like a pirate and his face is red and mad looking.

"Gale, I just found out that—oh, about the reason