Page:Harvey O'Higgins--Silent Sam and other stories.djvu/301

Rh boy 's nothin' to me, an' you know it." She began to weep. "I 've been that worried— You 've been so bad-tempered— Wh-what are we goin' to do if the place shuts up?"

He made a face that expressed his contempt of these marital quarrels and feminine blubberings. "I 've been trying to hold the place together here for the Boss. I did n't know whether we were going to shut up any more than you did. Now— Well, you 'll have a chance to learn who your friends are to-night. Young gutter-snipe! We 'll be rid of him, anyway." "Are we goin' to close to-night?"

"That 's not your bus'ness."

"We are!"

"You keep quiet," he ordered. "Do you want them to come here and seize everything for the rent?"

The paper wizard had raised his voice to describe the climax of his grand transformation scene; it was the call of duty to the Professor, and with a final snort he left her and went back to his work. She looked out after him, her eyes so filled with tears that she could not see confronting her the "triumphal arch to Admiral Dewey" with the Philippine Islands in the background. But even through the stupefaction of her anxiety she heard the ridiculous wizard orate: "Many beautiful flowers blossom on these islands, only to fade, wither, and pass away, but the flower of the American navy, his glory 'll never fade in the hearts of his countrymen. Admiral Dewey." A bouquet of paper roses opened into a chromo of the admiral, and, in a dead silence,