Part 14 (1/2)

Hector pulls out another package.

”Sure!” he says. ”I brung one along for you, because you claimed you was the same as me when it come to--”

But Alex and the trick cake of collapsible food was gone!

He showed up at the ball park the end of the week, when Hector was pitchin' against the Red Sox. They got seven runs off him in the second innin' and I was just yankin' him out, when Alex come runnin'

down to the dugout.

”Hector!” he hollers. ”You're a rich man! No more baseball for yours--why, you can buy a team if you want it and--”

”I thought you claimed you never drank,” I says.

”What is your friend ravin' about?” inquires Hector.

Alex answers by shovin' a pink slip of paper into his hands. It was the first check for fifty thousand bucks I ever seen in my life and it was signed by the secretary of the U. S. treasury!

”Why--what kinda stuff is this?” mutters Hector, turnin' the check over and over. ”It's made out to me! Why--who--where--who give you--”

”It's all yours!” says Alex, rubbin' his hands together and displayin'

all his back teeth. ”I took your food to Was.h.i.+ngton and got the government experts to try it out. They been lookin' for a one-piece ration for the army. They wanted somethin' cheap, palatable and nouris.h.i.+n' that the men would take to. They was after a food that could be easily packed and s.h.i.+pped. They give your food every possible test and accepted it. That fifty thousand is only a first payment--we still got four hundred and fifty thousand comin' for the invention and--”

”My Gawd!” gasps Hector. ”They give up all this money for that?”

”Sure!” rattles on Alex. ”And all you gotta do is go to the laboratory they're gonna build and show 'em how to make it. We still got four hundred and--”

”Where d'ye get that _we_ stuff?” I b.u.t.ts in, seein' my bet with Alex goin' south. ”Hector put that over and--”

”And I put _him_ over!” says Alex. ”I'm the young feller that showed him where _his_ ace was! I therefore take one thousand dollars from you, with that weddin' chest of silver, and I'll only charge Hector ten per cent of his profits, as he was my first patient. I--”

”Let's git outa here!” pipes Hector hoa.r.s.ely. ”Think of me with fifty thousand berries and more on the fire!”

Well, we all met at the flat the next afternoon to celebrate. The wife suggested a theatre party with all that goes with it, and I was lookin'

over the papers to pick out a good show. Alex is walkin' up and down the room, rubbin' them hands of his together.

”Well, well, well!” he says, slappin' Hector on the back. ”To think that the days of slavery is all over! No more reportin' at the ball park every day, no more spring training no more watchin' 'em hit and run. That must be great after seven years of havin' to see it and--”

”Yeh!” mumbles Hector, kinda glum. He's all dressed up like a broken arm and takin' it just as hard.

”Well,” I says, ”where will we go? We got all the shows in New York to pick from and--”

”Get one that will give Mister Sells a chance to really relax and enjoy himself,” says the wife. ”Somethin' that will allow him to forget his former--”

”Why not ask Hector?” says Alex. ”Where would _you_ like to go, Mister Sells?”

Hector gets up and fumbles with his hat.

”Say!” he says. ”Let's all go out and see the ball game, heh?”