Part 48 (1/2)

He was not. Some he bullied a little, for habit is strong; some he treated with laughter and irony, some with wit, and some with kindness and deep understanding. He might have been an able shepherd going to work on a hopelessly numerous black and ramshackle flock of sheep. He couldn't expect to make model citizens out of all his old heelers; he couldn't expect to turn more than fifty per cent of his two clergymen into the paths of righteousness. But with the young criminals he took much pains, giving money where it would do good, and advice whether it would do good or not. Among the first to come to him was Kid Shannon.

”Now look a-here,” said the Kid, ”I bin good and bad by turns till I don't know which side is top side. But this minute I'm good--d'you get me? If you want to jail me you kin do it, n.o.body easier; but don't do it! You was always a bigger man than me, and when you led I followed--for a real man had rather follow a strong bad man than a good slob any day. You out of the lead, I got nothing to follow but me own wishes, and they're all to the good these days.”

”A woman?” said Blizzard sternly.

”She ain't a woman yet,” said the Kid, ”and she ain't a kid--she's about half-past girl o'clock, and she thinks there's no better man in the United States than always truly yours, Kid Shannon. I got a good saloon business, and nothing crooked on hand but what's past and done with, and I looks to you to give a fellow a chance. Do I get it? Jail ain't goin'

to help me, and it would break her. Look here, sport: I _want_ to be good.”

”Kid,” said Blizzard, ”no man that _wants_ to be good need be afraid of me. You'd have been a good boy always--if it hadn't been for me. _I_ know that as well as you. I've got the past all written down in my head.

I can't rub it out. But any man that's got the nerve can put new writing across and across the old, until the old can't be read, or if it could would read like a joke. You can tell whomsoever it concerns to do well and fear nothing. At first I thought to tell Lichtenstein every first and last thing that I knew about this city, and he tried to make me tell. We had a meeting, Old Abe and I did. I was always afraid of the little Jew, Kid. Well, face to face, I wasn't. He talked, and I talked.

And I was the stronger. He lets me go scot-free, and I don't tell anything. If others get you for what you've done, it can't be helped.

But none of you'll be got through me. The past is buried; but if in the future any of you fellows start anything, and I hear of it--look out”

Kid Shannon wriggled uncomfortably. ”Say,” he said, ”what changed you?”

”I'm not changed,” said Blizzard; ”according to Dr. Ferris I'm just acting natural. I was a good boy. I had a fracture of the skull. The bone pressed on my gray matter and made me a bad man. I'll tell you a funny thing: _I can't beat the box any more!_ I had a go at it the other day, the missus all ready to work the pedals, and Lord help me there was no more music in my head or my fingers than there is in the liver of a frog. It was the same when I was a two-legged little kid--no music.”

”Are you going to close the old diggings?”

Blizzard shook his head. ”Yes and no. I'm going to pull down the old rookery; and I'm going to put up in its place a model factory.”

”Hats?”

”Hats and maybe other things. I'm going to show New York how to run a sweatshop--you wait and see--the most wages and the least sweat--and the girls happier and safer than in their own homes. The missus and I were planning to bolt to a new place and begin life all over. That was foolish. I'd always feel like a coward. Don't forget that old friends meditating new crimes will be welcome at the office--advice always given away, money sometimes and sometimes help. Pa.s.s the word around--and when you and Miss Half-past Girl send out your cards don't forget me and Mrs.

Blizzard in Marrow Lane.”

He leaned forward, his eyes very bright and mischievous.

”Kid,” he said, ”artistically and dramatically, it's a pity.”

”What's a pity?”

”That we didn't loot Maiden Lane before we got religion. If there was any hitch in the plan, I don't know what it was. And, Lord, I _was_ so set on the whole thing--not because I wanted the loot, but to see if it could be done. Some of you always said it couldn't--said there was a joker in the pack. Well, we'll never know now. And here's Mrs. O'Farrall come to pa.s.s the time of day--Good-by, Kid, so-long, pa.s.s the word around. Good luck--love and best wishes to Half-past! Mrs. O'Farrall, your kitchen extends under the sidewalk; the more negotiable of your delicatessen are cooked on city property.”

”And 'twill be me ruin to have it found out. What I came for--”

”Was to find out what I'm going to do about it. Well, the law that you're breaking isn't hurting the city a bit, Mrs. O'Farrall--I wish I could say the same for your biscuits. If you're reported, come to me and I'll see you through. How's Morgan the day?”

”The same as to-morrow, thank ye kindly--dhrunk and philanderin'.”

”I'll send him a pledge to sign with my compliments, Mrs. O'Farrall, and a good job at the same time.”

”He'll never sign the pledge.”

”Not if I ask him to, Mrs. O'Farrall, ask him on bended knee?”