Part 8 (2/2)
”Did they give any names?” asked Smith.
”You bet. The stout, dark man calls himself Hongri Picket. French, I guess. The fat beak is a fella named Sard. Sanchez is the guy with a face like a Canada priest--Jose Sanchez--or something on that style. And then the yellow skinned young man is Nicole Salzar; the Britisher, Harry Beck; and that good lookin' dark gent with a little black Charlie Chaplin, he's Victor Georgiades.”
”What are those foreigners doing in the North Woods, Clinch?” enquired Smith.
”Oh, they all give the same spiel--hire out in a lumber camp. But _they_ ain't no lumberjacks,” added Clinch contemptuously. ”I don't know what they be--hootch runners maybe--or booze bandits--or they done something crooked som'ers r'other. It's safe to serve 'em drinks.”
Clinch himself had been drinking. He always drank when preparing to cook.
He turned and went into the kitchen now, rolling up his s.h.i.+rt sleeves and relighting his clay pipe.
IV
By nine o'clock the noisy chicken supper had ended; the table had been cleared; Jim Hastings was tuning his fiddle in the big room; Eve had seated herself before the battered melodeon.
”Ladies and gents,” said Clinch in his clear, pleasant voice, which carried through the hubbub, ”we're a-going to have a dance--thanks and beholden to Jim Hastings and my daughter Eve. Eve, she don't drink and she don't dance, so no use askin' and no hard feelin' toward n.o.body.
”So act up pleasant to one and all and have a good time and no rough stuff in no form, shape or manner, but behave like gents all and swell dames, like you was to a swarry on Fifth Avenue. Let's go!”
He went back to the pantry, taking no notice of the cheering. The fiddler sc.r.a.ped a fox trot, and Eve's melodeon joined in. A vast scuffling of heavily shod feet filled the momentary silence, accented by the shrill giggle of young girls.
”They're off,” remarked Clinch to Smith, who stood at the pantry shelf prepared to serve whiskey or beer upon previous receipt of payment.
In the event of a sudden raid, the arrangements at Clinch's were quite simple. Two large drain pipes emerged from the kitchen floor beside Smith, and ended in Star Pond. In case of alarm the tub of beer was poured down one pipe; the whiskey down the other.
Only the trout in Star Pond would ever sample that hootch again.
Clinch, now slightly intoxicated, leaned heavily on the pantry shelf beside Smith, adjusting his pistol under his suspenders.
”Young fella,” he said in his agreeable voice, ”you're dead right. You sure said a face-full when you says to me, 'Eve's a lady, by G.o.d!' _You_ oughta know. You was a gentleman yourself once. Even if you take to stickin' up tourists you know a lady when you see one. And you called the turn. She _is_ a lady. All I'm livin' for is to get her down to the city and give her money to live like a lady. I'll do it yet.... Soon!...
I'd do it to-morrow--to-night--if I dared.... If I thought it sure fire.... If I was dead certain I could get away with it.... I've _got_ the money. _Now!_ ... Only it ain't in _money_.... Smith?”
”Yes, Mike.”
”You know me?”
”Sure.”
”You size me up?”
”I do.”
”All right. If you ever tell anyone I got money that ain't money I'll shoot you through the head.”
”Don't worry, Clinch.”
”I ain't. You're a crook; you won't talk. You're a gentleman, too.
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