Page 12 - Demo

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10
Black Mask
afternoon slanted briefly inside the com- bination workshop and garage. The light touched on a battered six-year old ma- chine and the work bench beside it, its top littered with pieces of wire, lengths of metal, and a few spilled flakes of black
powder. ·All that stuff could be cleaned up _later. Time counted, now. Time was saying: )
Tick, tock.
Jud closed and locked the door as he went out. He squinted his eyes till they became used to the sun. He rubbed his chin again, nervously, with the back of his clenched fist. Then he looked at the fi,st and scowled. He let his arm hang loose as he walked around the side of a two-story frame house badly in need of paint.
A caterpillar was crawling at the edge of the grass beside the path. Jud went three steps out of his way to mash it.
mind. It' s none of your damn business." He turned on the sidewalk with never a backward glance.
He hardly saw where he was __going.
The hatred of Leslie Gramm that filled
him churned in his brain like a sullen
sea of fire. It was Gramm, the plant
superintendent, who had kept him from
getting to be a floor boss, or even boss I of his section. Every year, some other
The beauty of it was, nobody had any He angled back to the path again with reason to suspect Jud. He and Leslie a loose, shambling gait. His shoulders had never done more than exchange a slouched. His whole body had a kind few words at the plant. Nobody would of slouch. Even his soiled brown hat dream that Jud had a motive. The cops
slid down over the ridge of his forehead would be off on a wild-goose chase. La- as though trying to escape. He walked bor troubles, strikes, clashes between
with a kind of hesitant weakness, a fur- tive pacing; yet strength ran in his thick chest and shoulders, his long, powerful arms, and a sultry, avid hotness nestled in his pale blue eyes.
" Jud!"
His jaws twitched. Damn that snoop- ing woman!
"Jud, you going downtown?" She was a thin, tired woman, once pretty, but the years had taken t,hehope out of her face. An apron at her waist, she stood on the porch fluttering a slip of paper in the bird-like claw of her hand.
"Jud," she called, "I need some things from the grocery."
"Send the kid."
"Pete's out playing somewheres." Jud kept going. "Wait' ll he gets back." "But I need these for supper." "Whatta ya think I am, a horse?" "Jud, where you going?"
He answered in a surly voice, "Never
rival unions had beset the plant all sum- mer. The unions or strikers would get the blame.
The section of dilapidated old frame houses dropped behind him. The road turned, following a long hill to his left. An empty field stretched to his right. Some kids were playing sand-lot ball on
its hard surface. A cluster of onlookers,
their backs to Jud, watched the game.
Nobody saw him. Anyway, they were
all too far out in the middle of the field
to notice him. I
The road curved. Jud came to a path and started climbing the hill. Half-way up, he stopped, listened to make sure he was alone, and plunged into the dense underbrush and trees.
When he stepped out into the path again several minutes later, his hat was gone, he wore the red pullover sweater, and instead of the bttndle under his arm he carried only the parcel, the size of a
1
guy got promoted, but not Jud Kerrun. L eslie Gramm . didn't like him . Leslie Gramm had it in for him. Leslie Gramm would see to it that Jud never did get a better job at better pay.
The only way for Jud to fix that was to fix Leslie ·Gramm. Then there'd be a new foreman, and a step-up all down the line. Jud had the seniority right. He ought to be made at least a section boss this time.