Page 21 - Demo

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By THEODORE TINSLEY
him risk his own life without hesita- tion.
But no more bullets came from the dingy row of rooming houses across the street.
got . me for?" he growled at Tracy. He faded across the dark street-not too fast because a couple of pedestrians were approaching. Butch's big hand scratched at what might have been an annoying itch under his armpit. !fe leaned for an instant agamst the casmg of the rooming-house entry. A quick
glance inward and he vanished without hesitation.
Tracy guessed sourly : "The gunner must've made a backyard sneak."
He remembered suddenly that he was down on one knee, alongside a bullet- drilled hat and a flattened slug. The slug was still warm as Tracy palmed it and dropped it into his pocket. He got up, kicking petulantly at a crack in the sidewalk for the benefit of the two star- ing pedestrians.
One of them kept going. The other- the dopier of the two-said solemnly: "S'matter, Mist er? Didja fall?"
"Yeah." .
"Ain'tcha go1ma pick up your hat?" Tracy looked at it. The two holes in
the soft crown were hidden by the flare of the upturned brim.
"You saw me fall!" Tracy said in a 19
"Are you hoit, Jerry?" growled.
Butch
"I'm O.K. Where'd it come from? That middle doorway?"
"I t'ink so." ,
That doorway, in the middle of a row of rooming houses, was slightly ajar. The street was a narrow one, and some- one with a lousy aim had gummed up a perfect ambush.
" Stay here!" Tracy snapped.
"Nuts to you," Butch said. His beefy palm shoved hard. Tracy spilled awk- wardly to one knee and his tilted hat fell off. "What the hell do you think you