Page 21 - Adventure Magazine, 1921, July 18th

Children of the Road 15

"It was the dorg, Strong- rm," spoke up and his trousers clung damply to the calves
the bleak-faced fellow who had offered him of his legs. He cringed, bit his lower lip,
the makings. clenched dirty hands and sweated in grim
"Dorg?" repeated the old Ref boy in- martyrdom.
credulously, the snarl to his moulh deepen- The suspenders lifted and bit, lifted and
ing. "Dorg no thin'. Ef any o' youse bums bit with a monotonous and cruel persist-
think yuh wanter jump in here, step up. ency. The wide nostrils of Strong-Arm's
Come on. I'll give yul1 the kid's beatin' short nose fluttered visibly in and out with
an' then some." the exertion. At last Strong-Arm tired.
The challenge, pregnant with vicious "Had enough?" he snarled.
threat though it was, sprung the Frisco Kid "Naw," returned the Kid, giving mean-
to his feel. Ere any of the hoboes could ness for meanness. "I kin stand it as long
stop him, eve:a,_if they had the courage with as you can."
Strong-Arm looking on, he was on his feet A momentary flicker of stinted admira-
and making with grim defiance toward the tion fired the man's narrow eyes like the
man. He hardly knew what he was saying. gleam of steel striking steel. He lifted the
"Lay off that kid, Strong-Arm. I can't suspenders. He 'd give this boy all he
stand to see him beaten up that way. I've wanted! But bravado was yeasting strongly
seen too much of it. I'll take his beatin'." in the Kid.
Again Strong-Arm · said no word. He "What yer so horstile . about anyway]"
stooped and picked up the discolored sus- he challenged. "What yer want yer kid to
penders. The snarl to his mouth was set as do? I ain't a-scared of yer dirty work."
if done in granite; there was cruel calcula- The suspenders dropped to the man's
. tion in the curving slits of eyes. He swung side; his eyes widened and his heavy jp,w
the suspenders, and the metal knot caught slackened in a real and sharp smprize.
the Frisco Kid full on the face. The dog "Wot!" he exclaimed, and for the first
rushed forward, snarling in turn, hair time his uncouth lips moved with the
bristling, fangs bared savagely. He kicked sound. "Yuh'll do the kid's job?"
the Gay-Cat into a yellow bundle that He eyed the boy with cold, gi:een calcu-
-sailed, whimpering, through the air. lating eyes-eyed him up and down as if
judging and weighing his fitness for the
!1 '! THE boy, Chick, for whose sake task at hand. _
111
ir.f.i the Frisco Kid had interfered, looked "You hearn me, didn't yer?"
on at the beating, his puny harassed There was no warning other than a sharp
body shaking with unrestrainable sobs. ·. noise, like the sQllild of a t_wig crackling in
There was in his red-rimmed eyes such. an the fire or the sudden snap of a springy ·
empty blankness that it was as if the blow whalebone. The old Ref boy slewed round
across the tiny white face had shocked the on the three blown-in-the-glass about the
nerves of those baby eyes out of all power fire. There gleamed in his right hand, as he
of expression. did, the metal of a revolver. He menaced
The truth was, his eyes were wide with the hoboes with the weapon. His Yoice
dumb astonishment, blank with an incon- exploded in command-
ceivable and incredulous wonder. He could "Slope, yuh gay-cats!"
not understand why the Frisco Kid had Hastily but spineles ly the three got to
interposed; why any one, in fact, should tl1eir feet. Said he wI.o had gloated over
interfere. He never had expected it. the beating , plaintively:
In the few years he had been on tq_e road, "But we-uns ain't no gay-cats, Strong-
never hacl the like happened before. He Arm. We'se blowed-in-the-glas ."
could not believe it true and real until he "Blowed-in-the-gla s?" echoed Strong-
saw the malignant bruise on the Kid's face Arm, a withering corn in hi voice. "Why,
where the metal knot had struck and there ain't one o' you e has the spine of a
wounded. fish. It took this road-kid here ter show
The Frisco Kid bent his head between yuh all up. Blowed-in-the-glas , nothin'!
lean shoulders and huddled there under the From now on ye're gay-cats, an' youse call
lashing. He uttered no scream; he did yerselvcs gay-cats, see? ow, slope!"
not even dance; but his shoulders burned The three hoboes shuffled out f th
where the suspenders furrowed his back, firelight, up the railroad emnankm nt an l