On With Torchy by Sewell Ford
page 94 of 289 (32%)
page 94 of 289 (32%)
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from the office. Just half an hour. Get out!"
It's a perfectly cute proposition, ain't it? Games for a heavy-podded old sinner like him, who's about as frivolous in his habits as one of them stone lions in front of the new city lib'ry! But here I was on my way with a yellow-backed twenty in one hand; so it's up to me to produce. I pikes straight down the avenue to a joint where they've got three floors filled with nothin' but juvenile joy junk, blows in there on the jump, nails a clerk that looks like he had more or less bean, waves the twenty at him, and remarks casual: "Gimme the worth of that in things that'll amuse a fifty-eight-year-old kid who's sick abed and walkin' around the house." Did I say clerk? I take it back. He was a salesman, that young gent was. Never raised an eyebrow, but proceeded to haul out samples, pass 'em up to me for inspection, and pile in a heap what I gives him the nod on. If I established a record for reckless buyin', he never mentions it. Inside of twenty minutes I'm on my way back, followed by a porter with both arms full. "The doctor has come," says Marston. "He's in with Mr. Ellins now, Sir." "Ob, is he?" says I. "Makes it very nice, don't it?" And, bein' as how I was Old Hickory's alibi, as you might say, I pikes right to the front. "Here he is now," says Mr. Ellins. |
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