Authors, English -- 20th century -- Biography; Blackwood, Algernon, 1869-1951
“Good English cloth,” mentioned Boyde. “Hardly used at all.”
“A dollar each,” said the man, laying them down as though the deal was
finished. He turned to make out the tickets. He had not looked at us
once yet.
Boyde picked them up and turned to go. “Two dollars,” he said flatly,
“I can get five in 4th Avenue.”
“Go ged it,” was the reply, the man’s back still turned on us.
Boyde gave a cheery laugh. “Make it three dollars for the two,” he
suggested in an off-hand manner, “with another couple for the cups.
They’re prizes. We wouldn’t lose them for worlds.”
The man looked at us for the first time; we were fairly well dressed,
obviously English, three hulking customers of a type he was not used
to. Perhaps he really believed we might redeem the cups one day. “Worth
less than nozzing,” he said in his Yiddish accent. The keen, appraising
look he gave us made me feel even less than that.
“Worth a lot to us, though,” came Boyde’s quick comment.
“Name?” queried the man, bending over a table with his back turned
again.
“John Doe,” came promptly, and a moment later, with the ticket, the
Jew handed out four dirty dollar bills and fifty cents in coin. The
interest was twelve per cent. per month, and the articles could be
redeemed any time up to the end of a year.
“Never ask more than you really need at the moment,” was Boyde’s advice
as we came out into the street. “I could have raised him a few dollars
probably, but, remember, you’ll have to get the coats out again before
long.”
When we got back to the room a Western Union telegram lay on the table
for him; it was from Davis: “Please call to-morrow 3 o’clock without
fail _re_ Rockaway,” it read. And hope ran high. That night we spent
half of our new money at Krisch’s, giving a tip of thirty cents to
Otto....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account