Ex-convicts -- Fiction; Love stories; New York (N.Y.) -- Social conditions -- Fiction; Self-sacrifice -- Fiction
On the third morning of the new week, as David left the elevated station
to walk the few blocks to the store, he noticed that a policeman's eyes
were on him. David thought he recognised the officer as one who had been
present at his trial, and hurried uneasily away. A block further on he
glanced over his shoulder; the policeman was following. The uneasiness
became apprehension, and the apprehension would have become
consternation had he, a little after entering the store, seen the
officer also come in.
A few minutes after he had begun to dust his tinware, he was summoned to
the office. The proprietor's little pig-eyes were gleaming, his great
pig-jowl flushing. He sprang to his full height, which was near David's
shoulder. "You dirty, lying, cut-throat of a convict!" he roared. "Get
out o' my store!"
"What's that?" gasped David.
The proprietor shook a fat fist at David's face. "Get out o' here! You
came to me as an honest man! I hired you as an honest man! You deceived
me. You're nothing but a dirty, sneaking jail-bird! You came in here
just to get a chance to rob me! You'd have done it, too, if a policeman
hadn't give me a tip as to what you are! Get out o' here, or I'll have
you kicked out!"
David grew afire with wrath. It was useless to plead for his place; but
there was a dollar and seventy cents due him. For that he choked his
anger down. "Very well, I'll go," he said, as calmly as he could. "But
first pay me for my two days."
"Not one red cent!" David's two days' pay was one of the kind of atoms
of which his success was composed. "Not a cent!" he roared. "You say
another word about pay, and I'll have you arrested for the things you've
already stolen from me. Now clear out!--you low, thieving jail-bird
you!"
A wild rage, the eruptive sum of long insults and suffering, burst forth
in David. He took one step forward, and his open hand smacked
explosively upon the flesh-padded cheek of the proprietor. The
proprietor tottered, sputteringly recovered his balance--and again the
hand smacked with a sharp report.
When the proprietor gained his balance a second time, it was to find
David towering over him, face inflamed, fists clenched.
"My money, or by God I'll smash your head off!" David cried furiously.
The proprietor blanched, trembled. A fear-impelled hand drew silver from
his pocket and gave David the amount. David glanced at it, and obeying
an impulse that he was to regret again and again, flung the hard coins
straight into the man's face. Then he walked out of the office, secured
his hat from the cloak-room near by, and marched through the store. At
the door the frantic proprietor, who had rushed ahead to call for the
police, tried to block David's way, but David bore down upon him with so
menacing a look that he stepped aside.
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account