He went on until he came to the restaurant. It was a long, narrow room
with a row of tables down each side, and a little counter and cash
register beside the door, some gaudy posters on the wall, a screen at
the rear to hide the entrance to the kitchen, and a ragged strip of
linoleum on the narrow passage between the tables.
These things Andrew saw with the first flick of his eyes as he came
through the door; as for people, there was a fat old man sitting behind
the cash register in a dirty white apron and two men in greasy overalls
and black shirts, perhaps from the railroad. There was one other thing
which immediately blotted out all the rest; it was a big poster, about
halfway down the wall, on which appeared in staring letters: "Ten
thousand dollars reward for the apprehension, dead or alive, of Andrew
Lanning." Above this caption was a picture of him, and below the big
print appeared the body of smaller type which named his particular
features. Straight to this sign Andrew walked and sat down at the table
beneath it.
It was no hypnotic attraction that took him there. He knew perfectly
well that if a man noticed that sign he would never dream of connecting
the man for whom, dead or alive, ten thousand dollars was to be paid,
with the man who sat underneath the picture calmly eating his lunch in
the middle of a town. Even if some supercurious person should make a
comparison, he would not proceed far with it, Andrew was sure, for the
picture represented the round, young face of a person who hardly existed
now; the hardened features of Andrew were now only a skinny caricature
of what they had been.
At any rate, Andrew sat down beneath the picture, and, instead of
resting one elbow on the table and partially veiling his face with his
hand, as he might most naturally have done, he tilted back easily in his
chair and looked up at the poster. The fat man from behind the register
had come to take his order. He noted the direction of Andrew's eyes
while he jotted down the items.
"You ain't the first," he said, "that's looked at that. Think of the
gent that'll get ten thousand dollars out of a single slug?"
"I can name the man who'll get it," said Andrew, "and his name is Hal
Dozier."
"I guess you ain't far wrong," replied the other. "For that matter, the
folks around here would mostly make the same guess. But maybe Hal's luck
will take a turn."
"Well," said Andrew, "if he gets the money I'll say that he's earned it.
And rush in some bread first, captain. I'm two-thirds starved."
It was a historic meal in more than one way. The size of it was one
notable feature, and even Andrew had to loosen his belt when he came to
attack the main feature, which was a vast steak with fried eggs
scattered over the top of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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