He
reaches in his pocket and pulls out a little package. "If I can draw
up a chair here," he says, "I'll have dinner with you."

"I'll get another plate," says the wife, "and some coffee--"

"Not a thing!" says Hector. "I got mine with me!" With that he
unwraps the package and pulls out a thing about the size of a deck of
cards. I thought at first it was a razor hone, but Hector bites into
it. "Just a glass of water," he says, "though with this a man don't
even need that!"

Alex bounces outa his chair and gimme the laugh.

"What's that?" he hollers at Hector.

"That," says Hector, "is the last word in calories, protein and
nourishment! It contains each and every juice and sustainin' part of
all meats and vegetables known to man, with a little glutein invention
of my own combined. It has got it forty ways on all other patent
foods, because it's not only nourishin', it's so darned tasty that once
you eat it you get the habit, like dope or somethin', and you can't eat
anything else! It'll keep forever without ice or preservatives. You
don't need liquids with it, it supplies its own juices. It's got a
kick like booze and they ain't no alcohol in it. I invented it and I
been livin' on it all week. Look me over and--"

"Gimme a bite!" yells Alex.

He grabs this weird lookin' slab of gue and takes a mouthful.

"Oh, lady!" he hollers. "They's just two things I wanna know. What
does it cost to make this stuff, and will it stand scientific tests?"

"It costs about two cents a square, roughly speakin'," says Hector,
"and it'll stand any test in the world! Three of them things is the
day's food for a healthy man and--"

"Will you lend me one for two days?" asks Alex, reachin' for his coat
and hat.

Hector pulls out another package.

"Sure!" he says. "I brung one along for you, because you claimed you
was the same as me when it come to--"

But Alex and the trick cake of collapsible food was gone!

He showed up at the ball park the end of the week, when Hector was
pitchin' against the Red Sox. They got seven runs off him in the
second innin' and I was just yankin' him out, when Alex come runnin'
down to the dugout.

"Hector!" he hollers. "You're a rich man! No more baseball for
yours--why, you can buy a team if you want it and--"

"I thought you claimed you never drank," I says.

"What is your friend ravin' about?" inquires Hector.

Alex answers by shovin' a pink slip of paper into his hands