mug what did
her deh harm. I'll kill 'im! He t'inks he kin scrap, but when he gits
me a-chasin' 'im he'll fin' out where he's wrong, deh damned duffer.
I'll wipe up deh street wid 'im."

In a fury he plunged out of the doorway. As he vanished the mother
raised her head and lifted both hands, entreating.

"May Gawd curse her forever," she cried.

In the darkness of the hallway Jimmie discerned a knot of women talking
volubly. When he strode by they paid no attention to him.

"She allus was a bold thing," he heard one of them cry in an eager
voice. "Dere wasn't a feller come teh deh house but she'd try teh mash
'im. My Annie says deh shameless t'ing tried teh ketch her feller, her
own feller, what we useter know his fader."

"I could a' tol' yehs dis two years ago," said a woman, in a key of
triumph. "Yessir, it was over two years ago dat I says teh my ol' man,
I says, 'Dat Johnson girl ain't straight,' I says. 'Oh, hell,' he
says. 'Oh, hell.' 'Dat's all right,' I says, 'but I know what I
knows,' I says, 'an' it 'ill come out later. You wait an' see,' I
says, 'you see.'"

"Anybody what had eyes could see dat dere was somethin' wrong wid dat
girl. I didn't like her actions."

On the street Jimmie met a friend. "What deh hell?" asked the latter.

Jimmie explained. "An' I'll t'ump 'im till he can't stand."

"Oh, what deh hell," said the friend. "What's deh use! Yeh'll git
pulled in! Everybody 'ill be onto it! An' ten plunks! Gee!"

Jimmie was determined. "He t'inks he kin scrap, but he'll fin' out
diff'ent."

"Gee," remonstrated the friend. "What deh hell?"

Chapter XI

On a corner a glass-fronted building shed a yellow glare upon the
pavements. The open mouth of a saloon called seductively to passengers
to enter and annihilate sorrow or create rage.

The interior of the place was papered in olive and bronze tints of
imitation leather. A shining bar of counterfeit massiveness extended
down the side of the room. Behind it a great mahogany-appearing
sideboard reached the ceiling. Upon its shelves rested pyramids of
shimmering glasses that were never disturbed. Mirrors set in the face
of the sideboard multiplied them. Lemons, oranges and paper napkins,
arranged with mathematical precision, sat among the glasses. Many-hued
decanters of liquor perched at regular intervals on the lower shelves.
A nickel-plated cash register occupied a position in the exact centre
of the general ef