nt up. He looked at the Pug, and the Pug
winked knowingly with his half-closed left eyelid. Shluker reached out
for a chair, and, finding it suspiciously wobbly, straddled it warily.
"Mabbe I've been in wrong," he admitted. "What's the lay?"

"Me," said Pinkie, "I was down to Charlie's this afternoon havin' a
little lay-off, an'--"

"One of these days," interrupted Shluker sharply, "you'll go out
like"--he snapped his fingers--"that!" "Can't you leave the stuff
alone?"

"I got to have me bit of coke," Pinkie answered, with a shrug of his
shoulders. "An', anyway, I'm no pipe-hitter.

"It's all the same whatever way you take it!" retorted Shluker. "Well,
go on with your story. You went down to Charlie's dope parlors, and
jabbed a needle into yourself, or took it some other old way. I get you!
What happened then?"

"It was about an hour ago," resumed Pinkie Bonn with undisturbed
complacency. "Just as I was beatin' it out of there by the cellar, I
hears some whisperin' as I was passin' one of the end doors. Savvy? I
hadn't made no noise, an' they hadn't heard me. I gets a peek in, 'cause
the door's cracked. It was French Pete an' Marny Day. I listens. An'
after about two seconds I was goin' shaky for fear some one would come
along an' I wouldn't get the whole of it. Take it from me, Shluk, it was
some goods!"

Shluker grunted noncommittingly.

"Well, go on!" he prompted.

"I didn't get all the fine points," grinned Pinkie; "but I got enough.
There was a guy by the name of Dainey who used to live somewhere on the
East Side here, an' he used to work in some sweat-shop, an' he worked
till he got pretty old, an' then his lungs, or something, went bad on
him, an' he went broke. An' the doctor said he had to beat it out of
here to a more salubrious climate. Some nut filled his ear full 'bout
gold huntin' up in Alaska, an' he fell for it. He chewed it over with
his wife, an' she was for it too, 'cause the doctor 'd told her her old
man would bump off if he stuck around here, an' they hadn't any money
to get away together. She figured she could get along workin' out by the
day till he came back a millionaire; an' old Dainey started off.

"I dunno how he got there. I'm just fillin' in what I hears French Pete
an' Marny talkin' about. I guess mostly he beat his way there ridin' the
rods; but, anyway, he got there. See? An' then he goes down sick there
again, an' a hospital, or some outfit, has to take care of him for a
co