A PLACE TO LIE DOWN
9
breath, and a bit bewildered at something, it seemed.
"This'll go mighty hard with you two. Mighty hard, I
can say that now. Almost a riot call · it was, an' a riot call
al'ays goes harder"-he gasped for breath-"Oh lots o' trouble
you boys made"-gasping-"trouble in the park first-"
His rump-like face was streaked with sweat. As though
to reassure himself of the penalty they were certain to have
incurred, he questioned the other officer.
"A
riot~call
al'ays makes it twice as bad, don' t it, Arthur–
huh?
Arthur nodded. He was thin, and freckled, and looked un–
happy.
"See what Arthur says !-ya almost instergated a riot,
that's jest what I'm sayin' . Ya'll get ninety days fer this"–
gasping-or elts I'm not yer witness."
In spite of exhaustion, Tex McKay went sick with fear.
"He jest wanted a sock on account his foot is so sore," he
protested, "Honest, mister, that foot looks ready to drop off'n
his laig."
The silver badge looked at Tex McKay with a huge
and expressionless, a moon-like wonder. The big thick brain
behind the eyes began to move slowly, painfully, like a heavy
door opening onto a room long-closed. Then his face looked
somehow cunning-cruel, as understanding at last came into it.
And he guffawed. Thwacking his thigh resoundingly, he yawped
his face so near to Tex's that Tex smelled the foulness of
his breath like a breath from a privy.
"He jest wanted a sock! He jest wanted a sock! Hey,
Arthur, did y' get that, Arthur? He jest wanted a sock-an'
aint that jest what I given him ?"-He went off into whole gales
of laughter, his body shaking to its very fingertips. "Say-Art
-D'ya get it ?-He jest wanted a sock-an' that's what I given
him." Arthur smiled a bit wanly, a bit indulgently, and said
nothing at all.
"Ho! Ho! He wanted a sock-a
clean
sock! Ho! Ho !"
Outside, the late afternoon sun was waking trembling
checkered patterns on low stone buildings rushing past.
They were going to jail; they were going to eat; they are
go ing to have a place to lie down.
Tex said, "Ah aint no nigger."
Mack looked up. "You'se ridin'-aint yo'?"
