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Show FICTION CORNER " I Ws I HARD GUYS I W'eB) By MILTON RRACKF.R Unigcr, temporarily deserted, snilTcd in and out of the chair legs, feeling for Reide, who always petted him. The dog rubbed against Brown's trousers by mistake. "Why, the , the startled clerk swore. He reached down, picked up the pup clumsily, and tossed him carelessly to the floor about a yard away. "Wonder you guys wouldn't keep animals outa here," he growled, drawing a card. I "You'd think it was a zoo." Nobody replied. Hennessy looked up queerly from his typewriter. Ginger, not having sensed the rebuff, re-buff, returned to the table. Again 1 he brushed Brown's trousers. As if having anticipated the annoyance, j the clerk kicked vigorously. There was a sharp squeal, then Ginger, j living up to his name, bit. Brown roared, grabbed the pooch from his leg, and before anyone could protest, hurled him with crushing force against the wall. There was a crunch, then a whimper. whim-per. Every eye in the place turned to 1 the battered little body on the floor. But in a spilt second, every eye was I glued on the centre of the room, zi sparkled, giving a pert look to the whole tangly bundle. Hennessy stopped pondering, De-lany De-lany tossed his book aside, and both ambled over. Reide turned his head from the card table. "The mutt probably has fleas," he remarked. "Keep it offa my desk." As if understanding, the puppy turned to its critic appealingly. Melsner laughed gruffly, Ignoring the complaint. "It's a cute-Iookin' mutt at that, ain't it, kid?" the Old Man winked to Hennessy. "Send out and we'll give it a feed." One of the ever-present bootblacks boot-blacks was dispatched across the street. In a minute or two, the pooch was sipping milk and sniffing sniff-ing chopmeat, oblivious to further criticism, or his audience. i THE dead man's foot protruded from the blanket like a discarded dis-carded boot. A pan of water rested on the sidewalk; they had tried to do something for him, without being able to. Just an ordinary sidestrcet, a speeding car, a rat-tat-tat and that was all. Another not-so-big shot was through. Five minutes after the cops came, a squeaky sedan jolted to a stop at the opposite curb. Half-a-dozen men piled out. "Reporters," someone in the crowd decided. The newcomers took in the scene in a matter-of-fact way, then swarmed about the lieutenant and the homicide squad man and plied them with questions. One of the newspapermen was chewing gum. The others were smoking and one rotund fellow laughed raucously at something the homicide squad man said. Soon a few broke away and headed for the drugstore across the treet with the blue and white tele- phone emblem outside. Within twenty minutes all of them squeezed back into the car. "S'long, Mac, see y'in church," the man at the wheel yelled to the Lieutenant as the gears meshed. "Hard guys," the man in the crowd muttered, as the machine turned the corner. "You said it," his companion agreed, dryly. An hour later, Joe Melsner of the City News Federation, "Old Man" of the borough's police reporters, left the smoky-walled pressroom on the grdund floor of the Supreme Court Building to buy an afternoon paper. Johnny Hennessy, of the Globe, the kid of the shack, sat in a corner figuring out his expense account Jim Reide, of the Post-Flash, Post-Flash, Nason, of the Mall, Cohen, of the Reflector and Lenox, of the Home Press, with a few of the usual pressroom hangers-on, were at the inevitable rummy game. Opposite, Delany, of the Star, legs stretched majestically across his desk and feet high in the air, sat back reading read-ing a fat book with a scarlet cover and yellow edges. Levito, who was with an up-county paper, fidgeted in a phone booth, waiting to "clean up" the shooting story. A voice thundered in the corridor. The others looked up; they always did when Melsner spoke. He was nolntine to somethinp htidrilprl at "Hennessy caught the clerk with a hard left to the Jaw." "We'll call him Ginger," Hennessy Hen-nessy suggested. "Lookit the Are in his eyes, will you?" Ginger yapped appreciatively, provocatively. That finished the card game. Reide, the most die-hard of the players, threw down his gummy cards, and with the others, gathered around Mels-ner's Mels-ner's desk. Fondly they watched the grimy little mutt push his snoot into the worm-like chopmeat. Two days later, Ginger was par of the life of the shack. A bootblack had been commissioned to give him a bath, to provide a lined box for a and Ginger was forgotten. Hennessy Hen-nessy has sprung from his chair like a starting sprinter, yanked Brown from his seat, overturning the table at the same time and smashed a hard fist to the outsider's 1 jaw. Brown reeled, regained his footing, foot-ing, swung, and missed. Nason and j Delany started to intervene, but Melsner, who had taken everything in quietly, stopped them with a move of his hand. "Let 'em go a I while," he said, grimly. The others ! backed away. uea, 10 continue general careiaKing. While the men were out on stories holdups, suicides, fires, whatnot Ginger tripped around impatiently, until they came back. Then he greeted them joyously, with quick, short barking yelps. The pressroom was crowded one sultry afternoon, crowded with sweaty men in shirtsleeves. At the card table, next to Reide, was Al Brown, a thick - necked hardware clerk who spent his idle hours with what he called the "newshounds." the doorway. "Now what d'ya call this?" the Old Man grunted, stooping over. He picked up the cringing something some-thing and deposited it gingerly on his desk, a massive roll-top affair with "Private: Keep Out!" on it in forbidding letters. The "something" was a very tiny dog, a bedraggled puppy that looked as if it hadn't eaten in as long as it hadn't bathed. Its eyes were red-rimmed, as if with weeping. But there was a pink pot on the end of the moist black nose. And the eyes themselves inoroughly aroused, Brown lunged at his lighter rival, who danced aside just fast enough. As the clerk plowed by, Uie reporter grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, swung him around, and sent him sprawling away with another punch that cracked against his jaw. Brown shook his head, spat, then went for Hennessy again. The result re-sult was still another crack; he could feel his eye swell as if air had been pumped around it. Clearly Clear-ly he was no match at boxing for the tire-eyed 'newshound" who sidestepped side-stepped and stung him so deftly. He dropped back, then Dluneed low like a football player and threw Hennessy to the floor. Again Nason and Delany leaped forward to interfere, but the Old Man, an intense gleam in his eyes, restrained them. It looked bad for the reporter. Brown pressed his advantage, bore down with his full weight. One of the newspaperman's shoulders was down, the other twisted consul-sively consul-sively as the panting fellow on top sought to wrench it into the dirt of the floor-boards. Then suddenly one of Hennessy's legs appeared, en- ! twined about the body of his foe, the other leg applied pressure from j beneath, and a perfect wrestler's ! "scissors" hurled the heavier man to the side, almost reversing the positions. The knotted pair whirled crazily 1 across the floor like a two-headed j fiend. They crashed into Melsner's j desk, upsetting a bottle of purple ink, which spilled over both of 1 them. Then they tore apart, and ; each staggered to his feet, a livid j mess. Brown wiped his brow, smearing j it grotesquely with sweat, Ink, and I blood. He lunged again, but for the last time. Hennessy, his whole frame taut for one blow, poised like a matador and as the clerk rushed : in, brought his left fist forward and I up like a lead mallet. It caught the hardware clerk on the point of ttta chin, and he went down for good. From the corner, a faint bark signalized Ginger's approval, and jolted the wide-eyed onlookers to their senses. 00 Ten minutes later, a few blocks down, Brown was telling his boss ; how he'd been "mobbed" in a card j game brawl with a "half-dozen" re-porters. re-porters. "I told you to keep away from those fellows," he was told. "They're hard guys." In the pressroom, Reide held a blue bowl and Delany held Ginger. The others were clustered around, j beaming. The puppy's bruised side was bandaged clean around his fat little middle, and tied with a funny I bow on top, like a Christmas parcel. "Will ya look at the runt go foji 1 that milk, will ya?" Melsner grinned at Hennessy. |