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Show pi'l ' hi Bewildered '-' ; By Willard Olvan Persing MY HANDS came up shoulder high. I didn't think the kid would use the gun intentionly, but scared and cold as he was his hand shook so much that I was more than a little worried. I wasn't going go-ing to startle him into waking any of the townspeo- 1 pie. They would 3 "Minute find out plenty r:i;. soon enough that FlCtlOn j had been ' 1 caught flat- footed by this teen-age badman. Otto was standing behind the counter, his hands resting easily on its scarred top. I couldn't figure it, but he was half smiling at the wild-eyed, boyish face that was half covered with a dirty white handkerchief. hand-kerchief. "Sure, Son," Otto was saying, "I'll give you the money, after I fix you a bite to eat." The kid's eyes lit up for a moment, mo-ment, then he frowned and said, "You're trying to trick me into taking off the mask." Otto shook his head slowly. "I'll put some sandwiches in a sack so you can take them with you." He turned his back on the kid and went to work at the sandwich board. They seemed to have forgotten me, so I started edging around behind be-hind the youngster. I figured that was why Otto was stalling, but I had moved only a few inches when he stopped me. "Take it easy, Joe, you're apt to ruin his appetite." At these words from Otto, the kid spun around. I was staring at Otto, trying to figure out what in the world he had in mind. There wasn't any writing on the back of Otto's neck, and it was too deep for me, so I hooked a stool with my toe and pulled it out where I could sit down and still see what was going on. Otto turned around with a hamburger In his hand. He reached across the counter and handed it to me. "Maybe this will keep you out of mischief for a while," he said, grinning at my bewilderment. After all, he was the one getting robbed, so I decided I might as well go along with whatever he was trying to do. All I stood to lose was maybe my job. "This the first time you've tried this?", Otto was asking the kid. The kid's head nodded quickly, then he frowned and said, "What difference does it make? Hurry up with those hamburgers." T was checking the kid's descrip-tion descrip-tion again to see if there was anything I had missed. v He had brown eyes and was waving a Luger pistol at us. His hair, if any, was hidden under an old cap pulled down over his ears. I was still trying to figure out how much slack there was in the bulky overalls when Otto dumped the cash drawer out on top of the counter. He counted the money Into a paper sack and placed it a couple of feet from the sack of hamburgers. hamburg-ers. "Thirty dollars," he said to the kid, "not much pay for the chance you're taking." The kid reached out and scooped the two sacks togeher, using both hands. His right hand with the "This the first time you've tried this?" Otto was asking the " kid with the dirty handkerchief over his face. Luger came to rest a few inches from Otto's stomach. Otto slammed a huge hand down over the kid's hand and gun, clamping them to the counter. I started to yell at Otto, if that gun went off, he wouldn't have a chance. "Take it easy, both of you," he told me and the squirming kid. "That gun isn't loaded." To me he said, "I'm surprised you couldn't tell by looking at the extractor." I didn't have any answer for that. "That thirty dollars is your next two weeks wages," Otto told the kid, "and you can have all you want to eat." He slipped the gun out of the kid's fist and placed it out of sight under the counter. The kid was still scared. "Aren't you going to tell the cops?" Otto grinned and pointed at me. "That's them, Son." The kid paled and wilted. That took all the fight out of him. I stared at the kid for a minute, then stood up and headed for the door. "Time to make my rounds," I said, "Otto, you should hire some young fellow to help out in here, you're getting too old to do it all yourself-" |