But times have changed."
The piano obliges with "The Blue Danube." A customer saunters in. Dutch is
all business. The electricity is switched on. A blue spark crackles. Dutch
clears his throat and slaps the customer proudly on the back.
"Only a little more to go," he explains, "all over. Two more ships at sea
and three dragons will do the job, Heinie. And then, h'm, you will get a
job any day in any side show, I can guarantee you that."
Heinie grins hopefully.
THE THING IN THE DARK
It has the usual Huron street ending. Emergency case. Psychopathic
hospital. Dunning. But the landlady talked to the police sergeant. The
landlady was curious. She wanted the police sergeant to tell her
something. And the police sergeant, resting his chin on his elbow, leaned
forward on his high stool and peered through the partition window at the
landlady--and said nothing. Or rather, he said: "don't know. That's the
way with people sometimes. They get afraid."
This man came to Mrs. Balmer's rooming-house in Huron Street when it was
spring. He was a short, stocky man with a leathery face and little eyes.
He identified himself as Joseph Crawford, offered to pay $5 a week for a
12 by 12 room on the third floor at the rear end of the long gloomy
hallway and arrived the next day at Mrs.
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