Gee whiz, I didn't know anybody was here. Say,
do you mind if I get back in there out o' the wind to light my pipe?
I'm perishin' for a smoke."
They drew back into the corner, and the jovial rascal proceeded to
strike match after match in the futile attempt to light his pipe, all
the while standing directly in front of David and facing the street
instead of sensibly turning his back toward it. With the flare of each
match his face was illuminated briefly but clearly.
A more experienced observer than David would have grasped the
significance of these maneuvers. But how was he to know that Ernie
Cronk had been crouching in a sheltered doorway across the street,
standing guard while his artful brother entered and ransacked the
store whose awning now afforded him a comfortable refuge? And how was
he to know that Ernie had glared out upon their tender love scene with
eyes in which there was the most pitiable jealousy, the most
implacable hatred? Dick Cronk, however, knew that his brother was over
there and that he must have seen these two together in the flashes.
Moreover, he knew that Ernie had been carrying a small derringer ever
since his experience with the hoodlums earlier in the season.
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