“Yes, sir,” said Nick eagerly. “I’ll do my best for you.”
“Blasted little slob,” muttered Henderson.
“There, that’s something like,” said the fat man heartily.
He was enjoying himself thoroughly. His manner became even more grand as he continued:
“It ain’t every man has the privilege o’ waitin’ on me. I cut quite a figure, down where I come from.” He gestured, his cigaret held jauntily between his pudgy fingers. “Why, me an’ my pals cleaned up a whole fortune in just two hours, not so many nights ago. Oh, it’s all right Perry,” he reassured his companion, who had turned with a warning oath from his task of loosening Nick’s bonds so he could move about. “I doubt if anybody’s goin’ to look for us up this way, an’ I know our friends here won’t squeal on us.”
He leered.
“Tony’s a good pard when it comes to disappearin’, eh Tony?”
He chuckled again, glowing more and more in the light of his own importance as Tony grinned in a pleased way.
“Say,” he said to Nick, who was digging out some meal from the food-box, “hustle that grub, you hear?”
“Yes, sir, I am, as fast as I can,” answered Hartley.