“A fine young fellow, supporting his mother and his younger brothers.”
“Why is Justice Gallagher so down on him?”
The policeman looked about a moment. “It’s politics, sir, and he’s had orders.”
“From whom?”
“That’s more than we know. There was a row last spring in the primary, and we’ve had orders since then to lay for him.”
Peter stood and thought for a moment. “What saloon-keeper round here has the biggest pull?” he asked.
“It’s all of them, mostly, but Blunkers is a big man.”
“Thank you,” said Peter. He stood in the street thinking a little. Then he walked a couple of blocks and went into Blunkers’s great gin palace.
“I want to see the proprietor,” he said.
“Dat’s me,” said a man who was reading a paper behind the bar.