“And that isn’t enough for you. You want to make a prostitute out of my wife.”
“Shut your filthy mouth,” said Smull coolly.
“I’ll stop your filthy mouth if you don’t keep away from my wife,” said Carter in a still, uncanny voice.
Smull laughed. “Beat it,” he said.
And, as Carter did not stir: “Get a move on, you dirty bum. Come on!... Or shall I have to hunt up a cop to give you the bum’s rush?”
Carter’s visage turned ghastly:
“All right; I’ll go.... But you’ll go farther yet if you don’t let my wife alone.”
He took one step toward Smull, hesitated, then, twitching all over, he turned and shuffled away down Greenwich Avenue, digging his thumbnails into his mangled fingers.
CHAPTER XXXI
ERIS went home early in August.