“What’s all this about, Penoch? Good lord, boy, don’t go off half-cocked. I ain’t done nothin’ to Shirley or her old man.”
“Not yet, maybe! Why she ever fell for you, I don’t know; but she has. And if you’ve got any intentions at all, they’re rotten, and I know it. You couldn’t marry her if you wanted to, and if you could and did, she’d break her heart in six months. You’re a natural born crook and you know it. You’re a great guy in some ways; but there isn’t one gram of honesty in your whole body. You’ll end up broke or in jail, as sure as there’s a jail left. You never gave a woman in love with you a square break in your life, or hesitated at getting everything you could out of any man or woman who got in your power.
“And if you think I’m going to be responsible for getting a kid like Shirley into any mess with you, you’re crazy! If you get her she’ll know what she’s getting, and I don’t mean maybe. You’re no more eligible to wear that uniform or to mix socially with Shirley than I am to be the Grand Gazabo of Guam. Now, by God, you make up your mind. You’re going to do one decent thing in your life, and you’re going to do it within three days, by wiping Shirley off the slate and staying where you belong. If you don’t, you know what I’ll do. That goes just exactly as it lays!”
Penoch had been talking in low, deep tones, but every word was like a muffled bullet. When he had finished, a dangerous human being was crouched, figuratively speaking, with his back to the wall. I put in my horn then, having been stricken with an idea.
“Penoch’s right, big boy,” I told him. “As a matter of fact, why the hesitation? Shirley means nothing to you except a time-passer—a kid like that.”
“Is that so? How do you know so much?” he snarled.
His eyes flashed to Penoch’s.
“Gone back on me, have you? All right, you lousy little double-crosser. Watch yourself, and plenty! I’ll—”
“You’ll what?”
O’Reilly had covered the space between them in one bound, like a bounced ball. Suddenly sheer hatred burned from two pairs of eyes. Kennedy licked his lips, and his smile was mirthless and his eyes indescribable.