"Maybe he’s in at Hunt’s," said the thin girl, speaking for the first time.
"I can run in and ask for you," said the brunette, in the kindly willingness of the helpless to help others. "Or, hold on,--maybe Teddy would know."
"Never mind," said Archie, "I’ll go in to Hunt’s myself."
"I’ll tell Mr. Jackson when he comes in," said the brunette, going to the door with Archie. "Who did you say?"--she looked up into Archie’s face with her feminine curiosity all alive.
"Oh, just Dutch," said Archie, smiling at her insistence. "He’ll know."
"Oh, hell!" said the girl, "what’s your name?"
Archie looked down into her brown eyes and smiled mockingly; then he relented.
"Well, it’s Archie Koerner. Ever hear of me before?"
The girl’s black brows, which already met across her nose, thickened in the effort to recall him.
"You’re no more wiser than you was; are you, little one?" said Archie, and walked away.
He had reserved Hunt’s as a last resort, for there, in a saloon which was a meeting place for yeggs, Hunt himself being an old yegg man who had stolen enough to retire on, Archie was sure of a welcome and of a refuge where he could hide from the police for a day, at least, or until he could form some plan for the future.
Hunt was not in, but Archie found King’s wife, Bertha Shanteaux, in the back room. She was a woman of thirty-five, very fleshy, and it seemed that she must crush the low lounge on which she sat, her legs far apart, the calico wrapper she wore for comfort stretching between her knees. She was smoking a cigar, and she breathed heavily with asthma, and, when she welcomed Archie, she spoke in a voice so hoarse and of so deep a bass that she might well have been taken for a man in woman’s attire.
"Why, Dutch!" she said, taking her cigar from her lips in surprise. "When did you get home?"
"Yesterday morning," said Archie. "I landed in with an old con, went up to Dan’s--then I got pinched, and this morning Bostwick gave me the run."
"Huh," said Bertha, beginning to pull at her cigar again.
"Yes, he’s around. Just got in the other day. What you goin’ to do?"
"Oh, I’m waiting to see Curly. I’ve got to get to work and see if I can’t make a dollar or two. I want to frame in with some good tribe."