"Well, mebbe I'll try you. You gotta be on hand t'night at eight
o'clock sharp. It's mebbe an all night job, but you may be through by
midnight."
"What doing?"
"Nothing much. Just lay in the road with your wheel by your side and
act like you had a fall an' was hurt. I wanta stop a man who's in a
hurry, see?"
Billy regarded him coolly.
"Any shooting?"
"Oh, no!" said the other, "Just a little evening up of cash. You see
that man's got some money that oughtta be mine by good rights, and I
wantta get it."
"I see!" said Billy nonchalantly, "An' whatcha gonta do if he
don't come across?"
The man gave him a scared look.
"Oh, nothin' sinful son; just give him a rest fer a few days where he
won't see his friends, until he gets ready to see it the way I do."
"H'm!" said Billy narrowing his gray eyes to two slits. "An' how much
did ya say ya paid down?"
The man looked up angrily.
"I don't say I pay nothing down. If you do the work right you get the
cash t'night, a round twenty-five, and it's twenty bucks more'n you
deserve. Why off in this deserted place you ought ta be glad to get
twenty-five cents fer doin' nothin' but lay in the road."
The boy with one foot on the pedal mounted sideways and slid along the
platform slowly, indifferently.
"Guess I gotta date t'night," he called over his shoulder as he swung
the other leg over the cross bar.
The heavy man made a dive after him and caught him by the arm.
"Look here, Kid, I ain't in no mood to be toyed with," he said gruffly,
"You said you wanted a job an' I'm being square with you. Just to show
I'm being square here's five down."
Billy looked at the ragged green bill with a slight lift of his
shoulders.
"Make it ten down and it's a go," he said at last with a take-it-or-
leave-it air. "I hadn't oughtta let you off'n less'n half, such a shady
job as this looks, but make it a ten an' I'll close with ya. If ya
don't like it ask the station agent to help ya. I guess he wouldn't
object. He's right here handy, too. I live off quite a piece."
But the man had pulled out another five and was crowding the bills upon
him. He had seen a light in that boy's eye that was dangerous. What was
five in a case of a million anyway?