If he did not have the price, he held up two
fingers as he went out and Eiley made another
entry in the dog-eared memorandum book which
he called his slate.
[123]



TAKING THE COUNT



T-bone's place was headquarters for fighters,
pool sharks, racetrack touts, tinhorn gamblers
and pinfeather clerks with sporting tendencies.
Sometimes a rank outsider dropped in, but not
often ; for Riley had a way of discouraging the
sort of trade he did not want. We will let the
Dis-and-Dat Kid, the king of the pork-aud-
bean brigade, describe an instance :

"I'm in Eiley's — see? — chuckin' a feed into
meself. In comes a Clarence boy an' sets down
beside me. He tipped his mitt de minute he took
off his dicer. T-bone himself is behin' de counter
because one of de regular :vv^aiters is out on a
toot. T-bone gives dis Clarence party a setup
an' asks him what will he have.
" 'Name it, cully!' says T-bone.
" 'Who do you t'ink you're talking to?' says
Clarence, some peeved. 'Don't be so fresh!'

"Den he orders a steak, medium, hashed
brown, an' Java. Eight away he begins to
holler. He hollers about de paper napkins an'
he hollers about some egg on his fork.
" 'Dat's all right, cully,' says T-bone. 'We
don't charge you for dat. We t'row in de egg
wit' de steak — see?'

"Pretty soon de bread don't suit Clarence.
He wants French bread, an' he wants it split
open an' toasted. An' he don't t'ink de butter
is on de level. T-bone is good an' sore by dis
time.
