Page:Love Insurance - Earl Biggers (1914).djvu/195

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
170
LOVE INSURANCE

"Shut up," growled the thin one. "Save your breath till we stand hat in hand in the office of the local newspaper. A job! Two jobs! Good lord, there aren't two newspaper jobs in the entire South. Well—we can only be kicked out into the night again. And perhaps staked to a meal, in the name of the guild in which we have served so long and liquidly."

"Some day," said the short man dreamily, "when I am back in the haunts of civilization again, I am going to start something. A Society for Melting the Stone Hearts of Editors. Motto: 'Have a heart—have a heart!' Emblem, a roast beef sandwich rampant, on a cloth of linen. Ah, well—the day will come."

They halted in the plaza. In the round stone tub provided, the town alligator dozed. Above him hung a warning sign:

"Do not feed or otherwise annoy the alligator."

The short man read, and drew back with a tragic groan.

"Feed or otherwise annoy!" he cried. "Heavens, Harry, is that the way they look at