The Studs Lonigan Trilogy - James T. Farrell [39]
“Yeah!”
“Speak of the devil and he’s sure to appear,” said Tubby.
“Yeh, Rastus!” said Bill.
They spied Hennessey and Haggerty dragging themselves along Indiana toward them. They came closer. Both were chewing tobacco, expectorating the juice like dyed-in-the-wool hard guys. Three-Star’s face was smeary, framing his innocent blue eyes; he had a cherubic dimpled chin. He wore an old, dirty blue shirt and filthy khaki pants that were falling down. He had holes in his stockings, and no garters.
“Hello, Falling Socks!” said Studs.
“Hey, Hennessey, don’t you believe in baths?” asked Johnny O’Brien.
“Hello, Nuts and Bolts!” said Bill.
Three-Star thumbed his nose at them.
“Hey, Punk!” said Bill.
Hennessey won forgiveness by passing out wads of Tip-Top for the older guys to chew.
They goofed Three-Star about the elevated incident, but he only laughed and gave them the low-down on it; he was quite proud of the way he had given Johnny Law the slip. He told some dirty jokes he had just collected. Then he looked at Danny O’Neill, who was his own size, and said he’d like to start mooning punks. He said he was fed up on the dago chickens around State Street anyway. The guys all thought that was a new word. Studs tried to talk Hennessey into going down in O’Brien’s basement and doing his stuff, but Hennessey wouldn’t. They hung around and gassed. They got to shouting and talking loud. Studs tried to promote a fight between Danny and Hennessey, and got them to tip-tapping with open hands. George, the cranky janitor, came out and told them to make less noise. After he turned his back, Hennessey made faces at him and the guys laughed. George turned around and caught Three-Star. He came back, and told Hennessey that if he caught him on the premises again, he’d break his dirty neck. When George had gone, they all talked of what a crab he was. Then the older guys got Hennessey and O’Neill tipper-tapping again. Studs got in back of Danny, and Bill stood behind Hennessey. They shoved simultaneously. The two punks batted their domes together and got sore. They started fighting. Hennessey lowered his head, and rushed, swinging wildly. Danny stood off and met each rush with a stiff left uppercut. He was cleaning on Three-Star for fair, much to the delight of the gang. They all yelled too loudly. George appeared on the roof and doused a pail of water on them; everybody but Studs and Johnny O’Brien got wet. They stood there, cursing up at George. He stood on the roof and laughed down at them. Then he got sore again and yelled for them to beat it while the beating was good. They knew George, so they straggled away. They went back in the alley, and the fight was resumed. Danny cut Hennessey up some more. Three-Star quit. He went off bawling that he’d get O’Neill alone some day. When he was a good distance away, he swore at them. They didn’t shag him, because he was too hard to catch.
The next day, when they came around Indiana, they found themselves all roundly cursed in chalked markings that extended the whole length of the block. And they met George with a policeman. They were shown the mail boxes in George’s two buildings on the corner. Every one of them had been smashed with a hammer or a hatchet. They all got leery, but they had alibis, and the cop only took their names and went around to their homes to find out what time they had come in.
They knew who did it, but they didn’t want to be snitchers. They went back to Johnny’s yard and noticed that two side windows of the basement had been broken. They armed themselves with clubs and sticks and marched forth like an army going to war. But Hennessey was nowhere to be found.
II
When the guys were out looking for Hennessey, Johnny O’Brien told Studs to come along with him, so they ditched the gang. They returned to Indiana, and met old man O’Brien. He took them with him in his Chalmers. He was a husky, grayish man, starting to get a goodly paunch. They went first to the O’Brien coal yards at Sixty-second and Wabash, and then they toured the south side while O’Brien checked up on coal deliveries.