THE CRYSTAL CITY читать онлайн

his pocket first, so he's got no more than three dollars left on him for her to rob."Alvin and Arthur both laughed at that."Is that your knack?" asked Arthur Stuart. "Pickin' pockets?""No sir," said Lincoln. "It don't take no knack to rob Coz. He wouldn't notice if you picked his nose. Not if there was a girl making big-eyes at him.""But the girl would notice," said Alvin."Mebbe, but she didn't say nothing.""And since she was planning on getting what was in that wallet herself," said Alvin, "seeing as how you two already sold your whole cargo and she no doubt saw you get the money and divvy it up, don't you think she would have said something?""So I reckon she didn't see me.""Or she did but didn't care."Abe thought about that for a second. "I reckon what you're saying is I oughta look inside this-here wallet.""You could do that," said Alvin.Abe opened it up. "I'm jiggered," he said. Of course it was empty."You're jug-eared, too," said Alvin, "but your real friends would never point that out.""So she already got him.""Oh, I don't suppose she ever laid a hand on him," said Alvin. "But a girl like that, she probably doesn't work alone. She makes big-eyes...""And her partner goes for the pockets," said Arthur Stuart."You sound experienced," said Abe."We watch for it," said Arthur Stuart. "We both kind of like to catch 'em at it, iffen we can.""So why didn't you catch them robbin' Coz?""We didn't know you needed lookin' after," said Arthur Stuart.Abe looked at him with calculated indignation. "Next time you go to beatin' this boy, Al Smith, would you be so kind as to lay down one extra wallop on my behalf?""Get your own half-black adopted brother-in-law to beat," said Alvin."Besides," said Arthur Stuart, "you do need lookin'