The Firebug

by Roy J. Snell

  CHAPTER XXII A STARTLING DISCOVERY

  As for Johnny and Mazie, they had visited the park many times before. Theamusements were an old story, but the crowd was not. No crowd is evertiresome to a person who has a keen mind and a true interest in the studyof his fellowman.

  For these two it was enough to watch the actions of these people--of thiscrowd in their disguises. Many of them were dressed in ridiculouscostumes and nearly all were masked. Thus, with their true natures forthe time apparently hidden by a mask, each person gave himself over tothe seeking of pleasure in the way most natural to him. Many were trulymerry; some merely sordid, and a few were brutal in their manner ofextracting pleasure from those about them.

  As they drifted in and out among the throngs, Johnny and Mazie werefinally caught in a narrow place and forced along against their will.

  When, at last, the throng broadened and separated, they found themselvesbefore another table of chance. This time, instead of the spindle wheelthere was a board. In the lower end of this board, which was perhaps twofeet wide by four long, there were eight holes. Beside each of theseholes were numbers. At the top of the board were four balls. The ballsrested upon a narrow board. To play, one has but to tip the narrow boardand allow the balls to roll to the bottom, where they settle themselvesin holes. One then adds up the numbers before the balls and consults atable of numbers before him. This table is composed of red and blacknumbers. If the sum reached by adding up chances to correspond to a rednumber, the player wins a watch, a camera, a silver cream pitcher or anyother article he may choose.

  "Looks easy enough," smiled Johnny as he watched the operator roll theballs. "Too easy. There's a trick somewhere."

  Now Johnny got a lot of fun out of discovering tricks. "Mind if we watchhim a little while?" he asked.

  "Not a bit," answered Mazie, putting a hand on his shoulder as the crowdpressed about them. The man in the booth, a tall, broad shouldered man,gave them a quick look. Johnny blinked under that look.

  "But after all," he told himself, "we're masked. If he has seen us beforehe'll not recognize us now."

  He looked at the man and started. There was something vaguely familiarabout him. Yet he, too, was heavily masked. There was little chance oftelling who he might be.

  For fifteen minutes Johnny studied the game. Men played, women played andboys as well. There were plenty of red numbers; but only once in all thattime, while the operator hauled in the money, did red turn up. Yet, whenfor a moment the business lulled, the man behind the table could make redcome up easily enough.

  "It's strange," said Johnny, scratching his head. "It seems so absurdlysimple. One would say it couldn't be doctored at all, and yet it is. Ahwell, what's the use? Let's go on."

  He was turning to go when a long arm reached out from behind the boardand touched his shoulder. It was the operator. There was greed shiningfrom the small black eyes that peeped evilly through the holes in themask.

  "See, mister," the man was saying, "I give you a roll. It don't cost younoding. I don't gives you noding. See! It is free."

  "No, I don't want a roll," said Johnny, starting away again.

  "Dot's fair enough, mister," replied the man.

  This last remark went through the boy like an electric shock. Thosewords, that accent, the whole thing--where had he heard it before? Striveas he might, rake down the walls of his memory as he did, he could notrecall. And yet something within told him that he should recall, thathere was a key to something important; something tremendously big.

  "No," he whispered to himself, "I can't recall it now, but I can stickaround. It may come to me all of a flash."

  "All right," he thought to himself, "if I have to, I'll play."

  Fortune favored him. He was not obliged to play, but could watch.

  "Set 'em up!" said a stranger, producing a shiny quarter.

  "Count 'em," he said a moment later as the last ball dropped into itshole.

  "Four, nine, sexteen, zwenty-zree. Dot's black. Try again. Anoder timesyou are lucky."

  The man did try again, again and yet again, and always he lost.

  And then, like a flash, the trick of the game came to Johnny. If theballs were carefully placed in certain definite positions on the narrowboard, they would always escape falling into holes marked 7 and 11. Thesenumbers were needed if the result was to be a red number.

  As if by accident, he brushed the board with his elbow. This moved a ballslightly to the right.

  The result was another black number. But by a sudden movement theoperator showed that he was startled.

  The stranger fed in two more quarters before Johnny tried the trickagain.

  This time the operator looked at him and uttered an audible snarl beforehe began to count. He knew he was beaten.

  "Three, nine, fifteen, zwenty-zoo. Dot's red," he muttered.

  And at the sound of that low mutter Johnny remembered.

  So struck was he at this revelation, that he could barely repress anaudible exclamation. The stranger chose a small pocket camera, and thegame went on.

  From this time on the question of whether the stranger won or lost didnot count. Johnny was trying to think; to plan a course of action. Heknew now where he had heard that man's voice before--at the fire in whichMazie barely missed losing her life.

  As he looked at the man he knew he could not be mistaken. The hooked nosewas covered by the mask, but the stoop was there and the voice was thesame. If he needed further proof it was not long in coming. As the manstepped back to take down the small camera, Johnny noticed that he walkedwith a decided limp.

  "He's the man," Johnny thought to himself. "He's the man who burned theschool houses, the welfare center and the zoo, who attempted to kill me,and did kill poor old Ben Zook!" As he thought of Ben Zook he found itdifficult to hold himself in hand. He wanted to leap across the board andthrottle the man where he stood.

  "No! No!" he told himself. "I must not. I must be calm. I must remainhere. I must watch the play until I have thought what next to do. Onething sure, I must not bungle my chances now. Too much hinges on doingthe right thing."