Everybody was looking at us. He said softly, "You see what it's like? I
don't want to hear all this stuff! You think the counterman's got a bad
mind, you ought to listen in on Henry's." He looked along the stools.
"See that fat little woman down at the end? She's going to order
another cheese Danish."
He hadn't even finished talking when the woman was calling the
counterman, and she got another cheese Danish. I thought it over. What
he said about Henry holding out on me made it real serious. I had to
have more proof.
But I didn't like Skippy's idea of proof. He offered to call off what
everybody in the beanery was going to do next, barring three or four he
said were silent, like me. That wasn't good enough. "Come along with
me," I told him, and we took off for Jake's spot.
That's a twenty-four-hour place and the doorman knows me. I knew Jake
and I knew his roulette wheel was gaffed. I walked right up to the
wheel, and whispered to the kid, "Can you read the dealer?" He smiled
and nodded. "All right. Call black or red."
The wheel spun, but that didn't stop the betting. Jake's hungry. In
his place you can still bet for a few seconds after the wheel starts
turning.
"Black," Skippy said.