"That's right good," I said. "What does it mean?"
"It—oh, skip it. I forgot I was in the sticks. Let me get the boss out here to meet you."
He rapped on the door, and it slid open about an inch and a feller's eye looked out at us. "Yeah?" he said.
"Want some coffee in there?" Blackie said. "Little Red Riding Hood just came calling with a basketful of goodies."
"What the hell you talking about?" the feller said. "I don't know any hoods named Red. Who's that clown with you?"
"This is our next-door neighbor. He brought the coffee just to be friendly. Come on out and meet him."
The door slid open all the way and a short fat feller come out. He had on shorts and a sport shirt, and except for being bald he had so much black hair all over him that you might think he was a hair mattress coming apart at the seams. "Hello," he said. "I'm Nick Poulos. You're from that woodpile next to us, huh? Look, is it right what they told us in Gulf City, that this is a kind of no man's land? What I mean is, nobody owns it? No cops come around?"
Back in the other room a bunch of fellers was standing around a thing that looked like a little pool table without no pockets. One of them called, "Hey, Nick, hurry up and take the dice and make that point. We don't have all night."
"What the hell," Nick said. "We do have all night." Then he said to me, "Well, what about the cops?"
I said, "Back last spring the highway patrol come around once, but that was before they found this warn't state land. Miss Claypoole who is County Welfare Supervisor says it is all mixed up and not county land neither."
"Nick!" a feller called from the next room.
"Aah, screw," Nick said. "Blackie, get the full story from him, will you? And fix him up with a few bills. I'll get on with the game." He went back into the room and shut the door.
"He didn't take no coffee," I said.
"They don't want coffee," Blackie said. "They're on Scotch. Let's us two have a cup, hull? I don't go for the hard stuff when I'm keeping an eye on things. Well, Toby, you just met quite a guy. Little Nick Poulos. Only don't call him Little Nick to his face."
"I reckon what I would call him would be Mr. Poulos."
"Nobody calls him that. Just call him Nick to his face. Everybody knows him as Little Nick but he don't like that. What he would like is to be called Big Nick. But a guy can't just ask for that. He's got to earn it. Little Nick may work up to it some day. Well, pour us some coffee and let's hear about the setup here."
We set around real neighborly drinking coffee, and I told him all about how we come to settle down at the bridge and how the government turned agin us.
When I ended, Blackie said softly, "What a gold mine! Toby, you don't realize what you got here. Me and Nick and the boys might stick around a while. I guess you wouldn't mind that, if we took care of you, hull?"
"Well," I said, "Pop and Holly and the Jenkinses and Browns and me would be right glad to take care of you folks too, on account of that is what neighbors is for."
"Sure, we'll all work together. You see, Toby, the government sort of turned against us, too. What I mean is, the heat's on. We had a nice little operation on the East Coast, but things heated up and the cops started pulling those for-the-record raids. But Little Nick won't hold still for raids, even when they're just for the record. And we had some big clients coming in for a game so we headed over here to get a little peace and quiet. We were gonna set up the game in Gulf City, but the boys there are a small-time bunch and don't have the cops fixed good, at least not for big stuff, and they said we ought to come out to this bridge where nobody would bother us. What sort of racket do you run out here, Toby? Bolita, maybe?"
"That there is a new name to me."
"It's the Cuban way of playing the numbers."
"I am not so good at numbers," I said. "Only up to five times eight."
"Little moonshining, maybe?"
"Is that like jack-lighting a deer when you hope the game warden don't see you?"
"Nah. What I mean is, what do you do out here to get up the scratch? You know, to make a living."
"What we mostly do is sell bait and rent boats to fellers that want to fish."
"Toby, it looks like nobody's given you the word. What I mean is, you're not in the groove. Of course, maybe that's just the kind of front we need if we're gonna run some games here."
"There is nothing I like better than a good game. What kinds do you fellers play? Football?"
"Little Nick might run a book on a big football game if he likes the look of it. But mostly it's roulette or poker or blackjack or craps. For real action give me craps, the way they're playing it in there."
"A funny thing about craps," I said. "The fellers in my outfit at Fort Dix was always opening up a blanket on the floor and playing craps, and there is always a feller in the game called Little Joe but you can't never see him. When I first come in here I heard the fellers in the next room talking to Little Joe and I should have knowed it was craps."
Blackie looked at me kind of queer, and said, "Little Joe is a number on the dice. Four. I guess you didn't get in those games at Fort Dix, did you?"
"Oh no. Them fellers was gambling and I warn't sure gambling was right."
"Well, well. Tell me, Toby, when you asked if we played football, what did you mean?"
"I used to play football right good at school," I said. "I passed and run with the ball and done some tackling when the other fellers had the ball."
"I see. Well, it's going to be interesting, setting up in business here. I guess all we have to do to take care of you is bring you a box of candy now and then. Thanks for dropping in, Toby. And thanks for the coffee. I'll see you tomorrow sometime."
I said I would see him too, and left the trailer and started walking by the station wagon. Al and Carmine was setting in the front seat, and I stopped by to make sure we was friends. "Hello, fellers," I said. "Blackie and me didn't finish up all the coffee so there is some for you fellers if you would like."
Al said to Carmine, "Is he kidding?"
Carmine said, "I wouldn't think he had the nerve."
"It is not real hot like it was," I said, "but some folks like it warm."
Al said, "I wouldn't have thought even a punk could be so dumb, but maybe I haven't met enough punks."
Carmine said to me, "Why don't you run along while you still have all the luck in the world?"
"It's funny you seeing that," I said, "because I am lucky and things has always gone right for me."
Al said to Carmine, "How long can you take this?"
Carmine said, "As long as Blackie says let him alone. But maybe we could show him how lucky he is." He got something from his pocket and put it on his right hand and reached across Al. "Ever see one of these, punk?" he asked me.
I looked at the knobby metal thing he had put on his right hand, and said, "This here is the biggest set of rings I ever seen."
"They're called brass knuckles," Carmine said.
Al brought something out of his pocket and held it out and said, "And this is how lucky you are with me. This is called a blackjack."
"Some day," I said, "maybe you fellers would show me what they are for."
Carmine said, "Any day Blackie gives the word."
Al said, "See if you like the feel of this blackjack."
I put down the pot of coffee and the carton, and took the blackjack he was holding. It had a leather handle and warn't more than about seven inches long and was a lot heavier than you would think. I give it a little wave. The end of the blackjack was springy instead of stiff like I thought it would be, and I am sorry to say that Al's fingers was resting on the car door right under where I waved that blackjack. So it flipped down and hit his fingers and Al let out a bigger howl than when he grabbed the hot coffee pot.
He yanked the blackjack off me with his other hand, and yelled, "That does it! I don't care if Blackie—" Then he stopped and turned to Carmine, who was letting out a big laugh. "You think it's funny?" Al
cried.
"Yeah I think it's funny," Carmine said. "First the hot coffee and then the blackjack! Yah-hah-hah-hah-hah!"
Al flipped the blackjack at Carmine's head, and Carmine let out a howl and hit Al with his hand that was wearing the brass knuckles. In a second they was all tangled up in the car, showing me what brass knuckles and a blackjack are for, and they are things you want to stay out of the way of. Blackie come running out of the trailer and got them apart finally, which warn't too hard because they was both a little dizzy by then. I told him what had happened and asked if I could help patch them up.
"Run along," Blackie said. "Just run along. A little more help from you and I'll be fresh out of strongarm guys."
So I done what he said, because I could see that when you have strongarm guys you don't want folks coming along and getting them all wore out.
For the next week we didn't see much of them new neighbors. During the day we stayed busy with the bait and boat business, and with helping the Browns to get their place finished across the road from us, and anyways Blackie and Little Nick was usually sleeping in the trailer during the day. At night they was up, but then they would have visitors, and I didn't want to go around and bother Al and Carmine.
After about a week, though, Blackie got up early enough one day to come around and see us in the afternoon. After I met him up with Pop and Holly, he said, "Little Nick and I have been testing this place out, and it really is everything a guy could want. So we kinda think we might stay. I don't suppose you'd have any objection?"
"It's free land," Pop said grumpily.
"Yeah, I know all about that," Blackie said. "Nick and I had a lawyer check into it. But in a way, you people have first rights here, even if nobody knows how they would stand up in court. So we want to make sure it's all right with you."
Pop said, "You folks come in here without a by your leave, but I didn't say nothing. Well, I still ain't saying nothing, so you do what you want."
"All right," Blackie said. "We'll try not to get in your hair. Now I got a little paper here that you might sign, saying you have nothing against us moving in next to you. All you have to do is write your name and you're in a hundred bucks."
Pop said, "You folks do what you want about staying here, but I ain't fixing to sign no paper."
"All right," Blackie said. "We'll just leave it lay, then. What we're gonna do is build a little place next door. The trailer gets cramped. So don't be startled when you see a few workmen showing up tomorrow."
What with Blackie warning us, it wouldn't have startled us none if a few workmen had showed up the next day. But it warn't just a few. First there was trucks coming with loads of pilings and lumber. Then a bulldozer. Then a big machine that dug out a core of shell and sand, and picked up a piling and rammed it down in the hole. Then a crew of carpenters to put up the framing for a place on the pilings. Then out in the pass a dredge come in, to dig a channel into Little Nick's and Blackie's place. Then come a barge with a pile driver on it, to put in pilings for a dock. In three-four days we hardly knowed the place.
Pop done a lot of grumbling about all that. One of the things that got him riled was about his fence. He had built that little fence of cajeput branches along the front and sides of our place, and the first day the bulldozer was working, the feller running it must have lost track of where he was, and knocked down the fence between our place and theirs. Blackie come around to say how sorry he was, and for us not to worry on account of he would see we got an even better fence. Well, in a way, he done that. But it warn't a cajeput fence. It was one of them heavy wire fences like they put around factories. It run between us and them, and then across the front of their place and down the other side right to the water. So it really ended up more their fence than ours. And when you took a good look, you seen they had moved ten feet closer to us in putting up the fence. I started telling Blackie how they come onto our land with the fence, but it begun to make him feel bad from getting the idea we didn't like our new fence, so I didn't push it with him.
That day I was talking with him, nobody was working on his place on account of one of them middle of September storms was coming in off the Gulf. So after we finished talking about the fence and I got him cheered up by saying we liked it pretty good, he took me into the trailer and showed me the plans of their new place. It was going to be one story, with an office and kitchen and place to sleep, and a bar and a big room to play games in.
"We're not putting a lot of dough in the place this season," Blackie said. "We'll see how it works out first. If we make out right with the winter visitors we might put up a really good place next year, with a restaurant and night club on pilings out over the water, and a marina for yachts."
"Them games you're going to have," I said. "Are you fellers fixing to have bets and all?"
"Sure. People like to have a little flutter with their dough."
"But Blackie, that's gambling, and there is laws agin it."
"Don't worry. This isn't state land, is it?"
"Well, no, but—"
"If it isn't state land, the state laws don't apply. And you admit it isn't county land either, don't you?"
"Well, yes, but—"
"Then the county laws don't apply. So that makes it all right to have a little friendly gambling, don't it?"
"I got to hand it to you for working it out real smart," I said. "So I reckon gambling here will be all right and I won't say nothing more about it."
"I thought you'd see it our way."
"There is just one thing, Blackie. Around the end of October, we will have been here six months with a building up on our land, and then we can file a claim. So maybe that will make this county land, and them county laws will take hold."
Blackie give a jump, and said, "What's that again?"
"When we first come here," I said, "the government was trying to run us off, and Pop whomped up a law that said they couldn't on account of it warn't state land and we had settled on it. It turned out Pop was right, even if he did give that law a date of eighteen-o-two ruther than eighteen-twenty. What that law says is you got to keep a building up on unclaimed land and live on it for six months and then you can file for a title. If you live on it eighteen more months, you can get your title. The only thing is you got to five on that land all the time and keep a building up on it right through. Back the end of last April Pop put in a paper to the County Courthouse that said we was living on this unclaimed land and had a building up and was starting our six months. So around the end of next month, Pop will file our claim."
"Wow!" Blackie said. "I got to get Little Nick to hear this." He went into the bedroom of the trailer and woke up Little Nick, and he got dressed and come out, and
Blackie had me go over the whole thing again. "Puts a new light on things, don't it, Nick?" Blackie said.
"This is the sweetest setup a guy ever run into," Little Nick said, "and nobody is gonna mess it up. Let's go over and see the kid's old man right now."
Blackie said, "Got any rough stuff in mind?"
"We do it nice if we can," Little Nick said.
Outside the trailer there warn't any rain yet but the wind was blowing pretty good, and Pop was across the way to the Browns, making sure their new shack would hold out the rain. He didn't want to leave, but Little Nick and Blackie coaxed him to come back to our place for a talk, and finally Pop done that.
After we set down in our place, Little Nick said to Pop, "Your kid here says you're gonna put in a claim for this land, the end of next month."
"That's the way of it," Pop said.
"You're making a big mistake," Little Nick said. "That's likely to bring this land under county control. Well have cops and everything."
"I got nothing agin cops," Pop said.
"I got nothing against them either," Little Nick said. "Some of my best pals are cops. But sometimes cops don't want to be pals, and they get in your hair. So don't let's ask for trouble. Don't go putting in any claim."
"It's
right nice of you to warn us," Pop said. "But I reckon we'll be putting in a claim anyways. That letter I swore to and left at the County Courthouse says this here is going to be Toby's land, and I want him to have a place he can call his own. He can't hardly call it his own if he don't have a regular claim on it."
Little Nick reached into his pocket and brung out a big wad of money and started to count off bills. "I like to do things nice if I can," he said. "There's two thousand bucks. Blackie and me want to buy your place."
Pop said, "We already got two thousand dollars in this place, that Toby borrowed off the bank, not counting our work."
Little Nick counted off some more bills. "I'll make it five grand," he said.
Blackie said, "That's five thousand dollars. It's a good price."
"I like it here," Pop said. "I'm not fixing to sell."
Blackie said, "I thought you said you were gonna claim the place for Toby. Maybe you ought to give him a say."
"Oh, I'm with Pop," I said.
"What I'm willing to do," Little Nick said, "is buy the place for five thousand bucks and then rent it back to you for, say, ten bucks a month. That way you stay here, and get the dough too."
"But then it wouldn't be ours," Pop said. "I ain't going to change my mind so there's no use talking, and I got to get back and help the Browns."
Pop went across the road again, and Little Nick picked up his money and stared at it like it had let him down. "Well," he said, "I gave it a try."
Blackie said, "I told you that fence business would get his back up. Well, what now?"
Little Nick got up and tromped around our shack for a while, sort of testing the floor and studying the walls. "This isn't built very good," he said. "It's got a sway in it. Maybe you people would be smart to sell the joint while you can. If anything happened that it fell down, you couldn't claim the land at the end of next month, because your building wouldn't have been up for the whole six months."
"Oh, it's been standing pretty good," I said. "And on top of that, we got it tied in with the rest room with our walk-way, and the rest room is up real solid on bigger pilings than we got here under the shack."
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