{"product_id":"2940013693111","title":"On the Spot","description":"Tony Perelli was not yellow, either by his own code or judged by\u003cbr\u003estandards more exacting. It was yellow, to squeal to futile police, but\u003cbr\u003enot yellow to squeal to one's own crowd, and squeal loudly, about\u003cbr\u003einjustices suffered. It was yellow to betray a pal, but not yellow if the\u003cbr\u003epal had not acted square or if he himself was yellow; even then it was\u003cbr\u003eyellow to tip off the police about his delinquencies. The honourable\u003cbr\u003ething was to take him to some lone place and \"give him the works\".\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHorrified farmers who in the grey of morning found stark things sprawled\u003cbr\u003eon the edge of their lands might grow hysterical about the brutality of\u003cbr\u003eit, but there it was; justice in a sense, the sort of justice that the\u003cbr\u003ewest and the middle west understood and countenanced too frequently.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor instance, \"Red\" Gallway.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRed bad been most things that were wrong and done most things that were\u003cbr\u003eindictable, He had been Peterman (which is a euphemism for\u003cbr\u003esafe--breaker), con man, hold--up man and keeper of questionable\u003cbr\u003eestablishments. He came from this strenuous and not too affluent stew of\u003cbr\u003eprofessions into the business of booze running, which gave him wealth\u003cbr\u003ebeyond his dreams, a comfortable existence, immunity from arrest, and the\u003cbr\u003ecomradeship of square shooters. Success made him big in the head; he\u003cbr\u003ebecame talkative, a little quarrelsome; crowning offence, he began to\u003cbr\u003esniff the white stuff.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAngelo Verona, the sleek chief of staff, expostulated.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Say, Red, I'd cut out that stuff. Tony won't stand for coke in this\u003cbr\u003eoutfit.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRed's ugly face twisted in a sneer. \"Is that so?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAngelo nodded, his grave, brown eyes on the weakling.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Cocaine never did any good to anybody,\" he said. \"Yeh! It makes you feel\u003cbr\u003ebigger than the Wrigley Building for a while, but when the effect passes\u003cbr\u003eyou're just a hole in the ground. And the first time they get a guy down\u003cbr\u003eat Headquarters to quiz him, why, he falls apart.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Is that so?\" said Red offensively.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"That--is--so,\" nodded Angelo.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRed ran around with a friend--Mose Leeson, sometime machinist from Gary.\u003cbr\u003eThe men had mean appetites in common, felt more at home in the squalor\u003cbr\u003eand dinginess of certain poor areas than in the splendour of lakeside\u003cbr\u003erestaurants.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo Leeson was due the credit of a discovery which had an important\u003cbr\u003ebearing upon the life of Tony Perelli.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMose was poor and a sycophant. To him Red was the biggest of Big Shots, a\u003cbr\u003eman in the automobile and silk shirt class. He gave to his more fortunate\u003cbr\u003efriend the reverence of subject to monarch. It was over a drink at the\u003cbr\u003efirm's speakeasy that Mose, gross of mind and body, offered information\u003cbr\u003eand a proposal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRed shook his head.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Chink girls don't mean nothing to me, Mose,\" he said. \"Listen! There's a\u003cbr\u003egirl up town who's nuts about me! Joe Enrico's daughter, but I don't look\u003cbr\u003eat her twice. That's me, Mose.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Sure,\" said Mose.  He looked twice at Minn Lee, and then more. He used\u003cbr\u003eto meet her on the stairs of the shabby apartment house where he had his\u003cbr\u003ehome. She was Chinese and lovely. Small of stature, slim of body, with\u003cbr\u003etiny, white hands that fascinated him. She was lovely, with slanting\u003cbr\u003ebrown eyes and a rosebud of a mouth. Skin--like satin. When you saw it,\u003cbr\u003eyou felt it. Her hair, not the blue--black of the Oriental but a sheeny\u003cbr\u003eblack.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083151556848,"sku":"2940013693111","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013693111_p0.jpg?v=1763597288","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013693111","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}