Boy's Cinema (1930-31)

Everj Tuesday A grill of infinite satisfaction spread over his face. Fully thirty nieii and women were in there, some with glasses in their hands, all capering about the floor and singing and shouting at the top of their voices. Peggy was ruffling Tommy's han-, and the two came swaying towaids hini. "Having a little house-warming?" inquired Watters. "No," said Tommy, "it's just a little extra attraction for the Sunshine Hour." ■'Strikes me you ought ro change it.-; name to the Moonsnine Hour," 4p- inarked Walters. " But Watters had timed his arrival opportunely, for at this moment there came the strident sound of a Klaxon horn, and a police-tender drew up out- side the store with a grinding of brakes. Half a dozen uniformed men and the Chief of Police. The people in the door- way were unceremoniously thrust aside, and the forces of law and order entered the premises. Egbert, who had long since cut off' the microphone, advanced with a serenity he did not feel towards Morton, who snatched a glasa from a man's hand and sniffed at it suspiciously. "How are you, chief?" said Egbert with aflfected cheerfulness. "Glad to bi'c you." "Yeah?" drawled Morton ominously. " You onl3^ think you're glad to see me. What's going on here ?" " Why, what do you mean ?" "I mean this place is padlocked!" was the stern rejoinder. The fat-faced man approached, waving a tumbler in which was a moderate quantity of Pepo Lemon Syrup and soda-water, decorated with two straws. " What have you got there ?" demanded Morton harshly, and seized upon the glass. " Thash lemon soda—and it.sh besh in BOY'S CINEMA the town," declared the fat-faced man thickly. "Hold on to that, Clancy," directed the Chief of Police, handing the glass to one of his subordinates. Peggy pulled Tommy towards her father, and Peggy, whoso eyes wore un- naturally bright and whose hair was a little disordered, prodded her father in the chest. "How-do, Pop?" she giggled. 'How's eveiything?" "I thought so!" said her father grimly. "I'll attend to you later." He gripped Tommy by the shoulder and Egbert by the arm. "I thought you two had criminal faces!" ho barked. An officer who had been prowling behind the bar came importantly for- ward with a glassful of neat syrup. "Chief," he said, "this stuff is just full of booze." "Bo<ize?" gasped Tommy and Egbert in one agonised breath. "Booze!" repeated the officer. Morton swung his right arm in the direction of the door. "Get out of here, all of you!" ho shouted. "Goon! Out!" The policeman rounded up the excited customers and drove them docrwards. Protesting, and in some cases struggling, they were thrust forth to mingle wiUi the crowd on the pavement, and« two officers guarded the door. "Where did you got the stuff you put in that soda?" demanded the chief of police harshly of Tommy and Egbert. "Honest, we didn't put anything in it," protested Tommy. There occurred a diversion at the door. Mrs. Talley. returning from a dressmaker's establishment with a brand new hat on her head and a brand new coat over a brand now troc'K, had squeezed through the crowd in a state of trepidation, only to find hrrself denied entrance by a burly policeman. "But this is mv ilrug-store !" she pro- tested. "I'm Mrs. Talley." The policeman, at a nod from Morton, permitted her to enter, and she ran anxiously to the group by the bar. "Has anything happened, Mr. Morton ?" she asked timidly. "Anything happened?" roared tho chief of police. "Mrs. Talley, you're the owner of this store, aren't you?" "Of course." "Then I arrest you for running a speakeasy I" "If you'll just let me take charge of this situation," urged Egbert, but Tommy, who was standing botwoon his dismayed partner and Peggy, promptly raised his voice indignantly. "Wait a ininute, chief!" he shouted. " You can't take her ! She doesn't know a thing about this. She hasn't even been around here. Were the ones who're running this place, and I want to tell you " "Shut up!" bellowed Morton, and ha pushed him and Egbert back «hilo Sergeant Clancy towered ominously over Mrs. Talley. "She owns this place, and she's got to face the music." "But mother had nothing to do with it," expostulated Egbert. "She doesn't know anything about the booze being there—she didn't put it there." "No?" scoffed Morton. "Then who did?" " Why — er '" — Egbert looked at Tommy, and they both looked at the terrified face of Mrs. Talley—"why, we put it there, didn't we. Tommy?" "Sure we did," agreed Tommy. "We're the ones to blame. 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