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Newspaper Page Text
THE DIPPER HELPS A FRIEND, AND ENCOUNTERS AN ATHLETIC YOUNG WOMAN LACKING IN MERCYfj I came on The Dipper in the rear of a little salon on the South Side. He was plunged in gloom, but at sight? of me he cheered up vis ably. "Mine'll be whisky," he said promptly. "Straight whisky, an' lots of it." I pressed the button because there happened to be something I particularly wished The Dipper to do for me. "Dipper," I said, about the time that gentleman was wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his coat, "I want you to do me a little favor." The Dipper suddenly became galvanized into life. "Nix!" he said vehemently. "Ab-so-lute-ly nix! This isn't my day of' the week for doing favors." I was grieved. I had supplied The Dipper with cigarettes when he was in jail. I had bought him countless drinks. He even had used my home as a refuge from the police. I felt that I was not being treated right. "Do you mean to say you are going to refuse?" I demanded. "I do," said The Dipper with intense conviction. "And that's flat and final. The last time one of you writer guys asked me to do him a favor, I got it where the baby wears the beads, so hard I haven't got over it yet. Nix on the favor business." "But this will only take you ten minutes, and " "I know an' it's as easy as fallin' off a log. That's what the ' other fellow said." ' "What happened to you the'' last time, anyhow?" I asked. " "A woman," said The Dipper in tones of deep disgust. "A t young woman, with an athletic r training and lacking the quality , of mercy." I rang the bell again, and when the glasses had been duly replen ished, signified that I should like to hear about it. I knew of many weird scrapes -The Dipper had contrived to get into, what between the Demon Rum on the one hand the police on the other but a Voman, and i a young one. It sounded inter- . esting. "Well," explained The Dipper, "this writer gink, whose name is ' now crossed off my visitin' list, ' was afflicted with ideas same as you. They usecl to take him so bad at times that they hurt. "One night he comes to me as soft an' silky like as the mother-in-law of an imported duke, and explains that he wants me tq do him a little favor. "Me bein' then as innocent as a -newborn babe of the kind of fa vors you guys deal in, I says 'yes' ) spontaneous an' agreeable. "It seems as how Bennett that's the writer person's name' has a lady friend that's actin' ' kind of skittish. He's nuts about . her, and has been diggin' through'; his gray matter for some way to put the Indian Sign on, her goad. :.