Books › Blue Book v085 n06 [1947-10], 1947 › scan 73
Scan 73
Blue Book v085 n06 [1947-10], 1947
86 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1about midnight." Harry was the night cop.
3"You're only entitled to three thirty-cent meals a day," I said, but I knew the night cop bought her the stuff out of his own pocket.
5"I'll have the first one now," she said, laying down her fiddle. She looked up at me and smiled. "Make it bacon and eggs and rolls and coffee."
7I WENT over to Joe's across the street. All he had for thirty cents was a bowl of oatmeal, toast and coffee. So I figured what the heck, it wouldn't hurt me to put a quarter with it and get her the eggs.
9The Queen says: "You know, Ape, you're a nice guy. What are you doing as a cop in a little hick town like this?"
11I said: "There's lots worse things than being a cop."
13I thought she sniffed a little. "You could do better. Maybe in the show business."
15"Show business!" I snorted. I slammed the cell door and went upstairs. Show business! I was doing all right. Being chief of police was a good job.
17I was still mad when I sat down to type a notice. It was aimed at the rest of the police force, which was only the night cop:
19TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
20It is forbidden for any police officer on this force to fraternize with any prisoner in this city jail.
21Alonzo Buchanan Ebe, Chief.
23But it looked silly, so I tore it up.
25The Queen had finished her breakfast by this time. I could hear her down in the cell playing "The Prisoner's Song" again. It would have been all right if she'd played the blamed thing once. But she played it again.
27Then she wound it up on a melancholy note and started all over again. She played it again. Then she played it again and again. Then she played it a dozen times more.
29About ten o'clock the Judge came down and opened up his office. I went out to make the rounds of town and came back along about eleven. The Queen was still at it, still playing "The Prisoner's Song."
31The Judge stuck his head out the door and says:
33"For Pete's sake, can't you make her stop that racket?"
35"Listen, Miss," I told the Queen, "the Judge doesn't like that music. You'd better stop."
37She took the violin down from her chin and twisted one of the keys just a little tiny bit.
39"You can tell Grandpa," she said, "that I'll stop when he lets me out of here!" She must have put one of the strings out of tune, because when she started to play again that music sort of hurt your wishbone.
41I told the Judge what she said, leaving out the "Grandpa."
43"Well, take the damn' thing away from her!" he yelled. "Do you think I'm going to listen to that for twenty days?"
45I wanted to tell him to go take it away himself. I remembered my sock in the eye. But I told the Dagger Queen the Judge said I would have to take the fiddle away if she didn't quit playing. She stopped with her arm out at the end of a stroke. Her eyes flashed as she said:
47"Who's in charge of prisoners in this jail?"
49I said I was, because I was the chief of police.
51"Then who does that judge think he is, telling you what your prisoners can do?"
53I tried to explain that I liked to get along with the Judge, which was kind of hard to do sometimes, and my relations with him weren't going to be any better if I let her keep the fiddle. The Dagger Queen looked at me like she was sorry for me, but she lifted up her bow and started on the same old tune.
55"Well, take the damn' thing away from her!" the judge yelled. "Do you think I'm going to listen to that for twenty days?"
57I could see the only way to handle the Dagger Queen was to be firm. I said: "Miss, give me that fiddle! Right now!"
59The Dagger Queen looked a little surprised. She stopped playing and opened her eyes until they were real wide, and the tears began to come. I took the violin out of her hands and shut the cell door behind me. I felt like a low-down sort of a heel, but I had to do something.
61At first the Dagger Queen sobbed low and sad, and for a minute I felt like taking the fiddle back to her. Then she commenced to cry so you could hear it in the station. In a minute she really let go, and it was ten times worse than "The Prisoner's Song." I knew everybody passing on the street could hear the sobs coming up through the sidewalk grating. I didn't like that. It gives the police department a bad name for the public to hear women crying in jail.
63The Judge stood the crying for about two hours and a half. Then a traffic case came up for hearing. The racket was so bad he had to discontinue the case until the next day. He said I'd better give the dame back her fiddle.
65I could see with half an eye that the Dagger Queen wasn't going to be with us long if this kept up. I thought that might be just as well, considering the ideas she was getting about me quitting my job.
67The Judge locked up his office a little early that afternoon. He just glared at me when he came by. I think he blamed me for the whole thing, but it wasn't me that gave her twenty days.
69As soon as the Judge left, the Dagger Queen quit fiddling. I went out early and got her supper instead of waiting for the night cop to do it.
71THE Dagger Queen pushed some peas around her plate with a fork and looked up at me.
73"You know, Ape," she says, "I been thinking about you. And I'm sorry I hit you in the eye."
75I said that was all right. It wasn't the first time I been hit in the eye.
77The Queen shoved her plate aside and put her elbows on the steel table. For the first time she looked at me like I was a human being instead of a moron.
79"Have you thought any more," she says, "about joining the carnival?"
81I said: "You're crazy. You got to be a freak or something to join a carnival."
83"Do I look like a freak?" she inquired. I didn't think that needed an answer, so I didn't say anything.
85"You know," she went on, "I could find a place for you." She reached out and put her hand on my sleeve. "A big dumb cop that's a wrestler—
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