Text Box: Well, a gang were throwing a party in a nightclub down the line And the kid that handled the music box was playing it up at nine At one of the tables all dolled up, in an evening gown of blue The beads of gin on her ancient chin, sat a lady known as Lou. Then out of the night and into the glare, and down through the middle of the aisle There walked a guy with a steely eye and a sort of a steely smile Well this first quick glance we caught of his pants, it was fully two yards wide. And around his chest he wore a colored vest that would make a rainbow hide. Now the waiter started off at the kid and Lou tipped him off with a wink But just in time to make the rhyme they were swapping drink for drink. Well the kid sat there with an awful sneer and he let lower the wine. With plenty of smash and good cold cash, but he didn't even smile. Now, he stood the gas like one of the past, and he let Lou hold her head His eyes they burned like sulphur lights, or some message from the dead. Then all of a sudden there came a hush and the orchestra was through I heard him say in a strange sort of way, "I'm seeking a dame called Lou” Now Lou made a start and she played her part and she pulled herself through in a thrice. “I’m Lou," she said, "Now look at me good or you'll be seeing me twice". One eye he bats, two guns he snatched and out on the aisle he stood. One trained on Lou and one on the mob as he gave her an icy grin. "I'm playing a game of solitaire and you ain't butting in". Lou always stacked a darn good roll and she kept it down in her sock. But the gown she wore came from Singapore. It was worth ten pounds and hot. He said," Cough up that guff, your pearls and stuff and your necklace, too." Underneath his breath in a voice of death, he whispered, "Who are you?" The Kid started backing out for the door. Both the guns trained on the mob and the place was as still as a tombstone chill, except for a woman's sob. "Twenty years ago tonight," said the kid as he backed for the door, "My old man was dead and pumped full of lead on this Malamalute barroom floor. and you’re the one who kissed him and pinched his poke", as he points to the ­dame called Lou. "Now get me right, you're looking tonight at the son of Dan McGrew." Like a flash he was gone and we sat there dumb, and true as the Gospel's true, there wasn't one in the place that could look on the face of the lady that's known as Lou.


 

Branch Come Home Year

August 9-19, 2007

The Son of Dan McGrew

As recited by Leo English