In DEVIL MAKE A THIRD, a 19-year-old Buck Bannon learns the ropes of the Aven's short-loan game during his first 16 months in this small railroad boomtown. Payday came only once a month for railroad men but a brakeman with a sudden thirst for liquor and an urge for female companionship discovered it was ALWAYS PAYDAY  down at Green's Store as long as your credit was good with young Buck Bannon.

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They walked in silence for a moment, until Jake suddenly grinned.

"What the hell," he said, "it's pretty good to have a place to go, though. When you got to have it, I mean."

The other pushed up the bill of his cap.

"It'd be all right," he admitted, "if the danged fool handn't learnt us railroadin' men can't work unless we got our watches. Someday, by God, I'm a 'goin' to leave him stuck with mine and buy me another'n."

"He'd just sell it for a profit," his friend said. "Nope," he went on, "we're stuck. Borrow two dollars and pay fifty cents interest ever' week. Why he don't even want the two dollars. Just that damned fifty cents."

The moon was riding high and shining half-way through the length of Green's store when they got to the shuttered doors, and looked through the small windows.

They could see the light in the back, and by it, the quiet figure, leaning against a counter making marks in a little book, and scuffling his feet at mice that were no longer afraid of him.

Jake suddenly laughed.

"Son of a gun's figurin' how much all us railroaders owe him," he said. "Been there ever' payday for over a year."

He tapped on the glass and saw the figure push away from the counter, still looking at the book, and walk slowly towards the front.

from the November 28, 1935 DOTHAN EAGLE