The Peddler

Copyright 1952 by the creator of Shell Scott, Scan of original Fawcett Gold Medal:

For a twenty-year-old punk, he was working himself up in the
racket; pretty fast. After Maria, the two-bit prostitute, had helped Tony get
his foot in the door of the Syndicate, Tony had managed to knife a couple of
his hosses, and now he was pushing for the top.

Maria was worried. ‘’I wish you weren’t getting in so
deep,'' she told him. “You're making plenty money now, but you keep on the way
you're going, one of these days you won't never be able to get out."

“Get out? What in hell's got into you? Who wants out? I'm
gonna be somebody, baby."

, Maria reached for him. “You think you know everything,
Tony. You don't even know what this business is really like. It's mean and
filthy and cruel."

“I suppose you know more about it than I do, huh?" His
voice was sharp, angry.

“Maybe I do. Don't forget, I was working in the houses a
year before you even got inside. I was right down on the bottom and you get a
different picture from there. But you—you're working yourself smack into
trouble in the long run." In the long run—and it wasn't very long at all-—’trouble
was a soft, soft word for what was in store for Tony.