The Warriors Read Online Free PDF Page B

was too late to move now; the cars had come up and were sweeping by. Lunkface was moving around to Benny’s side and he got himself set. Arnold caught Lunkface’s arm. “You let your uncle roll his own.”
    Headlights spangled the backs of the bushes, filtered through, and speckled their faces suddenly with shifting leaf patterns. Far off, crackers fired and a row of dull explosions walked around the horizon. Hector and Benny faced up. Hector waited and then began to move across the road, satisfied that his honor had not suffered. Benny took hold of his sleeve and told him to chill it, to wait for the word. Hector looked at Benny’s face. He looked down at Benny’s insulting hand holding his sleeve. He looked back at Benny’s face. Lunkface was bouncing up and down a little on the balls of his feet, muttering something that no one could hear, something almost animal-like, exciting himself for
that moment.
Bimbo came up and looked carefully at both faces and waited. “No one tells this man to move,” Hector said.
    â€œIsmael tells you to move,” Benny said, invoking authority, letting go of Hector’s sleeve, realizing that he had made a mistake.
    â€œDon’t listen to him,” Lunkface said. “Go.”
    â€œYou, child, shut your mouth.” Arnold said. “Don’t lip. Don’t sound.”
    Behind them, another column had been moved up.
    Bimbo whispered, “You can’t do anything now. You have to cool it, man.”
    â€œI know him,” Hector said. “He knows me.”
    â€œI know you,” Benny said.
    â€œTalk. Go. All this talk. Go, man,” Lunkface agitated. Arnold nudged Lunkface in the ribs with stiffened fingers. Lunkface grunted. “Next time, the eye; you hear?” Papa said.
    They stood there long enough for honor to be satisfied. Arnold knew that the whole operation could be jeopardized and he said, being big about it, “All right, you’ll fair-it later. Now call it, children.”
    â€œYou running?” Lunkface wanted to know.
    â€œI’ll run
you
,” Arnold told him. And Dewey told the Lunkface to still himself and wait.
    The lookout from the other side of the highway signaled frantically, wanting to know what had happened. He was ready to fire the blue alarm flare, but when the lull in the traffic came, Benny gave the word. They ran across. Around the far bend the first sweeping bars of headlights came down the road. Further down, they could see other groups crossing the same way, running quickly and secretly. They went down a little hill, past the signaler, and were picked up by another scout in white pants who took them through the black field. Far ahead and a little above, where another highway ran, headlights swept along. They came to their place on the damp plain. The sky was coming alive with fire.
    A red flare climbed slowly from the middle of the field and hung in the air. It meant they were all there now.
    Ismael Rivera’s car had circled the complex of park roads, looking for a clear space between the bunches of moving cars. They had gone around the meeting place two times. Ismael looked down there and saw nothing but a flat, black plain, and that, he thought, was good. No one was visible. No one was lighting up, for he had given the word that there was to be no smoking. And it was a credit to his organization that none of his scouts or none of the groups had been seen crossing the highways. He knew what to look for and still he hadn’t seen it. Could it be smoother?
    The driver shot ahead of the cars around him and drove inclear darkness now. It was the third time around. Soon the nearest headlights were left a quarter of a mile behind. About a quarter of a mile ahead, a band of little red lights receded, dancing in formation as they bounced over potholes. The red lights swept around a curve and disappeared. Ismael’s car slewed around the curve and the headlights behind