bou-kedj's

Updated: June 20, 2025

When their thin racket had turned out and died in the dust of the market, Habib ben Habib emerged from the shadow of a door arch and, putting a foot on the tiled ledge of Bou-Kedj's fry shop, swung up by cranny and gutter till he stood on the plain of the housetops. Now he looked about him, for on this dim tableland he walked with his life in his hands.

- O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921