Shane and Dale were tough guys. Real tough. You didn’t mess with those two. Everyone in Belleville knew that. To begin with, they knew how to use their fists. Shane even knew some “savate” tricks. Riton-la-Teigne once learned it at his shins’ expense. Since that day, he would never forget to give Shane a wide berth whenever their paths were about to cross again. When asked about Shane, Riton would shrug his shoulders, wave his hand as to chase away a bad memory, and say with a meaningful, unquiet look on his face: “This guy is dynamite!” Yes, Roland-la-Teigne. You have to consider that Shane (as Dale by the way) was just young, and that Roland had a reputation as someone who could take hard punches as well as deliver them. And seing Shane walking down the street, you just would have seen a rather scrawny looking boy. Just that he wasn’t that scrawny. He had the muscles of a stray cat, and he had its nimbleness as well.
Shane, Dale & The Rufty Tufty Club 1
