don jones was old but tough as a yard bird or a piece of beef jerky that was more gristle than beef , and he had an anchor tattoo on his forearm from his days in the navy in ww ii and he still wore his hair in a crew cut and he chewed and spat tobacco and his boxy small inner city house was hotter than hell but he didnt notice because he was old and always felt a little chilly , and here and there along every wall were stacked boxes and metal cabinets filled with old electronic parts and vacuum tubes and odd grey-metal instruments with meters for faces and odd assortments of toggles with names on tape stuck beneath them and one with a big red button that said `` do not touch ! ''