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“
Maybe
you could supply them,” Moon suggested lazily, rubbing his chin
with a long, slim hand.

“
No,
I’m not smart enough. I wouldn’t be so smart that I’d
frighten Breen into hiding with the bag. And I’d get foolish
ideas:—like if Larry had got hold of the bag or knew where it
was, this would be the last place he’d come to.”

While
they bickered, Larry’s face came together, to its normal
ugliness. Now' he said with wheedling eagerness: “Tilly’s
right, boss. The, reason I came here, I want to ask you to take me
back. Sure, I made a mistake, but Jasp talked me into it. Give me a
break, boss. I know the Florida angle better than anybody. If you’ll
...”

Moon
lifted a hand. Larry flinched. But this time there was no slap. Moon
arrested his hand in mid-air and brought it behind himself to his hip
pocket for his handkerchief: Delicately he dabbed his lips. “All
right, rat, so you haven’t got the bag. But you know what
happens to rats.”

My
hand strained on the gun. My cracked knuckles ached. I glanced
sideways at Molly and saw her step around -the periphery of the
flashlight beams. She wasn’t leaving. She was angling uphill
toward Milton.

“
For
God’s sake, give me a break!” Larry whined brokenly. His
eyes darted wildly as if looking for something. “Boss, I swear
if you’ll ...”

Molly
uttered a startled cry. She stumbled against Milton’s rifle.
Somebody rushed at me, brushed my arm, went by. I turned my head
after him and saw Larry’s broad shape running toward the barn.

There
was no immediate shot. I looked back at the faces flickering in the
sprays of swinging flashlights. Moon had caught Molly after she had
stumbled and held an arm about her waist. Rufus did a weird dance to
get around Tilly who was planted between himself and the target.
Beezie aimed his revolver. He shot and then Rufus got in a shot, but
Larry continued to run downhill. There was a good chance that he
would get away, and I was glad.

“
I'll
get him,” Milton said.

He
had run forward a few feet and was down on one knee with his rifle at
his shoulder. He took his time. Larry was crossing the flat area in
front of the barn when the rifle cracked.

Larry
stopped running. He put a hand out as if to steady himself and then
started to sink. It took him a long time to reach the ground. Then he
lay motionless in the moonlight.

CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN

Tilly
wheezed, and somewhere underfoot an insect set up a shrill clamor.
Those were the only sounds in the night. Milton was on the way down
the slope to the still shape beside the barn. The rest of us remained
on the hillside as if waiting for a curtain to raise on another act.

George
Moon’s arm remained about Molly’s waist. She stood frozen
in that position, one shoulder and hip touching him, yet all of her
aloof and unyielding. Rufus Lamb was on my left, his gun' held
negligently, and it might have been only accident that the muzzle was
not far from my heart. Beezie and his gun were behind me. I was boxed
in. Maybe it wasn’t deliberate, but they were fools if it
wasn’t.

Milton
reached Larry. He squatted and rose and waved his rifle. “Got
him clean,” he called up to us.

George
Moon spoke then. “Give Rufus your gun, Bert.” He didn’t
tell Rufus to relieve me of it. Very politely he was requesting a
favor of me.

“
I
took it from Larry,” I said. “That makes it mine.”

“
I
collect trophies, Bert, and that gun would be a nice addition to my
collection: I have a number of guns which belonged to guys who tried
to buck me and are now dead.” There was no menace, not even
mockery, in his slow voice.

I
could shoot him where he stood, if I didn’t hit Molly instead.
A moment later Rufus would kill me. Maybe it would be worth it, the
fairest deal I could make. But how could I bring myself to act
against unreality? There were no violent words, no hostile faces. Not
even the two guns in sight seemed to have sinister significance.

I
reversed the automatic and handed it to Rufus.

The
mood did not change when I was disarmed. Moon drawled: “Bert,
didn’t you have a chance to plug Larry when he ran past you?”
It wasn’t an accusation. He was just asking me.

“
He
took me by surprise, the way he did Rufus and Beezie.”

That
was a neat thrust and brought mild annoyance to Moon’s face. He
didn’t pursue the subject. He hugged Molly closer. “What
happened to you, sweetheart?”

“
I
tripped,” she muttered. “There must have been a rock.”

“
Where
were you going, sweetheart?”

“
If
there had been shooting, I would have been in the line of fire.”
Molly ignored the breeze which tugged the lower half of her blue robe
open and spread a straggle of hair over her face. “I was
stepping out of the way when I tripped.”

Scowling,
Tilly drew her coat tighter over her nightgown. “It looked to
me like she threw herself at Milton.”

“
Did
you see her do that?” Moon asked her.

“
Well,
I saw her falling.” This was one time that Tilly was uncertain
about anything. “It seems funny, though, that she should fall
right at Milton who had the rifle “

I
said angrily: “What the hell is this, anyway? Didn’t I
deliver Larry to you wrapped and sealed?”

“
And
a good job you did, Bert,” Moon smiled down at Molly’s
windblown hair as he said that. His free hand went around to the
pocket of her robe. Two fingers slipped in and brought out her
pearl-handled automatic.

Molly
threw her head back. “That’s mine, George. You can’t
want it for a trophy. Put it back in my pocket.”

“
Can
I borrow it, sweetheart? I don’t like to carry guns, but if I
have to I prefer little ones like this.” He gave her hip an
affectionate pat and strode down the hill.

The
rest of us straggled after him. I waited for Molly. She had no
whispered word for me; her gaze was fixed on the flashlight beam I
held at our feet. Walking at my side, with her shoulder sometimes
brushing my upper arm, she was as aloof from me as she had been from
Moon in the circle of his arm.

Milton
squatted beside the body, admiring his handiwork. “Got him
through the back of the head,” he announced proudly. “I
don’t miss what I see, and the moon was plain on him.”

“
Take
a look at a rat, Bert,” Moon told me conversationally. He
twirled Molly’s gun by the trigger guard. “A few days ago
there were two of them, and now there is none. That’s what
happens to doublecrossers.”

Molly
stood too straight and her face was too tight, as if she were holding
every nerve and muscle rigid. Carefully she did not look at the dead
man.

Tilly
said viciously: “Don’t be so damn cocky, George. Guys get
away with bags from under your nose. What are you going to do about
that?”

“
Get
it back,” Moon replied evenly. “Breen can’t use it
himself. He’ll get in touch with me and ask a steep price. He
thinks because he’s hiding out I can’t reach him.”

Tilly
sneered. “There are others who’ll pay plenty for it.”

The
little gun stopped twirling. Moon’s big hand snapped over it.
“He’ll be awful sorry if he tries it, Tilly. Awful
sorry.”

He
moved on with Tilly, leaving Milton and Beezie to dispose of the
body. Molly walked between Rufus and myself. Rufus had stuck a gun
into each pocket. He was a shadow, a guard, or maybe just a man who
wanted company back to the house.

In
the downstairs hall the five of us paused. Moon yawned. Rufus opened
his windbreaker and scratched his naked chest which was a lot hairier
than his scalp. Tilly offered to make coffee; she said she had most
of a pie left. It was very amiable. The night air and the business of
killing a man had worked up their appetites for a midnight snack.

“
I’m
tired,” Molly said dully. She paused halfway up the stairs and
looked back. “Are you coming, honey?”

I
said good night to the others and followed her. She entered the room
ahead of me, and when I was closing the door I heard her sob. She
stood with her back to me, her shoulders bowed, her face in her
hands. The hard core of her had cracked. Now she was only a shaken,
weeping woman.

I
put an arm about her shoulders. Her face lifted from her hands. She
sniffled, and like a little girl she ran the sleeve of her robe over
her eyes. “I guess I’m not so tough.” She forced
the ghost of a smile to the corners of her mouth.

“
You
said that before,” I said. “No, you’re not so
tough, and neither am I.”

“
Tilly
was right. I deliberately fell into Milton to give that man Larry a
chance to escape.”

“
I
know.”

She
drew away from me and turned to the dresser for a cigarette. “I
don’t know why I did it. I had never seen him before. He meant
nothing to me, less than nothing. But to see a man killed in cold
blood! To stand by and watch it!” A match flared and the flame
quivered at the tip of her cigarette, “I had to do something. I
would have used my gun, I think, but they were scattered and I
couldn’t get the drop on them.”

“
I
know how you felt. I would have tried to save him if there had been a
chance.” I laughed bitterly. “Saved Larry! That’s
what comes of being civilized. But I had reason to be grateful to
him. He didn’t give me away.”

“
He
knew it wouldn’t have helped him.” She opened her robe.

“
I’ll
turn my back while you dress,” I said.

“
Dress?
Do you think they’ll let us walk out of here?”

I
had been wondering about that. I went out to the hall. Their voices
flowed up from the lunchroom. I went halfway down the stairs and
listened.

“
Didn’t
he catch Larry for us?” Rufus was saying. “All you got
against him is Clara tripped against Milton.”

Moon
drawled: “If I thought there was anything fishy about it,
they’d be joining Larry under the ground this minute. Bert
looks pretty good to me. I like the way he took Larry. I can use him
in Florida this winter. Maybe he can be worked in to take Jasper’s
place.”

“
And
you can use his wife sooner,” Tillie snapped. “You can’t
kid me why you took their guns. You’re not sure how Bert will
act about you making a play for his wife. You want his teeth pulled
till you’re sure.”

“
Bert’s
a tough baby, boss,” Rufus said. “A guy who can handle
Larry with his bare hands is plenty tough. You’re asking for
trouble.”

“
How
about minding your own damn business?” Moon said without heat,
and he laughed.

I
returned to the room. Molly lay in bed. The cover was up to her waist
and her hair was honey spread on the white pillow.

“
They’re
not guarding us,” I told her. “They think we’re
okay. I don’t see how they can think anything else after, I
handed Larry over to them. A cop or a -rival gang spy wouldn’t
have done that.”

She
closed her eyes. “But Moon took our guns.”

“
He’s
playing safe. I heard him say that he plans to send me to Florida.”

“
And
keep me here, I suppose.”

“
If
I let him get away with it. No, he must be sure I wouldn’t.
Perhaps he plans to kill me in such a way that you wouldn’t
suspect he did it and then he’ll have you for himself. I don’t
know how a mind like his works. But listen. We can slip out through
the side door .and in ten seconds be away in your car.”

She
lay thinking that over. Then she said: “How do we know my car
will start? Maybe he fixed it so that it won’t. Maybe he’ll
have us watched all night. You said you don’t know how his mind
works. This could be a final test. It’s safer to wait till
tomorrow. Nothing else will happen tonight.”

“
And
then what?” I said hollowly. “What happens after I get
away tonight or tomorrow or the next day?”

Her
eyes hadn’t opened. Her breasts were taut against the silk
pajamas. When she didn’t answer, I went to the chair by the
window and sat in it.

I
sucked my cracked knuckles. “And I did it,” I said. “I
caught Larry for him, and Larry coming here to spy proved to Moon
that he hadn’t kidnaped Adam Breen. Now Moon will go after
Carol again. He’ll hold her as a club over me not to sell the
bag to anybody else. What have I accomplished? I’m worse off
than when I came here.”

She
seemed to be asleep. I removed my jacket and shoes and put out the
light and returned to the chair. The car lot was quiet and dark. I
wondered where Crooked Nose was and who he was and why he had come
here. I wondered if Larry was being buried beside other men who had
died with bullets in them.

After
a while I heard Molly weep again, so softly that her weeping sounded
like ragged sighing. I left the chair and sat on the edge of the bed.
Her hand, pale in moonlight, reached for mine.

“
Lie
down here,” she whispered.