«What is it, Gage?»
«To telephone Miss Ellen Macintosh, from whom I am now a little estranged, and tell her that I am not drinking today, and that you have entrusted me with a very delicate mission.»
He laughed aloud. «I’ll be glad to, Walter. And as I know she can be trusted, I’ll give her an idea of what’s going on.»
I left him then and went down to the bank with the check, and the teller, after looking at me suspiciously, then absenting himself from his cage for a long time, finally counted out the money in hundred-dollar bills with the reluctance one might have expected, if it had been his own money.
I placed the flat packet of bills in my pocket and said: «Now give me a roll of quarters, please.»
«A roll of quarters, sir?» His eyebrows lifted.
«Exactly. I use them for tips. And naturally I should prefer to carry them home in the wrappings.»
«Oh, I see. Ten dollars, please.»
I took the fat hard roll of coins and dropped it into my pocket and drove back to Hollywood.
Henry was waiting for me in the lobby of the Chateau Moraine, twirling his hat between his rough hard hands. His face looked a little more deeply lined than it had the day before and I noticed that his breath smelled of whiskey. We went up to my apartment and he turned to me eagerly.
«Any luck, pal?»
«Henry,» I said, «before we proceed further into this day I wish it clearly understood that I am not drinking. I see that already you have been at the bottle.»
«Just a pick-up, Walter,» he said a little contritely. «That job I went out for was gone before I got there. What’s the good word?»
I sat down and lit a cigarette and stared at him evenly. «Well, Henry, I don’t really know whether I should tell you or not. But it seems a little petty not to do so after all you did last night to Gandesi.» I hesitated a moment longer while Henry stared at me and pinched the muscles of his left arm. «The pearls are real, Henry. And I have instructions to proceed with the business and I have five thousand dollars in cash in my pocket at this moment.»
I told him briefly what had happened.
He was more amazed than words could tell. «Cripes!» he exclaimed, his mouth hanging wide open. «You mean you got the five grand from this Gallemore — just like that?»
«Precisely that, Henry.»
«Kid,» he said earnestly, «You got something with that daisy pan and that fluff talk that a lot of guys would give important dough to cop. Five grand — out of a business guy — just like that. Why, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. I’ll be a snake’s daddy. I’ll be a mickey finn at a woman’s-club lunch.»
At that exact moment, as if my entrance to the building had been observed, the telephone rang again and I sprang to answer it.
It was one of the voices I was awaiting, but not the one I wanted to hear with the greater longing. «How’s it looking to you this morning, Gage?»
«It is looking better,» I said. «If I can have any assurance of honorable treatment, I am prepared to go through with it.»
«You mean you got the dough?»
«In my pocket at this exact moment.»
The voice seemed to exhale a slow breath. «You’ll get your marbles O.K. — if we get the price, Gage. We’re in this business for a long time and we don’t welsh. If we did, it would soon get around and nobody would play with us any more.»
«Yes, I can readily understand that,» I said. «Proceed with your instructions,» I added coldly.
«Listen close, Gage. Tonight at eight sharp you be in Pacific Palisades. Know where that is?»
«Certainly. It is a small residential section west of the polo fields on Sunset Boulevard.»
«Right. Sunset goes slap through it. There’s one drugstore there — open till nine. Be there waiting a call at eight sharp tonight. Alone. And I mean alone, Gage. No cops and no strongarm guys. It’s rough country down there and we got a way to get you to where we want you and know if you’re alone. Get all this?»
«I am not entirely an idiot,» I retorted.
«No dummy packages, Gage. The dough will be checked. No guns. You’ll be searched and there’s enough of us to cover you from all angles. We know your car. No funny business, no smart work, no slip-up and nobody hurt. That’s the way we do business. How’s the dough fixed?»
«One-hundred-dollar bills,» I said. «And only a few of them are new.»
«Attaboy. Eight o’clock then. Be smart, Gage.»
The phone clicked in my ear and I hung up. It rang again almost instantly. This time it was the one voice.
«Oh, Walter,» Ellen cried, «I was so mean to you! Please forgive me, Walter. Mr. Gallemore has told me everything and I’m so frightened.»
«There is nothing of which to be frightened,» I told her warmly. «Does Mrs. Penruddock know, darling?»
«No, darling. Mr. Gallemore told me not to tell her. I am phoning from a store down on Sixth Street. Oh, Walter, I really am frightened. Will Henry go with you?»
«I am afraid not, darling. The arrangements are all made and they will not permit it. I must go alone.»
«Oh, Walter! I’m terrified. I can’t bear the suspense.»
«There is nothing to fear,» I assured her. «It is a simple business transaction. And I am not exactly a midget.»
«But, Walter — oh, I will try to be brave, Walter. Will you promise me just one teensy-weensy little thing?»
«Not a drop, darling,» I said firmly. «Not a single solitary drop.»
«Oh, Walter!»
There was a little more of that sort of thing, very pleasant to me in the circumstances, although possibly not of great interest to others. We finally parted with my promise to telephone as soon as the meeting between the crooks and myself had been consummated.
I turned from the telephone to find Henry drinking deeply from a bottle he had taken from his hip pocket.
«Henry!» I cried sharply.
He looked at me over the bottle with a shaggy determined look. «Listen, pal,» he said in a low hard voice. «I got enough of your end of the talk to figure the set-up. Some place out in the tall weeds and you go alone and they feed you the old sap poison and take your dough and leave you lying — with the marbles still in their kitty. Nothing doing, pal. I said — nothing doing!» He almost shouted the last words.
«Henry, it is my duty and I must do it,» I said quietly.
«Haw!» Henry snorted. «I say no. You’re a nut, but you’re a sweet guy on the side. I say no. Henry Eichelberger of the Wisconsin Eichelbergers — in fact, I might just as leave say of the Milwaukee Eichelbergers — says no. And he says it with both hands working.» He drank again from his bottle.
«You certainly will not help matters by becoming intoxicated,» I told him rather bitterly.
He lowered the bottle and looked at me with amazement written all over his rugged features. «Drunk, Walter?» he boomed. «Did I hear you say drunk? An Eichelberger drunk? Listen, son. We ain’t got a lot of time now. It would take maybe three months. Some day when you got three months and maybe five thousand gallons of whiskey and a funnel, I would be glad to take my own time and show you what an Eichelberger looks like when drunk. You wouldn’t believe it. Son, there wouldn’t be nothing left of this town but a few sprung girders and a lot of busted bricks, in the middle of which — Geez, I’ll get talking English myself if I hang around you much longer — in the middle of which, peaceful, with no human life nearer than maybe fifty miles, Henry Eichelberger will be on his back smiling at the sun. Drunk, Walter. Not stinking drunk, not even country-club drunk. But you could use the word drunk and I wouldn’t take no offense.»
He sat down and drank again. I stared moodily at the floor. There was nothing for me to say.