The body in her arms stirred. She looked down through her tears and saw
the small black eyes open. They were slightly crossed, unfocused as they
were by the force of the blow. They straightened and Jim mumbled, "What
the hell--what the hell--"
Minna's time for talking seemed over. She smiled--a smile hardly
perceptible, as though it was for herself alone. "You're all right," she
said. "That's good. You're all right."
Jim pushed her roughly away and staggered to his feet. He stood swaying
for a moment, his head turning; for all the world like a bull blinded
and tormented. Then his eyes focused on Frank.
"You hit me with the goddam phone."
"Yeah--I hit you."
"I'm gonna kill you."
"Look--I made a mistake." Frank picked up the phone and backed against
the wall. "I hit you, but you were coming at me. I made a mistake and
I'm sorry."
"I'll smash your goddam skull."
"Maybe you will," Frank said grimly. "But you'll work for it. It won't
come easy."
A new voice bit across the room. "Cut it out. I'll do the killing.
That's what I like best. Everybody quiet down."
They turned and saw a slim, pale-skinned young man in the open doorway.
The door had opened quietly and no one had heard it. Now the pale young
man was standing in the room with a small, nickle-plated revolver in his
right hand.
The left hand was close down at his side. It was swathed generously in
white bandage.
The young man chuckled. "The last four people in the world were in a
room," he said, "and there was a knock on the door."
His chuckle deepened to one of pure merriment. "Only there wasn't a
knock. A man just walked in with a gun that made him boss."
No one moved. No one spoke. The man waited, then went on: "My name is
Leroy Davis. I lived out west and I always had a keeper because they
said I wasn't quite right. They wanted me to pull out with the rest of
them, but I slugged my keeper and here I am."
"Put down the gun and we'll talk it over," Frank said. "We're all in
this together."
"No, we aren't. I've got a gun, so that makes me top man. You're all in
it together, but I'm not. I'm the boss, and which one of you tried to
cut my hand off last night."
"You tried to break in here yelling and screaming like a madman. I held
the door. What else could I do?"
"It's all right. I'm not mad. My type--we may be nuts, but we never hold
a grudge. I can't remember much about last night. I found some whisky in
a place down the street and whisky drives me nuts. I don't know what I'm
doing when I drink whisky. They say once about five years ago I got
drunk and killed a little kid, but I don't remember."
Nobody spoke.
"I got out of it. They got me out some way. High priced lawyers got me
out. Cost my dad a pile."
Hysteria had been piling up inside of Nora. She had held it back, but
now a little of it spurted out from between her set teeth. "Do
something, somebody. _Isn't anybody going to do anything?_"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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