It was almost dark; I went to the back of the house. Through a window I could see the men in the garden standing under a small cherry tree in the gloom, still talking. I found a door, and examined it in the failing light. It was the type that opens in two sections. The upper one was locked, but the lower half swung silently open--below the line of vision of the men outside. I bent over and stepped through. A short path led off to the drive beside the house; I ignored it and crept along beside the wall, through weed-grown flower beds. I turned to start out across the plowed field and a dark form rose up before me. I recoiled, my wrist twitching in a gesture that had become automatic; but no slug-gun snapped into my hand. I was unarmed, weak, and shaken, and the man loomed over me, hulking. "Let's go, Hammer-hand," he whispered. It was Gaston. "I'm leaving, Gaston," I said. "Just don't try to stop me." Vague ideas of a bluff were in my mind. After all, he called me Hammer-hand. He came after me. "Hold it down to a roar," he said. "I wondered when you was going to make your break. You been getting pretty restless these last few days." "Yeah," I said. "Who wouldn't?" I was just stalling; I had no plan. "You got more nerve than me, Hammer-hand," Gaston said. "I would of took off a week ago. You must of wanted to get a look at the Big Boss real bad to stick as long as you did." "I saw enough today," I said. "I don't want to see any more." "Do you make him?" Gaston asked. He sounded interested. "No," I said. "I didn't see his face. But I've lost my curiosity." Gaston laughed. "OK, chief," he said. He handed me a soiled card, with something scribbled on it. "Maybe this will do you some good. It's the Big Boss's address out of town. I swiped it; it was all I could find. Now let's blow out of here." I stuck the card in my pocket. I was a little confused. "Wait a minute, Gaston; you mean you're helping me get away?" "Gros said I was supposed to keep an eye on you, look out you didn't have no accident," Gaston said. "I always done all right doing what my brother told me; I don't see no reason to stop now just because they killed him." "Your brother," I said. "Gros was my brother," Gaston said. "I ain't smart like Gros, but he always took care of me. I always done what he said. He told me to look out for you, Hammer-hand." "What about them?" I asked, nodding toward the house. "They won't like it when they find us both missing." Gaston spat. "To hell with them monkeys," he said. "They gimme the willies." I was beginning to feel jolly all of a sudden, by reaction. "Listen, Gaston; can you go back in there and get the clothes I had on when I got here?" Gaston fumbled in the dark at a sack slung over his shoulder. "I thought you might want that suit, Hammer-hand," he said. "You was real particular about that with Miche." He handed me a bundle. I knew the feel of it. It was the uniform.