A Gun for Sale

       'Do you think they know I'm here?'

       'They must have followed us all the way.'

       'Then I'll stay,' Anne said. 'There won't be any shooting while I'm here. They'll wait till morning, till you come out.'

       'That's friendly of you,' he said with sour incredulity, all his suspicion of friendliness coming back. 'I've told you. I'm on your side.'

       'I've got to think of a way,' he said. 'You may as well rest now. You've all the night to think in.'

       'It is sort of—good in here,' Raven said, 'out of the way of the whole damned world of them. In the dark.' He wouldn't come near her, but sat down in the opposite corner with his automatic in his lap. He said suspiciously, 'What are you thinking about?' He was astonished and shocked by the sound of a laugh. 'Kind of homey,' Anne said.

       'I don't take any stock in homes,' Raven said. 'I've been in one.'

       'Tell me about it. What's your name?'

       'You know my name. You've seen it in the papers.'

       'I mean your Christian name.'

       'Christian. That's a good joke, that one. Do you think anyone ever turns the other cheek these days?' He tapped the barrel of the automatic resentfully on the cinder floor. 'Not a chance.' He could hear her breathing there in the opposite corner, out of sight, out of reach, and he was afflicted by the odd sense that he had missed something. He said, 'I'm not saying you aren't fine. I dare say you're Christian all right.'

       'Search me,' Anne said.

       'I took you out to that house to kill you...'

       'To kill me?'

       'What did you think it was for? I'm not a lover, am I? Girl's dream? Handsome as the day?'

       'Why didn't you?'

       'Those men turned up. That's all. I didn't fall for you. I don't fall for girls. I'm saved that. You won't find me ever going soft on a skirt.' He went desperately on, 'Why didn't you tell the police about me? Why don't you shout to them now?'

       'Well,' she said, 'you've got a gun, haven't you?'

       'I wouldn't shoot.'

       'Why not?'

       'I'm not all that crazy,' he said. 'If people go straight with me, I'll go straight with them. Go on. Shout. I won't do a thing.'

       'Well,' Anne said, 'I don't have to ask your leave to be grateful, do I? You saved me tonight.'

       'That lot wouldn't have killed you. They haven't the nerve to kill. It takes a man to kill.'

       'Well, your friend Cholmondeley came pretty near it. He nearly throttled me when he guessed I was in with you.'

       'In with me?'

       'To rind the man you're after.'

       'The double-crossing bastard.' He brooded over his pistol, but his thoughts always disturbingly came back from hate to this dark safe corner; he wasn't used to that. He said,'You've got sense all right. I like you.'

       'Thanks for the compliment.'

       'It's no compliment. You don't have to tell me. I've got something I'd like to trust you with, but I can't.'

       'What's the dark secret?'

       'It's not a secret. It's a cat I left back in my lodgings in London when they chased me out. You'd have looked after it.'

       'You disappoint me, Mr Raven. I thought it was going to be a few murders at least.' She exclaimed with sudden seriousness, 'I've got it. The place where Davis works.'

       'Davis?'

       'The man you call Cholmondeley. I'm sure of it. Midland Steel. In a street near the Metropole. A big palace of a place.'

       I've got to get out of here,' Raven said, beating the automatic on the freezing ground.

       'Can't you go to the police?'

       'Me?' Raven said. 'Me go to the police?' He laughed. 'That'd be fine, wouldn't it? Hold out my hands for the cuffs...'

       'I'll think of a way,' Anne said. When her voice ceased it was as if she had gone. He said sharply, 'Are you there?'

       'Of course I'm here,' she said. 'What's worrying you?'

       'It feels odd not to be alone.' The sour incredulity surged back. He struck a couple of matches and held them to his face, close to his disfigured mouth. 'Look,' he said, 'take a long look.' The small flames burnt steadily down. 'You aren't going to help me, are you? Me?'

       'You are all right,' she said. The flames touched his skin, but he held the two matches rigidly up and they burnt out against his fingers; the pain was like joy. But he rejected it; it had come too late; he sat in the dark feeling tears like heavy weights behind his eyes, but he couldn't weep. He had never known the particular trick that opened the right ducts at the right time. He crept a little way out of his corner towards her, feeling his way along the floor with the automatic. He said, 'Are you cold?'

       'I've been in warmer places,' Anne said.

       There were only his own sacks left. He pushed them over to her. 'Wrap 'em round,' he said.

       'Have you got enough?'

       'Of course I have. I can look after myself,' he said sharply, as if he hated her. His hands were so cold that he would have found it hard to use the automatic. 'I've got to get out of here.'

       'We'll think of a way. Better have a sleep.'

       'I can't sleep,' he said, 'I've been dreaming bad dreams lately.'

       'We might tell each other stories? It's about the children's hour.'

       'I don't know any stories.'

       'Well, I'll tell you one. What kind? A funny one?'

       'They never seem funny to me.'

       'The three bears might be suitable.'

       'I don't want anything financial. I don't want to hear anything about money.'

       She could just see him now that he had come closer, a dark hunched shape that couldn't understand a word she was saying. She mocked him gently, secure in the knowledge that he would never realize she was mocking him. She said:' I'll tell you about the fox and the cat. Well, this cat met a fox in a forest, and she'd always heard the fox cracked up for being wise. So she passed him the time of day politely and asked how he was getting along. But the fox was proud. He said, "How dare you ask me how I get along, you hungry mouse-hunter? What do you know about the world?"

       "Well, I do know one thing," the cat said. "What's that?" said the fox. "How to get away from the dogs," the cat said. "When they chase me, I jump into a tree." Then the fox went all high and mighty and said, "You've only one trick and I've a hundred. I've got a sack full of tricks. Come along with me and I'll show you." Just then a hunter ran quietly up with four hounds. The cat sprang into the tree and cried, "Open your sack, Mr Fox, open your sack." But the dogs held him with their teeth. So the cat laughed at him saying, "Mr Know-all, if you'd had just this one trick in your sack, you'd be safe up the tree with me now.'" Anne stopped. She whispered to the dark shape beside her, 'Are you asleep?'

       'No,' Raven said, 'I'm not asleep.'

       'It's your turn now.'

       'I don't know any stories,' Raven said, sullenly, miserably.

       'No stories like that? You haven't been brought up properly.'

       'I'm educated all right,' he protested, 'but I've got things on my mind. Plenty of them.'

       'Cheer up. There's someone who's got more.'

       'Who's that?'

       'The fellow who began all this, who killed the old man, you know who I mean. Davis's friend.'

       'What do you say?' he said furiously. 'Davis's friend?' He held his anger in. 'It's not the killing I mind; it's the double-crossing.'