She is wearin' a very swell blue silk dressin' robe. Her ash-blonde hair is down an' is tied up with a ribbon. She stands there smilin' a funny sorta little smile, an' in her hand she has got a.38 Colt.
I finish the drink.
"Well, well, well, Paulette," I say. "Just fancy seein' you again so soon."
She comes into the room. She is still holdin' the gun on me. "So you're back, Mr 'G' man," she says very quiet, still smilin'. "Why don't you knock on the door when you want to come into a place?"
I take a drag on the cigarette.
"I'll tell you why, baby," I tell her. "I came back here because I had a big idea I might take a look around an' find somethin' I wanted, but I am sorry you interrupted me first. But there is just one little thing I'd like to know, Paulette. Why don't you put that gun away?"
She laughs.
"Maybe you'd like me to, Lemmy," she says. "I expect you would. You know I think you've had enough luck for tonight. Maybe it's time you had a little bad luck."
"You're tellin' me," I tell her. "Listen, Paulette," I say, "ain't you the mug? The worst thing about you dames is that you always overplay your hand. You're the sorta woman who would come in on a poker game with a pair of two's just hopin' that the other guys would think you'd gotta full house, but you made a big mistake tonight. You shouldn't have 'phoned through to Daredo.
"When some guy bumps me over the head on the road to Zoni, an' takes me off to some place to give me the works, I was wise that that was the telephone call you put through to Daredo, an' why? Well, there can only be one reason an' that reason was that you thought it would be pretty dangerous for yourself if I got as far as Zoni an' saw Rudy. So you fixed with Luis Daredo to get me before I got there.
"By the time I have got to Zoni an' seen Rudy, Luis' pals have wised him up that I have got away, so knowin' that I'll take this road back to get on to the main State road, he sits behind a clump of cactus way down from the house an' waits for me with a rifle.
"Well, it just didn't work. I have bust Luis good an' plenty, an' he's pretty sick right now."
She is still smilin'.
"That doesn't really matter, does it, Lemmy?" she says. "I'm still on top of the game."
"You're tellin' me," I tell her. "But what's the good of you bein' on top of the game? Where do we go from here? Listen, Paulette," I say, "why don't you get yourself some sense? What do you think you're goin' to do with that gun? Do you think you're goin' to shoot me? How come? Be your age."
She laughs out loud this time, an' she looks as sweet as pie. I'll tell you this Paulette has got one helluva nerve.
"Aren't you being a sap, Lemmy?" she says. "And do you think you'll be the first dick who's been killed in Mexico and not missed? I'm goin' to kill you, Lemmy, not because I particularly want to, because in several ways I find you rather attractive, but I think you're a little bit too consistent for my way of thinking. You're obstinate you know. You're the sort of man who would go on working and working, following his nose so to speak, until he might do all sorts of things that might even be inconvenient for me. I'm choosing the lesser of the two evils."
I flop down in a chair. She is standin' in the middle of the room right under the electric light. I look at the gun in her hand. It is as steady as a rock. I reckon this dame will kill me without even battin' an eyelid.
I don't feel so good. I am burned up that just when I am gettin' ideas about this job that I should be ironed out by some dame. Me - I never thought that I would be bumped by a dame.
"You know, Paulette," I tell her. "I think you're bein' silly. What you got to bump me for? What harm can I do you? I don't get this sorta business at all."
She just smiles.
"Well," she says, "here it comes, Lemmy. I'm going to give it to you. And I'll try and do it so that it won't hurt too much. How will you have it - sitting down or standing up?"
"Justa minute, Paulette," I say. "There is just a little thing I wanta say to you before you start the heat"
"All right, Lemmy," she says. "I'm listening. Go right ahead, but don't be too long."
I start thinkin'. I think as quick as hell. You gotta remember that earlier in the evenin' I told you that Paulette came an' put her hands on my shoulders when she was talkin' to me. When she took her hands away she sorta let 'em drop down the sides of my coat an' her right hand rested for a minute on my Luger which was in its shoulder holster under my left arm. OK. Well, maybe she will think that the gun is still there. She won't know that the Mexicans pinched the holster off me an' that I have got the gun in my right hand coat pocket.
I get up. I let my hands hang loose by my sides.
"Well, well, well, Paulette," I say. "If I've gotta have it I reckon I'll have it standin' up. Maybe you're not very keen on doin' anythin' for me, but there are two favours I would like to ask you. One is that I would like to have another shot of that bourbon of yours before I hand in my checks an' the other thing is that I would like you some time or other to send my Federal badge to a dame in Oklahoma. I'll give you the address. You don't have to send it now. Send it in a year's time if you like, but I sorta feel that I'd like her to have it."
She laughs again.
"Just fancy now," she says, "the tough 'G' man getting sentimental about a woman."
I shrug my shoulders.
"That's the way it is," I say.
I turn round an' I walk over to the sideboard. I pour my-self out a shot of bourbon, an' I drink it I put the glass back on the sideboard, an' I turn around.
"OK Paulette," I say, "here's the badge. I'll leave it on this table."
I put my hands sorta quite natural in my right hand coat pocket, an' I fire through my coat. I fire at the electric lamp an' I get it right, at the same moment I drop on my knees an' I hear Paulette fire three times. I take a leap forward like I was a runner gettin' off the mark, an' hit her clean in the belly with my head. She goes over backwards. I grab her arm an' twist the gun out of it.
"OK baby," I say "Now let's take it easy."
"Damn you, Lemmy," she says. "What a fool I was to even give you a chance."
"You're tellin' me," I say. "Why you didn't plug me while I was drinkin' that bourbon I don't know. Still I never did know a dame who was really swell with a gun."
She don't say nothin'. She is just breathin' hard. I throw her gun over the veranda an' still holdin' her by the arm I walk over to the electric standard lamp that is in the other corner of the room an' I switch it on. Then I take a look at her. She is still smilin' but it is a hard sorta smile.
"Well, here's where we go, lady," I say. "I reckon you played your hand as well as you could an' it didn't quite come off. You know," I tell her, "if you'd had any sense you'da shot me while I was drinkin' that bourbon. Then I'da been nice an' dead by now. Then you coulda got your friend Luis to chuck me in some hole around here an' nobody would have ever known that that big bad wolf Lemmy Caution had come bustin' around annoym' poor little Paulette. Tough luck, baby!"
"That's as maybe," she says - her voice is sorta tense - "but I'll be glad to know what you're charging me with. You say you're a Federal Agent, but I've no proof of that. I've never seen your badge. I find you here in my house in the middle of the night. I'm entitled to take a shot at you. This is Mexico."
"That's OK," I say. "An' maybe you could get away with a story like that. But I ain't worryin' about them shots you had at me. I woulda worried if they'd got me an' they didn't. I ain't pinchin' you for them shots. I'm pinchin' you for some thing else."
She flops down on a chair an' she starts cryin'. The way she is sittin' her robe has fallen hack a bit an' I can see a piece of leg. I get to thinkin' that this Paulette sure has got legs that are easy to look at. I don't say nothin'. I just stick around waitin' for her to try an' pull somethin' else.
After a bit she stops cryin' an' looks up at me. She looks sweller than ever. She sorta smiles through the two big teardrops that are hangin' in her eyes. I'm tellin' you that this Paulette is one helluva actress, an' I would back her, under ordinary luck, to kid a Bowery tough that he was travellin' in ladies' powder puffs an' likin' it.