He just gave me a smug smile for reply. And not long afterward the elevator came down and Thorkill got out and strode past us. The Major let him get clear out of the building, then headed toward the elevator.
I turned to Andrews and spread my hands helplessly. “I hope I’m wrong about this,” I said. “But just in case I’m not, we’d better stick with him to make sure he doesn’t get burned too badly.”
Andrews nodded and followed the Major with me.
Jensen let us in as before, slipping the Major a stack of chips as he passed by. Then the Major took his former seat and play started in earnest.
I made it a point to stand directly in back of the Major and to watch Jensen closely. He wasn’t quite as good with cards as Thorkill, but he was good enough and if I hadn’t been watching for them I never would have seen him palming the “winners” he slipped in.
When the Major’s winnings reached the $300 mark, I tapped him on the shoulder. “Time to call it quits,” I said.
“Nonsense, my boy,” he said. “We’ve just gotten back to where we started and the way to go from there is upward and forward.”
“All right,” I said. “But I want you to promise me that you will quit as soon as you lose that $300 back.”
The Major nodded. “Agreed,” he said. “If I lose it back.”
And he didn’t. He won. Not every turn, of course. But consistently enough and for ever-increasing stakes so that when the game broke up shortly after 2:00 A.M. the pile of chips in front of him had grown to staggering proportions.
“Count it up for me, will you, my boy?” he said to Jensen.
Jensen’s hands moved swiftly, stacking and tallying chips. “Over $35,000,” he said when he had finished. “$35,310 to be exact.”
An almost reverent hush fell over the room at the mention of that much money.
“That’s a lot more than I can cover with what I’ve got on hand,” Jensen said. “So I’ll have to give you an I.O.U. on Horsley. You don’t have to worry, though. Horsley’s never welches on a debt.”
“I’m sure of that, my boy,” the Major said, beaming. “But if you don’t mind, I’ll take my check back as part payment.”
“What check?” a harsh voice said. It was Thorkill standing just inside the doorway and glowering into the room.
“My check, of course,” the Major said. “The one the lad here was good enough to accept to let me get back into the game.”
Thorkill advanced on Jensen who quailed before him. “What’s wrong with you, Jensen? First you forget to chain the door so anybody could have busted in on you. And then you let some guy play with a check that could be just so much worthless paper.”
“I resent that,” the Major said.
“I’ll bet you do,” Thorkill said, swinging around on him. “But resent it or not, the rule’s the rule. And we don’t let guys play on checks.”
“By George,” the Major exclaimed, “I see what you’re doing. You’re using this as an excuse to bilk me out of my winnings.”
“That’s exactly what he’s doing,” Andrews chimed in. He thrust his pale face out at Thorkill. “Well, let me tell you, you’re not going to get away with it. I’ll see to it that your name and Horsley’s will stink in this county.”
Thorkill made little placating motions with his hands. “Now, everybody cool it,” he said. “Nobody’s trying to bilk anybody out of anything. I’m just not going to be fourflushed, that’s all. You’ll get your I.O.U. all right, Major. It’ll be for the full amount and it’ll be conditional on your check clearing through the banks without a hitch. Fair enough?”
The Major just stared at him stonily. Finally Andrews spoke. “I don’t see how you can really object to that, Major,” he said. “The man’s only taking an elementary precaution.”
“All right,” the Major said shortly and accepted the I.O.U. that Thorkill offered him. Then the Major, Andrews, and I left.
Once we were away from the building, the Major laughed wryly. “Well, easy come, easy go,” he said and held up the
I.O.U. as if to tear it in two.
“What are you doing?” Andrews cried, shocked. “That’s worth over $35,000 when your check clears your bank.”
“That’s just the trouble,” the Major said. “The check isn’t going to clear. Because, like Tom, I suspected Jensen’s offer might be just a come-on. So I covered myself by buying back into the game with a rubber check. But now it seems that all I did was outsmart myself.”
“Maybe not,” I said. “It’s bound to take a couple of days for that check to clear the local banks. So all you have to do is get enough money into the bank you wrote it on to cover it before it gets there.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” the Major said, “because there is no such bank. I just wrote down the first name that occurred to me.” He gave another short wry laugh. “Maybe there’s a lesson to be learned here. Nobody can win ’em all.”
“You can win this one, though, Major,” Andrews said quietly.
“Can I, by George? How?”
“It’s so simple I’m surprised you didn’t think of it yourself. As I told you, Horsley has his account at my bank, and that’s where he’ll present your check.”
“Of course,” the Major exclaimed. “All you have to do is honor it and Horsley and Thorkill will have to pay off.”
“Precisely,” Andrews said.
“Andrews,” the Major said, “if you’ll do this for me—”
“I wasn’t thinking of doing it for you, Major,” Andrews said. “I was thinking of doing it for us. Shall we say a partnership? Fifty-fifty on your winnings.”
“Fifty—” the Major began, then broke off and smiled. “Well,” he said, “you’re asking a lot, but I suppose half of something is better than all of nothing. You have a deal, sir.”
“I thought you’d see it that way,” Andrews said. “But just in case you’re tempted to change your mind, I’ll hold the I.O.U. until we go to cash it. You see,” he added, smiling, “you’re not the only one who knows how to protect himself.”
“So it would seem,” the Major said sadly, handing over the paper.
And on that we parted.
Shortly before noon the next day there was a knock on our hotel-room door. I got up, trailing the newspaper I’d been reading, to answer it.
It was Thorkill. “Hi,” he said and walked right past me.
“Ah, there you are,” the Major said. “Any difficulty at the bank?”
“None whatsoever,” Thorkill said. “Andrews boggled a little when he saw the check was for $5000, but in the end he paid over like the little gentleman he is. I took out $500 to cover paying off the others plus $1000 for myself. That leaves $3500 for you two.”
“As agreed,” the Major said, accepting the money Thorkill offered him. “How long do we have?”
“A couple of hours at least,” Thorkill said. “Andrews wanted to know when you could cash in the I.O.U. I said Horsley would be out of town until three this afternoon but to come out any time after that.”
“In that case, my boy,” the Major said to me, “I suggest we waste no time. Because as soon as our banker friend discovers that Horsley did not have a faro layout here at the hotel last night and in fact has never had one, he’s bound to realize that everything from our interest in that disaster of a building to meeting Carol on the road to the faro room was simply a setup to get him to pay $5000 on a worthless check. And discretion would seem to dictate that we be a long way from here when that moment of truth hits him.”
Guilt-Edged Blonde
by Ross Macdonald[14]