"RED SETTER"
(Continued from Page 1)
"Let's get to business," said Red, and out of the corner of my eyes I saw his jaw square with ригрове.
Dutch Schwartz smiled. His teeth re good. He seemed amused.
"I'll show you just how much. I mean business, Setter," he said. Stepping to a curtain, he drew it buck. I caught my breath. Bound and gagged in a chair was Brenda. She started when she
saw me..
Red mov forward impulsive- ly, fists knotted, but Schwartz's right hand sped under, his left arm-pit and reappeared holding a snub-nosed automatic.
"Don't try nothin' you can't finish. You know what I want, Setter. How you stymied that wheel at my Seven Stars."
"And my fiancee-"
..
Schwartz made an impatient gesture.
"Hell, she's no good to me!" She goes when I got what I
want."
I saw the struggle in Red's face as he made up his mind. He couldn't trust this dark sardonic gangster, yet he had to take his word.
"All right, Schwartz, I'll trade.". Under the menace of the other's gun he brought his elec- tro-magnet apparatus from his overcoat pocket, stripped off his jacket, and arranged the appara- tus along his arms, with a ̃bat- tery-control lead to his waistcoat.
The gangster swung a leaf from a side-table, and a roulette wheel rose slowly to the table level. He set it whirling.
"Demonstrate," he commanded. Red pressed the switch under his waistcoat by apparently rub- bing a button, played the rotating wheel, and stopped it on black, then on red. The wheel obeyed the pressure on the switch.
"Just to make sure," said Sch- wartz, "I'll try it, Setter, and it'd better work for me too."
and
"It will, promised Red. "Okay, fix it on my arms, try nothing that ain't your right move. I'm holding this gun against your belly, Setter."
My heart was beating like a trip-hammer. I saw Red fix the apparatus to the gangster's arms, arrange the switch lead, and, still covering us, Schwartz turned to the roulette wheel, His face glow- ed with strange light, like that of a boy who has received a long- -envied toy. He spun the wheel.
stretched his arms
over it. the gun still pointing at Red's stom- ach, and then with his free hand touched the switch.
The same instant his face twist- in surprise, his arms jerked straight before him, and the gun clattered to the floor. Red leapt for it, and Dutch Schwartz was › on him. There was a brief strug- gle, both men's hands groping, fumbling, and then the gun ex- ploded. I saw the gangster straighten, his whole body twitch, and fall head-long.
A door opened, and I saw a small lean man grinning at us na he fondled a cumbersome thing of steel dulled to a deep blue that I knew, from the gangster films I had seen in England, was a Thomson sub-machine gun. He stroked the large drum with his left hand:
"So yuh killed Dutch, huh, mister?"
He sounded amused in the way would be amused. I felt
2
cold inside, and that first feeling of cold dread returned.
Red turned, stared at the new-
comer.
"I've made it easy for you, Pironi," he said quietly.
I saw the other's dark eyes"
narrow.
“How you make that out?" he asked.
"Dutch is dead. You take over. I've probably put three million dollars a year in your hands, Pironi-maybe more."
"Yeah?"
"If you're smart you'll let us go -all of us."
I saw the Italian thinking rapidly, counting figures in a strange, bewildering sum, and I saw that he couldn't arrive at
the right answer.
“Maybe I ain't that smart-or -dumb," he pronounced, stroking the tommy-gun as though it were a thing of great price.
"Listen," said Red, throwing the gun that had killed the gang- ster on the table. “You get rid of Dutch's body, any way you like. Perhaps a barrel of liquid ce? 'ment, and dropped one night into
Long Island Sound. I don't have` to tell you how do that
to job."
The Italian smiled, “No, you don't have to do that, mister. Go on, I'm still interest- ed."
Red moistened his lips with his tongue.
"The police will nose around, but will find nothing, that right?"
"Maybe. Go on.”
"I can't do a thing." "Why not?"
t
"Because my finger-prints are on that gun. You've got me there, Pironi, if you keep the gun in a safe and don't wipe off those finger-prints."
"I've got you anyways, mister." "But that won't help you,
Pironi?"
"No?"
"No."
Red was breathing hard, exert- ing himself, being his most per- suasive. He was fighting for the lives of all-three of us, and those lives at that moment hung in a very precarious balance.
"Perhaps I am dumb," mutter- ed Pironi, with a smile I didn't like.
"Kill us," said Red slowly, ut- tering each word very distinctly, "and the gang will know you didn't fix Dutch. yourself. 'You won't be the Big Shot then, Pironi. You'll be just in the run- ning.
You know that.... Dutch didn't advertise what he was do- ing to-night, because he wanted to learn something for himself. He was smart-or thought he was.'
"Yeah, thought he was. He didn't know you'd short-circuited that damn thing, mister.. I was. watching-never mind how... I Blew ??k
"And you let me get away with it, Pironi.dn't want. Dutch to live too
He was greedy. He ate up the profits too fast. Those profits can be yours if to you're smart, keep this thing to yourself.
You can move in now, this minute, Pironi, if you think clearly."
There was- a long-drawn-out! period of silence, broken when Piront dropped the tommy-gun into the crook of his arm.
"I'll take a chance on you, mis- ter," he said. “I'll find you any way if your memory's bad and you squawk, Okay, Dutch was cheating, and I gave him his. The
boy get a share out, and that fixes the deal. Cut the dame's rope and beat, it. But one thing,
nister."
Red hesitated. "Yes?"
Keep "outa the Seven Stars.
You won't be welcome anytime
That's final.";
We were going out of the room when he said, "Leave the trick gadget, mister. I like it and I'll cover that piece of wire with some tape.
Ten minutes later we were out in the cool night, and Red started up the engine of his car. drove out on to the main road shuddered.
As we
"My God, you took a chance, Red!" I exclaimed.
"I was banking on Pironi," he said. "I remember the looks he threw Dutch that night at the Seven Stars."
The night, sped by us. "Who took you there?" quired.
"Brenda."
in-
I turned to my cousin, who had been thoughtful after my first words to her upon leaving Span- ish Casa.
"What did you take him there for?" I asked her.
A patch of moonlight struck her face, revealing an impish grin. "I wanted a story for my paper.
But I didn't get it. now"
as
The car shuddered Red's foot stumbled over the accelera- tor.
"Now my girl," he said heavily, 'you've finished your
"But, Red, paper will go cr
with
"My dear," said Red, friendly sarcasm, I prefer you
aB
"you are-pig-headed, mule- headed, stubborn as sin--but without any bullet holes adorning your becoming torso. To-morrow you enter the holy state-în a hurry, and you write your re- signation to the paper. Under- stand?"
"You gangster!" she flung him.
But I saw that she was smiling with happiness.
HEARD IN COURT
Man: As I have no money have come to this court prepared to take a holiday.
Defendant: I thought it only tactful to point out to the con- stable that I thought he was silly, in case he thought I was silly.
Solicitor. Was the note your.. wife left you lying near the bill of the debt she had incurred?
Man: Worse than that, she had actually written her note on the back of the bill,
Motorist: I was positive I had not inconvenienced anyone on the crossing, but when a pedestrian shakes his fist at you it certain-
makes you wonder.
"Perhaps I'm hard to please
When I was younger
I didn't much care what I ate or drank or
smoked. But nowadays I take my pleas- ures, not sadly but seriously. I suppose you
would call me faddy. I hate to be put off with second-
best, no matter what it is. I won't eat a peach unless it is English. If I order caviare it must be Beluga.
You see what I mean about whisky.
While I can obtain a whisky as soft and smooth as a fine liqueur, why on earth should I be put off with anything less
than White Horse?
admit that perhaps I am
hard to please but take
it from me, it pays."
WHITE HORSE
WHISKY
You can tell it blindfold!
Sole Agents for South China - Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd.