Chapter 9

It was the usual tableau - except that Gracie was there today. Jake, Jim, Bill lying on the two beds, glasses in hands; Smiler, Lucky, Johnny sitting on chairs; Francie swinging one leg from a table edge. But there was an atmosphere.

Hartnell felt it as soon as he arrived. Every one looked up at him, held him with their eyes for a second too long. His glance flickered over Gracie, whom he'd been unable to see for a few days. Her replying glance told him nothing. Had Francie discovered, he wondered? Well, the showdown had to come sometime - and he wasn't afraid of Francie.

"Hello Roger, old chap," Francie said. "We were waiting for you."

"Oh."

Francie's eyes were. His sensual mouth was a slit.

"Yes. I have a friend we don't see very often. Helps with occasional jobs, you know. Sort of a specialist. Well'e went to see Rosie yesterday."

Hartnell's face didn't twitch. His mind was racing. So what? So what if this fellow had seen Rosie?

"Seems like you made a mistake," Francie went on.

"Mistake? What do you mean?"

"I think you know what I mean, Roger, old bean - and I won't pretend I'm not surprised at you. Don't know what the old club would think, I'm sure."

"What are you getting at, Francie?"

Hartnell already knew. He couldn't understand how it had happened - but he already knew.

"Well it seems she asked this friend of mine for thirty nicker, large as life, without batting an eyelash, without so much as a quiver of her teats."

There was an oppressive silence when Francie paused. Everybody was staring at Hartnell.

"So what I want to know, Roger, old boy, is what you've done with the rake-off she's been giving you for keeping quiet."

Hartnell's mind took a minute to put things in place. That stupid little fool of a girl had not been able to resist continuing to overcharge - probably thought she'd be safe once one of Francie's men had reported her as straight. But Francie thought Hartnell had demanded the cut for his silence. The thought was grimly amusing. Just the sort of thing one would expect Francie to think.

"Look, Francie," he said. "You're an out and out crook. Well I'm not and I didn't . . ."

Francie sprang from the table, eyes blazing, mouth twisted.

"Keep your dirty insults to yourself!" he rasped.

His hand made a quick arc through the air and slashed Hartnell across the face, knocking his head sideways with the force. Gracie gave a shriek. And then Hartnell had lunged forward and smacked Francie squarely on the side of the jaw. Francie swayed back, clasped at the table and then slid to the ground.

In an instant Jake, Jim and Bill had surrounded Hartnell and held him firmly - but not brutally - by arms and neck.

Gracie, looking at Hartnell, put a hand to her mouth and gasped. Francie, resting on an elbow on the floor, noticed her and his eyes flickered back to Hartnell quickly.

He got slowly to his feet. His eyes were hard, but he had recovered his composure.

"All right, Roger, me boy," he said, quietly. "We won't hold that against you. Only thing a gentleman can do if another one slaps him, eh?"

Hartnell said nothing. At a sign from Francie, they released him and the atmosphere in the room relaxed a little.

"So what were you about to say, Roger?" Francie asked.

"I was about to say that I certainly didn't take a cut, but that I warned her to stop overcharging."

"Oh, and why did you warn her, Roger? Sort of gallantry, I suppose?" His voice contained a hint of a sneer.

"You could call it that," Hartnell said.

"All right," Francie said. "We all admire a bit of gallantry in the right place. Only yours was really in the wrong place, old man." Hartnell said nothing. He was not sure what attitude Francie was taking towards him. "But then," Francie continued, "as you're fairly new to all this we'll overlook it this time."

"It was very strange that he was so conciliatory about it," Gracie said. "I don't like it at all."

"Look," Hartnell said. "After this trip's over I'll have about 50 pounds from the past month's earnings. We've got to get out then, Gracie."

"Where?" she asked. "It's so difficult, Roger."

"No it isn't. I've been thinking. And we won't stay in this country. We'll go to the States or to Canada. I'll get a job somehow once we get there. On that money we'd have plenty of time to look around."

"Oh, how wonderful it would be to live an ordinary life," Gracie said with longing. "To cook meals for you and wash your socks, go out together without having to keep to side streets. But it frightens me, Roger. Francie is so cunning and I have the feeling that something terrible's going to happen."

"That's just a woman's fear of change," he said decidedly. "That's what we'll do. It'll take about a week to make arrangements and then we'll just disappear overnight."

"Roger," she said. "I feel helpless. I'd have to leave it all to you. I'm sorry, darling."

"That's all right," he said. "As soon as this raid's over I'll get going. Don't you think about it and in no time we'll be away."

He had become quite elated at the thought. His mind was already racing over the things that would have to be done. He was already sure that this decision was going to be their salvation.

Gracie came over to him and kissed him tenderly.

"I love you, darling," she said. "And, I'm worried about you all the time you're not here. There's something I want you to promise to do for me."

"What's that?"

"Will you promise to do it?"

"All right."

She disengaged herself from his arms and went over to a chest of drawers. She pulled the bottom one open and rummaged under a pile of clothing. When she turned to him, she was holding a revolver and a little packet of cartridges.

"These belonged to Daddy," she said. "I want you to have them."

He overcame his surprise and smiled at her concern.

"Why darling? I shan't need them. How ridiculous you are."

"Please. You promised. And I don't trust Francie now that there's bad blood between you. I would feel much better if you took them. They're no use to me."

There was still a smile in his eyes when he slipped them into his pocket. He was touched.

"I'll throw them away as soon as we're off to Canada," he said.

Her reply was lost against his lips.