heap and runs over to him. I knew she hadn’t done the shooting. I ought to have beat it. But it was all funny as hell, so when I saw the woman was Willsson’s wife I went over to them, trying to find out what it was all about. That was a break, see? So I had to make an out for myself, in case something slipped. I strung the woman. That’s the whole damned works—on the level.”
“Thanks,” I said. “That’s what I came for. Now the trick is to get out of here without being mowed down.”
“No trick at all,” Thaler assured me. “We go any time we want to.”
“I want to now. If I were you, I’d go too. You’ve got Noonan pegged as a false-alarm, but why take a chance? Make the sneak and keep under cover till noon, and his frame-up will be a washout.”
Thaler put his hand in his pants pocket and brought out a fat roll of paper money. He counted off a hundred or two, some fifties, twenties, tens, and held them out to the chinless man, saying:
“Buy us a getaway, Jerry, and you don’t have to give anybody any more dough than he’s used to.”
Jerry took the money, picked up a hat from the table, and strolled out. Half an hour later he returned and gave some of the bills back to Thaler, saying casually:
“We wait in the kitchen till we get the office.”
We went down to the kitchen. It was dark there. More men joined us.
Presently something hit the door.
Jerry opened the door and we went down three steps into the back yard. It was almost full daylight. There were ten of us in the party.