XX

said: “I’m going to send you over. The chances are you’ll get off with life. That means you’ll be out again in twenty years. You’re an angel. I’ll wait for you.” He cleared his throat. “If they hang you I’ll always remember you.”

She dropped her hands and stood erect. Her face became smooth and untroubled except for the faintest of dubious glints in her eyes. She smiled back at him, gently. “Don’t, Sam, don’t say that even in fun. Oh, you frightened me for a moment! I really thought you⁠—You know you do such wild and unpredictable things that⁠—” She broke off. She thrust her face forward and stared deep into his eyes. Her cheeks and the flesh around her mouth shivered and fear came back into her eyes. “What⁠—? Sam!” She put her hands to her throat again and lost her erectness.

Spade laughed. His yellow-white face was damp with sweat and though he held his smile he could not hold softness in his voice. He croaked: “Don’t be silly. You’re taking the fall. One of us has got to take it, after the talking those birds will do. They’d hang me sure. You’re likely to get a better break. Well?”

“But⁠—but, Sam, you can’t! Not after what we’ve been to each other. You can’t⁠—”

“Like hell I can’t.”

She took a long trembling breath. “You’ve been playing with me? Only pretending you cared⁠—to trap me like this? You didn’t⁠—care at all? You didn’t⁠—don’t⁠—l-love me?”

“I think I do,” Spade said. “What of it?” The muscles holding his smile in place stood out like wales. “I’m not Thursby. I’m not Jacobi. I won’t play the sap for you.”

“That is not just,” she cried. Tears came to her eyes. “It’s unfair. It’s contemptible of you. You know it was not that. You can’t say that.”