and set the bottle on it after I'd poured our drinks.
'Clever,' Hap nodded. 'Too bad you're not married. But give me the news, laddie, I'm all ears.'
'You want it right from the beginning?'
'Oh, absolutely.'
'Well, right from the start,' I said, 'I heard that Sol wanted my lot. As soon as I learned that he was moving in, I heard that he was going to take me over. At the exchanges. From you. Everywhere I went. Then, yesterday, just to clinch matters, he drove out here to see me and offered five grand for the lot. He told me he'd give me five to clear out at the end of the season, or I could be stubborn and he'd run me out.'
I paused to sip my drink. Hap began to frown.
'He can do it, laddie. Little Sol can take your shirt and charge you interest for wearing it.'
'Sure he could.'
'So this is the old build-up, eh? The easy letdown. All you've got is a measly five grand.'
'Nothing like it,' I said. 'I didn't sell. Sol doesn't want my lot.'
'You said he offered you five yards for it?'
'That's right.'
'But he doesn't want it?'
'Of course, he doesn't.'
Chance leaned back on the lounge again. He tapped his forehead. 'Feeble, laddie. Humor me.'
'What would Panzer want with my lot?'
'What would he want with it? Well, fantastic as the idea seems I suppose he'd erect a house on it. There's nothing like the site of an old show for a new one. People are used to the location, and-'
'And,' I said, 'it's one hundred and three feet from the sidewalk to the alley. No matter how you work it, you can't get much more than a ninety-foot shot from the projection booth to the screen.'
Hap blinked. 'Lord lummie!' he whispered. 'Comes the dawn- But wait a minute! Maybe he intends to pitch his floor in reverse and put the projectors below the screen.'
'That still wouldn't give him enough room. Not for a million bucks' worth of house. A million that's got to look like two million.'
'But, laddie'-Hap waved his hands-'it's fantastic!'
'Call it anything you want, that's the way it is. There's width and to spare, but not depth. You see how it was, Hap? Sol was using the old magician's trick of misdirection. When I was told that he wanted my lot, over and over, I and everyone else assumed that he did. It never occurred to me to question the fact. Or if I had any idea that it was a little screwy, I brushed it aside. Sol knew what he was doing. He had to know.
'But he got a little too anxious. Too anxious in one way and not enough in another. When he thought that I was convinced, when he believed I was ready to take the five grand, he agreed to let the deal hang fire. I knew, then, that he didn't want my lot. He was misdirecting me. He was doing it because he didn't have the lot sewed up that he did want.'
'Careless. I can't believe it of Sol.'
'Careless, nothing. Where would he be most likely to tip his hand that he was coming into Stoneville? Why, when he bought his lot. So he was saving that until the last, until he was ready to jump.'
'I still say it was careless. Suppose someone jumped in ahead of him-like, I gather, you've done?'
'No one could. What he wanted was the Bower lot, and I had the place leased. I was playing shutout with it. As soon as I went broke, of course, I'd give up my lease and Sol could buy.'
Hap shook his head. 'Marvelous, laddie. Positively brilliant. And that's the only place in town that Sol could move in on?'
'The only one. That's the only block without an alley; the lots run straight on through. The Bower lot is kind of bottle-shaped. It squares off and spreads out after a few feet.'
'And there's no other lot in that block?'
'Two-but the bank and the hotel are sitting on them.'
'Terrific! One more question, old bean. How did you happen to acquire this juicy bit of real estate?'
'You know, Hap. I traded something for it that's going to be worthless.'
'Uh-hah, your show. That's what I supposed. But there's one little point I'm not quite clear on. Our friend Taylor doesn't know that your house is going to be worthless. He regards it as a little gold mine. Why wasn't he suspicious when you swapped it for his prize white elephant?'
I'd stepped into one again; he knew now that I was walking a pretty ragged rope.
He laughed softly.
'This is much better than I thought, laddie-or worse. Y'know, I think I'll raise my sights on you. I really think I shall.'
'What's the Taylor deal got to do with you?' I said. 'You don't know anything, Hap.'
'Haven't I said so all along? I know enough to sound the alarm. The firemen, speaking metaphorically, will do the rest.' He tapped a yawn back with his hand. 'Odd how this subject of fires keeps cropping up, isn't it?'
'What do you want?'
'Well, what kind of holdup are you pulling on little Solly? Honor bright, now. I'd be very hurt to catch you in a falsehood.'
'I've got a check for fifty grand in my pocket.'
'Uh-hah. A very neat evasion. Perhaps I'd better ask Sol about it and explain my interest in the matter.'
'I get a hundred and fifty more,' I said, 'when he moves in.'
'You see?' Hap shrugged. 'You can tell the truth when you have to.' He sat up and reached for the whisky bottle. 'Shall we drink on it-partner?'
'Yeah,' I said.
'Partner?'
'Partner,' I said.
He poured us a drink and we touched glasses; and I couldn't help thinking how nice it would be to drop a little arsenic in his. Then, I saw a shadow in the hall and I knew Carol was listening, and I thought-Well, never mind. Sometimes you get an idea in your head, and it's pretty hard to get it out.
Hap swished the liquor around in his glass, studying me. 'Y'know,' he said, 'you're really a very lucky man, Joe.'
'Sure,' I said. 'Sure, I am.'
'Oh, but you are. If I hadn't become interested in the success of your little plan-which necessarily involves your own safety-I probably would have stood aside and let Fate take her course with you. A very unpleasant course.'
'Now what?' I said. 'What are you trying to pull now?'
'Take yourself back to the morn of the tragedy, old man. You stop by the show and visit the projection booth, and, lo and behold, you discover that your supply of photoelectric cells is exhausted. It comes as a complete surprise to you. You hadn't planned on going to the city, but now you must.
'Well?'
'But you had your suitcase in your car. Jimmie Nedry saw it when he passed by on his way to work. So you must have planned on going to the city before you ever noticed the alleged absence of those cells.'
'So what?' I said. 'Maybe I was-'
'-taking some clothes to the cleaners? Not good enough, laddie. That could be checked on. And that isn't the clincher, at any rate. It wasn't the first time you'd hopped Jimmie about missing equipment; and he'd taken certain precautions. He's ready to swear that the cells you supposedly bought in town bore the same serial numbers as those that were missing from the show. In other words, old chap, your alibi is a phony.'
'He-he told you all this?'
'Mmm. Got quite fond of me, did Nedry. And in the morning, when Blair swings his transfer, he's going to tell him.'
He grinned at me over his glass, and I began to see red. What the hell! This was my deal. I'd taken the risk and done all the thinking, and here was another guy with his hand out!
'Let the little bastard talk,' I said. 'Let him go to hell. He's lying! He got the numbers of those cells wrong.
