after a minute some Mexican waiter comas an' does a big bowin' act an' asks what is my pleasure.
I tell him that my pleasure is usually dames, but that at the moment I'll take a glass of tequila. Then I ask him if he knows the Senora Benito.
He nods an' makes a gesture towards the dancin' space, an' as I look over a couple get up an' start dancin'. I look over an' I see that the dame is American an' I know that this is Paulette.
Boy is she good or is she? Get this: I seen plenty janes an' I'm tellin' you that this Paulette has got the makin's. She is one swell bundle of woman an' I get thinkin' that maybe if I wasn't so busy on this case I would like to get around an' try out my personality on this baby.
She is a honey. She is as cute as Henrietta, but in a different way. She is as different like a pineapple is to a plum.
She has got curves that woulda made King Solomon sign off the roster an' turn into a one-woman man, an' she has got the sorta style that woulda made that Roman baby they called Juno look lika case of gallopin' consumption. If Henry the Eighth coulda taken one peek at her ankles he woulda figured to have got himself born about six centuries later just so's he coulda given Anne Boleyn a quick bum's rush an' made this Paulette top sergeant in the royal runaround squad.
An' can she dance? I have seen dames dance plenty an' I reckon that she can swing a mean hip. I tell you she is as supple as a snake, an' as she turns around in the tango she is dancin' I catch a look at her white teeth flashin' an' see her red mouth smilin' up at the guy she is dancin' with, an' I start thinkin' that dames are very interestin' things an' that I would like to know very much just what a swell dame like this was doin' kickin' around with a cheap mug like Granworth Aymes.
An' the guy is good too. He is a dago an' he is wearin' tight black Mexican pants with a silk shirt an' a bolero jacket. He has got a silver cord in his shirt an' all the trimmin's. He is a tall, wiry lookin' cuss, with a lotta black hair an' a little black moustache. He dances swell an' I reckon that if this guy went to Hollywood he would probably be such a success that maybe he could get married to some film star for a coupla months before she got sick of anteing up all the time to keep this palooka in hair-oil.
He also looks dangerous to me. He has got that sorta wicked look like a rattlesnake, only I reckon that this baby wouldn't even rattle before he started spittin'.
After a bit the music stops an' they sit down again. I sit at my table sippin' the tequila an' watchin' them. You gotta understand that it is not quite so easy for me this side of the border an' as I don't wanta get mixed up with the local cops I have gotta play my hand easy.
Lookin' at Paulette I try an' make up my mind as to how I am goin' to play this thing, but lookin' at her don't help me any. You never know how a dame is goin' to take anything. You never know with females; whatever you do they ain't satisfied.
I remember hearin' about some high-hat butler in some swell dame's house in England. One day this butler guy busts into the bathroom just when the dame is takin' a shower. Now this butler has gotta lotta tact so he just says 'Excuse me, Sir,' an' scrams, an' thinks that he has got himself outa that one very good.
But he didn't feel so good next day when she made him go an' get his sight tested.
So I just sit there an' just as I am beginnin' to get tired of stickin' around, Paulette looks my way an' sorta gives me the once over, after which she gives me a sorta little smile.
I reckon that this is only because she reckons that I am an American in Mexico, but I act quick. I get up an' I ease over to her table an' I say how are you an' haven't we met some place before.
She say's she don't remember me but maybe she has met me somewhere.
'Anyhow, lady, I've been waitin' years to meet you,' I tell her. 'My name's Caution - Lemmy Caution - an' I wanta have a little talk with you sometime.'
'Sit down, Mr Caution,' she says, 'an' have a drink. This is Senor Luis Daredo.'
I sit down. The Mexican gives me a sorta look that might mean anything. I reckon he ain't so pleased with my bustin' in like this. He just nods.
I send the waiter to get the tequila that I have left on my table. While I am waitin' for it I see her watchin' me sorta interested, with a little smile playin' around her red mouth.
'And what was it you wanted to know, Mr Caution?' she says. 'I'll be glad to help you.'
I look at her quick an' see a big laugh in her eyes.
I give myself a cigarette.
'It's this way, Mrs Benito,' I tell her. 'I'm makin' a few inquiries about a guy called Granworth Aymes who bumped himself off last January in New York. I thought that maybe you could help me. But I reckon that we can't talk here very well. Maybe I can take you back home some time an' have a little talk there.'
She stops smilin'.
'Perhaps that wouldn't be convenient,' she says. 'You know, Mr Caution, this is Mexico - not the United States, and possibly I don't want to talk about Granworth Aymes. Perhaps you're wasting your time here.'
It is obvious to me that this dame is bein' fresh.
'I get you, lady,' I tell her. 'You mean that it ain't possible to hold anybody here as a material witness without a lotta funny business an' office stuff at Mexicali. Well, that's as may be, but if I was you I reckon I'd do what I want an' not make too much trouble over it, an' what will you have to drink?'
I order some drinks for all of us. The Mexican is watchin' me like I was a bad nightmare.
She' starts smilin' again.
'I like your direct methods, Mr Caution,' she says, 'but I still don't see why I should make appointments to talk over somebody's death with people I don't know.'
'OK, lady,' I say. 'In that case I'll go back over the border an' get extradition for you as a material witness. Then I'll take you back an' hold you. It'll take me two days to get a Federal plea for your extradition through with the Mexican authorities, an' if they ain't quick enough for me maybe I'll try something else. I am a Federal Agent an' I got a badge in my pocket that ain't very much use on this side of the border but maybe it's enough for me to get hold of the local Rurales officer an' tell him you've got a pinched passport. Even if it ain't true it's goin' to make things plenty tough for you. Get me?'
She is just goin' to say something when Daredo puts his hand on her arm an' stops her.
'Senor,' he says, 'thees ces Mekkiko. I don' like that you talk to thees sefiora like you talk. I don' like you at all. You get out of thees place queek or else I order them to t'row you out. Sabe?'
'Nuts, gringo,' I tell this guy. 'I don't like you neither, an' I reckon that you'll have to get all your friends around you before you can throw me outa any place, an' just so's you'll know that I don't mean maybe, get a load of this.'
I smack him across the puss an' he goes off the chair pronto. He gets up an' comes around the table an' I busL him another one. Some guy at the next table gets up an' starts emittin' a lotta Mexican noise an' easin' over to me so it looks as if I've gotta start something.
I stick my hand under my coat an' pull the gun. Around me I can see a lotta ugly mugs an' I reckon that I gotta fix this job.
'Listen, lady,' I say to Paulette. 'Get a load of this. If anybody starts anything around here, I'm goin' to give 'em the heat first an' talk afterwards. I'm takin' you back to your own place for a little talk an' if you don't like that I'll take you right over the border now an' smack you in the first sheriff's lock-up in Arizona I come to. You make up your mind what you're havin' -your own sittin' room or the hoosegow-I don't give a continental.'
She gets up.
'It's all right, Luis,' she says. 'You don't have to get excited. Maybe I'll go along with Mr Caution here an' straighten this out.'
'That's talkin',' I tell her, 'an' I don't even mind if Luis does get excited. Any time he wants somebody to kick them tight pants off him I'll elect myself for the job. Maybe he's a big guy around here, but to me he's just a big sissy with whiskers. Come on, lady.'
I put some money on the table an' we go out. I have still got the Luger in my hand an' over my shoulder I can see this Luis lookin' at me like a tiger with a gumboil. This guy is certainly not so pleased.
We get in the car an' we go off. Outa the corner of my eye I can see Paulette lookin' at me. She is wearin' same swell perfume an' I can just sniff it. I get to comparin' it with Henrietta's 'Carnation' an' I ain't quite certain which I like the best.
'That's a swell perfume you got, Paulette,' I tell her. 'I could go for that stuff. I always was keen on nice
