Tiger By The Tail

tired; a kid of about eighteen, old in sin and experience if he could judge from her hard expression. She had a leather satchel for giving change hung over her shoulder.

He walked into the arcade and, going to a pin-table machine near where the girl was standing, he began to play, shooting the balls up the channel, watching the coloured lights spring up as each ball tapped the pins.

After he had shot off a complete row of balls, he paused to light a cigarette, and he was aware the girl was looking curiously at him.

He met her blue, dark-ringed eyes and he smiled.

'Some way to waste an hour, isn't it?' he said.

She lifted her shoulders indifferently.

'No one's asking you to do it.'

He left the machine and came over to her.

'Would you know anything about the boats anchored in the estuary?' he asked. 'I'm looking for Willow Point.'

Surprise and suspicion jumped into her eyes.

'I'm not stopping you,' she said, slid her hand through the opening in her overall and scratched herself under her arm.

'Would you know where it's anchored?'

'I might. Why?'

'I want to find it,' he said patiently.

'Are you sure you do, handsome?' she asked, leaning her hips against the pin-table machine. 'Do you know who owns Willow Point.'

He shook his head.

'Tux,' she said, 'and he's a guy you want to keep away from.'

'I've got to find the boat,' Ken said.

She studied him.

'Look, handsome, hadn't you better go home? You're likely to get into trouble if you start messing around with Tux.'

'I'm in trouble already,' Ken said.

'Well, I don't have to be,' she said, and abruptly moved away to give

change to a fat man who was tapping impatiently on the glass top of a pintable machine.

Ken lit a cigarette and went back to his machine. He began to play again, watching the girl out of the corner of his eye.

She moved around the arcade aimlessly, and after about five minutes she came slowly back to where he was standing.

She leaned against the machine he was playing and began to clean her nails again with the chip of wood.

'Won't you help me?' Ken said, keeping his voice low. 'Won't you tell me where Willow Point is?'

She gave a little shrug.

'Last time I saw it, it was anchored off North End.'

'That doesn't tell me anything. I don't know the river. How far out?'

'Half a mile. North End is the light you can see from the wharf.'

He looked up and smiled.

'Thanks.'

She shook her head at him.

'You're heading for trouble, handsome. Tux is a mean guy.'

He shot another ball up the channel before saying, 'I want a boat, but I can't pay for it. I've got to go to Willow Point.'

'What do you expect me to do?' she asked, not looking at him. 'Steal one for you?'

'I'd do that myself if I knew where to find one.'

'Does Tux know you're coming?'

Ken shook his head.

'How hot are you?' she asked. 'Is it the cops?'*

'Something like that.'

'You'll find a boat under the jetty. The guy who owns it leaves around dawn, so you'd better get back before then.'