'Shut up, Max!'
'Go to hell!' Max wiped the spittle from his chin; he reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of ten- dollar notes, then savagely ripped them and scattered them like confetti.
'What the hell's gotten into you, Max?' Tex asked.
'Nothin', you son of a bitch! The bills're no goddam good.'
'Huh?'
'I just been to the store. Yeah. Thought I'd get me a coconut. But that goddam Chinee wouldn't take my dough. Wouldn't take it. Said he'd sold his whole stock to the goddam Camp Commandant. On a note. 'The English Government promises to pay X Straits Dollars!' You can wipe your goddam ass on the Jap bucks — that's all they're good for!'
'Wow,' Tex said. 'That's the clincher. If the Chinese won't take the dough, then we've really got it made, eh, Peter?'
'We have indeed.' Peter Marlowe felt warmed by their friendship. Even Max's malevolent stare could not destroy his happiness. 'Can't tell you how much you fellows have helped me, you know, kidding around and all that.'
'Hell,' Dino said. 'You're one of us.' He punched him playfully. 'You're not bad for a goddam Limey!'
'You better get your ass state-side when you get out. We might even let you become an American!' Byron Jones III said.
'You gotta see Texas, Peter boy. You ever get to the States, you gotta come to the state!'
'Not much chance of that,' Peter Marlowe said amid the catcalls. 'But if I ever do, you can depend on it.' He glanced towards the King's corner.
'Where's our fearless leader?'
'He's dead!' Max rocked with obscene laughter.
'What?' Peter Marlowe said, frightened in spite of himself.
'He's still alive,' Tex said. 'But he's dead all the same.'
Peter Marlowe looked searchingly at Tex. Then he saw the expressions on all their faces. Suddenly he felt very sad. 'Don't you think that's a little abrupt?'
'Abrupt nothin'.' Max spat. 'He's dead. We worked our asses off for that son of a bitch, and now he's dead.'
Peter Marlowe pounced on Max, loathing him. 'But when things were bad, he gave you food and money and —'
'We worked for it!' Max screamed, the tendons in his neck stretching. 'I took enough crap from that bastard!' His eyes saw the rank insignia on Peter Marlowe's arm. 'And from you, you Limey bastard! You wanna kiss my ass like you kissed his?'
'Shut up, Max,' Tex said warningly.
'Drop dead, you Lone Star pimp!' Max spat at Tex and the spittle streaked the rough wood floor.
Tex flushed. He hurled himself at Max and smashed him against the wall with a backhanded blow across the face. Max reeled and fell off his bunk, but he whirled to his feet, grabbed a knife off his shelf and lunged at Peter Marlowe. Tex just managed to catch Max's arm, and the knife only scored Peter Marlowe's stomach. Dino grabbed Max around the throat and shoved him back on the bunk.
'You outta your skull?' Dino gasped.
Max stared up, his face twitching, his eyes fixed on Peter Marlowe.
Suddenly he began screaming, and he hurled himself off the bunk fighting insanely, his arms flailing, lips stretched from his teeth, nails clawing.
Peter Marlowe grabbed an arm and they all fell on Max and hauled him back to the bunk. It took three men to hold him down as he kicked and screamed and fought and bit.
'He's flippedl' Tex shouted. 'Clobber him, someone!'
'Get some rope!' Peter Marlowe yelled frantically as he held on to Max, his forearm jammed under Max's chin, away from the grinding teeth.
Dino shifted his grip, worked one arm free, and smashed Max on the jaw, knocking him unconscious. 'Jesus,' he said to Peter Marlowe as they stood up. 'He goddam near murdered you!'
'Quick,' Peter Marlowe said urgently. 'Put something between his teeth, hell bite his bloody tongue off.'
Dino found a piece of wood and they tied it between Max's teeth. Then they tied his hands.
When Max was secure, Peter Marlowe relaxed, weak with relief. 'Thanks, Tex. If you hadn't stopped that knife, I would have had it.'
'Think nothing of it. Reflex action. What we going to do about him?'
'Get a doctor. He just had a fit, that's all. There wasn't any knife.' Peter Marlowe rubbed the score on his stomach as he watched Max jerking spastically. 'Poor bugger!'
'Thank God you stopped him, Tex,' Dino said. 'Gives me a sweat to think about it.'
Peter Marlowe looked at the King's corner. It seemed very lonely.
Unconsciously he flexed his hand and arm and gloried in its strength.
'How is it, Peter?' Tex asked.
It took Peter Marlowe a long time to find the right words. 'Alive, Tex, alive
