The stinking rat double-crossed me! Get me out of here.”
She grabbed at my pyjama jacket. I wrenched free, leaving a strip of material in her hand.
“Clair!” I yelled frantically. “Quick! Come to me! Clair!”
I dashed towards the house, saw Clair in the doorway, yelled to her again.
The whole sky seemed suddenly to split open; a long tongue of orange flame rushed up into the night, and I was conscious of a tremendous noise.
I saw Clair, her hands before her face, her eyes wide with terror. I couldn’t run any more. I was crouching, my hands over my ears when a blast of suffocating air struck me down.
I struggled up on my knees, saw the house sway, crumble, tried to yell, then the ground kicked up, trembled, and another tremendous explosion ripped open the shattered night sky. Blast picked me up and threw me away as the house came down like a pack of cards.
6
The nurse beckoned. I stood up, braced myself, crossed the corridor. “You can go in now,” she said. “You’ll keep her quiet, won’t you? She’s still suffering from shock.”
I tried to say something, but words stuck in my throat. I nodded, went past her through the open doorway.
Clair was lying in the small bed facing me. Her head was a helmet of white bandages; her right hand was bandaged too.
We looked at each other. Her eyes smiled. I went over, stood beside her.
“Hello,” she said. “We made it, darling.”
“We made it all right,” I said, pulling up a chair. “It was a close call, Clair. Too close. I thought I wasn’t going to see you again.” I sat down, took her left hand.
“I’m tough,” she said. “Did they say if I—I—”
“It’ll be all right,” I assured her. “You’re more scorched than burned. You’ll look as lovely as ever when they’re through with you.”
“I wasn’t worrying for myself,” she said. “I didn’t want you to have an ugly wife…”
“Who said I had a pretty one?” I said, kissing her hand. “Someone’s been kidding yon.”
She fondled my hand, stared at me.
“There’s not much left of our home, is there?” she asked in a small voice.
I shook my head. “It’s all gone,” I said, ran my fingers through my hair, smiled at her. “It was a lovely blaze while it lasted.”
Her eyes darkened. “What are you going to do, darling? You won’t get unsettled?”
I patted her hand. “No. I’m going to build again. As soon as you’re better we’ll talk it over. I have ideas. We can build that restaurant of yours. The joint’s well insured. There won’t be any trouble about money. It’ll take a little time, but maybe it’ll turn out to be a good thing in the long run. I never did like the position of the station. I’ll rebuild it facing the road.”
“What happened to them?” she asked, gripping my hand.
I knew that question had been on her mind ever since she had recovered consciousness.
“Lois is here,” I said. “She was pretty badly burned. The Doc doesn’t think she’ll get over it.”
She shivered. “You mean she’s going to die?”
I nodded.
“And Bat?”
“Yeah… Bat. Well, they got him. He ran into a police car. There’s nothing to worry about, darling. He’s fixed.”
I bent down, pretended to fiddle with my shoe-lace. I knew if she looked at me now I wouldn’t have been able to have met her eyes, and then she’d have known I was lying. Lois was in the hospital, but Bat was still loose. I wasn’t going to tell her that.
“You mean our troubles are really over?” she asked.
“You bet they are,” I said, straightening. “As soon as you’re well enough to leave here, we’ll start right in again. You’ll like that, won’t you? You’ll be able to have your restaurant, and we’ll make a pile of dough.”
She closed her eyes, relaxed.
“I did so hope you would say that, darling,” she said.
The nurse looked in, beckoned.
“Well, here’s the tyrant again,” I said, getting up. “I’ll be back tomorrow. Take it easy. We have a lot to look forward to.” I kissed her lightly, touched her hand, went out.
There was another nurse waiting in the corridor.
“Miss Spence is asking for you,” she said.
“Okay,” I returned, looked at her. “How’s she making out?”
The nurse shook her head. “She was dreadfully burned,” she said. “I don’t think it will be long now.”
I followed her along the corridor to Lois’s room. A cop paced up and down outside. He nodded to me as I went in.
Lois was lying flat. Her face hadn’t been touched. They had told me that hot oil had flowed over her chest. She looked practically done.
I stood over her, waited.
She looked up, her eyes, dark with pain, searched my face.
“Hello, gambler,” she said- “You had all the luck.”
I didn’t say anything.
She chewed her lip, frowned. “I want to talk to you.”
I pulled up a chair, sat down.
“You’d better take it easy,” I said. “You’ll need all your strength. You’re pretty ill, Lois.”
“I know it,” she said, her mouth twisting. “I’m through. But I wanted to see you before…”
“Okay, go ahead,” I said, waited.
“Men have been my bad luck,” she said, staring at the ceiling. “They all let me down except Juan. I was fond of Juan, Cain. I kind of went crazy when I lost him. But I should have left you alone. Evening things up isn’t my strong suit—not against you, anyway. You’re too lucky, Cain.”
“You haven’t done so badly,” I said. “You blew my home and business to hell. What more do you want?”
She sneered. “But you’re still here, and your girl. Juan isn’t, and I’m finished too.”
“Let’s skip it,” I said. “This won’t get us anywhere.”
“Bat double-crossed me,” she said, spitefully.
“What did you expect? The snake would double-cross his own mother.”
“My fault again,” she said. “I wanted to use him to even things with you, but he thought I’d fallen for him. I ought to have played with him until this was over, but I gave him hell.
How could I fall for a filthy brute like him? I told him so, and he fixed me.” She moved her legs restlessly. “They swear they’ve filled me full of dope, but it hurts—it hurts like hell.”
I didn’t say anything.
“I taught Bat how to explode the gas dump, rehearsed him for weeks. God! He was dumb. He couldn’t have done it without me. He wanted to shoot you, but I had to be smart. You see, it didn’t work out. I wanted to see you and your girl go up in flames along with your smug little home.”
I looked away. It was no use hating her; she was dying and she’d paid for what she had done.
“You’re not letting Bat get away?” she asked abruptly.
I shook my head. “Where is he ?”
“What’ll you do to him?”
“Shoot or arrest him,” I said. “I don’t care which. One or the other.”
She grimaced, sweat was running down her face. “I wish he could suffer the way I’m suffering,” she
