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By Root 347 0

gunfire, vital. This last he tried to place in an admirable light, as though it were a matter of citizenship, not fear. He insisted that he had never wanted his job in the first place, except temporarily when a serious injury ended his football career, and cited his refusal to wear a uniform as proof of his high-toned attitude. Yet a captious eavesdropper might have reflected that upright citizens do not as a rule become chauffeurs to notorious racketeers, whether they wear a uniform or not. Lefty listened sympathetically, shaking his beer to bring up the foam, nodding, and putting in understanding comment. Then presently he said, "Well, you got it tough, you sure have. But any time it gets too tough, just take a look at me."

"Anyway, he gives you a day off."

"Sometimes."

"And he don't stick you behind the wheel of a car that's armored behind but wide open in front, and every street named Goon Street as soon as he climbs aboard."

"Oh, no?"

"You too, hey?"

"Like today."

"Say, Lefty, what's going on today?"

"I got to split a heist, that's all."

"I didn't hear about it."

"They haven't got it yet. They're pulling it this afternoon-bank over in Castleton, right after closing time, the late depositor gag. If they pull it. If that depositor ever gets in, which isn't any more than a one to five bet."

"You'll know soon. It's three-thirty."

"Castleton's on mountain time."

"That's right. I forgot."

"You ever sat in on a divvy, Ben?"

"I don't know any yeggs."

"Four wild kids, anywhere from eighteen to twenty, scared so bad the slobber is running out of their mouths, couple of them coked to the ears, their suspenders stretched double from the gats they got in their pants. And Sol takes half, see? For protection, for giving them a place to lay up, he cuts off that much. O.K., he says part goes to the cops, but that don't help me any. There's the dough, all over the bed, in a room at the Globe Hotel. And there's the kids, kissing it and tasting it and smelling it. And there's me, that never seen one of them before, that hasn't got a pal in the bunch. I got to take half and get out. And maybe Sol crossed me. Maybe he didn't take care of the cops, and they come in on me, and it's ten years till the next beer. And for all that—now here's where it gets good-Solly, he slips me a hundred bucks."

"Why do we take it, what he dishes out?"

"Well, for one thing, bucking Sol is not healthy. And me, I got to take it. I'm not what I was. I don't get calls anymore. To help on a job, I mean. I got to play along. You, of course you're different."

"In what way?"

"I figure you for a chiseler."

"What do you mean by that, Lefty?"

"That's all."

"Sounds like there might be more."

"Not unless you ask for it."

"...O.K.—shoot."

"A chiseler, he's not crooked and he's not straight. He's just in between."

"Maybe he's just smart."

"I don't say he's not. I should say I don't. He takes it where he can get it, he's willing to live and let live, he don't want any trouble. If he can only hold it, what he's got, he'll die rich, and of a regular disease, with a doctor's certificate, 'stead of a coroner's. Still, he'll never be a big operator."

"Why not?"

"A big operator, he runs it, or he don't operate."

Lefty then gave a disquisition on the use of force: so long as Sol didn't mind trouble and Ben did, Sol would run it. It was diplomatically phrased, but Ben looked sulky, and Lefty added: "Listen, no hard feelings about it. Because maybe you're the one that is smart. You're putting it by all the time, or I hope you got that little savings account tucked away somewhere. You're young, and when Sol gets it you can always get a job."

"What do you mean, when Sol gets it?"

"Oh, he'll get it."

"You mean this Swede Jansen that's running for Mayor."

"He hasn't got a chance."

"He's got Sol worried."

"You mean Mayor Maddux has."

"I don't get it."

"Well, Sol's the main beneficiary of this, our present administration, isn't he? The boys had to figure some way to make him kick in. So Maddux told him who's back of the Swede."

"You mean Delany?"

"I