A Gun for Sale Read Online Free PDF

would stand the brilliance of the Astoria Dance Hall. She began making up all over again; if she was pale he would take her home early.
    The landlady stuck her head in at the door and said, ‘It’s your gentleman. On the ’phone.’
    ‘On the ’phone?’
    ‘Yes,’ the landlady said, sidling in for a good chat, ‘he sounded all of a jump. Impatient, I should say. Half barked my head off when I wished him good evening.’
    ‘Oh,’ she said despairingly, ‘it’s only his way. You mustn’t mind him.’
    ‘He’s going to call off the evening, I suppose,’ the landlady said. ‘It’s always the same. You girls who go travelling round never get a square deal. You said
Dick Whittington
, didn’t you?’
    ‘No, no,
Aladdin
.’
    She pelted down the stairs. She didn’t care a damn who saw her hurry. She said, ‘Is that you, darling?’ There was always something wrong with their telephone. She could hear his voice so hoarsely vibrating against her ear she could hardly realize it was his. He said, ‘You’ve been ages. This is a public call-box. I’ve put in my last pennies. Listen, Anne, I can’t be with you. I’m sorry. It’s work. We’re on to the man in that safe robbery I told you about. I shall be out all night on it. We’ve traced one of the notes.’ His voice beat excitedly against her ear.
    She said, ‘Oh, that’s fine, darling. I know you wanted …’ but she couldn’t keep it up. ‘Jimmy,’ she said, ‘I shan’t be seeing you again. For weeks.’
    He said, ‘It’s tough, I know. I’d been thinking … Listen. You’d better not catch that early train, what’s the point? There isn’t a nine o’clock. I’ve been looking them up.’
    ‘I know. I just said …’
    ‘You’d better go tonight. Then you can get a rest before rehearsals. Midnight from Euston.’
    ‘But I haven’t packed …’
    He took no notice. It was his favourite occupation planning things, making decisions. He said, ‘If I’m near the station, I’ll try …’
    ‘Your two minutes up.’
    He said, ‘Oh hell, I’ve no coppers. Darling, I love you.’
    She struggled to bring it out herself, but his name stood in the way, impeded her tongue. She could never bring it out without hesitation – ‘Ji –’ The line went dead on her. She thought bitterly: he oughtn’t to go out without coppers. She thought: it’s not right, cutting off a detective like that. Then she went back up the stairs; she wasn’t crying; it was just as if somebody had died and left her alone and scared, scared of the new faces and the new job, the harsh provincial jokes, the fellows who were fresh, scared of herself, scared of not being able to remember clearly how good it was to be loved.
    The landlady said, ‘I just thought so. Why not come down and have a cup of tea and a good chat? It does you good to talk. Really good. A doctor said to me once it clears the lungs. Stands to reason, don’t it? You can’t help getting dust up and a good talk blows it out. I wouldn’t bother to pack yet. There’s hours and hours. My old man would never of died if he’d talked more. Stands to reason. It was something poisonous in his throat cut him off in his prime. If he’d talked more he’d have blown it out. It’s better than spitting.’
    5
    The crime reporter couldn’t make himself heard. He kept on trying to say to the chief reporter, ‘I’ve got some stuff on that safe robbery.’
    The chief reporter had had too much to drink. They’d all had too much to drink. He said, ‘You can go home and read
The Decline and Fall
…’
    The crime reporter was a young earnest man who didn’t drink and didn’t smoke; it shocked him when someone was sick in one of the telephone-boxes. He shouted at the top of his voice: ‘They’ve traced one of the notes.’
    ‘Write it down, write it down, old boy,’ the chief reporter said, ‘and then smoke it.’
    ‘The man escaped – held up a girl – it’s a terribly good story,’ the earnest young