Shadow on the Sun Read Online Free PDF Page B

You never knew on a night like this, she’d said. All sorts of people might be coming in for rooms. You never knew.
    Well, Harry knew. Good and well, he knew. Ethel didn’t think for a damn second that there’d be any extra guests that night. She was just mad about last night and this was her little way of getting even with him. She couldn’t get honest mad with him, couldn’t—wouldn’t—tell him what was really on her mind. Oh, no, never in a million centuries! She was a woman, wasn’t she? Did a woman ever tell a man what was really on her mind? Ever in the whole history of mankind?
    Hell, no! She waited till the next night and then got even with him by asking him to do something she knew full well there wasn’t the least bit of need to do. Like sit here in the cold, empty lobby waiting for a guest who’d never show up. Sure, that was a woman.All tricks and deceits and never an honest-to-God explanation. Never.
    Christ Almighty, you’d think they were a hundred years old apiece! The way she got so mad every time he tried anything with her. A hundred damn darn years old apiece.
Christ!
    He was glaring down the black well of his thoughts when the bell over the door tinkled and a stream of cold air rushed across the lobby floor.
    Focusing his eyes, Harry Vance saw the tall man entering. Then, hastily willed, a smile of calculated hospitality creased his round face, and he leaned forward as if preparing himself to leap over the waist-high counter and embrace the man in cordial welcome.
    â€œEvenin’, sir, evenin’,” he said genially. Well, by Christ, they could sure use an extra guest or two. Things were darn slow this month. Darn slow.
    The tall man moved across the rug slowly, his boots leaving wet, mud-streaked imprints on the carpeting. Oh, God, he hadn’t wiped his feet off! thought Harry, an agony of prescience straining behind his smile. Ethel would be furious.
    Well, the hell with Ethel! he decided suddenly, eyes steeling. They could have locked the place up, but no, she had to send him out to sit in the lobby and wait for a guest. Well, here was a guest, by Christ, and he was tracking up the floor. So, the hell with her. Let her clean up the damn spots!
    The man stopped before him.
    â€œYes, sir,” Harry said, swiveling the book around and plucking the pen from its holder. “Just stayin’ for the night, are ya?”
    The man didn’t even glance at the pen which Harry held out for him.
    â€œDodge,” he said, his voice deep, guttural.
    â€œSir?” Harry Vance’s smile faltered a little.
    â€œ
Dodge
,” the man repeated.
    â€œDodge City?” Harry asked. He thought he understood. The man couldn’t write and was too embarrassed to admit it. He was telling Harry he was from Dodge City. Well, that was all right so long as he had coin. Harry would—
    â€œPro-fessor Dodge,” the man said carefully.
    The smile was gone. Harry’s expression was removed, impersonal. This was no paying guest.
    â€œHe ain’t here,” he said.
    â€œWhat—room?” asked the man. He spoke as if speaking was an ability laboriously learned, a skill not altogether mastered.
    â€œTwenny-nine,” Harry said automatically. He tightened. “But he ain’t here,” he said. “I
told
ya. He’s on one of them field trips. He’s a—”
    He broke off as the man turned and headed for the staircase.
    â€œI said he wasn’t in,” he called impatiently.
    The man began walking up the steps, boots thudding measuredly on the worn carpeting.
    â€œHey!” Harry squinted after the man. “I said he wasn’t in!” By Christ, he was getting mad now. He’d—
    â€œ
Harry.
”
    Vance almost vacated his skin as the voice snapped behind him. He grunted in pain as, lurching spasmodically against the counter edge, he hurt his stomach. He whirled,