Solomon's Vineyard Read Online Free PDF Page A

blood.
    “You'll know it next time, fatty,” Pug said.
    Ginger looked frightened now. The Greek spoke to me “I guess you're
not so tough.”
    “What's he been doing?” Pug asked.
    “He thinks the game is wrong,” the Greek said.
    “If you don't like our games,” Pug asked, “why don't you go home?”
    I kept saying to myself, don't start anything. I wanted to kill Pug.
I never could stand being hit by anybody, not even a woman. I wanted to
take him and his pals. I could taste the blood in my mouth.
    “I like your games,” I said; “with the right dice.”
    “Wise, eh?” Pug said, and hit me on the cheekbone. It was a good
punch. I fell back against one of the slot machines. The metal stand
tilted and the machine fell on the floor, shattering the glass front.
    “Don't get too tough,” I told Pug.
    He hit me again. The dark-haired woman with Chief Piper screamed. He
hit me on the right temple. He hit hard with both hands. I sat down
with my back to the wall. I felt blood run from my mouth. I was a
little dizzy. He tried to kick me, but I blocked his foot with my arm.
The dark-haired woman ran to him.
    “Stop that, Pug,” she cried.
    He kicked at me again. The woman jerked his arm, trying to pull him
away. He got the arm loose and hit her on the nose. The blow sounded
like a ripe tomato dropping on a cement floor. She went over on her
back. Blood spilled from her nose. Chief Piper, his small eyes
frightened, started to protest.
    “Keep your damn whores in line,” Pug snarled at him.
    The chief backed away. The blood had gone from his face, leaving it
the colour of a turnip. The Greek was grinning, his tongue running over
his lips. Pug kicked at me again; not hard this time. It was a gesture.
He turned his head to the two bodyguards.
    “Toss him out.”
    They picked me off the floor. Nobody bothered to do anything about
the woman. She was sobbing, her breath coming in gasps, blood streaming
down her face. Pug had broken her nose. The bodyguards started me out
of the room. I looked at Ginger. She stared at me as though she had
never seen me in her life. In her hand was the money she'd won with my
twenty. The bodyguards ran me through the dining-room. I was still a
little punch-drunk. They halted on a veranda.
    One said: “If we catch you again, fatso, we'll cut off your tail
feathers.”
    “And that ain't all,” the other said.
    They threw me down the steps. I lit rolling, but gravel cut my hands
and face. I got up and walked to the parking place. Nobody bothered me.
I got in the car and found a rag and wiped the blood off my face. My
jaw hurt when I moved it, but I cursed the Greek and Chief Piper and
the bodyguards. Then I cursed Pug. I cursed him longest. I decided I
would kill him when I got through the job in Paulton. That made me feel
better. I started the engine and drove away. For a long time I could
see the neon sign, Tony's, through the rear mirror.
CHAPTER FOUR
    IT GOT really hot again in the morning. I kicked the sheet off the
bed, but that didn't do any good. It was too hot to sleep. My watch
said nine o'clock. I got up and peered at myself in the mirror. My face
wasn't so bad. There was a blue mark on one cheekbone, and a swollen
lip. I cursed Pug Banta again, but I hadn't forgotten I had my own
business first. My own and then Oke Johnson's. Somebody would toast for
that. I hoped it was Pug Banta. That would tie everything up nice.
    I thought about Oke. He'd been killed by a bullet from a rifle with a
silencer. That didn't sound like a crime of passion, as the newspapers
say. What I'd told the chief about husbands not keeping rifles with
silencers in the closet was right. Somebody smart and cold-blooded
killed Oke, and h could only have been because of our case.
    I shaved and put on a white linen suit and sent four dirty shirts to
the laundry and went down to the air-cooled coffee shop. I ordered the
sixty-cent club breakfast, with ham and eggs and