Come Easy, Go Easy by James Hadley Chase Read Free Book Online

without food or water I began to wonder if I would get off that train alive
    Finally, the train pulled in at Little Creek, and I left the truck without anyone spotting me.
    The time was late in the afternoon and the heat was intense. There seemed no one around: the main street was deserted.
    I still had a dollar fifty left from the money the girl had given me. I went into a snack bar and ordered a hamburger, a coffee and a quart of ice water.
    I looked pretty rough after travelling all that time in the truck. I hadn't shaved, and I was filthy dirty and the suit the girl had given me had taken a beating off the floor of the truck, but it didn't seem to matter how I looked in this town. It was dirty and beaten up itself: one of those dead-end dumps, fast dying on its feet.
    While I was eating, I considered what my next move was to be. If I could get over the mountain and down into Tropica Springs I felt I would be far enough away from Farnworth to be safe.
    Tropica Springs was about two hundred miles from this desert town. My only chance of getting there was to get a ride from some truck or private car. I reckoned it would have to be a truck. No owner of a private car would give me a ride looking the way I looked now.
    The man behind the snack counter had a cheerful, friendly face. I asked him what chance I had of getting a ride in a truck going over the mountain.
    He shook his head doubtfully.
    "There are trucks passing through here by the dozen," he said, "but I've never seen any of them stop. Maybe you'll be lucky, but it's a long shot." He drew a cup of coffee for himself and leaned on the counter. "Your best bet would be to get to Point of No Return. All trucks stop there to fill up before going over the mountain. You could talk to some of the fellas. Maybe you could persuade one of them to take you."
    "Point of No Retu rn? Where's that and what is it?"

    "Carl Jenson's place. He's lived there all his life. His father owned it before he did: a filling station and a snack bar. There's no other filling station after Point of No Return for the next hundred and sixty miles, and that's on the other side of the mountain."
    "How far is it from here?"
    "Fifty miles."
    "How do I get there—walk?"
    He grinned at me.
    "Nothing as painful as that. You're in luck. Mr. Jenson will be in here in a while. He comes into town every three months to buy scrap metal: plenty of that going in this bum town. You talk to him. He's a nice fellow. He'll give you a ride out to his place if you tell him you want to get over the mountain. He's always a good one for helping people out of a hole."
    "When will he be in then?"
    He glanced over his shoulder at the fly-blown clock.
    "About twenty minutes. You stick around. I'll tip you when he comes in. How about another coffee?"
    I would have liked one, but my money was running low.
    "No, thanks. If you don't mind me hanging around …"
    He drew a cup of coffee and shoved it at me.
    "It's on the house. You look as if you've come a long way."
    "Yeah." I rubbed my bristly chin. "I'm joining a pal in Tropica Springs. I've been travelling rough. My pal and I are going into business together. I've been travelling on my thumb to save my money."
    "Money . . ." The counter man shook his head glumly. "I've never had enough of it. I wouldn't be in this lousy town now if I had enough to take my wife and kids somewhere where I could earn a fair wage. Can't get far without money." He looked out through the open window to watch a big cream and black Cadillac float past, throwing clouds of dust either side, some of it coming through the window. "Those guys. They never stop here. They're loaded with dough, but they never spend it here. At least Mr. Jenson does all right. They have to stop at his place whether they like it or not. I reckon he has a gold mine out there."

    While he was speaking, a big man came in through the open doorway and walked to the bar.
    "Let's have a fast coffee, Mike," he said "I want to get away