The Golden Horseshoe and Other Stories by Dashiell Hammett Read Free Book Online

and I went on with my little lie that was meant to stir things up.
    â€œHaven’t you rapped to it,” I asked; “that they were fixing up to ditch you?”
    â€œYou dirty liar!” the girl screamed, and took a step toward me.
    Tai halted her with an imperative gesture. He stared through her with his opaque black eyes, and as he stared the blood slid out of her face. She had this fat yellow man on her string, right enough, but he wasn’t exactly a harmless toy.
    â€œSo that’s how it is?” he said slowly, to no one in particular. “So that’s how it is?” Then to me: “Where did they put the bonds?”
    The girl went close to him and her words came out tumbling over each other:
    â€œHere’s the truth of it, Tai, so help me God! I switched the stuff myself. Hook wasn’t in it. I was going to run out on both of you. I stuck them under the couch downstairs, but they’re not there now. That’s the God’s truth!”
    He was eager to believe her, and her words had the ring of truth to them. And I knew that—in love with her as he was—he’d more readily forgive her treachery with the bonds than he would forgive her for planning to run off with Hook; so I made haste to stir things up again. The old timer who said “ Divide to conquer ,” or something of the sort, knew what he was talking about.
    â€œPart of that is right enough,” I said. “She did stick the bonds under the couch—but Hook was in on it. They fixed it up between them while you were upstairs. He was to pick a fight with you, and during the argument she was to make the switch, and that is exactly what they did.”
    I had him!
    As she wheeled savagely toward me, he stuck the muzzle of an automatic in her side—a smart jab that checked the angry words she was hurling at me.
    â€œI’ll take your guns, Elvira,” he said, and took them.
    There was a purring deadliness in his voice that made her surrender them without a word.
    â€œWhere are the bonds now?” he asked me.
    I grinned.
    â€œI’m not with you, Tai. I’m against you.”
    He studied me with his little eyes that were like black seeds for a while, and I studied him; and I hoped that his studying was as fruitless as mine.
    â€œI don’t like violence,” he said slowly, “and I believe you are a sensible person. Let us traffic, my friend.”
    â€œYou name it,” I suggested.
    â€œGladly! As a basis for our bargaining, we will stipulate that you have hidden the bonds where they cannot be found by anyone else; and that I have you completely in my power, as the shilling shockers used to have it.”
    â€œReasonable enough,” I said, “go on.”
    â€œThe situation, then, is what gamblers call a standoff. Neither of us has the advantage. As a detective, you want us; but we have you. As thieves, we want the bonds; but you have them. I offer you the girl in exchange for the bonds, and that seems to me an equitable offer. It will give me the bonds and a chance to get away. It will give you no small degree of success in your task as a detective. Hook is dead. You will have the girl. All that will remain is to find me and the bonds again—by no means a hopeless task. You will have turned a defeat into more than half of a victory, with an excellent chance to make it a complete one.”
    â€œHow do I know that you’ll give me the girl?”
    He shrugged.
    â€œNaturally, there can be no guarantee. But, knowing that she planned to desert me for the swine who lies dead below, you can’t imagine that my feelings for her are the most friendly. Too, if I take her with me, she will want a share in the loot.”
    I turned the lay-out over in my mind, and looked at it from this side and that and the other.
    â€œThis is the way it looks to me,” I told him at last. “You aren’t a killer. I’ll come through alive no