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by Gad!--if you lose a son it's possible to get another--and there's only one Maltese falcon."
Spade laughed.
Cairo moved over and whispered in the boy's ear. The boy, keeping his cold hazel eyes on
Gutman's face, sat down on the sofa again. The Levantine sat beside him.
Gutman's sigh did not affect the benignity of his smile. He said to Spade: "When you're
young you simply don't understand things."
Cairo had an arm around the boy's shoulders again and was whispering to him. Spade
grinned at Gutman and addressed Brigid O'Shaughnessy: "I think it'd be swell if you'd see what
you can find us to eat in the kitchen, with plenty of coffee. Will you? I don't like to leave my
guests."
"Surely," she said and started towards the door.
Gutman stopped rocking. "Just a moment, my dear." He held up a thick hand. "Hadn't you
better leave the envelope in here? You don't want to get grease-spots on it."
The girl's eyes questioned Spade. He said in an indifferent tone: "It's still his."
She put her hand inside her coat, took out the envelope, and gave it to Spade. Spade
tossed it into Gutman's lap, saying: "Sit dn it if you're afraid of losing it."
"You misunderstand me," Gutman replied suavely. "It's not that at all, but business should
be transacted in a business-like manner." He opened the flap of the envelope, took out the
thousand-dollar bills, counted them, and chuckled so that his belly bounced. "For instance there
are only nine bills here now." He spread them out on his fat knees and thighs. "There were ten
when I handed it to you, as you very well know." His smile was broad and jovial and triumphant.
Spade looked at Brigid O'Shaughnessy and asked: "Well?"
She shook her head side-wise with emphasis. She did not say anything, though her lips
moved slightly, as if she had tried to. Her face was frightened.
Spade held his hand out to Gutman and the fat man put the money into it. Spade counted
the money--nine thousand-dollar bills--and returned it to Gutman. Then Spade stood up and his
face was dull and placid. He picked up the three pistols on the table. He spoke in a matter-of-fact
voice. "I want to know about this. We"--he nodded at the girl, but without hooking at her--"are
going in the bathroom. The door will be open and I'll be facing it. Unless you want a three-story
drop there's no way out of here except past the bathroom door. Don't try to make it."
"Really, sir," Gutman protested, "it's not necessary, and certainly not very courteous of
you, to threaten us in this manner. You must know that we've not the least desire to leave."
"I'll know a lot when I'm through." Spade was patient but resolute. "This trick upsets
things. I've got to find the answer. It won't take long." He touched the girl's elbow. "Come on."
In the bathroom Brigid O'Shaughnessy found words. She put her hands up flat on Spade's
chest and her face up chose to his and whispered: "I did not take that bill, Sam."
"I don't think you did," he said, "but I've got to know. Take your clothes off."
"You won't take my word for it?"
"No. Take your clothes off."
"I won't."
"All right. We'll go back to the other room and I'll have them taken off."
She stepped back with a hand to her mouth. Her eyes were round and horrified. "You
would?" she asked through her fingers.
"I will," he said. "I've got to know what happened to that bill and I'm not going to be held
up by anybody's maidenly modesty."
"Oh, it isn't that." She came close to him and put her hands on his chest again. "I'm not
ashamed to be naked before you, but--can't you see?--not like this. Can't you see that if you make
me you'll--you'll be killing something?"
He did not raise his voice. "I don't know anything about that. I've got to know what
happened to the bill. Take them off."
She looked at his unblinking yellow-grey eyes and her face became pink and then white
again. She drew herself up tall and began to undress. He sat on the side of the bathtub watching
her and the open door. No sound came from the hiving-room. She removed her clothes swiftly,
without fumbling, letting then-I fall down on the floor around her feet. 'When she was naked she
stepped back from her clothing and stood looking at him. In her mien was pride without defiance
or embarrassment.
He put his pistols on the toilet-seat and, facing the door, went down on one knee in front
of her garments. He picked up each piece and examined it with fingers as well as eyes. He did
not find the thousand-dollar bill. When he had finished he stood up holding her clothes out in his
hands to her. "Thanks," he said. "Now I know."
She took the clothing from him. She did not say anything. He picked up his pistols. He
shut the bathroom door behind him and went into the living-room.
Gutman smiled amiably at him from the rocking chair. "Find it?" he asked.
Cairo, sitting beside the boy on the sofa, looked at Spade with questioning opaque eyes.
The boy did not look up. He was leaning forward, head between hands, elbows on knees, staring
at the floor between his feet.
Spade told Gutman: "No, I didn't find it. You palmed it."
The fat man chuckled. "I palmed it?"
"Yes," Spade said, jingling the pistols in his hand. "Do you want to say so or do you want
to stand for a frisk?"
"Stand for--?"
"You're going to admit it," Spade said, "or I'm going to search you. There's no third way."
Gutman looked up at Spade's hard face and laughed outright. "By Gad, sir, I believe you
would. I really do. You're a character, sir, if you don't mind my saying so."
"You palmed it," Spade said.
"Yes, sir, that I did." The fat man took a crumpled bill from his vest-pocket, smoothed it
on a wide thigh, took the envelope holding the nine bills from his coat-pocket, and put the
smoothed bill in with the others. "I must have my little joke every now and then and I was
curious to know what you'd do in a situation of that sort. I must say that you passed the test with
flying colors, sir. It never occurred to me that you'd hit on such a simple and direct way of getting
at the truth."
Spade sneered at him without bitterness. "That's the kind of thing I'd expect from
somebody the punk's age."
Gutman chuckled.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy, dressed again except for coat and hat, came out of the bathroom,
took a step towards the living-room, turned around, went to the kitchen, and turned on the light.
Cairo edged closer to the boy on the sofa and began whispering in his ear again. The boy
shrugged irritably.
Spade, looking at the pistols in his hand and then at Gutman, went out into the
passageway, to the closet there. He opened the door, put the pistols inside on the top of a trunk,
shut the door, locked it, put the key in his trousers-pocket, and went to the kitchen door.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy was filling an aluminum percolator.
"Find everything?" Spade asked.
"Yes," she replied in a cool voice, not raising her head. Then she set the percolator aside
and came to the door. She blushed and her eyes were large and moist and chiding. "You shouldn't
have done that to me, Sam," she said softly.
"I had to find out, angel." He bent down, kissed her mouth lightly, and returned to the
living-room.
Gutman smiled at Spade and offered him the white envelope, saying: "This will soon be
yours; you might as well take it now."
Spade did not take it. He sat in the armchair and said: "There's plenty of time for that. We
haven't done enough talking about the money end. I ought to have more than ten thousand."
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