Hot Water Read Online Free

suddenly.
    'Why that's right. I remember now. Well, well!'
    'It's a long way to Chi.'
    'It sure is.'
    'They told me your name, too. It'll come back to me in a minute.'
    'Who told you my name?'
    'The cops, when I described you. I've got it. Soup Slattery. One of the cops said it sounded like Soup Slattery, and another cop said yes, he wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't old Soup, and then they went on playing checkers. The only thing that seemed to puzzle them was that you should be holding people up on the street. They said you were an expert safe-blower.'
    'I sometimes do a bit of stick-up work on the side,' said Mr Slattery with a touch of stiffness. Any objection?'
    'None,' said Mr Gedge hastily. 'None whatever. It's all right by me.'
    He may have been going on to cite the classical precedent of Michelangelo, who refused to be satisfied with one branch of Art; but at this moment his companion returned to the main point at issue.
    'Why haven't you any dough?'
    'I never have.'
    'You look rich enough.'
    'My wife is rich. Immensely rich. Her late husband left her millions.'
    'And you slipped in and copped off the widow? Did pretty well for yourself
    Mr Slattery spoke disapprovingly. He was a man of sentiment, and when he saw one of these cold, commercial unions in a motion-picture he always hissed.
    Mr Gedge sensed the unspoken slur.
    'I did not marry my dear wife for her money,' he said warmly. 'I was a rich man myself at the time of our wedding. But unfortunately I played the Market....'
    There was nothing of the austere in Mr Slattery's manner now. He was eyeing Mr Gedge with warm-hearted interest.
    'Were you caught in the big crash?'
    'Was I! Lost every dollar I had.'
    'Me, too,' said Mr Slattery, wincing at the memory. 'Hot zig! Those were the days! Like going down in an express elevator, wasn't it? Did you have any Electric Bond and Share?'
    'Did I!'
    'What did you buy it at?'
    'A hundred and sixty-seven.'
    'A hundred and sixty-nine – me. How about Montgomery-Ward?'
    'Mine cost me a hundred and twelve.'
    'So did mine.'
    'General Motors?' asked Mr Gedge eagerly.
    'Say, let's talk of something else,' said Mr Slattery.
    For a few moments the two financiers let their thoughts stray silently back into the past. Mr Slattery sighed.
    'Well, I'm mighty glad to have met you again, Mr – what was the name?'
    'Gedge. J. Wellington Gedge. And I've certainly appreciated meeting you, Mr Slattery. How about coming and having a little drink?'
    A touch of the old moroseness returned to Mr Slattery's manner.
    'What do you mean, coming and having a little drink? You haven't any money,'
    'Lend me some,' said Mr Gedge.
    It had been no part of Mr Slattery's plans when he set out that morning with his gun to finance his victims, but there was something so appealing in the other's voice that a sort of noblesse oblige spirit awoke in him. He handed over a hundred francs.
    'You couldn't make it two hundred, could you?'
    'Sure,' said Mr Slattery, though not very heartily.
    'I'll tell you what,' said Mr Gedge, inspired. 'Give me a level thousand, and then that'll be a nice, round sum.'
    Mr Slattery peeled a mille off his slender roll, but his manner as he did so was not vivacious. He seemed to be wondering what had ever given him the impression that sticking people up in the street was a sound commercial venture.
5
    Seated with his new friend at a table in one of the little cafes near the harbour, Mr Gedge became communicative. For many months he had been yearning for a sympathetic ear into which to decant his troubles, and now he had found one. This charming safe-blower, he decided, should hear all.
    'Yessir,' he said. That's how it is. My wife has all the money, and I'm simply the Hey-You around the place.'
    'Is that so?'
    'Yessir. The Patsy, that's what I am. Just the squidge. You wouldn't be far out if you said I was only a bird in a gilded cage. Whatever Mrs Gedge says, goes. I want to live in California. She insists on coming to France. Do