nearer him. "Going to go straight?" she asked
incredulously.

"Listen, all of you," Larry said quietly. "No, Jimmie, I've not gone
crazy. I'm merely going a little sane. You just said I was a wonder
at business, Jimmie. I think I am myself. I thought it all over as a
business proposition. Suppose we clean up fifty or a hundred thousand on
a big deal. We've got to split it several ways, perhaps pay a big piece
to the police for protection, perhaps pay a lot of lawyers, and then
perhaps get sent away for a year or several years, during which we don't
take in a nickel. I figured that over a term of years my average income
was mighty small. As a business man it seemed to me that I was in a poor
business, with no future. So I decided to get into a new business that
had a future. That's the size of it."

"You're turning yellow--that's the real size of it!" snarled Barney
Palmer, half starting toward him.

"Better be a little careful, Barney," Larry warned with tightening jaw.

"You really mean, Larry," demanded Old Jimmie, "that you're going to
drop us after us counting on you and waiting for you so long?"

"I'm sorry about having kept you waiting, Jimmie. But we've parted
definitely." Then Larry added: "Unless you want to travel my road."

"Your road! Never!" snapped Barney.

"And you, Jimmie?" Larry inquired, his eyes on Barney's inflamed face.

"I don't see your proposition. And I'm too old a bird to start something
new. No, thanks. I'll stick to what I know."

His next words, showing his long yellow teeth, were spoken slowly, but
they were hard, and had a cutting edge. "You've got a sweet idea of
what's straight, Larry: dropping us without a leader, just when we need
a leader most."

Larry's composed yet watchful gaze was still on Barney. "You're not
really left in such a bad way. Barney here is ready to take charge."

"You bet I am!" Barney flamed at him, his hands clenching. "And the
bunch won't lose by the change, you bet! The bunch always thought you
were an ace--and I always knew you were a two-spot. And now they'll see
I was right--that you were always yellow!"

Larry still leaned against the safe in the same posture of seeming ease,
but he expected Barney to strike at any moment, and held himself in
readiness for a flashing fist. Barney had been hard to hold in leash in
the old days; now that all ties of partnership were broken, he saw in
those small gleaming eyes a defiance and a hatred that hencefort