"Leinster, Murray - The Middle of the Week After Next UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

1 belt buckle, minus belt

Mr. Steems swore violently. "Smart guy, huh!" he said wrathfully. "Gettin* a free ride! He outsmarted himself, he did! Let 'im try to get this watch back! I never seen him!"

He pocketed the watch and money. The other objects he cast contemptuously away. He was about to heave out the deerhide when he remembered that Miss Susie Blepp had made disparaging remarks about the condition of his cab. So had her mother, while grafting deadhead cab rides as Mr. Steems's prospective mother-in-law. Mr. Steems said, "The hell with her!" But then, grudgingly, he spread the deerhide over the back-seat cushion. It helped. It hid the spring that was about to stab through.

Mr. Steems was dourly pleased. He went and hocked Mr. Binder's watch and felt a great deal better. He resumed his lawful trade of plying the city streets as a common carrier. Presently he made a soft moaning sound.

Susie's mother stood on the curb, waving imperiously. His taxi flag was up. Trust her to spot that first! He couldn't claim he was busy. Bitterly, he pulled in and opened the back door for her. She got in, puffing a little. She was large and formidable, and Mr. Steems marveled gloomily that a cute trick like Susie could have such a battle-ax for a mother.

"Susie told me to tell you," puffed Mrs. Blepp, "that she can't keep tonight's date."

"Oh, no?" said Mr. Steems sourly.

"No," said Susie's mother severely. She waited challenging-ly for Steems to drive her home (any hesitation on his part would mean a row with Susie). She slipped off her shoes. She settled back.

Mr. Steems drove. As he drove, he muttered. Susie was breaking a date. Maybe she was going out with someone else. There was a cop named Cassidy who always looked wistfully at Susie, even in the cab of her affianced boy friend. Mr. Steems muttered anathemas upon all cops.

He drew up before Susie's house; Susie wouldn't be home yet. He turned to let Susie's mother out.

His eyes practically popped out of his head.

The back of the cab was empty. On the seat there was seventeen cents in pennies, one nickel, a slightly greenish wedding ring, an empty lipstick container, several straight steel springs, twelve bobbie pins, assorted safety pins, and a very glittering dress ornament. On the floor Mrs. Blepp's shoes remainedЧsize ten and a half.

Mr. Steems cried out hoarsely. He stared about him, gulped several times for air, and then drove rapidly away. Something was wrong. He did not know what, but it was instinct to get away from there. Mr. Steems did not want trouble. He especially did not want trouble with Susie. But

here it was.

This was bad business! Presently he stopped and inspected his cab with infinite care. Nothing. The deerskin made a good-looking seat cover. That was all. There was no opening anywhere through which Susie's mother could have fallen. She could not have gone out through the door. Under no circumstances would she have abandoned her shoes. Something untoward and upsetting had come into Mr. Steems's

life.

Mr. Steems retired to a bar and had several beers. There was a situation to be facedЧto be thought out. But Mr. Steems was not an intellectual type. Thinking made his head ' hurt. He could not ask advice, because nobody would believe what he had to say. Apprehension developed into desperation and then into defiance.

"I didn't do nothing," muttered Mr. Steems truculently. "I don't know nothing about it!" Would Susie not be willing to believe that? "I never seen her!" said Mr. Steems in firm resolve. "I never set eyes on that old battle-ax today! The hell with her!"

He had another beer. Then he realized that to stay enclois-tered, drinking beer after beer, might suggest to someone that he was upset. So he set out to act in so conspicuously normal a manner that nobody could suspect him of anything. He had lost considerable time in his meditation, however. It was nearly nine o'clock when he resumed his cruising. It was half-past nine when he stopped behind a jam of other vehicles at a red light on Evers Avenue. He waited. He brooded.

Somebody wrenched open the door of the cab and crawled

in.

Mr. Steems reacted normally. "Hey! What's the idea? Howya know I want a fare now?"

Something cold and hard touched his spine and a hoarse voice snarled, "Get goin', buddy. Keep your mouth shut an' don't turn around!"

The red light changed. Shouting broke out half a block behind. Mr. SteemsЧwith cold metal urging himЧshifted gears with great celerity. He drove with all the enthusiasm of a man with no desire to be mixed up in gunplay. The shouting died away in the distance. Mr. Steems drove on and drove on. Presently he dared to say meekly, "Where you want me to drive you or let you out?"

Behind him there was silence.