Alleys of Darkness | Page 6

hallucination?"
"Don't hand me no such guff, you snake!" I roared. "You know why I
brung you here--to get the confession you gypped outa Whithers' sister,
and blackmailed him with--just like you made him throw my fight
tonight."
Bissett just looked dizzy, but Glory leaped up and faced me.
"You mean you think Ace made Whithers turn in that rotten decision?"
she jerked out.
"I don't think," I answered sullenly. "I know. Whithers said so."

She jumped like she was galvanized.
"Why, you idiot!" she hollered, "they've made a fool of you! Jed
Whithers hasn't any sister! He lied! Ace had nothing to do with it!
Whithers was hired to throw the fight to Leary! Look at him!" Her
voice rose to a shriek of triumph, as she pointed a accusing finger at Jed
Whithers. "Look at him! Look how pale he is! He's scared witless!"
"It's a lie!" gulped Whithers, sweating and tearing at his crumpled
collar like it was choking him.
"It's not a lie!" Glory was nearly hysterical by this time. "He was paid
to throw the fight! And there's the man who paid him!" And she
dramatically pointed her finger at Diamond Joe Galt!
GALT WAS ON HIS feet, his small eyes glinting savagely, his jaws
grinding his cigar to a pulp.
"What about it, Galt?" I demanded, all at sea and bewildered.
He dashed down his cigar with a oath. His face was dark and
convulsed.
"What of it?" he snarled. "What you goin' to do about it? I've stood all
the guff out of you I'm goin' to!"
His hand snaked inside his coat and out, and I was looking into the
black muzzle of a wicked stumpy automatic.
"You can't slug this like you did Red, you dumb gorilla," he smirked
viciously. "Sure, the dame's tellin' the truth. Whithers took you in like a
sucklin' lamb.
"When you caught him in your dressin'-room, he told you the first lie
that come to him, knowin' you for a soft sap where women's concerned.
Then when you fell for it, and offered to help him, he thought fast and
roped you into this deal. We been tryin' to get hold of Bissett for a long
time. He's got somethin' we want. But he was too smart and too tough

for us. Now, thanks to you, we got him, and the girl. Now we're goin'
to sweat what we want out of him, and you're goin' to keep your trap
shut, see?"
"You mean they ain't no Constance Whithers, and no confession?" I
said slowly, trying to get things straight. A raucous roar of mirth
greeted the remark.
"No, sucker," taunted Galt; "you just been took in, you sap."
A wave of red swept across my line of vision. With a maddened roar, I
plunged recklessly at Galt, gun and all. Everything happened at once.
Galt closed his finger on the trigger just as Spike, standing beside him
all this time, closed his jaws on Galt's leg. Galt screamed and leaped
convulsively; the gun exploded in the air, missing me so close the
powder singed my hair, and my right mauler crunched into Galt's face,
flattening his nose, knocking out all his front teeth, and fracturing his
jaw-bone. As he hit the floor Spike was right on top of him.
The next instant Galt's thugs was on top of me. We rolled across the
room in a wild tangle of arms and legs, casually shattering tables and
chairs on the way. Spike, finding Galt was out cold, abandoned him
and charged to my aid. I heered Red Partland howl as Spike's iron fangs
locked in his britches. But I had my hands full. Fists and hobnails was
glancing off my carcass, and a thumb was feeling for my eye. I set my
teeth in this thumb and was rewarded by a squeal of anguish, but the
action didn't slow up any.
It was while strangling Limey Teak beneath me, whilst the other three
was trying to stomp my ribs in and kick my head off, that I realized that
another element had entered into the fray. There was the impact of a
chair-leg on a human skull, and Jed Whithers give up the ghost with a
whistling sigh. Glory O'Dale was taking a hand.
Dutch Steinmann next gave a ear-piercing howl, and Bill Reynolds
abandoned me to settle her. Feeling Limey go limp beneath me, I riz,
shaking Steinmann offa my shoulders, just in time to see Reynolds
duck Glory's chair-leg and smack her down. Bissett give a most awful

yell of rage, but he wasn't no madder than me. I left the floor in a flying
tackle that carried Reynolds off his feet with a violence which nearly
busted his skull against the floor. Too crazy-mad for reason,