Read A Gun for Sale for Free Online Page B

I’d known beforehand,’ Dr Yogel said, making conversation, fixing his cylinder. ‘I’d have made a fortune in munition shares. They’ve gone up to the sky, old man. Now lean back. It won’t take a moment.’ He again approached the mask. He said, ‘You’ve only got to breathe deep, old man.’
    Raven said, ‘I told you I wouldn’t have gas. Get that straight. You can cut me about as much as you like, but I won’t have gas.’
    ‘It’s very silly of you, old man,’ Dr Yogel said. ‘It’s going to hurt.’ He went back to the cabinet and again picked up a knife, but his hand shook more than ever. He was frightened of something. And then Raven heard from outside the tiny tinkle a telephone makes when the receiver is lifted. He jumped up from the couch; it was bitterly cold, but Dr Yogel was sweating; he stood by the cabinet holding his surgical knife, unable to say a word. Raven said, ‘Keep quiet. Don’t speak.’ He flung the door suddenly open and there was the nurse in the little dim hall with the telephone at her ear. Raven stood sideways so that he could keep his eye on both of them. ‘Put back that receiver,’ he said. She put it back, watching him with her little mean conscienceless eyes. He said furiously, ‘You double-crossing –’ He said, ‘I’ve got a mind to shoot you both.’
    ‘Old man,’ Dr Yogel said, ‘old man. You’ve got it all wrong,’ but the nurse said nothing. She had all the guts in their partnership, she was toughened by a long career of illegalities, by not a few deaths. Raven said, ‘Get away from that ’phone.’ He took the knife out of Dr Yogel’s hand and hacked and sawed at the telephone wire. He was touched by something he had never felt before: a sense of injustice stammered on his tongue. These people were of his own kind; they didn’t belong inside the legal borders; for the second time in one day he had been betrayed by the lawless. He had always been alone, but never so alone as this. The telephone wire gave. He wouldn’t speak another word for fear his temper might master him and he might shoot. This wasn’t the time for shooting. He went downstairs in a dark loneliness of spirit, his handkerchief over his face, and from the little wireless shop at the street corner heard, ‘We have received the following notice …’ The same voice followed him down the street from the open windows of the little impoverished homes, the suave expressionless voice from every house: ‘New Scotland Yard. Wanted. James Raven. Aged about twenty-eight. Easily recognizable from his hare-lip. A little above the middle height. Last seen wearing a dark overcoat and a black felt hat. Any information leading to the arrest …’ Raven walked away from the voice, out into the traffic of Oxford Street, bearing south.
    There were too many things he didn’t understand: this war they were talking of, why he had been double-crossed. He wanted to find Cholmondeley. Cholmondeley was of no account, he was acting under orders, but if he found Cholmondeley he could squeeze out of him … He was harassed, hunted, lonely, he bore with him a sense of great injustice and a curious pride. Going down the Charing Cross Road, past the music shops and the rubber goods shops, he swelled with it: after all it needed a man to start a war as he was doing.
    He had no idea where Cholmondeley lived; the only clue he had was an accommodation address. It occurred to him there was a faint chance that if he watched the small shop to which Cholmondeley’s letters were sent he might see him: a very faint chance, but it was strengthened by the fact of his escape. Already the news was on the air, it would be in the evening papers, Cholmondeley might want to clear out of the way for a while, and there was just a possibility that before he went he would call for letters. But that depended on whether he used that address for other letters besides Raven’s. Raven wouldn’t have believed there was one chance in a