Gun For Sale, A by Greene Graham

Author:Greene, Graham [Greene, Graham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Thriller, Crime, Fiction, Modern Classics, Novel
ISBN: 9781407086736
Publisher: Random House / Vintage Classics
Published: 1936-01-30T03:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

1

RAVEN GROPED THROUGH the dark of the small shed till he had found the sacks. He piled them up, shaking them as one shakes a pillow. He whispered anxiously: ‘You’ll be able to rest there a bit?’ Anne let his hand guide her to the corner. She said, ‘It’s freezing.’

‘Lie down and I’ll find more sacks.’ He struck a match and the tiny flame went wandering through the close cold darkness. He brought the sacks and spread them over her, dropping the match.

‘Can’t we have a little light?’ Anne asked.

‘It’s not safe. Anyway,’ he said, ‘it’s a break for me. You can’t see me in the dark. You can’t see this.’ He touched his lip secretly. He was listening at the door; he heard feet stumble on the tangle of metal and cinders and after a time a low voice spoke. He said, ‘I’ve got to think. They know I’m here. Perhaps you’d better go. They’ve got nothing on you. If they come there’s going to be shooting.’

‘Do you think they know I’m here?’

‘They must have followed us all the way.’

‘Then I’ll stay,’ Anne said. ‘There won’t be any shooting while I’m here. They’ll wait till morning, till you come out.’

‘That’s friendly of you,’ he said with sour incredulity, all his suspicion of friendliness coming back.

‘I’ve told you. I’m on your side.’

‘I’ve got to think of a way,’ he said.

‘You may as well rest now. You’ve all the night to think in.’

‘It is sort of – good in here,’ Raven said, ‘out of the way of the whole damned world of them. In the dark.’ He wouldn’t come near her, but sat down in the opposite corner with his automatic in his lap. He said suspiciously, ‘What are you thinking about?’ He was astonished and shocked by the sound of a laugh. ‘Kind of homey,’ Anne said.

‘I don’t take any stock in homes,’ Raven said. ‘I’ve been in one.’

‘Tell me about it. What’s your name?’

‘You know my name. You’ve seen it in the papers.’

‘I mean your Christian name.’

‘Christian. That’s a good joke, that one. Do you think anyone ever turns the other cheek these days?’ He tapped the barrel of the automatic resentfully on the cinder floor. ‘Not a chance.’ He could hear her breathing there in the opposite corner, out of sight, out of reach, and he was afflicted by the odd sense that he had missed something. He said, ‘I’m not saying you aren’t fine. I dare say you’re Christian all right.’

‘Search me,’ Anne said.

‘I took you out to that house to kill you …’

‘To kill me?’

‘What did you think it was for? I’m not a lover, am I? Girl’s dream? Handsome as the day?’

‘Why didn’t you?’

‘Those men turned up. That’s all. I didn’t fall for you. I don’t fall for girls. I’m saved that. You won’t find me ever going soft on a skirt.’ He went desperately on, ‘Why didn’t you tell the police about me? Why don’t you shout to them now?’

‘Well,’ she said, ‘you’ve got a gun, haven’t you?’

‘I wouldn’t shoot.

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