The Criminal by Jim Thompson Page A

very much, Dick." "I'll certainly do my best, Mr. Kossmeyer" I said." I can't make no promises, but-" He banged up the phone.
    I went on back to the booth where Charlie Alt was.
    He looked at me, looking sort of sore, an then he kind of laughed. "Halvers?" he said.
    "Halvers?" I said. "Halvers on what, Charlie?"
    "Halvers on what you get from Kossmeyer," he said. "H--, it's only fair, Dick. I was going to call him myself if you hadn't got firsts on the phone. I'd've give you half if I'd called him."
    Well, there was two schools of thought on that, if you follow my meaning. But there wasn't much else I could do so I said, well, all right, if he felt he was entitled to it.
    "Kossy says we should stall," I said. "We stall an hour or maybe two until he can get hold of some judge for a habeas, he'll appreciate it very much."
    "Kossy's all right," Charlie said. "He's one good Jew if you ask me."
    "What you got to say a thing like that for?" I said. "He can't help it if he's a Jew, can he? What's wrong with being a Jew?"
    "H--," Charlie said. "What you snapping me up for? I say something nice about him, and you snap me up."
    "Well," I said.
    "You'd better watch yourself, Dick," he said. "You go around acting like that and people will think maybe you're part Jew yourself."
    "Like who maybe will think that?" I said. "Anyway, I'd a lot rather be a Jew than some certain other people I know, if you follow my meaning."
    "Yeah?" he said.
    "Yes," I said.
    He sat and frowned at me a minute or two, and then he picked up the menu.
    "H--," he said, looking at the menu. "I don't know why you got to get sore, Dick. Didn't I say Kossy was a good friend of mine? Didn't I say he was a hundred per cent gentleman and the best lawyer in town? H--, that's nothing to get sore about."
    "Well, all right," I said. "I guess maybe I misunderstood you."
    "I tell you what I think I'll do," he said. "I'd just as soon skip the peas. That makes two thirty-five instead of two-fifty"
    "I'd just as soon, too," I said. "We can get some extra bread for nothing if we want."
    We gave our order to the waiter, told him to make the steaks extra well done. The d.a. telephoned when we'd just started eating, so the waiter told him we was eating and he said to tell us to get a move on.
    "What the h--?" Charlie said. "We ain't supposed to eat any more?"
    "That's what I say," I said. "I guess maybe we can't order our steaks the way we want 'em."
    "What you think Kossy will give us, Dick?" he said.
    "Well… twenty apiece, maybe," I said. "Probably fifty if we can stall until he comes up with the habeas."
    Charlie kind of whistled. "Fif-ty bucks! What I can't do with that! You really think he will, Dick?"
    "Why not?" I said. "I got fifty from Kossy two or three times. Things that wasn't as much trouble as this."
    "Yeah," he said. "But there wasn't anyone else in on it. He didn't have to pay no one but you."
    "He didn't, huh?" I winked at him. "Vas you dere, Charlie?"
    "Wow! Fifty bucks!" Charlie said. "I tell you something, Dick. I'll do something if you will. What you say we each drop an extra quarter for Who Flung Dung?"
    (The waiter's name was Hop Lee, but Charlie always called him Hopalong or Who Flung Dung or something like that. Just kidding, you understand.)
    "You mean we give him fifty cents besides the thirty cents?" I said. "Almost a dollar tip?"
    "What the h-?" Charlie said. "We can afford it, can't we?"
    "Well, I don't know," I said. "Suppose we can't stall long enough. We maybe can't get away with it."
    "We'll get away with it," Charlie said. "I'll knock Clinton down and set on him if I have to."
    "Well, all right," I said. "You leave an extra two-bits and I will. But I'd feel a lot more comfortable about it if I had that fifty bucks in my pocket."
    "Fifty bucks!" Charlie said. "Boy, oh, boy! You still want to make a deal on that Smith & Wesson, Dick?"
    "I'll sell it," I said. "I ain't taking any old beat-up Colt in trade."
    "Beat up?" he said. "And I guess that old