I'll Get You For This

  At the corner I paused, looked round. No one was about. Voices came from a room near by, but I kept on, crossed the passage to the stairs, went up them.

  The stairs were broad and led directly to the upper floor. I walked on, passed the steel grill that guarded the circular gallery housing the cells, and mounted to the second floor. Halfway up I had to pass a convict who was on hands and knees, scrubbing the stairs. He shifted as he saw me so I could pass. I felt his eyes on me and I guessed he was wondering who I was. I kept on until I reached the top floor.

  I knew then that I was only a few yards from Miss Wonderly. The thought gave me a queer feeling of panic and exhilaration. As I reached the top of the stairs, I saw the grill gate facing me. That didn't worry me. Mitchell had supplied me with a duplicate pass-key.

  As I crossed the passage and reached the .grill, the mad woman suddenly gave a high-pitched scream. It rose, swelled, and hung in the air like a shriek of a damned soul. It was so loud, so close, so unexpected, that it froze me. For a moment I was ready to run blindly down the stairs, but I recovered my nerve, started forward again. As I was about to take the pass-key from my pocket, I paused.

  I felt someone watching me. I turned.

  Edna Robbins was standing in a doorway half-way down the passage. Her hard little face was expressionless, her slim, square-shouldered body without movement.

  I felt my heart lurch, but I kept still. We stood there for a long moment looking at each other. She was suspicious, but she wasn't alarmed. The guard's uniform reassured her, but I knew I couldn't give her time to think. I walked slowly towards her.

  She waited, her eyes searching my face.

  "Any trouble up here?" I asked, when I was within six feet of her.

  Her face remained expressionless. "What makes you think there is?" she asked.

  "I heard that scream. I was on the next floor, so I came up," I said, looking her over.

  "A real conscientious screw," she sneered, but I could see my look had registered. "You've no business up here. Beat it!"

  "Okay," I said, shrugging. "You don't have to be mad at me." I let my eyes drift up and down her body. "I wouldn't like anything to happen to a cute trick like you."

"Wouldn't you?" she said. "Come inside and tell me why."

  I hesitated, then walked past her into a small room fitted as an office. It was as hard and clean and masculine as she was.

  She leaned her hips against the edge of the desk and folded her arms.

  "Haven't seen you before," she said.

  "I'm one of the new guards from Station Headquarters," I explained, and sat on the edge of the desk beside her. We were close; my shoulder touched her shoulder. She had to turn her head to look at me.

  "I've seen you somewhere before," she said, a puzzled, curious look in her eyes.

  "I saw you yesterday," I lied glibly, "I was manning the barricade when you passed."

  Her eyes narrowed. "You look like that new mortician in the P.M. room," she said.

  I grinned. "He's my brother. We're often mistaken for each other. He's fatter in the face than I am, and he hasn't a way with women."

  "You have?" The sneer in her voice was pronounced.

  I winked at her. "I go for women in a big way. They go for me, too."

  "Maybe that's why you came sneaking up to the women's quarters," she said.

  "The dame's scream scared me. I thought she'd got hold of you."

  A thin wolfish expression lit her face. "They don't get hold of me," she said quietly. "They know better."

  "Tough, eh?" I said, admiring her. I leaned closer to her. "I could go for you in a big way."

  She stood up and walked to the door. "Dust," she said, "and don't come up here again. If you hear any more screams forget it. There's nothing on this floor I can't handle."

  "I can believe it," I said, walking to the door. "Well, so long, lady; if there's anything I can do for you, you'll find me on the next floor."

"Scram," she said impatiently.

  She came to the head of the stairs to watch me go. I went down and along the passage of B floor. I waited a moment, listening. I heard her go back to her office. The door clicked shut.

  I gave her a moment, then moving quickly, I ran up the stairs again, crossed the landing, whipped out the pass-key and unlocked the grill. I moved with urgent haste. My mouth was dry, my heart pounded. I slid back the grill. It moved easily, without sound.

  I stepped through and slid the grill into place, locked it.

  Then I walked down the narrow gallery towards Miss Wonderly's cell.

6

  The first three cells were empty. There was a smell of disinfectant and unwashed bodies in the air. I made no sound on the rubber flooring, but I walked on my toes down the narrow gangway, one side of which was the row of cells, and on the other side the high wire screen guarding the sheer drop into the main hall of the prison below. The mesh of the wire screen was so fine that it was not possible to see through it into the lower galleries.