More Deadly Than The Male

Cora suddenly burst out: "So you weren't lying! You did it! And she made a fool out of you! God! What a sucker you are! What a damn, stupid, dim-witted fool!" And she suddenly went in peal after peal of jeering laughter. "Go away, you chump," she cried, throwing herself on the bed and rolling backwards and forwards, holding her sides. "Oh, it's the funniest thing I've ever heard. You sucker! You big tough, stupid sucker!"

George opened the door and went slowly down the passage to his room.

18

The following night the first of three robberies took place at a garage on the Kingston Bypass. The police stated that the robberies were the work of one man, described by the three garage attendants as a big, powerful fellow with shoulders like an ox. They could give no better description than this, since the man had masked his face with a white handkerchief.

This fellow had walked into the Kingston garage just after midnight. He seemed to know exactly what he was doing. He threatened the attendant with a Luger revolver, and before the attendant could gather his startled wits together, the man had given him a crushing punch on the jaw. When the attendant recovered consciousness, he found the till had been rifled and nearly twenty pounds were missing.

The following night a similar crime was committed at a garage on the Watford Bypass. The big man again succeeded in getting away, this time with thirty pounds.

Another attendant was attacked the next night in a garage on the Great West Road by the same man, and forty-five pounds were taken.

Then, as abruptly as they had begun, the garage robberies ceased.

George, with a net gain of nearly a hundred pounds, decided for the time being, not to tempt Providence further.

He had told no one what he had done; but Cora, reading of the robberies, knowing that the man who had been responsible for them was big and had carried a Luger, looked at George questioningly.

She was uneasy about George. Since the night she and the other two had laughed at him there had come over him a subtle change. He was hard now, and his temper inclined to fly up. There was a cold, bitter, brooding look in his eyes that Cora didn't like.

He had left Eva's flat before anyone was up on the morning following the scene with the Mickey Mouse costume. Cora, awakening to find him gone, hoped that she had seen the last of him, but he returned in the afternoon just as she was going out.

She was wearing a silk frock, silk stockings and high- heeled shoes borrowed from Little Ernie's Wardrobe. Little Ernie and Eva had gone off to the dog-racing at Wembley, and she was alone in the flat.

George came in and stood looking at her, the brooding expression in his eyes.

"What do you want?" she snapped, uneasy, and wondering why he had come back.

"Here," he said, thrusting an envelope at her, "buy yourself some clothes."

She took the envelope, and found inside five ten-pound notes. She knew the wise thing to do was to throw the money at him and tell him to go to hell, but fifty pounds impressed her, and she could not give up such a sum, no matter what the consequences might he.

"Where did you get this from?" she asked.

"I've had that sum by me," he returned, watching her. "I got it out of the post office for you. There's more where that came from."

"Well, thank you," she said, wondering just how much there was. Perhaps it would he as well, she thought, to wait a little while before getting rid of him.

"Now, come on," he said; "you're going to get yourself some clothes."

They went together, and when they returned, having spent all the money except for a pound or two, George pointed to the bedroom.

"Get out of that outfit," he said grimly "You're not wearing clothes from a pimp."

She showed a flash of temper. "Who do you think you are?" she snapped. "I'll wear what I like."

Before she could stop him, he had reached out and had laid hold of the front of her dress in his thick fingers. He jerked her forward, and with a twisting movement he ripped the dress right down.

"Get out of those things or I'll tear them off you," he said, white as clay.

"You must be cracked," she gasped, startled out of her temper, but she went into the bedroom and changed into the clothes he had bought her.

When Little Ernie returned, he told them that he had a flat for them.

"How much?" George asked, staring with hot, intent eyes at the little man.

"Don't worry about that," Ernie said, shooting a quick glance at Cora. "You're my pal . . ."

George walked over to him and caught him by his coat front.

"I ask no favours from you," he said between his teeth. "And listen, I don't like the way you look at Cora. She's my girl. If you try anything with her, I'll kill you. I shan't warn you again."

And Little Ernie, looking into the brooding eyes, suddenly went cold.