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“What the hell is good about it … Say, what happened to your face?”

“Cut ”

“George! George! Coffee over here before a man dies”

Bruce Payne, the oil lawyer, hurried up to their table, talking a blue streak about what he had read in the Cheyenne newspapers Kenny Bloom covered his eyes Jack Thomas sat down at the last empty chair, and said, “That’s a heck of a shiner”

“Cut ”

“There’s the Senator! Hell, we don’t have rooe! Rustle up another chair for Senator Kincaid A man who loses as much money as he did shouldn’t have to eat alone”

Bell watched Kincaid approach slowly, nodding to acquaintances as he passed through the dining car Suddenly, he recoiled, his expression startled The well-dressed dru out to shake hands Kincaid gave the salesman a cold stare, brushed past, and proceeded to Bell’s table

“Goodsatisfied, Mr Bell?”

“Satisfied about what, Senator?”

“About what? About winning nearly a ht A fair piece of which was mine”

“That’s what I was doing last night,” said Bell, still watching the doors “I was trying to reht my attention”

“It looks like soht your attention full in the face What happened? Did you fall off atrain?”

“Close shave,” said Isaac Bell, still watching the doors But though he lingered over breakfast until the last table was cleared, he saw no one react as if his presence were a shock He was not particularly surprised and onlyshot But even if he hadn’t spooked the Wrecker into revealing his identity, fro a bit anxiously over his shoulder Who said a Van Dorn detective couldn’t fly?

20

WONG LEE, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, WAS A TINY MAN WITH a lopsided face and a blinded eye Twenty years ago, an Irish hod carrier, thick-ar’s hat to the sidewalk, and when Wong asked why he had insulted hi so badly that his friends didn’t recognize hiht years