Evening star., 1939-05-07

countryside all afternoon and evening
- was getting close. Thunder rolled in the
west. The air in the living room clung to US,
heavy, oppressive, threatening, as though
there were something wrong lowering above
the town. above the little frame house where
Dan and Ellen Haley lived
There was something wrong in the house,
itself. Little things had told me that - the
sidelong glances frightened mouths when
Dams and Ellen's gaze did meet, word
spoken in tone that gave it some special,
harsh meaning. That wasn't like the Dan and
Ellen Id left two years before to 60 to South
America with the medical foundation. 1t
puzzled me, made me uneasy.
Dan ran his hand through thinning brown
hair. The hand passed gently over the long
red veal above his right ear where a bullet
had nudged his skull since I'd seen him last
The scar was memento of battle with two
bank bandits who had thought the New
chester bank would be soft snap. Single
handed, Dan had convinced them of their
error and sent them both to the morgue before
he had been carted off to the hospital When
chief of detectives on Newchester's small
police department. 1t was good job; he
owned his home and had money in the bank,
and Ellen had always been good wife to him.
All that should have made life pretty nice
for Dan But somehow it hadn't. could see
that with half an eye.
Dan said, I'D better put the car away,
Ray Help yoursel' to another drink and I'll
be back in a minute"
The thunder rolled again as he went out
through the kitchen. mixed another drink,
weak one, and kept seeing Dan as Id seen
him when l stepped off the commuters
special ih the afternoon. 1t had been shock
to me-
Because for twenty years Dan and had
been as close as brothers, closer than lot of
brothers I've known. We'd grown up in the
same block. fought our battles side by side,
played the same games, alternated on the
same paper route. We weren't 50 much alike
he was bit older, he'd always been bigger,
and he'd been better at games while had
shone more at books Maybe it was just that
difference that made US admire each other.
Anyway, I've never had better friend than
Dan When lost my folks midway through
college, he'd even loaned me the money
he was already on the police department then
- to finish up for my degree in bio-chemistry,
and between then and the foundation post
Id boarded with him and Ellen.
So it hurt to notice the little things that
had changed about him. Little things like the
weak. habby lines around his mouth. the
smell of rye on his breath, concealed some
thing in his eyes which had always been hard
and direct and honest.
heard the car start and grind in low gear
along the drive. The garage doors banged and
Dan came into the house again. The thunder
doomed viciously, a lot closer.
said, IF Ellen doesn't get home soon,
she's going to get drenching."
Dan poured himself a highball that was
two-thirds rye and one-third seltzer. He said,
not looking at me, Shell be all right She's
been going across the park every evening to
sit with sick woman "a Mrs. Croy. She
won't start back in the face of this"
If Ellen had been my wife, I'd have been
making sure of that, phoning her or starting
over for her in the car. The storm was getting
closer, it wasn't minutes off. Dan sat down
with his drink He said, 60 ahead about this
yellow-jack stuff, kid. It's interesting"
So went ahead with it. l was telling how
after years in which yellow fever had prac-