Kells looked at Bernie admiringly. “You’re a wonder. It didn’t even wake me up.”
Bernie chuckled. “You’re damn right I’m a wonder.” They climbed up on the wharf, crossed quietly. The cruiser was big, luxurious, evidently deserted — Bernie couldn’t make out the name. Except for a few rowboats and the Comet, it was the only boat at the wharf. Kells said: “Well — I guess I’m wrong again.” They walked up the wharf, and Bernie found a path and they walked along the bottom of a shallow gully, up to the left across a kind of ridge.
The fog was so heavy they didn’t see the light until they were about twenty feet from it. Then they went forward silently and a big ramshackle shed took form in the gray darkness. The light came from a square window on the second floor.
Bernie said: “This used to be a cattle shelter — they’ve built onto it. I guess it’s the place they call the Red Barn.”
They found a door and Kells knocked twice. There was no answer so he turned the knob, pushed the door open.
There was a kerosene lamp at one end of a short bar. The room was long, windowless; the ceiling sloped to a high peak at one end. There was a stairway leading up to a balcony of rough timbers, and there was an open door on the balcony leading into a lighted room.
At first Kells thought the downstairs room was deserted; then by the flickering uncertain light of the lamp he saw a man asleep at one of the half dozen or so tables. There was another man lying on a cot against one wall. He rolled over and said, “Wha’d’ you want?” sleepily. Kells didn’t answer — the man looked at him Wearily for a moment and then grunted and rolled back with his face to the wall.
A man came out on the balcony and stood with his hands on the railing, silently staring down at them. He was of medium height, appeared in the inadequate light to be dark, swarthy.
Kells said: “How are chances of buying a drink?” The man suddenly stepped out of the doorway so that a little more light fell on Kells’ upturned face. Then he threw back his head and laughed noiselessly. His shoulders shook and his face was twisted with mirth, but there was no sound.
Bernie looked at Kells. Kells turned and glanced at the man on the cot, looked up at the swarthy man again. The man stopped laughing, looked down and spoke in a hoarse whisper: