"Not with you around, Wally. He was looking at you. You might have given the game away. The easiest system was to tell him the truth."
"Well, he fell for it. But he'll know too much when he wakes up."
Steve Cronin laughed.
"He knew too much anyway," he said. "He knew who I was. But he won't know anything about it when he wakes up. Because he isn't going to wake up."
"You're going to bump him off?"
"Of course."
"Why didn't you do it right here?"
"Wally, there's no use trying to talk with you. Kill him here? Make a big noise about it? All sorts of trouble then. Nothing doing. We aren't going to figure in this thing at all — so far as anybody can find out.
You wait here and watch him. If he starts to wake up, tap him neatly with this. I'll be back in a few minutes."
Steve Cronin drew a blackjack from his pocket and handed it to his companion in crime. He left the room. Ten minutes later, he returned.