pocket and added a second.

"Sit there, Doc," he said, and indicated my chair at the table. "That's all our artillery. Keep the guns right

under your hands. If we make any breaks, shoot. All I ask is you don't do any calling up till you've

listened."

I sat down, drawing the automatics to me, examining them to see that they were loaded. They were.

"Doc," McCann said, "there's three things I want you to consider. First, if I'd had anything to do with

smearing the boss, would I be giving you a break like this? Second, I was sitting at his right side. He had

on a thick overcoat. How could I reach over an' run anything as thin as whatever killed him must have

been all through his coat, an' through the doll, through his clothes, an' through him without him putting up

some kind of a fight. Hell, Ricori was a strong man. Paul would have seen us-"