“The short and ugly word,” I observed casually, “is blackmail. A bullet is a merciful death for one of that stripe.”
Penoch’s hand stabbed out at me.
“I know it. And yet the man is likable in a lot of ways, as you’ll see. Maybe he thinks I owe him plenty. In a lot of ways he defers to me, admires me and likes me. But, as I say, when he gets in any kind of trouble, or wants anything for himself, there isn’t a thing in the world as important as himself. He’d loan me money, if he had it, and he’d sell me into jail for five thousand dollars, if he was broke. The only reason in this world that he’s coming here is to live off of me. He must be broke, or a fugitive, or something. He’ll draw his pay, borrow mine, if he needs it, and never pay it back. He’ll take it for granted that I’ll do everything in the world for him. If I refuse, he’ll use the club he has over me without mercy.”
“And he’s a reserve officer,” I ruminated aloud. “Listen, Penoch. You’ve got the goods on him. You can plaster him behind the bars. Why not call his hand and take your chances? You were young, innocent—”
“It would kill the folks,” O’Reilly said steadily, “and the Army and flying right now means a hell of a lot to me. It’s not so easy, Slim.”
Which it wasn’t, of course.
“Aside from the money angle, Penoch—and say, that needn’t be so bad, at that! If that bozo starts to blackmail you out of your dough, there’s no reason why ‘Tex’ MacDowell, ‘Sleepy’ Spears and myself each can’t fix up a bit of a game and get it back from him by fair means or foul. We’ll—”
“Won’t do, Slim,” he told me. “That is, it might, if it was worked cagily. But if he thought for a minute that I’d given him away he’d plaster me to a fare-you-well. And that isn’t the worst of it—the money, I mean. He’s funny. He’s got a hell of a lot of false pride, or maybe he really thinks he’s fit to enter any home in the country. He’d just move right in with me, and he’d be so sore he’d never let up on me, if he so much as suspected that I was stalling him off from meeting any of my friends. And there I am! In a position of having to introduce a man I’m not sure won’t cheat at cards, make love to a man’s wife, or anything else. And if I don’t, it’s out of the Army in disgrace, and—”
“It’s a tough spot,” I said unnecessarily, and he stared morosely at me as he said—
“It’s no Paradise.”