Chapter 10 Chapter 8 Nonsense

Bridget O'Shaughnessy curled up in an armchair by the table.Cover your face with your arms.Knees tucked up to cover the chin.Her eye circles were white, and she looked terrified. Joel Kylo stood in front of her, bent over, with one hand holding the pistol that Spade had just twisted off, and the other hand covering his forehead.Blood seeped from between his fingers and ran over his eyes.There was a thin line of blood on the wounded lip, and three ripples of blood on the chin. Regardless of the presence of several detectives, Kairo glared angrily at the huddled girl. His lips trembled, but he couldn't make a clear sound.

Dundee was the first to enter the sitting room.He strode up to Kai Luo, reached his crotch under his coat with one hand, grabbed Kai Luo's wrist with the other and shouted, "What are you doing here?" Kylo moved his bloodstained hand away from his head, and brought it up to the officer's face, waving it violently.As soon as the hand was removed, a large gash three inches long was exposed on the forehead. "She did it," he cried. "Look." The girl stood up, looked warily at Dundee, who was holding Kylo's wrist, and at Tom Polrows, and immediately stood behind them, near Spade.Spade leaned against the door frame with a calm face.Their eyes met, and a malicious sense of humor flitted across his sallow eyes for an instant, before they were expressionless again.

"Did you do it?" Dundee asked the girl, tilting her head at Kylo's wound. She looked at Spade again.He didn't respond to the pleading in her eyes, and leaned against the door frame, watching the people and things in the room with a detached attitude of an outsider. The girl turned her eyes to meet Dundee's.Those eyes were big and dark and sincere: "I can't," she said in a low, trembling voice. "I was alone with him and he hit me. I couldn't -- I wanted to push him away -- I -- I couldn't bring myself to shoot him." "Oh, you liar!" cried Kylo, ​​trying vainly to wrench the gun from Dundee's grasp. "Oh, you dirty liar!" He turned to face Dundee. "She was talking nonsense. I came here with all my heart, and they both hit me together. When you knocked on the door, he went out to talk to you, and she left her with a pistol on me. Then she said, you all They were going to kill me when I left, so I shouted for help, and if you heard it, you wouldn’t leave me to let them kill me, and then she shot me with a pistol.”

"Hey, give me this thing," said Dundee, snatching the pistol from Kylo. "Now we'll get this sorted out. What are you doing here?" "He asked me to come." Kylo turned his head and stared at Spade defiantly. "He called me and asked me to come here." Spade blinked at Kylo as if dozing off, but said nothing. Dundee asked: "What did he call you for?" Kylo didn't answer, but first wiped his bleeding forehead and chin with a lavender-striped silk handkerchief.His attitude now seemed to have changed from anger to vigilance. "He said he wanted—they wanted—to see me. I don't know what it is."

Tom Polrows bent his head, sniffed the chypre scent of the bloody handkerchief, and stared questioningly back at Spade.Spade winked at him and rolled his cigarette. Dundee asked: "Well, what happened then?" "Then they hit me, she hit me first, and then he grabbed me and snatched the pistol out of my pocket. I don't know what they'd have done if you hadn't come at that moment. I dare Said they must have killed me. He left her with a pistol to watch me when he went out to answer the door." Bridget O'Shaughnessy sprang up from her armchair and cried, "Why don't you tell him to tell the truth?" She slapped Kylo again.

Kylo yelled indiscriminately in pain. Dundee grabbed Kylo with one hand and pushed the girl back into the chair with the other, growling, "Don't do that." Spade lit his cigarette and grinned at Tom through the smoke and whispered, "She's impulsive." "Yeah," Tom agreed. Dundee stared down at the girl sullenly and asked, "What truth do you want us to believe?" "Not at all what he said," she replied, "not at all what he said." She turned to Spade, "Is that right?" "How would I know?" Spade replied. "I was in the kitchen making a omelette when this happened."

She wrinkled her forehead and looked at him suspiciously in her eyes. Tom snorted twice in disgust. Dundee ignored Spade's words, but still stared at the girl and asked: "If he is not telling the truth, why is it that he shouted for help and not you?" "Oh, he was scared to death when I hit him," she replied, looking contemptuously at Kylo. Kylo's blood-stained face flushed in places, and he exclaimed, "Pooh, lying again!" She kicks his leg.The high heels of the blue slippers kicked just below his knees.Dundee pulled him away from her.Big Tom stepped up and stood beside her, and said in a low voice, "Behave yourself, girl. Don't be like that."

"Then tell him the truth," she said boldly. "We'll tell him," he promised her. "But don't be so rough." Dundee's green eyes looked at Spade, piercing and shining.A look of complacency.He said to his subordinate, "Come on, Tom, I want to take 'em all, sure." Tom nodded gloomily. Spade left the door, walked into the middle of the room, and threw the cigarette in the ashtray on the table.His smile and demeanor are amiable and calm. "Don't worry," he said, "everything will work out." "That goes without saying." Dundee echoed with a sneer.

Spade bowed to the girl and said, "Miss O'Shaughnessy, let me introduce you to Constable Dundee and Inspector Polrows." He bowed again to Dundee, "O'Shaughnessy Miss is a private detective I use." Joel Kylo said angrily, "That's not the case. She—" Spade interrupted him hastily, in a loud but still amiable voice: "I hired her just yesterday. This is Mr. Joel Carroll, a friend of Thursby's—or at least one of them." Acquaintance, he came to me this afternoon and wanted to hire me to find something that Thursby must have been carrying when he was killed. The way he brought it up to me was so weird that I didn't want to accept it. He took out A gun comes—well, that's fine, unless it's time for mutual accusations. Anyway, after talking to Miss O'Shaughnessy about it, I thought I might get something out of him about Mike I asked him to come up here because of the killing of Ernes and Thursby. Maybe we were a little rough with him when we questioned him. But he wasn't hurt enough to call for help. I started with Had to surrender his gun again."

As Spade spoke, Kylo blushed again with concern.His eyes moved bonyly from side to side, staring uneasily at the floor and at Spade's expressionless face. Dundee and Kylo stood facing each other.He asked roughly, "Well, what else do you want to say?" Kylo was silent for about a minute, just looking at the officer's chest.When he finally raised his eyes, he saw that his eyes were evasive and cautious. "I don't know what to say," he muttered, looking genuinely embarrassed. "Just tell the facts," suggested Dundee. "Facts?" Kai Luo's eyes seemed restless, but his eyes did not leave the police officer. "How can you guarantee that you will believe the facts I tell?"

"Don't haggle, you'll just file charges under oath that they beat you, and the clerk will believe you, and he'll sign a warrant and put them in jail." Spade said jokingly, "Go ahead, Kylo, ​​make him happy. Tell him you'll do it. Then we'll charge you under oath, and he'll have us all in." Kylo cleared his throat and looked around the room nervously, not daring to look into anyone's eyes. Dundee took a deep breath through his nose, as if snorting, and said, "Everyone take your hats." There was a worried look in Kylo's eyes, and there was a question mark. Spade blinked at him when he met Spade's mocking gaze, and sat on the arm of the cushioned rocking chair. "Now, gentlemen," he said, grinning at Kylo and then at the girl, his voice cheerful. "Let's get this thing straightened out." Dundee's iron square face was particularly gloomy, and he ordered again: "Everyone hold your hats." Spade turned and grinned at the officer.He moved back and forth on the armrest, changed to a more comfortable position, and asked lazily, "Don't you know that you just played a trick?" Tom Polrows flushed brightly. Dundee's face was still gloomy, his body was motionless, and he only curled his lips stiffly and said: "I don't know, but we will see the outcome when we get to the game." Spade stood up, putting his hands in his trouser pockets.He stood up straight, took advantage of the situation and looked down at the police officer, showing a sarcastic smile, and the way he spoke showed that he had a certain chance of winning. "Forgive you for taking us in, Dundee," he said, "and we'll laugh at you in every San Francisco paper. Don't you want us to swear to each other? Wake up, you've been duped. Just now I said to Miss O'Shaughnessy and Carol as soon as the doorbell rang, 'It's those goddam cops again. One of them yelling for help, and see how long we can play them before they see through.' Then—” Bridget O'Shaughnessy sat in a chair and cupped her stomach, laughing hysterically. Kai Luo was terrified at first, and then laughed too.There was no anger in his smile, just a smile on his face. Tom glared at them hard, and growled, "Stop it, Sam." Spade chuckled and said, "But that's the way it is, we—" "And the wounds on his head and mouth?" said Dundee contemptuously. "Where did they come from?" "Ask him," suggested Spade. "Maybe he shaved it himself." Kai Luo answered immediately without waiting for anyone to ask.While speaking, he kept smiling nervously, making the muscles on his face tremble. "I fell. We were pretending to fight over pistols when you came in, but I fell. I tripped over the carpet while we pretended to fight." "Nonsense," Dundee said. Spade said: "Come on, Dundee, believe it or not. The point is, that's the way it is, and we'll all insist it's the way it is. Believe it or not, the papers will put it up, and it'll be a laughing stock anyway. , it might be even more ridiculous. What are you going to do? It's not enough to make a joke with the police. You have no evidence of anyone breaking the law here. What we just told you is just a joke to you Yes. What are you going to do?" Dundee turned his back on Spade and grabbed Kylo's shoulders. "Anyway, you can't escape," he shook Kai Luo, and yelled sharply, "If you call for help, you won't be able to eat and walk around." "No, sir," said Kylo angrily, "this is a joke. He said you were his friends, and you'll understand." Spade laughed. Dundee roughly dragged Kylo around.Then he grabbed his wrist with one hand and the back of his neck with the other and said, "Anyway, I will take you away because of your guns. I will take you two later and see who Let's see the joke." Kylo stared at Spade's face in horror. Spade said, "Don't be a fool, Dundee. That's a lie, too. It's one of mine." He laughed. "It's a pity that it's only a three-two caliber, otherwise you will use it as the murder weapon to kill Miles and Thursby." Dundee put down Kylo, ​​turned around, and hit Spade on the jaw with a swing of his right hand. Bridget O'Shaughnessy yelped. Spade took a punch and immediately put away his smile.But it recovered immediately, which was unpredictable.He took a small step back, steadying himself.The thick sloping shoulders writhed in the clothes.Before he could draw his old fist, Tom Polrows had squeezed between the two, facing Spade, holding Spade's arm with his belly that looked like a beer keg and two arms. "For God's sake don't hit, don't hit," pleaded Tom. Spade didn't move for a while, then his muscles relaxed. "Then let him get out of here quickly," he said.His smile disappeared again, and his face was sullen and slightly pale. Tom still stood close to Spade, his arm shielding Spade, and looked over his shoulder at Inspector Dundee.His small eyes were somewhat reproachful. Dundee still clenched his fists against his chest, his feet spread apart and firmly nailed to the ground.However, the ferocious look on his face was softened now because his eyes were narrowed, leaving only a thin white slit between the green eyes and upper eyelids. "Take down their names and addresses," he ordered. Tom looked at Kylo, ​​who immediately said, "Joel Kylo, ​​Belvedere Hotel." Before Tom could ask the girl, Spade said, "You can always deal with Miss O'Shaughnessy through me." Tom looked at Dundee.Dundee snarled, "Get her address down." "Her address was forwarded by my office," Spade said. Dundee stepped forward, stood in front of the girl, and asked, "Where do you live?" Spade said to Tom, "I've had enough of telling him to get out." Tom looked into Spade's eyes--hard and gleaming--and muttered, "Take it easy, Sam." He buttoned up his coat, turned to Dundee, and said, deliberately casually, "There , Let’s forget it?” Saying that, he took a step towards the door. Although Dundee was sullen, he couldn't hide his hesitation. Kylo also suddenly walked towards the door, saying, "I'm going too, Mr. Spade, please get me my coat and hat." Spade asked, "What are you up to?" Dundee said angrily: "Since it's a joke, don't you still dare not stay with them?" "Where is it," said Kylo, ​​fidgeting, not daring to look at anyone. "But it's getting late, I—I have to go, I'll go with you, okay?" Dundee pursed his lips tightly and did not speak, a gleam of light flashed in his green eyes. Spade went to the hall closet for Kylo's coat and hat.There was no expression on his face.He helped Kylo put on his coat, stepped back, and said to Tom in the same deadpan voice, "Tell him to keep the gun." Dundee took Kylo's pistol from his coat pocket and laid it on the table.He went out first, Kylo following him.Tom stood in front of Spade and muttered, "God bless you." Spade was silent.Tom sighed and followed the two out.Spade saw them off and watched Tom close the corridor door at the corner of the passage.