It was close to eleven when I put my car away and walked around to the front of the Hobart Arms. The plate-glass door was put on the lock at ten, so I had to get my keys out. Inside, in the square barren lobby, a man put a green evening paper down beside a potted palm and flicked a cigarette butt into the tub the palm grew in. He stood up and waved his hat at me and said: "The boss wants to talk to you. You sure keep your friends waiting, pal." I stood still and looked at his flattened nose and club steak ear. "What about?" "What do you care? Just keep your nose clean and everything will be jake." His hand hovered near the upper buttonhole of his open coat. "I smell of policemen," I said. "I'm too tired to talk, too tired to eat, too tired to think. But if you think I'mnot too tired to take orders from Eddie Mars-- try getting your gat out before I shoot your good ear off." "Nuts. You ain't got no gun." He stared at me levelly. His dark wiry brows closed in together and his mouth made a downward curve. "That was then," I told him. "I'm not always naked." He waved his left hand. "Okey. You win. I wasn't told to blast anybody. You'll hear from him." "Too late will be too soon," I said, and turned slowly as he passed me on his way to the door. He opened it and went out without looking back. I grinned at my own foolishness, went along to the elevator and upstairs to the apartment. I took Carmen's little gun out of my pocket and laughed at it. Then I cleaned it thoroughly, oiled it, wrapped it in a piece of canton flannel and locked it up. I made myself a drink and was drinking it when the phone rang. I sat down beside the table on which it stood. "So you're tough tonight," Eddie Mars' voice said. "Big, fast, tough and full of prickles. What can I do for you?" "Cops over there--you know where. You keep me out of it?" "Why should I?" "I'm nice to be nice to, soldier. I'm not nice not to be nice to." "Listen hard and you'll hear my teeth chattering." He laughed dryly. "Did you--or did you?" "I did. I'm damned if I know why. I guess it was just complicated enough without you." "Thanks, soldier. Who gunned him?" "Read it in the paper tomorrow--maybe." "I want to know now." "Do you get everything you want?" "No. Is that an answer, soldier?" "Somebody you never heard of gunned him. Let it go at that." "If that's on the level, someday I may be able to do you a favor." "Hang up and let me go to bed." He laughed again. "You're looking for Rusty Regan, aren't you?" "A lot of people seem to think I am, but I'm not." "If you were, I could give you an idea. drop in and see me down at the beach.............