"When I was a kid," she said, "I took a stick and poked it in a hornets" nest."
"There"s smarter things to do," old Tex Haven said.
"What we"ve done today," his daughter told him, "amounts to the same thing."
"Eh?"
She told him what had happened. Her voice was disgusted when she explained that Horst had been clever enough to divine that they would attempt to involve Doc Savage. When she came to the appearance of Henry Peace, she crackled rage.
"The big red-headed hooligan," she said, "seemed to expect me to fall on his neck."
"Can"t blame him."
"Well, I didn"t care for his manner."
""Pears you"re a mite prejudiced. Mind explainin" what was wrong with his manner?"
"He wanted to marry me."
"That," said old Tex Haven, "sure don"t prove he was crazy."
"Yes, but he told me his intentions thirty seconds after he met me."
"Reckon you never seen a sparrow after a bug," Tex Haven said. "A sparrow don"t waste no time."
"I"m the bug, eh?"
Tex Haven took his pipe out of his teeth, contemplated it, rubbed his jaw.
"Last you seed of Doc Savage"s men, they was bein" run into the weeds by this Henry Peace?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Likely as not, they"ll start followin" Horst"s men."
"They"re fools if they don"t. Horst"s men were going to kill them."Old Tex Haven took a long, luxuriant drag of vile smoke out of his corncob pipe, released it to further befoul the air of the room, and smacked his lips.
"We came out all right, figures as if," he said. "We hankered for Doc Savage to take after Horst. He"s after "im."
"His men are."
"Same thing."
"Which brings us around," Rhoda Haven said grimly, "to what we do next, whatever it is."
Tex Haven went to the window shade and pulled it down. The bit of shark skin, which had been rolled up in the shade, fluttered out. He caught it.
"Jep Dee sent us this for a reason, strikes me," he said. "Jep Dee ain"t the boy to do things without reason."
His daughter took the piece of dry, freckled-looking hide and scrutinized it thoughtfully. She felt of it, held it up to the light, shook her head.
"Beats me," she said.
There was a knock on the door.
Tex Haven blinked, muttered, "Last time somebody knocked on the door, h.e.l.l broke loose."
He hastily rolled the bit of freckled shark skin up inside the window shade.
Then he looked at his daughter.
"You positive," he asked, "that n.o.body could"ve followed you back from that place where they was gonna throw you in the cistern?"
"Positive," Rhoda Haven said firmly.
The room was L-shaped. Old Tex Haven got at the angle of the L, stood there where his hands could get at his guns freely. He knew, from the construction of the hotel, that there was a steel beam at the angle of the L, which would stop bullets.
Rhoda Haven got out on the fire escape.
The knuckles banged the door again.
"Come in," Tex Haven called.
Henry Peace brought his big, freckled grin into the room.
OLD Tex Haven was standing slack-shouldered and sleepy-his deadliest att.i.tude, incidentally. His long jaw sagged, his corncob fell out of his teeth, and one of his palms cupped instinctively and caught it.
"Drat it!" he said.
Henry Peace squinted at him. "What"s the idea? Ain"t I welcome?"
Old Tex Haven swallowed, apparently could think of nothing to say.
"Where"s my fiancee?" asked Henry Peace.
"Your what?"
"My future wife-your daughter," Henry Peace explained.
Rhoda Haven came in from her hiding place, her heels tapping the floor angrily."I"m getting tired of that wife stuff!" she snapped. "The more I see of you, the less I can stomach you. In fact, you distinctly irritate me."
"Them pains you feel," Henry Peace a.s.sured her, "are probably the sprouting of a great love."
Rhoda Haven turned angrily to her father. Knowing old Tex as she did, she thought it might be a good idea to explain again that she felt that it was impossible for Henry Peace to have followed her here.
She said, "This air-minded tramp couldn"t-"
"Air-minded-nothing!" Henry Peace interrupted. "I hate airplanes."
"What I meant is that you have air where a mind should be," the girl explained carefully.
Henry Peace looked so indignant that old Tex Haven chuckled gently. That chuckle turned out to be an error-it distracted his attention. Too, he hadn"t expected Henry Peace to jump him, which was what happened. They hit the floor. Tex Haven"s bony frame made a sound somewhat as if an arm-load of stove wood had been dropped.
Tex wrapped long, bony arms and legs, octopus fashion, around Henry Peace.
"I sure hates," he said, "to embarra.s.s a young lad who thinks he"s handy."
He tightened the grip, his ropy old muscles rolling something like a jungle snake starting to swallow a pig.
Henry Peace at once emitted several yelps of pain.
Old Tex Haven had at one time spent some months in a j.a.panese prison, and his cellmate had been a j.a.panese strangler who, as jujitsu expert, was probably the greatest ever to live. The j.a.p strangler would have been world-famous, except for a failing for getting into fights in which he choked his opponents to death. From the Nipponese, Tex Haven had learned about all that could be learned of the art of administering agony.
Also, age had not weakened the wirelike ropes that served Tex as muscles. The years, if anything, had improved them.
The two men went around and around on the floor. A table upset. Henry Peace gave more pain yips.
Then Henry Peace began taking hold of old Tex Haven in various strange ways. Tex started squawking like a sage hen.
Tex had been showing great willingness to mix it with the large, red-headed young man.
Now Tex showed great willingness to let loose of Henry Peace. He had, he was discovering, caught a Tartar.
The two suddenly separated and got up, scowled at each other with mutual respect. Henry Peace had possession of all Tex Haven"s guns.
"Standin" there, all ready to shoot, when I came in, wasn"t you?" Henry Peace asked. "I didn"t like that none."
Rhoda Haven frowned at her bony parent, said, "You must be slipping, dad."
"Not slippin"," Tex denied. "I just got me a hold on a right tolerable man."
"He"s a clown!" Rhoda said, and sniffed.
Henry Peace, having rubbed various parts of his anatomy which probably hurt, grinned cheerfully at the Havens.
"I"m beginnin" to think you"re gonna make a better daddy-in-law than I expected," he said.
HAVING ridded himself of that declaration, Henry Peace pulled down his sleeves, straightened his coat and felt of one of his ears again to be sure it had not been pulled off. Then he gravely shook hands with old Tex and his daughter.
The latter showed no enthusiasm.
"What"s the idea of this hand-shaking?" Tex Haven asked.
"You were shaking the hand," Henry Peace explained, "of your new partner."Tex jumped.
What?" he yelled.
Henry Peace grinned at the gaunt old h.e.l.l-raiser and soldier of fortune. "I"ve heard plenty about you."
"You heared of me?" Tex asked dubiously. "Warn"t nothin" degradin", if war true."
"I"ve heard," said Henry Peace, "that you and this daughter of yours-my future breakfast companion-make yourselves about over a million dollars a year, one way or another. I heard, too, that you always turn right around and lose it. That"s where I"m goin" to be different. I ain"t gonna lose my share."
Old Tex Haven got out his corncob pipe and looked at it as if it had betrayed him.
"And what would you calculate your share?" he asked mildly.
"One third."
"Third of what?"
"That is what you can now tell me," Henry Peace said.
Old Tex Haven made faces and snorting sounds, and continued to eye his corncob pipe as if it had suddenly poisoned him.
"Ain"t nothin" to tell," he said.
"You mean," said Henry Peace skeptically, "that you"re entirely innocent of schemes?"
"Yep.
"You ain"t doin" nothin" that you wouldn"t describe to a policeman?"
"Nope."
"About that, we"ll see."
Henry Peace went to a window and lifted it. The tops of trees were thick outside, but through them he could see a policeman standing on the sidewalk at the end of the block. Henry Peace raised his voice.
The policeman looked as if he were having a dull afternoon.
"Help, help," yelled Henry Peace. "Police! Help! Murder! Bandits!"
The cop jumped. But his jump was nothing to the one Tex Haven gave.
"You durn fool!" Tex yelled.
"He"s crazy!" snapped Rhoda Haven. "I told you so. Remember?"
Henry Peace stood still, grinned big.
The Havens flung a glance at the window shade which held the shark skin. They glared at Henry Peace.