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  There was a pause. Stuffy watched Tim who wasn't making any noise with the bottles; he was picking them up carefully and putting them down carefully.

  Then the loud gritty voice again, 'It may cost you a lot.'

  'That's all right.' Suddenly he didn't like the conversation any more. He wanted to finish it and get away.

  'Might cost you six pounds, might cost you eight or ten. I don't know till I've seen her. That all right?'

  'Yes yes, that's all right.'

  'Where you living. Colonel?'

  'Metropolitan Hotel,' he said without thinking.

  'All right, I give you a ring later.' And she put down the receiver, bang.

  Stuffy hung up, went slowly back to the table and sat down.

  'Well,' said Stag, 'that was all right, wasn't it?'

  'Yes, I suppose so.'

  'What did she say?'

  'She said that she would call me back at the hotel.'

  'You mean she'll call Colonel Higgins at the hotel.'

  Stuffy said, 'Oh Christ.'

  Stag said, 'It's all right. We'll tell the desk that the Colonel is in our room and put his calls through to us. What else did she say?'

  'She said it may cost me a lot, six or ten pounds.'

  'Rosette will take ninety per cent of it,' said Stag. 'She's a filthy old whore.'

  'How will she work it?' Stuffy said.

  He was really a gentle person and now he was feeling worried about having started something which might become complicated.

  'Well,' said Stag, 'she'll dispatch one of her pimps to locate the girl and find out who she is. If she's already on the books, then it's easy. If she isn't, the pimp will proposition her there and then over the counter at Cicurel's. If the girl tells him to go to hell, he'll up the price, and if she still tells him to go to hell, he'll up the price still more, and in the end she'll be tempted by the cash and probably agree. Then Rosette quotes you a price three times as high and takes the balance herself. You have to pay her, not the girl. Of course after that the girl goes on Rosette's books, and once she's in her clutches she's finished. Next time Rosette will dictate the price and the girl will not be in a position to argue.'

  'Why?'

  'Because if she refuses, Rosette will say, "All right, my girl, I shall see that your employers, that's Cicurel's, are told about what you did last time, how you've been working for me and using their shop as a market place. Then they'll fire you." That's what Rosette will say, and the wretched girl will be frightened and do what she's told.'

  Stuffy said, 'Sounds like a nice person.'

  'Who?'

  'Madame Rosette.'

  'Charming,' said Stag. 'She's a charming person.'

  It was hot. Stuffy wiped his face with his handkerchief.

  'More whisky,' said Stag. 'Hi, Tim, two more of those.'

  Tim brought the glasses over and put them on the table without saying anything. He picked up the empty glasses and went away at once. To Stuffy it seemed as though he was different from what he had been when they first came in. He wasn't cheery any more, he was quiet and offhand. There wasn't any more 'Hi, you fellows, where you been all this time' about him now, and when he got back behind the counter, he turned his back and went on arranging the bottles.

  The Stag said, 'How much money you got?'

  'Nine pounds, I think.'

  'May not be enough. You gave her a free hand, you know. You ought to have set a limit. She'll sting you now.'

  'I know,' Stuffy said.

  They went on drinking for a little while without talking. Then Stag said, 'What you worrying about. Stuffy?'

  'Nothing,' he answered. 'Nothing at all. Let's go back to the hotel. She may ring up.'

  They paid for their drinks and said goodbye to Tim, who nodded but didn't say anything. They went back to the Metropolitan and as they went past the desk, the Stag said to the clerk, 'If a call comes in for Colonel Higgins, put it through to our room. He'll be there.' The Egyptian said, 'Yes, sir,' and made a note of it.

  In the bedroom, the Stag lay down on his bed and lit a cigarette. 'And what am I going to do tonight?' he said.

  Stuffy had been quiet all the way back to the hotel. He hadn't said a word. Now he sat down on the edge of the other bed with his hands still in his pockets and said, 'Look, Stag, I'm not very keen on this Rosette deal any more. It may cost too much. Can't we put it off?'

  The Stag sat up. 'Hell no,' he said. 'You're committed. You can't fool about with Rosette like that. She's probably working on it at this moment. You can't back out now.'

  'I may not be able to afford it,' Stuffy said.

  'Well, wait and see.'

  Stuffy got up, went over to the parachute bag and took out the bottle of whisky. He poured out two, filled the glasses with water from the tap in the bathroom, came back and gave one to the Stag.

  'Stag,' he said. 'Ring up Rosette and tell her that Colonel Higgins has had to leave town urgently, to rejoin his regiment in the desert. Ring her up and tell her that. Say the Colonel asked you to deliver the message because he didn't have time.'

  'Ring her up yourself.'

  'She'd recognize my voice. Come on, Stag, you ring her.'

  'No,' he said, 'I won't.'

  'Listen,' said Stuffy suddenly. It was the child Stuffy speaking. 'I don't want to go out with that woman and I don't want to have any dealings with Madame Rosette tonight. We can think of something else.'

  The Stag looked up quickly. Then he said, 'All right. I'll ring her.'

  He reached for the phone book, looked up her number and spoke it into the telephone. Stuffy heard him get her on the line and he heard him giving her the message from the Colonel. There was a pause, then the Stag said, 'I'm sorry, Madame Rosette, but it's nothing to do with me. I'm merely delivering a message.' Another pause; then the Stag said the same thing over again and that went on for quite a long time, until he must have got tired of it, because in the end he put down the receiver and lay back on his bed. He was roaring with laughter.

  'The lousy old bitch,' he said, and he laughed some more.

  Stuffy said, 'Was she angry?'

  'Angry,' said Stag. 'Was she angry? You should have heard her. Wanted to know the Colonel's regiment and God knows what else and said he'd have to pay. She said you boys think you can fool around with me but you can't.'

  'Hooray,' said Stuffy. 'The filthy old whore.'

  'Now what are we going to do?' said the Stag. 'It's six o'clock already.'

  'Let's go out and do a little drinking in some of those Gyppi places.'

  'Fine. We'll do a Gyppi pub crawl.'

  They had one more drink, then they went out. They went to a place called the Excelsior, then they went to a place called the Sphinx, then to a small place called by an Egyptian name, and by ten o'clock they were sitting happily in a place which hadn't got a name at all, drinking beer and watching a kind of stage show. At the Sphinx they had picked up a pilot from thirty-three squadron, who said that his name was William. He was about the same age as Stuffy, but his face was younger, for he had not been flying so long. It was especially around his mouth that he was younger. He had a round schoolboy face and a small turned-up nose and his skin was brown from the desert.

  The three of them sat happily in the place without a name drinking beer, because beer was the only thing that they served there. It was a long wooden room with an unpolished wooden sawdust floor and wooden tables and chairs. At the far end there was a raised wooden stage where there was a show going on. The room was full of Egyptians, sitting drinking black coffee with the red tarbooshes on their heads. There were two fat girls on the stage dressed in shiny silver pants and silver brassieres. One was waggling her bottom in time to the music. The other was waggling her bosom in time to the music. The bosom waggler was most skilful. She could waggle one bosom without waggling the other and sometimes she would waggle her bottom as well. The Egyptians were spellbound and kept giving her a big hand. The more they clapped the more she wa