The silence made a cup, a kind of vacuum, around the house, and Big Tom sat moveless as if he might be listening for some scratch of sound, the tiniest indication of a break in that envelopment. He didn’t look at Harry. Harry’s nervous fright rolled from him in waves, like a smell.

Harry put the phone into its cradle, went to a chair facing Big Tom, sat down. “My God,” he said. He took out a white linen handkerchief and mopped at his neck under the collar. “What a hell of a break.” Big Tom made no reply, showed no curiosity, just waited; and Harry went on: “All day Benny’s been following this character, buying him drinks and trying t’ chum him up . . . when he wasn’t ducking out t’ phone you . . . and he finally got the character drunk enough and he talked. He talked about Stolz.”

Big Tom grabbed one of his cats and inspected behind its ears for fleas. He didn’t look in Harry’s direction.

“This boy Benny’s been with is a real hard-nose. Tough. Benny thinks he’s a gun from El Paso, somebody he met once. Worked for Stolz for a year or so. Not working for him now. Uses a different moniker. Won’t be needing any moniker at all if he blabs much what he’s been blabbing t’ Benny.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re working around to the big news,” Big Tom said.

“The news is bad, real bad,” Harry answered, his eyes shining like wet soap. “The word is that Stolz bought a chunk of the Hartfield ransom. Got it for about ten cents on the dollar. No bargain at that. You remember about the Hartfields?”

Big Tom put the cat down carefully on all four feet. “Yeah, I remember.”

“The job was a ripperoo all the way around,” Harry went on breathlessly. “The punks who snatched Hartfield and his wife didn’t have sense enough t’ specify the kind of money. So they got hundreds, all consecutive, every goddamn number taped—— Oh, my god! And we nearly walked int’ that!”

Big Tom lifted his eyes slowly. “You’re not going?”

“Good God! Good God!” Harry cried loudly. “You’re not going either!”

“Yes, I am.”

Harry lowered his face and peered at Big Tom as through a haze. “Now, now wait up——”

“I’m going,” Big Tom affirmed. “I didn’t know it myself until just now. I kept thinking all day, if Benny dug up something smelly I’d have to drop it, but then I quit answering the phone so I wouldn’t hear what he said. All the time I knew I was going and didn’t realize I’d made up my mind. Till now.”

“What in the blazing hell,” Harry wondered, his mouth puckering, “can you do with dough as hot as that?”