Corey breathed very slowly, crouching behind the fence. Through the slit in the boards he studied Kingsley’s face and thought, It’s sorta like stud poker; the man knows it’s his bet and he’s figuring the odds. He knows there ain’t no hurry; he can take all the time he wants. It amounts to the fence. He’s wondering if it’s worth the chance to come over here and look behind the fence.

Sure, he’s thinkin’ maybe there’s nothing behind the fence. And then he’s thinkin’, maybe there is, and if he makes the move he’ll come out second-best. Well, we’ll just let him sweat it out. But we hope he decides to play it safe. We don’t want no showdowns now. It’s a cinch he wouldn’t spill anything, not even with the gun pointing at his belly. You read his face, you know he ain’t the type to spill.

What makes you say that? I mean, what do you know for sure? So all right, he tailed you from Grogan’s house. But what else do you know about him? Before tonight, you never saw him; you never even heard his name. As it stacks up now, all you know is he wears working clothes and he’s married to Lillian. And that’s it, that’s all—no, wait. There’s one more thing—

I mean Lillian. She’s hitched to this big good-lookin’ healthy-lookin’ man; but she ain’t exactly jumpin’ for joy. He’s got polite manners and a pleasant smile and all that, but you know Lillian; at least you can read her to an extent. And what you read tonight was something on the minus side, something downright dismal.

Does that tell you anything? Not hardly. You’ll just hafta sleep on it. That is, if you get any sleep tonight. The way it looks, it’s stalemate and it’s gonna stay that way until one of us moves.

Another minute passed. Then Kingsley turned slowly and faced toward Addison. He moved away from the alley entrance, and Corey heard his footsteps going toward Addison. The sound of the footsteps receded and then faded altogether. Corey waited another few minutes, decided it was all right now and climbed over the fence and headed down the alley toward Third. Some five minutes later he was in his room.