make me?â
âSomething like that.â
âCan you?â
âYes.â
âWithout killing me?â
âYes.â
Janis winked at Rone. âWould you like to bet on it, chappie? Say, five hundred poundsâfifteen hundred dollars, that is?â
âCan you cover it?â
âI would trust that my credit is still good?â
âNot for this.â
âOh,â Janis said, with visible disappointment. âThat complicates matters.â
âAnd if I donât bring you out,â Rone reminded him, âthen they will send someone else who can.â
âWhy should I do anything for them? After all, they let me rot for five years.â
âTheyâve all rotted for five yearsâmost of them even longer.â
Janis was silent for a moment. âI owe nothing to the Highwayman. If it were Sturdevant then things would be different.â
âSturdevant is dead.â
Janis roared with laughter. âGood God, donât tell me they have you believing that whoreâs cry too. Look, chappie, I know Sturdevant. And I tell you he never could or would take his own life.â
âThen where is he?â
âHeâs waiting, my boy. Somewhere, someplace heâs waiting, like a lion in the thicket. Heâll be out when the time is right. You mark my words, chappie, heâs waiting.â
âYou sound very sure.â
âI am very sure. Heâs too competitive to stay out much longer. I knew him better than any living man. I know what makes him tick. You see, heâs a gambler at heart. Just as I am, except that he is slightly better. He has more patience than any man I know. Thatâs what a great gambler needs above all other traits. You must learn to sit on your hands. You must learn not to move until the time is propitious. You wait until either the odds are in your favor or the stakes are so high you cannot refuse. When either one of those things occurs, Sturdevant will show his face.â
âIâve heard that he was a coward.â
âYouâll hear many things. That he was frightened, perverted, sadistic. No matter who you talk to there will be a different story. Remember just one thing. You will only hear what that Sturdevant wants you to hear. He thrives on confusion. But you see, heâs the last of the great hunters. He needs an even fight. In this day and age that isnât easy to find. So heâs developed a thousand little devices to keep him out of meaningless skirmishes. Very few people can understand this. Since time began very few people have ever been able to understand the brave man, and almost none have understood the just man.â
âI still have to bring you with me,â Rone reminded him.
âAnd I donât think I care to go,â Janis stated. âIt isnât as much to do with the Highwayman as you think. You see, thereâs a basic law of physics which states that at one time or another all bodies within this atmosphere must come to rest. I think I have come to rest here. Like Sturdevant I desire a fair fight and I have found it here. Iâm a sensualist, old man. I trade in human weaknessâusually sexual.
âManâs self-indulgence and animalism is my stock in trade. As long as one male is left on earth who bothers to look up a skirt other than his wifeâs, I will prevail. As long as one woman eyes another and gets some inexplicable physical reaction, I thrive. Fetish and taboo are my creed. Take away religion and law, kill conscience, revert to what we really areâand I no longer exist. Thatâs why this place fascinates me. These Indians are completely devoid of inhibition. They are totally amoral. There isnât one physical impulse that they wonât explore with the innocence and intensity of a child. What little twinge of morality they might have contracted from progress is eliminated by that mushroom soup they drink.
âI ask you,