“Says which?”

The big man made a fist into which his whiskey sour glass melted almost out of sight.

“Five years anyway,” I said. “This fellow wouldn’t know anything about a white girl named Velma. Nobody here would.”

The big man looked at me as if I had just hatched out. His whiskey sour hadn’t seemed to improve his temper.

“Who the hell asked you to stick your face in?” he asked me.

I smiled. I made it a big warm friendly smile. “I’m the fellow that came in with you. Remember?”

He grinned back then, a flat white grin without meaning. “Whiskey sour,” he told the barman. “Shake them fleas outa your pants. Service.”

The barman scuttled around, rolling the whites of his eyes. I put my back against the bar and looked at the room. It was now empty, save for the barman, the big man and myself, and the bouncer crushed over against the wall. The bouncer was moving. He was moving slowly as if with great pain and effort. He was crawling softly along the baseboard like a fly with one wing. He was moving behind the tables, wearily, a man suddenly old, suddenly disillusioned. I watched him move. The barman put down two more whiskey sours. I turned to the bar. The big man glanced casually over at the crawling bouncer and then paid no further attention to him.

“There ain’t nothing left of the joint,” he complained. “They was a little stage and band and cute little rooms where a guy could have fun. Velma did some warbling. A redhead she was. Cute as lace pants. We was to of been married when they hung the frame on me.”

I took my second whiskey sour. I was beginning to have enough of the adventure. “What frame?” I asked.

“Where you figure I been them eight years I said about?”

“Catching butterflies.”

He prodded his chest with a forefinger like a banana. “In the caboose. Malloy is the name. They call me Moose Malloy, on account of I’m large. The Great Bend bank job. Forty grand. Solo job. Ain’t that something?”