“All right, Pendleton.” Alverato’s eyes didn’t look lazy any more. “From the beginning.”

He reached for the bottle again and offered to pour a drink for Pendleton. Pendleton shook his head.

“All right, Pendleton. Old Man Ager is dead. Now there’s you and me.”

There was a pause while Pendleton looked bored.

“For Chrissakes, Pendy, we got to settle this thing. Look what I got to offer, the whole organization! I ran it for him. I built it up.”

“What you are trying to say, Alverato, is that I have the contacts and neither you nor your army of hoodlums can do a thing without them.”

“Damn it, I don’t care how you put it. You ran one end of the business and I handled the other. Old Ager is dead and you and I got to get together, don’t you see?”

“I don’t see that at all.”

“Whaddaya mean?” Alverato was starting to shout “For Chrissakes, everything is standing still! Nothing big has moved for months now. You want the whole thing to fold up?”

“Alverato. The organization has always been your concern. Aside from some minor collection activities that I inherited from Ager, my business dealings don’t resemble yours in the least. And as I have told you, I am not interested in helping you along in your affairs.”

Big Al took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them again they looked small and piggish. “The dough, Pendleton. Think of the dough. Without our partnership-”

“I am not interested in money. That is to say, not the way you make it. My activities as Ager’s assistant had very little resemblance to your outdated methods.”

“Outdated! Listen, you bastard. I was making dough when you were still sitting on your wrinkled ass doing bookkeeping someplace. What I got to offer-”

“I know what you have to offer. An army of hoodlums with guns in their hands. Outdated, as I have said. Guns are noisy and corpses talk, Alverato.”