He hesitated, glanced this way and that, making a quick mental decision.

Mary V had once been candidly tempted to shoot him and had dallied with the temptation to the point of cocking her sixshooter and aiming it directly at him.

She looked now quite capable of repeating the performance and of completing what she had merely started last summer.

He went to the edge of the curb, obeying her expectant stare.

The expectant stare continued to transfix him, and he stepped off the curb and close to the Bear Cat that was growling in its throat.
"Bland Halliday, where have you _been_, for gracious sake?
And where's Johnny ?" "I ain't been anywhere but here--and I wisht I knowed where Johnny was.
I--" "Bland Halliday, you tell me instantly! Where's Johnny ?" "Honest, I don't know.