His actual job was a lotbetter and better paid but his friends were still the same. His petite, blond wife lookedangrily at her dark-haired husband a...nd not satisfied with his answer she wenton inquiring: ?You spent it? You spent it? What for??How could he be so insensible? ?Well?Mike, Robby, Dan theFat, Shermanand I were often to ?The Club? since it opened some months ago? ?The Club? What rotten place is ?The Club?? Adive? A whorehouse? A?a ?. ascrew-track?.? ?Maria, please, there we meetwith. Busy day?”“Nah, not really. The ones who were running came back after I came on, but they had those people from the prison planet with them today.”“The Morales family?”“Yeah, and it was obvious they weren’t accustomed to running. Mr. Morales reminds me of me when I first started out — minus the muscles — but I was a hell of a lot younger than he is. Fifteen, if I remember correctly, and my next-door neighbor started me out...”“A girl, I suppose?”“Naturally. You don’t think a teenage boy would. Four of us walked down the steps and into the back room. I dropped some coins in a public phone and called the art supply store and asked them to come as soon as possible to pick up the canvas I bought and to deliver it for me.The men had found the canvas and looked at it in an incandescent light and just stared at my work. The people outside were waiting so I hustled my impromptu stevedores but cautioned them about the wet paint.They carried it very gingerly and I was happy with the amount of. Horner, the cox'n, readied the men hastily and bowed to Elizabeth in exaggerated fashion."Yore servant, Madam," he intoned gravely."Good day, Mr. Horner," Elizabeth answered easily, knowing his name from Anson's letters. Horner beamed with pride.Elizabeth easily climbed down into the boat and sat in the stern sheets whilst Anson chose to stand during the short crossing. He caught the admiring glances of the gig's crew members and he felt a silly pride.They hooked onto the chains and Anson.