The girl sat down gingerly on the end of the sofa by the unconscious boy's feet.
Gutman returned to the padded rocking chair, and Cairo to the arnichair.
Spade put his handful of pistols on the table and sat on the table-corner beside them.
He looked at the watch on his wrist and said:
"Two o'clock.
I can't get the falcon till daylight, or maybe eight o'clock.
We've got plenty of time to arrange everything."
Gutman cleared his throat.
"Where is it?" he asked and then added in haste: "I don't really care, sir.
What I had in mind was that it would be best for all concerned if we did not get out of each other's sight until our business has been transacted."
He looked at the sofa and at Spade again, sharply.
"You have the envelope?"
Spade shook his head, looking at the sofa and then at the girl.
He smiled with his eyes and said:
"Miss O'Shaughnessy has it."
"Yes, I have it," she murmured, putting a hand inside her coat.
"I picked it up
"That's all right," Spade told her.
"Hang on to it."
He addressed Gutman: "We won't have to lose Sight of each other.
I can have the falcon brought here."
"That will be excellent," Gutman purred.
"Then, sir, in exchange for the ten thousand dollars and Wilmer you will give us the falcon and an hour or two of grace—so we won't be in the city when you surrender him to the authorities."
"You don't have to duck," Spade said.
"It'll be air-tight."
"That may be, sir, but nevertheless we'll feel safer well out of the city when Wilmer is being questioned by your District Attorney."
"Suit yourself," Spade replied.
"I can hold him here all day if you want."
He began to roll a cigarette.
"Let's get the details fixed.
Why did he shoot Thursby?
And why and where and how did he shoot Jacobi?"
Gutman smiled indulgently, shaking his head and purring:
"Now come, sir, you can't expect that.
We've given you the money and Wilmer.
That is our part of the agreement."
"I do expect it," Spade said. He held his lighter to his cigarette.
"A fail-guy is what I asked for, and he's not a fall-guy unless he's a cinch to take the fall.
Well, to cinch that I've got to know what's what."
He pulled his brows together.
"What are you bellyaching about?
You're not going to be sitting so damned pretty if you leave him with an out."
Gutman leaned forward and wagged a fat finger at the pistols on the table beside Spade's legs.
"There's ample evidence of his guilt, sir.
Both men were shot with those weapons.
It's a very simple matter for the police-department-experts to determine that the bullets that killed the men were fired from those weapons.
You know that; you've mentioned it yourself.
And that, it seems to me, is ample proof of his guilt."
"Maybe," Spade agreed, "but the thing's snore complicated than that and I've got to know what happened so I can be sure the parts that won't fit in are covered up." Cairo's eyes were round and hot.
"Apparently you've forgotten that you assured us it would be a very simple affair," Cairo said.