And then they stopped, stockstill, and there was James facing them, his gun aiming dead steady between the two bodies! His voice cracked like a whip across the lawn. ‘All right! This is it! Turn round! The first man drops his television gets shot.’ They turned slowly round so that they faced towards my hideout. And now James called to me, ‘Come over, Viv! I need extra hands.’
I took the heavy revolver out of the waistband of my overalls and ran quickly across the grass. When I was about ten yards from the men, James said, ‘Just stop there, Viv, and I’ll tell you what to do.’ I stopped. The two evil faces stared at me. The thin man’s teeth were bared in a sort of fixed grin of surprise and tension. Sluggsy let off a string of curses. I pointed my gun at the television set that covered his stomach. ‘Shut your mouth or I’ll shoot you dead.’
Sluggsy sneered. ‘You and who else? You’d be too frightened of the bang.’
James said, ‘Shut up you, or you get a crack on that ugly head of yours. Now listen, Viv, we’ve got to get the guns off these men. Come round behind the one called Horror. Put your gun up against his spine and with your free hand feel under his armpits. Not a nice job but it can’t be helped. Tell me if you feel a gun there and I’ll tell you what to do next. We’ll go at this slowly. I’ll cover the other, and if this Horror moves let him have it.’
I did as I was told. I went round behind the thin man and pressed the gun into his back. Then I reached up with my left hand and felt under his right arm. A nasty, dead kind of smell came from him, and I was suddenly disgusted at being so close to him and touching him so intimately. I know that my hand trembled, and it must have been that that made him take the chance, for, suddenly, in one quick flow of motion, he had dropped the television, whirled like a snake, slapping the gun out of my hand with his open palm, and clutched me to him.
James Bond’s gun roared and I felt the wind of a bullet, and then I began to fight like a demon, kicking and scratching and clawing. But I might have been fighting with a stone statue. He just squeezed me more agonizingly to him and I heard his dry voice say, ‘Okay, limey. Now what? Want the dame to get herself killed?’
I could feel one of his hands loosening itself from me to get to his gun and I began struggling again.
James Bond said sharply, ‘Viv. Get your legs apart!’
I automatically did as I was told and again his gun roared. The thin man let out a curse and set me free, but at the same time there came a splintering crash from behind me and I whirled round. At the same time as he had fired, Sluggsy had hurled the television set over his head at James Bond and it had crashed into his face, knocking him off balance.
As Sluggsy shouted, ‘Scram, Horror!’ I dived for my gun and, prone in the grass, clumsily fired it at Sluggsy. I would probably have missed him anyway, but he was already on the move, weaving across the lawn towards the cabins like a football player, with the thin man scrambling desperately after him. I fired again, but the gun kicked high, and then they were out of range and Sluggsy disappeared into Number 1 cabin away on the right.
I got up and ran to James Bond. He was kneeling down in the grass with one hand to his head. As I came up he took the hand away, looked at it and swore. There was a big gash just below the hairline. I didn’t say anything, but ran to the nearest window of the lobby building and smashed it in with the butt of my gun. A burst of heat came out at me, but no flames, and, just below, almost within reach, was the table the gangsters had used, and on it, among some smouldering remains of the roof, the first-aid kit. James Bond shouted something, but I was already over the sill. I held my breath against the fumes, grabbed the box and scrambled out again, my eyes stinging with the smoke.
I wiped the wound as clean as I could, and got out merthiolate and a big Band-aid. The cut wasn’t deep, but there would soon be a bad bruise. He said, ‘Sorry, Viv. I made rather a hash of that round.’
I thought he had too. I said, ‘Why didn’t you just shoot them down? They were sitting ducks with those sets in their hands.’
He said curtly, ‘Never been able to in cold blood. But at least I ought to have been able to blast that man’s foot off. Must have just nicked it, and now he’s still in the game.’
I said severely, ‘It seems to me damned lucky you’re in it too. Why didn’t Sluggsy kill you?’
‘Your guess is as good as mine. It looks as if they’ve got some kind of a headquarters over at Number 1. Perhaps he left his armament there while they did the job on the lobby. He may not have liked carrying live bullets around with him so near to the flames. Anyway, war’s declared now, and we’re going to have quite a job on our hands. Main thing is to keep an eye on their car. They’ll be pretty desperate to get away. But they’ve somehow got to kill us first. They’re in a nasty fix and they’ll fight like hell-cats.’
