SYNOPSIS: Hugo has told Masters an old blind man and a girl have been looking for him. Coke and Kate have found what they think is Masters' aniicjiie weapon shop.
Coke did not sleep very well that night, either. He lay awake thinking. He was on Kate's sofa in the sitting-room. Slowly, however, he formed a plan in his mind. He fell asleep around three in the morning.
When he woke up, Kate was already in the kitchen making breakfast. "What are we going to do now?" she asked while they were eating. Coke did not answer immediately. He stared into his coffee. He knew he had to make one thing clear to her. "Have you thought what'll happen to you if the police find me here?" he suddenly asked. Kate looked at him coolly. "We've been over this before, haven't we? Now answer my question," she answered.
"But they'll send you to prison if they learn you've helped me!" "I'll worry about that if and when it happens."
"All right. I'll tell you. But I warn you. if anything goes wrong, you
might get hurt, badly hurt!" he told her.
"Go on. I'm listening."
"We're going to try to get Masters [bad word] here. That is, if the owner
of that shop is Masters."
"Get him [bad word] here? How?"
Coke began to explain the plan he had in mind.
Eric Masters was cleaning an antique pistol when the phone rang in
his shop. He heard a young woman's voice at the other end. "I believe
you buy and sell antique weapons," she said.
"Yes. that's right. I'm particularly interested in old firearms."
"My father is, too. He has a number of 17th-century pistols and he
wants to sell some of them. Would you be interested?"
"Certainly. If you bring them to my shop. I'll look at them and give
you a price."
''Well, unfortunately my father's blind. It's very difficult for him to
get about. Would you [bad word] to our place?" the woman answered.
Masters managed to answer calmly.
"Well ... er ... my assistant is out to lunch. [bad word] over when [bad word] back. Is that all right?" He noted down the address she gave him and hung up. His hands were trembling slightly. "These must be the people Hugo told me about," he thought. He reached into a drawer and took out a pistol. This one was not an antique. It was a small, black, nasty-looking automatic.