ace.

* * * * *

Bennington noted that Thornberry stayed with Judkins for about ten
minutes before he joined the group around the map of Harrisburg in the
Operations Office.

Personally, the warden was glad that his assistant was not present;
the discussion would almost certainly have produced and explosion from
the psychologist.

Scott began his gloomy analysis after both he and General Mosby had
redirected their patrols to heavier concentrations in Harrisburg's
dim-lit and winding side streets.

"I hate to hunt this kind," the chief said gloomily. "You just never
know, never know anything, except that they're going to kill again.

"I just hope he has cooled off and that he wants to sleep a while."

Bennington noted with amused interest the startled glance General
Mosby gave the Chief of Police. Mosby's greatest strength and greatest
weakness, both in the field and garrison, was his complete refusal to
accept or excuse aberration.

Scott had caught the glance, too, and continued. "I got a good lab,
general, smart boys willing to pull extra duty. They've already told
me that Clarens reached--after he killed the guy in the park--an
emotional climax."

Bennington watched his former Division Commander's face harden as
expected.

Scott continued: "That's why I said, I hope he's crawled off, wants to
sleep a while. Every place he can get a bed in my town, I'll know the
minute he wants to lie down.

"Then I'll take him, like this"--the big hand crushed upon
itself--"dead or alive, and I hope I have to take him dead."

"Why _dead_?"

"General, sorry, _warden_--no, I'll go back to the way I know you
best--General Bennington, Clarens simply isn't the business of any
kind of normal living.

"You take a guy who cracked a safe, knocked off a payroll, robbed a
bank, he's like any good business man taking a risk; he has insurance,
he's got an out.

"He can buy me, he can talk to the D.A., he can get the court to go
along if he's caught. He just says, I'll tell you where the stuff is
if I get the minimum.

"O.K., we're wrong, we should go black-and-white, we should say no to
any kind of deal, I shouldn't let a little guy go just because I'd
rather grab the big one. Only, unconditional surrender doesn't work
any better in my job than it does in yours on a battlefield."

* * * * *

"We've learned it doesn't work too well," Bennington agreed, "but what