ho sat alone by the
door.

For a moment she met the big man's eyes and her fears seemed to fade
away! She stared at him ... sunburned almost black. Muscles like a
lifeguard. All alone and not on the make. When he returned her stare his
eyes sparkled with friendly interest, but no suggestive, flirtatious
intent.

He was too rugged to be really handsome, she thought, but he wouldn't
have to start digging in his wallet to get a girl to change tables,
either.

Guiltily she remembered Joe, now it could only be Joe.

Then she saw Joe enter the room. He was deathly pale and he was coming
straight toward her between the tables. Without pausing to weigh his
chances of staying alive he passed a man and a woman who relished Mike's
company enough to make them eager to act ugly for a daily handout. They
did not look up at Joe as he passed but the man's lips curled in a sneer
and the woman whispered something that appeared to fan the flames of her
companion's malice.

Mike had friends--friends who would never rat on him while their police
records remained in Mike's safe and they could count on him for
protection.

She started to rise, to go to Joe and warn him that Mike would be coming
back. But despair flooded her and the impulse died. The way Joe felt
about her was a thing too big to stop ...

Joe saw her slim against the light, and his thoughts were like the sea
surge, wild, unruly.

_Maybe Mike will get me. Maybe I'll be dead by this time tomorrow. Maybe
I'm crazy to love her the way I do ..._

Her hair against the light, a tumbled mass of spun gold.

_Always a woman bothering me for as long as I can remember. Molly, Anne,
Janice ... Some were good for me and some were bad._

_You see a woman on the street walking ahead of you, hips swaying, and
you think: I don't even know her name but I'd like to crush her in my
arms!_

_I guess every guy feels like that about every pretty woman he sees.
Even about some that aren't so pretty. But then you get to know and like
a woman, and you don't feel that way so much. You respect her and you
don't let yourself feel that way._

_Then something happens. You love her so much it's like the first time
again but with a whole lot added. You love her so much you'd die to make
her happy._

* * * * *

Joe was shaking when he slipped into the chair left vacant by Mike and
reached out for both her hands.

"I'm taking you away tonight," he said. "You'