"I haven't thought about it. The murder isn't important now. There's something else."
"Yes. Yes, I'm beginning to see. I manhandled you twice. That's it, isn't it?"
"Partly."
"And partly," said Clive, "the thing you've been running away from all your life finally caught up with you, and there was no place else to run."
"Yes," said Alcott, "that's it. No place else to run. That's why I haven't had a drink since that night in the park. Drinking is no use any more."
"And are you sure that killing me is going to prove your manhood?"
"That's what worries me. I don't know."
"I can tell you. It won't."
"Why?" He was asking the question seriously, as though he were a pupil and Clive the teacher. The big clumsy revolver remained centered on dive's belt buckle.
"Because life doesn't work li
