supported by his possible assailant. But in the meantime Ava had gone to the edge of the table and had taken the Venusian girl by one wrist. She turned, ducked under the arm, and came up behind in a hammer-lock.

Chips from Maculay's stack dribbled out of the tortured fingers of the Venusian. Ava turned with the girl and hurled her forward into the still-unbalanced men.

The Venusian screamed in anger.

Ava's former escort caught her and kept her from falling, and in doing so he let Maculay slip to one knee.

Someone yelled: "Fight!"

Hell broke loose. A man clipped his neighbor because the other was luckier than he; a Venusian latched onto a handful of chips from one of the tables and had his wrist broken by the owner of the chips who came down on the arm with a heavy fist. Chips flew through the air and rained down, and many, not caught in the fight, dropped to the floor to pick them up. They got into fights with other gleaners, and the melee spread like a crown fire in a piney woods. Critical mass had been reached, and the fission from civilized human beings to outraged primates spread throughout the room.

Cliff found an ornate chair and separated it to get the back-stringer for a club. The other side was clutched by Ava's escort, who plied it well. Ava came up between them clutching a small, wicked-looking stilletto and waving it viciously. Maculay slapped it out of her hand.

"Don't start that!" he snarled, caving in a likely-looking head with the hunk of chair. He up-ended a table and used it as a protective wall, shoving it forward towards the door. He lost his club over another head and tossed the stub into the face of a third. He splattered the nose of a fourth all over his face, and trampled one fighting pair down to the floor. They paid no attention to him; they had their own private grievance.

Someone yelled: "Police!" and then the lights went out. Maculay steered another course from the door, back through the room full of flailing men and women who were trying now to extricate themselves and make the appearance of innocent bystanders.

Ava opened a door, and the light from inside spilled out over one of the finest barroom shambles ever committed in a high-class gambling hell, where he who wore no evening clothes was not permitted.

Then they were inside.

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