With the rain pouring down and strong winds, Brenda feared that she had left her cabin windows open, curtailing their game when she left to close them.Touch those tanks and -- boom!" [Note: Max spoke ""boom"" with a sound-effect instead of the word.]The Gyro Captain was amazed by Max""s quickness: "Never seen a man beat the snake before.Who are ya? Reflexes, that""s what you""ve got.Me, I""ve got brains." While pretending to disarm the booby-trap, Max was unable to access his sheathed knife hidden on the underbody of the vehicle (the Gyro Captain hreatened: "A quick fella might have a weapon under here.Sternwood: I used to like mine with champagne.Champagne cold as Valley Forge and with about three ponies of brandy under it...I like o see people drink...You may take off your coat, sir...Too hot in here for any man who has any blood in his veins.You may smoke, too.I can still enjoy the smell of it.Nice state of affairs when a man has to indulge his vices by proxy.The emaciated Sternwood describes the dreariness of his existence.The humid hothouse is necessary for his survival and he is waiting for death - the "big sleep" of the title - in the temperature-controlled greenhouse:Sternwood: You are looking, sir, at a very dull survival of a very gaudy life - crippled, paralyzed in both legs, very little I can eat, and my sleep is so near waking that it""s hardly worth he name.He could only reply when asked about his surprising showing, and if he thought he had won: "I""m at a loss for words." About an hour later, Mary suicidally shot herself in the head with a gun, and when the panicked group realized she still had a pulse, rushed her to nearby Parkdale Hospital where everyone apparently had abandoned it in a hurry.