"The Killers" by Ernest Hemingway

I view the short story "The Killers" by Ernest Hemingway as a division between older simpler times, before cars, and the new faster paced lives that people could live after they were able to travel long distances quickly.  Three men working in a restaurant were suddenly in the midst of hit men looking for a man to murder, an ex-boxer who often frequented the restaurant.  These hit men were what I would call "wiseguys" the were working for a mobster.  The hit men were totally confident that they could commit this murder and never get caught.  They would jump in their car and disapear  They let the men in the restaurant see their faces and had conversations.  Once it was determined that the boxer was not showing for supper the hit men left.  One of the restaurant owners went to warn the boxer and he seemed like he had given up running and he accepted his fate.  Hemingway liked to write about life and death.  During the prohibition era new violence from mobsters was something normal people had to worry about.  Also it can be noted that the one black man who cooked for the restaurant wanted nothing to do with white men problems, he was concerned for his own welfare, which was a smart decision based on the time period.  I doubt any white man would stick out his neck to protect a black man so whites should have expected the same.