2019114006-kneserLM-valid.txt

Damp also.	1422.1698699915846
He looked around the room and then called out "Come here, quick"?	36945.2092319046
"What is it"?	2.9074488611034295
Barbara asked, standing in the doorway.	263.34515644150264
"I've solved the mystery of the little bag.	638.4432814945055
There it is h and there is what was in it.	1152.0979951645165
But where do people go swimming in Paris?	12514.70571406315
That boat in the river, maybe".	9289.649206086797
"What boat"?	2109.3347600501024
"There's a big boat anchored near the Place de la Concorde, with a swimming pool in it- didn't you notice it?	49944.21901504049
But if he has time to go swimming, he had time to be with us".	1883.1804578971758
She looked at him in surprise.	868.5749352353071
"I know", he said, reading her mind.	75.88081743340456
"I don't know what I'm going to do with you".	132.4405269841392
"It's because we are in France", he said, "and know so few people.	1781.878906721061
So something like this matters more than it would at home.	5212.646783606261
Also, he was so nice when he was nice".	1397.1636113976851
"All because I didn't feel like dancing".	2087.66263683126
"I don't think it was that, really".	434.0485070503284
"Then what was it"?	322.68804033926153
"I don't know.	2.569516451302858
I wish I did.	81.11196201893759
The tweed coat, maybe.	5687.133943328745
The thing about Eugene is that he's very proud".	2741.7905017404323
And the thing about hurt feelings, the wet bathing suit pointed out, is that the person who has them is not quite the innocent party he believes himself to be.	17348.998462498912
For instance- what about all those people Harold Rhodes went toward unhesitatingly, as if this were the one moment they would ever have together, their one chance of knowing each other?	131124.59932307832
Fortunately, the embarrassing questions raised by objects do not need to be answered, or we would all have to go sleep in the open fields.	16423.014199964513
And in any case, answers may clarify but they do not change anything.	1882.965212638129
h he brought with him a mixture of myrrh and aloes, of about a hundred pounds' weight.	9600.09334069958
They took Jesus's body, then, and wrapped it in winding-clothes with the spices; that is how the Jews prepare a body for burial.	110983.51436160704
Listed as present at the Descent were Mary, Mary's sister, Mary Magdalene, John, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus.	254856.81129232183
Search as he might, he could find no place where the Bible spoke of a moment when Mary could have been alone with Jesus.	33458.92774261638
Mostly the scene was crowded with mourners, such as the dramatic Dell'Arca Lamentation in Bologna, where the grief-stricken spectators had usurped Mary's last poignant moment.	103218.61676934263
In his concept there could be no one else present.	1367.279565915641
His first desire was to create a mother and son alone in the universe.	808.9986346804785
When might Mary have had that moment to hold her child on her lap?	94537.28767383867
Perhaps after the soldiers had laid him on the ground, while Joseph of Arimathea was at Pontius Pilate's asking for Christ's body, Nicodemus was gathering his mixture of myrrh and aloes, and the others had gone home to mourn.	146835.34994934968
Those who saw his finished Pieta would take the place of the biblical witnesses.	2509.899166022446
They would feel what Mary was undergoing.	4178.087891734438
There would be no halos, no angels.	1893.8969025866907
These would be two human beings, whom God had chosen.	2028.6897299490477
He felt close to Mary, having spent so long concentrating on the beginning of her journey.	12052.569666851945
Now she was intensely alive, anguished; her son was dead.	6545.060823727372
Even though he would later be resurrected, he was at this moment dead indeed, the expression on his face reflecting what he had gone through on the cross.	13943.537666146869
In his sculpture therefore it would not be possible for him to project anything of what Jesus felt for his mother; only what Mary felt for her son.	15536.650639194431
Jesus' inert body would be passive, his eyes closed.	4073.91582413217
Mary would have to carry the human communication.	421.1452206593991
This seemed right to him.	422.97166291128974
It was a relief to shift in his mind to technical problems.	2677.4256524488133
Since his Christ was to be life size, how was Mary to hold him on her lap without the relationship seeming ungainly?	148525.3057679491
His Mary would be slender of limb and delicate of proportion, yet she must hold this full-grown man as securely and convincingly as she would a child.	53385.94369136633
There was only one way to accomplish this by design, by drawing diagrams and sketches in which he probed the remotest corner of his mind for creative ideas to carry his concept.	20417.26491672862
He started by making free sketches to loosen up his thinking so that images would appear on paper.	15546.262915003372
Visually, these approximated what he was feeling within himself.	32425.115214256708
At the same time he started walking the streets, peering at the people passing or shopping at the stalls, storing up fresh impressions of what they looked like, how they moved.	28538.19936032254
In particular he sought the gentle, sweet-faced nuns, with head coverings and veils coming to the middle of their foreheads, remembering their expressions until he reached home and set them down on paper.	38853.613302784775
Discovering that draperies could be designed to serve structural purposes, he began a study of the anatomy of folds.	81177.92277806987
He improvised as he went along, completing a life-size clay figure, then bought yards of an inexpensive material from a draper, wet the lightweight cloth in a basin and covered it over with clay that Argiento brought from the bank of the Tiber, to the consistency of thick mud.	275533.7414294354
No fold could be accidental, each turn of the drapery had to serve organically, to cover the Madonna's slender legs and feet so that they would give substantive support to Christ's body, to intensify her inner turmoil.	211086.54526573842
When the cloth dried and stiffened, he saw what adjustments had to be made.	624.3789127667823
"So that's sculpture", commented Argiento wryly, when he had sluiced down the floor for a week, "making mud pies".	37009.33788249226
Michelangelo grinned.	375.97044232702495
"See, Argiento, if you control the way these folds are bunched, like this, or made to flow, you can enrich the body attitudes.	78066.06962035596
They can have as much tactile appeal as flesh and bone".	6860.52291256669
He went into the Jewish quarter, wanting to draw Hebraic faces so that he could reach a visual understanding of how Christ might have looked.	29467.626555725816
The Jewish section was in Trastevere, near the Tiber at the church of San Francesco a Ripa.	36915.01539611643
The colony had been small until the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 drove many Jews into Rome.	15372.109100183829
Here, for the most part, they were well treated, as a "reminder of the Old Testament heritage of Christianity"; many of their gifted members were prominent in the Vatican as physicians, musicians, bankers.	9669.297142969604
The men did not object to his sketching them while they went about their work, but no one could be persuaded to come to his studio to pose.	3508.056387532675
He was told to ask for Rabbi Melzi at the synagogue on Saturday afternoon.	5003.754964530293
Michelangelo found the rabbi in the room of study, a gentle old man with a white beard and luminous grey eyes, robed in black gabardine with a skullcap on his head.	45598.65853875166
He was reading from the Talmud with a group of men from his congregation.	2908.3519034921746
When Michelangelo explained why he had come, Rabbi Melzi replied gravely "The Bible forbids us to bow down to or to make graven images.	71633.52545106733
That is why our creative people give their time to literature, not to painting or sculpture".	18875.463617715177
"But, Rabbi Melzi, you don't object to others creating works of art"?	8262.270058181213
"Not at all.	3.6173602499375677
Each religion has its own tenets".	8272.927586032589
"I am carving a Pieta from white Carrara marble.	11586.458840507046
I wish to make Jesus an authentic Jew.	878.951662620701
I cannot accomplish this if you will not help me".	3462.2872866098883
The rabbi said thoughtfully, "I would not want my people to get in trouble with the Church".	2736.284033019151
"I am working for the Cardinal of San Dionigi.	8989.519391808533
I'm sure he would approve".	120.35492613094455
"What kind of models would you prefer"?	3731.652114274636
"Workmen.	3524.279832361616
In their mid-thirties.	61.69529311667955
Not bulky laborers, but sinewy men.	5471.567339872731
With intelligence.	191.33495938169202
And sensitivity".	197.24789297535895
Rabbi Melzi smiled at him with infinitely old but merry eyes.	49541.07013849961
"Leave me your address.	964.1472973946627
I will send you the best the quarter has to offer".	7328.175740607711
Michelangelo hurried to Sangallo's solitary bachelor room with his sketches, asked the architect to design a stand which would simulate the seated Madonna.	150628.96746858387
Sangallo studied the drawings and improvised a trestle couch.	71839.56078117325
Michelangelo bought some scrap lumber.	8225.071606873245
Together he and Argiento built the stand, covering it with blankets.	32547.6724521047
His first model arrived at dusk.	3281.8382955836205
He hesitated for a moment when Michelangelo asked him to disrobe, so Michelangelo gave him a piece of toweling to wrap around his loins, led him to the kitchen to take off his clothes.	56297.00612423546
He then draped him over the rough stand, explained that he was supposed to be recently dead, and was being held on his mother's lap.	10176.82097888188
The model quite plainly thought Michelangelo crazy; only the instructions from his rabbi kept him from bolting.	62986.05241562205
But at the end of the sitting, when Michelangelo showed him the quick, free drawings, with the mother roughed in, holding her son, the model grasped what Michelangelo was after, and promised to speak to his friends h. He worked for two hours a day with each model sent by the rabbi.	94169.3065340873
Mary presented quite a different problem.	684.0918623592588
Though this sculpture must take place thirty-three years after her moment of decision, he could not conceive of her as a woman in her mid-fifties, old, wrinkled, broken in body and face by labor or worry.	68119.23364562249
His image of the Virgin had always been that of a young woman, even as had his memory of his mother.	2050.2089981299646
Jacopo Galli introduced him into several Roman homes.	22805.188428959344
Here he sketched, sitting in their flowing gowns of linen and silk, young girls not yet twenty, some about to be married, some married a year or two.	26093.71600351151
Since the Santo Spirito hospital had taken only men, he had had no experience in the study of female anatomy; but he had sketched the women of Tuscany in their fields and homes.	23531.747964343336
He was able to discern the body lines of the Roman women under their robes.	6958.776037250315
He spent concentrated weeks putting his two figures together a Mary who would be young and sensitive, yet strong enough to hold her son on her lap; and a Jesus who, though lean, was strong even in death h a look he remembered well from his experience in the dead room of Santo Spirito.	200629.4210502212
He drew toward the composite design from his meticulously accurate memory, without need to consult his sketches.	101090.74310122071
Soon he was ready to go into a three-dimensional figure in clay.	390.84570838406137
Here he would have free expression because the material could be moved to distort forms.	9177.283947360827
When he wanted to emphasize, or get greater intensity, he added or subtracted clay.	6766.805826104841
Next he turned to wax because there was a similarity of wax to marble in tactile quality and translucence.	42699.832219754266
He respected each of these approach techniques, and kept them in character his quill drawings had a scratchiness, suggesting skin texture; the clay he used plastically to suggest soft moving flesh, as in an abdomen, in a reclining torso; the wax he smoothed over to give the body surface an elastic pull.	262922.61050124274
Yet he never allowed these models to become fixed in his mind; they remained rough starting points.	12374.457484040482
When carving he was charged with spontaneous energy; too careful or detailed studies in clay and wax would have glued him down to a mere enlarging of his model.	94746.6745923626
The true surge had to be inside the marble itself.	7158.884651257422
Drawing and models were his thinking.	843.3509841027271
Carving was action.	2845.9155601705884
10.	3.274319812127656
The arrangement with Argiento was working well, except that sometimes Michelangelo could not figure who was master and who apprentice.	60814.673903495226
Argiento had been trained so rigorously by the Jesuits that Michelangelo was unable to change his habits up before dawn to scrub the floors, whether they were dirty or not; water boiling on the fire for washing laundry every day, the pots scoured with river sand after each meal.	221185.2820626506
"Argiento, this is senseless", he complained, not liking to work on the wet floors, particularly in cold weather.	40869.80617836804
"You're too clean.	164.46619122894433
Scrub the studio once a week.	1399.8390804549258
That's enough".	167.2439810936665
"No", said Argiento stolidly.	1029.9013503603487
"Every day.	21.729204256105312
Before dawn.	1122.1260806549635
I was taught".	122.49802352090585
"And God help anyone who tries to unteach you"!	5583.827637869703
grumbled Michelangelo; yet he knew that he had nothing to grumble about, for Argiento made few demands on him.	11229.684538057942
The boy was becoming acquainted with the contadini families that brought produce into Rome.	15321.361965305496
On Sundays he would walk miles into the campagna to visit with them, and in particular to see their horses.	3568.2591871017216
The one thing he missed from his farm in the Po Valley was the animals; frequently he would take his leave of Michelangelo by announcing "Today I go see the horses".	60710.92303785218
It took a piece of bad luck to show Michelangelo that the boy was devoted to him.	3664.3208092865557
He was crouched over his anvil in the courtyard getting his chisels into trim, when a splinter of steel flew into his eye and imbedded itself in his pupil.	76873.86569240491
He stumbled into the house, eyes burning like fire.	11440.228567930048
Argiento made him lie down on the bed, brought a pan of hot water, dipped some clean white linen cloth and applied it to extract the splinter.	44668.91774662992
Though the pain was considerable Michelangelo was not too concerned.	2999.9258180865936
He assumed he could blink the splinter out.	2403.9287374827613
But it would not come.	50.71756889575186
Argiento never left his side, keeping the water boiled, applying hot compresses throughout the night.	40071.48806546236
By the second day Michelangelo began to worry; and by the second night he was in a state of panic he could see nothing out of the afflicted eye.	17754.680816178097
At dawn Argiento went to Jacopo Galli.	15378.66230769447
Galli arrived with his family surgeon, Maestro Lippi.	71839.56078117325
The surgeon carried a cage of live pigeons.	12501.72931309629
He told Argiento to take a bird out of the cage, cut a large vein under its wing, let the blood gush into Michelangelo's injured eye.	87947.06799146402
The surgeon came back at dusk, cut the vein of a second pigeon, again washed out the eye.	36561.1628984793
Beth was very still and her breath came in small jerking gasps.	107499.59274749401
The thin legs twitched convulsively once, then Kate felt the little body stiffening in her arms and heard one strangled sound.	79692.02625411743
The scant flesh grew cool beneath her frantic hands.	8982.896668126814
The child was gone.	43.92537015922174
When Juanita awoke, Kate was still rocking the dead child, still crooning in disbelief, "No, no, oh, no!"	68185.77925310862
They put Kate to bed and wired Jonathan and sent for the young Presbyterian minister.	31843.5748039612
He sat beside Kate's bed with the others throughout the morning, talking, talking of God's will, while Kate lay staring angrily at him.	34885.65898864618
When he told her God had called the child to Him, she rejected his words rebelliously.	35463.59181988444
Few of the neighbors came, but Mrs Tussle came, called by tragedy.	23129.94591494997
"It always comes in threes", she sighed heavily.	4816.14790397576
"Trouble never comes but in threes".	3415.470688847151
They held the funeral the next morning from the crossroads church and buried the little box in the quiet family plot.	61756.941886490466
Kate moved through all the preparations and services in a state of bewilderment.	64421.881875001556
She would not accept the death of such a little child.	714.5971569990463
"God called her to Him", the minister had said.	5531.004219346864
God would not do that, Kate thought stubbornly.	18422.690468008535
Jonathan's letter came, as she knew it would, and he had accepted their child's death as another judgment from God against both Kate and himself.	39554.746042337596
In blind panic of grief she accepted Jonathan's dictum, and believed in her desperation that she had been cursed by God.	36690.92709071913
She held Jonathan's letter, his words burning like a brand, and knew suddenly that the bonds between them were severed.	122197.55319155549
She had nothing left but her duty to his land and his son.	1902.4771457046488
Joel came and sat mutely with her, sharing her pain and anguish, averting his eyes from the ice packs on her bosom.	212764.5113366029
Juanita and Mrs Tussle kept Kate in bed a week until her milk dried.	147265.21120275225
When she returned to life in the big house she felt shriveled of all emotion save dedication to duty.	9730.483084376274
She disciplined herself daily to do what must be done.	1766.9476863915131
She had even steeled herself to keep Juanita upstairs in the nurse's room off the empty nursery, although the girl tried to insist on moving back to the quarters to spare Kate remembrance of the baby's death.	127312.96790239004
Juanita drooped about the place, wearing a haunted, brooding look, which Kate attributed to the baby's death, until the day a letter came for her addressed to "Miss Juanita Fitzroy", bearing a Grafton postmark.	352917.4443318558
Seeing the slanting hand, Kate knew uneasily that it was from the Yankee colonel.	34196.64264390375
The Federal forces had taken Parkersburg and Grafton from the Rebels and were moving to take all the mountains.	11095.608343602053
Kate tried to contain her curiosity and foreboding at what the letter portended, at what involvement existed for Juanita.	226495.2771632579
Uncle Randolph and Joel had replanted the bottom lands with difficulty, for more of the slaves, including Annie, had sneaked off when the soldiers broke camp.	69708.3008120916
Joel worked like a field hand in the afternoons after school.	25778.646876126622
He had been at lessons in the schoolhouse since they returned from Harpers Ferry.	6436.808756980196
Kate felt she had deserted the boy in her own loss.	43459.65711926386
She loved him and missed his company.	4607.578828974745
Uncle Randolph had been riding out every evening on some secret business of his own.	11967.254302299762
What it was Kate could not fathom.	3376.349620370053
He claimed to be visiting the waterfront saloon at the crossroads to play cards and drink with his cronies, but Kate had not smelled brandy on him since Mrs Lattimer's funeral.	77774.32624793779
Joel knew what he was about, however.	5246.363189071139
"You're gonna get caught", she heard Joel say to Uncle Randolph by the pump one morning.	27247.893674138784
"Not this old fox", chuckled Uncle Randolph.	7158.4613675688815
"Everybody knows I'm just a harmless, deaf old man who takes to drink.	10149.34979872548
I aim to keep a little whisky still back in the ridge for my pleasure".	28247.5256519103
"Whisky still, my foot", said Joel.	58759.41312651891
"You're back there riding with the guerrillas, the Moccasin Rangers".	12847.69439811973
"Hush", said Uncle Randolph, smiling, "or I'll give you another black eye".	22937.404781169324
He patted the eye Joel had had blackened in a fight over being Rebel at the crossroads some days back.	64895.04195751862
Kate had no idea what they were talking of, although she had seen the blue lights and strange fires burning and winking on the ridges at night, had heard horsemen on the River Road and hill trails through the nights till dawn.	150866.77573723882
Stranger, Uncle Randolph began riding home nights with a jug strapped to his saddle, drunkenly singing "Old Dan Tucker" at the top of his voice.	57918.70891909764
Hearing his voice ring raucously up from the road, Kate would await him anxiously and watch perplexed as he walked into the house, cold sober.	95126.89209179644
What he was about became clear to her with the circulation of another broadside proclamation by General McClellan, threatening reprisals against Rebel guerrillas.	55470.29084523811
She was taken up in worry for the reckless old man.	3002.2546050441765
Kate drew more and more on her affection for Joel through the hot days of summer work.	74410.96211447638
She had taken him out of the schoolhouse and closed the school for the summer, after she saw Miss Snow crack Joel across the face with a ruler for letting a snake loose in the schoolroom.	40305.07854858751
Kate had walked past the school on her morning chores and had seen the whole incident, had seen Joel's burning humiliation before Miss Snow's cold, bespectacled wrath.	113639.24119074192
He had the hardest pains of growing before him now, as he approached twelve.	5144.466947056699
These would be his hardest years, she knew, and he missed his father desperately.	4512.115136799415
She tried to find some way to draw him out, to help him.	1472.4617223290386
Whenever she found time, she went blackberry picking with him, and they would come home together, mouths purple, arms and faces scratched, tired enough to forget grief for another day.	76862.31095287198
He tended the new colts Beau had sired.	17341.111443419384
He helped Kate and Juanita enlarge the flower garden in the side yard, where they sometimes sat in the still evenings watching the last fat bees working against the summer's purple dusk.	114660.13770356869
No one went much to the crossroads now except Uncle Randolph.	13648.737070021256
They stayed in their own world on the bluff, waiting for letters and the peddler, bringing the news.	14881.504572291968
Jonathan wrote grimly of the destruction of Harpers Ferry before they abandoned it; of their first engagement at Falling Waters after Old Jack's First Brigade had destroyed all the rolling stock of the BO Railroad.	233597.28683574396
The men were restive, he wrote, ready to take the battle to the enemy as Jackson wished.	6231.394930618813
The peddler came bawling his wares and told them of the convention in Wheeling, Which had formed a new state government by declaring the government at Richmond in the east illegal because they were traitors.	215719.8642078721
Dangling his gaudy trinkets before them, he told of the Rebel losses in the mountains, at Cheat and Rich mountains both, and the Federal march on Beverly.	26888.924109575306
"Cleaned all them Rebs out'n the hills, they did!	19696.42580533212
They won't never git over inter loyal western Virginia, them traitors!	42523.01572717797
The Federals is making everybody take the oath of loyalty around these parts too", he crowed.	106388.86800314396
After he had gone, Kate asked Uncle Randolph proudly, "Would you take their oath"?	33777.26707456483
And the old man had given a sly and wicked laugh and said, "Hell, yes!	30768.649624744383
I think I've taken it about fifty times already"!	960.2362262289649
winking at Joel's look of shock.	4034.468815512513
Her mother wrote Kate of her grief at the death of Kate's baby and at Jonathan's decision to go with the South "And, dear Kate", she wrote, "poor Dr Breckenridge's son Robert is now organizing a militia company to go South, to his good father's sorrow.	138179.61348366138
Maj Anderson of Fort Sumter is home and recruiting volunteers for the US Army.	13373.842640309003
In spite of the fact that the state legislature voted us neutral, John Hunt Morgan is openly flying the Confederate flag over his woolen factory"!	8730.403725327908
Rumor of a big battle spread like a grassfire up the valley.	10925.763085068964
Accounts were garbled at the telegraph office when they sent old George down to Parkersburg for the news.	46210.566923868966
"All dey know down dere is it were at Manassas Junction and it were a big fight", the old man told them.	19084.050737322723
In the next few days they had cause to rejoice.	2109.678173989406
It had been a big battle, and the Confederate forces had won.	2643.591103199405
Jonathan and Ben were not on the lists of the dead or on that of the missing.	18389.325937939913
Kate and Mrs Tussle waited for letters anxiously.	51778.58764921291
Joel went to the crest of a hill behind the house and lit an enormous victory bonfire to celebrate.	40402.01758391398
When Kate hurried in alarm to tell him to put it out, she saw other dots of flames among the western Virginia hills from the few scattered fires of the faithful.	58792.50081535041
They all prayed now that the North would realize that peace must come, for Virginia had defended her land victoriously.	58192.81164012647
The week after Manassas the sound of horses in the yard brought Kate up in shock from an afternoon's rest when she saw the Federal soldiers from her upstairs window.	54681.9576388477
They had already lost most of their corn, she thought.	4802.228082701479
Were they to be insulted again because of the South's great victory?	48436.673016829314
She remembered McClellan's last proclamation as she hurried fearfully down the stairs.	5047.423337381661
At the landing she saw Juanita, her face flushed pink with excitement, run down the hall from the kitchen to the front door.	3882.4825615888044
Juanita stopped just inside the open door, her hand to her mouth.	25563.29705525762
As Kate came swiftly down the stairs to the hall she saw Colonel Marsh framed in the doorway, his face set in the same vulnerable look Juanita wore.	76166.87109181474
Kate greeted him gravely, uneasy with misgivings at his visit.	40319.1702063661
"What brings you here again, Colonel Marsh"?	26911.520427239462
she asked, taking him and Juanita into the parlor where the shutters were closed against the afternoon sun.	10298.324984379542
"I stopped to say goodbye, Mrs Lattimer, and to tell you how sorry I was to hear about your baby.	13220.692984775822
I wish our doctor could have saved her".	3024.031611469863
"It was a terrible loss to me", said Kate quietly, feeling the pain twist again at the mention, knowing now that Juanita must have written to him at Grafton.	53688.88204154819
"Where will you go now that you're leaving Parkersburg"?	5275.335657512601
she asked him, seeing Juanita's eyes grow bleak.	2462.808639885428
"As you know, General McClellan has been occupying Beverly.	1229.6039985610416
He has notified me that he has orders to go to Washington to take over the Army of the Potomac.	9039.682478346229
I am to go to Washington to serve with him".	434.737839768678
"When are you to leave"?	4213.050692929472
Kate asked, watching them both now anxiously.	51778.58764921291
Their eyes betrayed too much of their emotions, she thought sadly.	8974.666465631431
"Tomorrow.	3524.279832361616
Would you permit Juanita to walk about the grounds with me for a short spell, Mrs Lattimer"?	42967.40251893586
"Stay here in the parlor where it's cool", she said, trying to be calm.	11367.192746217024
It would be better for Joel and Uncle Randolph and Mrs Tussle not to see them.	2196.209926706425
Kate went back and reminded the kitchen women of the supper preparations.	104647.91237132096
Then she took iced lemonade to Marsh's young aide where he sat in the cool of the big trees around the flower garden.	9586.928005248026
When Marsh called to his aide and the pair rode off down the River Road where the gentians burned blue, Juanita was shaken and trying not to cry.	156217.61150225965
She sought Kate out upstairs, her lips trembling.	22107.35412817231
"He wants me to go with him tomorrow", she told Kate.	574.9683000504276
"What do you want to do"?	5.646971346748651
Kate asked, uneasy at the gravity of the girl's dilemma.	41070.64481285471
"I could go with him.	41.71277349398433
He knows me as your niece, which, of course, I am.	371.36029872318363
But I am a slave!	204.25780645685475
You own me.	420.213404951239
It's your decision", said Juanita, holding her face very still, trying to contain the bitterness of her voice as she enunciated her words too distinctly.	127405.6390844947
"No, the decision is yours.	391.1927643794042
I have held your papers of manumission since I married Mr Lattimer".	16851.60230359654
The red glow from the cove had died out of the sky.	2214.1948707510865
The two in the bed knew each other as old people know the partners with whom they have shared the same bed for many years, and they needed to say no more.	14306.554916396854
The things left unsaid they both felt deeply, and with a sigh they fell back on the well-stuffed pillows.	15916.779197862204
Anita put out the remaining candles with a long snuffer, and in the smell of scented candlewick, the comforting awareness of each other's bodies, the retained pattern of dancers and guests remembered, their minds grew numb and then empty of images.	231596.54532526544
They slept- Mynheer with a marvelously high-pitched snoring, the damn seahorse ivory teeth watching him from a bedside table.	102287.83834398682
In the ballroom below, the dark had given way to moonlight coming in through the bank of French windows.	35123.45237842589
It was a delayed moon, but now the sky had cleared of scudding black and the stars sugared the silver-gray sky.	30480.85533153529
Martha Schuyler, old, slow, careful of foot, came down the great staircase, dressed in her best lace-drawn black silk, her jeweled shoe buckles held forward.	241415.53410681157
"Well, I'm here at last", she said, addressing the old portraits on the walls.	1477.7841124418824
"I don't hear the music.	60.08438422287024
I am getting deaf, I must admit it".	592.0443770061185
She came to the ballroom and stood on the two carpeted steps that led down to it.	4843.141877179337
"Where is everyone?	473.1211478971954
I say, where is everyone?	524.3344408757995
Peter, you lummox, you've forgot to order the musicians".	20944.618781411416
She stood there, a large old woman, smiling at the things she would say to him in the morning, this big foolish baby of a son.	13187.928169478819
There were times now, like this, when she lost control of the time count and moved freely back and forth into three generations.	26309.145436361265
Was it a birthday ball?	690.72732549782
When Peter had reached his majority at eighteen?	11082.624503847135
Or was it her own first ball as mistress of this big house, a Van Rensselaer bride from way upstate near Albany, from Rensselaerwyck.	85342.23474093764
And this handsome booby, staring and sweating, was he her bridegroom?	31724.681319079056
Martha picked up the hem of her gown and with eyes closed she slowly began to dance a stately minuet around the ballroom.	167282.14383438524
David Cortlandt was tired beyond almost the limits of his flesh.	22052.199544039697
He had ridden hard from Boston, and he was not used to horseback.	2179.6048151367045
Now, driving the horse and sulky borrowed from Mynheer Schuyler, he felt as if every bone was topped by burning oil and that every muscle was ready to dissolve into jelly and leave his big body helpless and unable to move.	116498.95374535793
The road leading south along the river was shaded with old trees, and in the moonlight the silvery landscape was like a setting for trolls and wood gods rather than the Hudson River Valley of his boyhood memories.	67447.48128799655
He slapped the reins on the back of the powerful gray horse and held on as the sulky's wheels hit a pothole and came out with a jolt and went on.	46064.58200457164
He would cross to Manhattan, to Harlem Heights, before morning.	10516.174951284318
There a certain farmhouse was a station for the Sons of Liberty.	7032.042383321442
He would send on by trusted messenger the dispatches with their electrifying news.	11773.835662170248
And he would sleep, sleep, and never think of roads and horses' sore haunches, of colonial wars.	29195.302939420195
Strange how everything here fitted back into his life, even if he had been away so long.	2546.210235767369
Mynheer, Sir Francis, the valley society, the very smell of the river on his right purling along to the bay past fish weirs and rocks, and ahead the sleepy ribbon of moon-drenched road.	214261.41914341584
A mist was walking on the water, white as cotton, but with a blending and merging grace.	13745.365148985433
Ahead there was a stirring of sudden movement at a crossroads.	8191.633619118924
David reached for the pair of pistols in the saddlebags at his feet.	13327.306365761302
He pulled out one of them and cocked it.	534.9223434676877
A strange wood creature came floating up from a patch of berry bushes.	40402.31188083735
It was a grotesque hen, five or six feet tall.	1381.184634554717
It had the features of a man bewhiskered by clumps of loose feathers.	7098.154581930268
It ran, this apocalyptic beast, on two thin legs, and its wings- were they feathered arms?- flapped as it ran.	57857.3726394649
Its groin was bloody.	1219.659968819934
Black strips of skin hung from it.	2565.441414506258
The horse shied at the dreadful thing and flared its nostrils.	23200.766111404475
David took a firm hand with it.	4689.475134922783
The creature in feathers looked around and David saw the mad eyes, glazed with an insane fear.	52323.52005282072
The ungainly bird thing ran away, and to David its croaking sounded like the crowing of a tormented rooster.	86002.05187630701
Then it was gone.	38.56701474876416
He drove on, wary and shaken.	5059.978425018983
The Sons were out tonight.	1450.669793831235
CHAPTER 10 New York lay bleaching in the summer sun, and the morning fish hawk, flying in the heated air, saw below him the long triangular wedge of Manhattan Island.	76437.60233577754
It was thickly settled by fifteen thousand citizens and laid out into pig-infested streets, mostly around the Battery, going bravely north to Wall Street, but giving up and becoming fields and farms in the region of Harlem Heights.	121945.9618824043
From there it looked across at Westchester County and the Hudson River where the manor houses, estates, and big farms of the original non-Indian landowners began.	66604.2793125908
On the east side of the island of Manhattan the indifferent hawk knew the East River that connected New York Bay with Long Island Sound.	21177.090307457376
On the western tip of Long Island protruded Brooklyn Heights.	4865.061580502786
It commanded a view over Manhattan and the harbor.	11296.22064324909
A fringe of housing and gardens bearded the top of the heights, and behind it were sandy roads leading past farms and hayfields.	96575.80538117471
Husbandry was bounded by snake-rail fences, and there were grazing cattle.	44313.84736085941
On the shores north and south, the fishers and mooncursers- smugglers- lived along the churning Great South Bay and the narrow barrier of sand, Fire Island.	49555.76282576573
The morning hawk, hungry for any eatable, killable, digestible item, kept his eyes on the ring of anchored ships that lay off the shores in the bay, sheltered by the Jersey inlets.	164194.2166123928
They often threw tidbits overboard.	2689.7448933571272
The larger ships were near Paulus Hook, already being called, by a few, Jersey City.	21992.428946340413
These were the ships of His Majesty's Navy, herding the hulks of the East Indies merchants and the yachts and ketches of the loyalists.	77237.68970447157
The news of battle on Breed's Hill had already seeped through, and New York itself was now left in the hands of the local Provincial Congress.	10291.679232655484
The fish hawk, his wings not moving, circled and glided lower.	18914.279696986738
The gilt sterns of the men-of-war becoming clearer to him, the sides of the wooden sea walls alternately painted yellow and black, the bronze cannon at the ports.	52208.50418907464
The captain's gig of HMS Mercury was being rowed to HMS Neptune.	20823.86534073584
On shore "the freed slaves to despotism"- the town dwellers- watched the ships and waited.	96744.69343781997
The chevaux de frise, those sharp stakes and barriers around the fort at the Battery, pointed to a conflict between the town and sea power rolling in glassy swells as the tide came in.	71931.58710890236
Across the bay the Palisades were heavy in green timber; their rock paths led down to the Hudson.	29236.39653282116
Below in the open bay facing Manhattan was Staten Island, gritty with clam shells and mud flats behind which nested farms, cattle barns, and berry thickets.	215947.89183656045
Along Wappinger Creek in Dutchess County, past the white church at Fishkill, past Verplanck's Point on the east bank of the Hudson, to the white salt-crusted roads of the Long Island Rockaways there was a watching and an activity of preparing for something explosive to happen.	87138.54509314364
Today, tomorrow, six months, even perhaps a year h The fish hawk flew on and was lost from sight.	27533.768672622853
The British ships rolled at anchor, sent out picket boats and waited for orders from London.	12631.841448649238
Waited for more ships, more lobster-backed infantry, and asked what was to be done with a war of rebellion?	77556.13743877233
David Cortlandt, having slept away a day and a night, came awake in a plank farmhouse on the Harlem River near Spuyten Duyvil.	92407.87325198892
He looked out through windowpanes turned a faint violet by sun and weather, looked out at King's Bridge toward Westchester.	42308.24720868689
The road seemed animated with a few more wagons than usual; a carriage raising up the choking June dust, and beyond, in a meadow, a local militia company drilling with muskets, Kentuck' rifles, every kind of horse pistol, old sword, or cutlass.	281382.3424726762
The wraith-like events of the last few days flooded David's mind and he rubbed his unshaved chin and felt again the ache in his kidneys caused by his saddle odyssey from Boston.	59070.10710532001
Pensive, introspective, he ached.	35827.71117471326
He had sent the dispatches downtown to the proper people and had slept.	15589.938565909657
Now there was more to do.	100.97093207299913
Orders not written down had to be transmitted to the local provincial government.	22512.692052334853
He scratched his mosquito-plagued neck.	5420.036118822664
From the saddlebags, hung on a Hitchcock chair, David took out a good English razor, a present from John Hunter.	69764.32062848074
He found tepid water in a pitcher and a last bit of soap, and he lathered his face and stood stropping the razor on his broad leather belt, its buckle held firm by a knob of the bedpost h. He hoped he was free of self-deception.	249013.06679020083
Here he was, suddenly caught up in the delirium of a war, in the spite and calumny of Whigs and Tories.	50281.2237735113
There would be great need soon for his skill as surgeon, but somehow he had not planned to use his knowledge merely for war.	21594.73436019798
David Cortlandt had certain psychic intuitions that this rebellion was not wholly what it appeared on the surface.	25153.069126804152
He knew that many were using it for their own ends.	320.28601299311384
But it did not matter.	53.05700290597071
He stropped the razor slowly; what mattered was that a new concept of Americans was being born.	46640.232172158845
That some men did not want it he could understand.	1348.5272128153142
The moral aridity of merchants made them loyal usually to their ledgers.	31640.317114617184
Yet some, like Morris Manderscheid, would bankrupt themselves for the new ideas.	12231.798449714592
Unique circumstances would test us all, he decided.	5125.9198393210745
Injury and ingratitude would occur.	2468.074208276779
No doubt John Hancock would do well now; war was a smugglers' heaven.	13657.12557915712
And what of that poor tarred and feathered wretch he had seen on the road driving down from Schuyler's?	42448.86847378536
Things like that would increase rather than be done away with.	176.71343344904943
One had to believe in final events or one was stranded in the abyss of nothing.	4893.224550398021
He saw with John Hunter now that the perfectability of man was a dream.	15802.867118333268
Life was a short play of tenebrous shadows.	11684.863196662463
David began to shave with great sweeping strokes.	17720.265340613318
Time plays an essential part in our mortality, and suddenly for no reason he could imagine or admit the image of Peg laughing filled his mind- so desirable, so lusty, so full of nuances of pleasure and joy.	72240.60008695745
He drove sensual patterns off, carefully shaving his long upper lip.	43913.022132492275
It is harder, he muttered, to meditate on man or woman than on God.	18884.187579940954
David finished shaving, washed his face clean of lather, and combed and retied his hair.	92771.6352447761
He was proud that he had never worn a wig.	5322.070700911936
More and more of the colonials were wearing their own hair and not using powder.	3776.0452617492997
He felt cheerful again, refreshed; presentable in his wide-cut brown suit, the well-made riding boots.	40353.6542591852
It is so easy to falsify sentiment h. In the meadow below, militia officers shouted at their men and on King's Bridge two boys sat fishing.	55595.95740378309
The future would happen; he did not have to hurry it by thinking too much.	3128.1914556828033
A man could be tossed outside the dimension of time by a stray bullet these days.	3098.315470436989
He began to pack the saddlebags.	1677.609063075173
And all this too shall pass away it came to him out of some dim corner of memory from a church service when he was a boy- yes, in a white church with a thin spur steeple in the patriarchal Hudson Valley, where a feeling of plenitude was normal in those English-Dutch manors with their well-fed squires.	195751.70836766055
Burly leathered men and wrinkled women in drab black rags carried on in a primitive way, almost unchanged from feudal times.	55741.06141535813
Peasants puzzled Andrei.	11770.304497228983
He wondered how they could go on in poverty, superstition, ignorance, with a complete lack of desire to make either their land or their lives flourish.	69061.56045229206
Andrei remembered a Bathyran meeting long ago.	6144.931941089308
Tolek Alterman had returned from the colonies in Palestine and, before the national leadership, exalted the miracles of drying up swamps and irrigating the desert.	186362.78085465656
A fund-raising drive to buy tractors and machinery was launched.	32349.565789912132
Andrei remembered that his own reaction had been one of indifference.	7756.383395863288
Had he found the meaning too late?	2501.008814712325
It aggravated him.	700.6558879189869
The land of the Lublin Uplands was rich, but no one seemed to care.	2922.2425650080677
In the unfertile land in Palestine humans broke their backs pushing will power to the brink.	48209.34036491192
He had sat beside Alexander Brandel at the rostrum of a congress of Zionists.	31891.12111830438
All of them were there in this loosely knit association of diversified ideologies, and each berated the other and beat his breast for his own approaches.	40907.951511590036
When Alexander Brandel rose to speak, the hall became silent.	6562.065886086531
"I do not care if your beliefs take you along a path of religion or a path of labor or a path of activism.	23232.18786697458
We are here because all our paths travel a blind course through a thick forest, seeking human dignity.	12793.283175202469
Beyond the forest all our paths merge into a single great highway which ends in the barren, eroded hills of Judea.	57501.83614262427
This is our singular goal.	259.0753718843768
How we travel through the forest is for each man's conscience.	13715.7208537757
Where we end our journey is always the same.	777.8865774294856
We all seek the same thing through different ways- an end to this long night of two thousand years of darkness and unspeakable abuses which will continue to plague us until the Star of David flies over Zion".	132766.42480314636
This was how Alexander Brandel expressed pure Zionism.	5165.062451097991
It had sounded good to Andrei, but he did not believe it.	1554.4438243006973
In his heart he had no desire to go to Palestine.	121.58220632181518
He loathed the idea of drying up swamps or the chills of malaria or of leaving his natural birthright.	115974.40285484912
Before he went into battle Andrei had told Alex, "I only want to be a Pole.	11746.891340716984
Warsaw is my city, not Tel Aviv".	55040.14052431358
And now Andrei sat on a train on the way to Lublin and wondered if he was not being punished for his lack of belief.	33145.43813405098
Warsaw!	3118.0954459989366
He saw the smug eyes of the Home Army chief, Roman, and all the Romans and the faces of the peasants who held only hatred for him.	8073.171468320116
They had let this black hole of death in Warsaw's heart exist without a cry of protest.	23175.444558182717
Once there had been big glittering rooms where Ulanys bowed and kissed the ladies' hands as they flirted from behind their fans.	91452.47325683982
Warsaw!	3118.0954459989366
Warsaw!	3118.0954459989366
"Miss Rak.	1453.5166360650308
I am a Jew".	13.214733357118886
Day by day, week by week, month by month, the betrayal gnawed at Andrei's heart.	27515.25169666242
He ground his teeth together.	1508.3257712566055
I hate Warsaw, he said to himself.	595.7486290714735
I hate Poland and all the goddamned mothers' sons of them.	6376.7973896207595
All of Poland is a coffin.	1225.3233259588842
The terrible vision of the ghetto streets flooded his mind.	2061.188729758445
What matters now?	222.79754240501538
What is beyond this fog?	2753.5670644003176
Only Palestine, and I will never live to see Palestine because I did not believe.	8649.302126273766
By late afternoon the train inched into the marshaling yards in the railhead at Lublin, which was filled with lines of cars poised to pour the tools of war to the Russian front.	102309.5467386926
At a siding, another train which was a familiar sight these days.	7749.580186805112
Deportees.	3524.279832361616
Jews.	356.2326741940998
Andrei's skilled eye sized them up.	4033.3134453351195
They were not Poles.	393.3619988188842
He guessed by their appearance that they were Rumanians.	29316.081211765904
He walked toward the center of the city to keep his rendezvous with Styka.	2425.0727177356925
Of all the places in Poland, Andrei hated Lublin the most.	2560.298689053226
The Bathyrans were all gone.	1784.4331753515191
Few of the native Jews who had lived in Lublin were still in the ghetto.	2420.430908511068
From the moment of the occupation Lublin became a focal point.	1401.8261037152004
He and Ana watched it carefully.	1587.9739768856227
Lublin generally was the forerunner of what would happen elsewhere.	20221.15816176978
Early in 1939, Odilo Globocnik, the Gauleiter of Vienna, established SS headquarters for all of Poland.	21744.339744082437
The Bathyrans ran a check on Globocnik and had only to conclude that he was in a tug of war with Hans Frank and the civilian administrators.	65972.50019500116
Globocnik built the Death's-Head Corps.	16940.168709345373
Lublin was the seed of action for the "final solution" of the Jewish problem.	17782.174441564726
As the messages from Himmler, Heydrich, and Eichmann came in through Alfred Funk, Lublin's fountainhead spouted.	62741.73228696964
A bevy of interlacing lagers, work camps, concentration camps erupted in the area.	11709.376927596411
Sixty thousand Jewish prisoners of war disappeared into Lublin's web.	35215.176381909834
Plans went in and out of Lublin, indicating German confusion.	9109.911080588565
A tale of a massive reservation in the Uplands to hold several million Jews h A tale of a plan to ship all Jews to the island of Madagascar h Stories of the depravity of the guards at Globocnik's camps struck a chord of terror at the mere mention of their names.	227665.71772426198
Lipowa 7, Sobibor, Chelmno, Poltawa, Belzec, Krzywy-Rog, Budzyn, Krasnik.	212671.47864281206
Ice baths, electric shocks, lashings, wild dogs, testicle crushers.	74012.77417618621
The Death's-Head Corps took in Ukrainian and Baltic Auxiliaries, and the Einsatzkommandos waded knee-deep in blood and turned into drunken, dope-ridden maniacs.	227478.13726774516
Lublin was their heart.	1263.2790282209976
In the spring of 1942 Operation Reinhard began in Lublin.	2908.5701798410378
The ghetto, a miniature of Warsaw's, was emptied into the camp in the Majdan-Tartarski suburb called Majdanek.	143456.76792886658
As the camp emptied, it was refilled by a draining of the camps and towns around Lublin, then by deportees from outside Poland.	86168.5709320796
In and in and in they poured through the gates of Majdanek, but they never left, and Majdanek was not growing any larger.	66783.05513653549
What was happening in Majdanek?	3377.136257358897
Was Operation Reinhard the same pattern for the daily trains now leaving the Umschlagplatz in Warsaw?	161591.0889924907
Was there another Majdanek in the Warsaw area, as they suspected?	79136.17779413302
Andrei stopped at Litowski Place and looked around quickly at the boundary of civil buildings.	50974.52951146244
His watch told him he was still early.	1035.0827517544858
Down the boulevard he could see a portion of the ghetto wall.	2311.343261779188
He found an empty bench, opened a newspaper, and stretched his legs before him.	8716.080541734853
Krakow Boulevard was filled with black Nazi uniforms and the dirty brownish ones of their Auxiliaries.	152537.95906432974
"Captain Androfski"!	1862.5099231153629
Andrei glanced up over the top of the paper and looked into the mustached, homely face of Sergeant Styka.	32050.524912174147
Styka sat beside him and pumped his hand excitedly.	33606.508511751636
"I have been waiting across the street at the post office since dawn.	3411.5722713414716
I thought you might get in on a morning train".	3924.6338322473703
"It's good to see you again, Styka".	661.0590365782925
Styka studied his captain.	5020.145524046207
He almost broke into tears.	241.82304737264485
To him, Andrei Androfski had always been the living symbol of a Polish officer.	4793.980778555602
His captain was thin and haggard and his beautiful boots were worn and shabby.	58751.59725230704
"Remember to call me Jan", Andrei said.	5150.846760979711
Styka nodded and sniffed and blew his nose vociferously.	71839.56078117325
"When that woman found me and told me that you needed me I was never so happy since before the war".	5765.0310356073105
"I'm lucky that you were still living in Lublin".	5528.120295332547
Styka grumbled about fate.	5020.144267436018
"For a time I thought of trying to reach the Free Polish Forces, but one thing led to another.	6151.2341400806135
I got a girl in trouble and we had to get married.	552.0986005721936
Not a bad girl.	198.92520387512053
So we have three children and responsibilities.	351.18009724100733
I work at the granary.	472.7573146521235
Nothing like the old days in the army, but I get by.	624.5684566101212
Who complains?	3704.4248761401745
Many times I tried to reach you, but I never knew how.	1201.0623786880344
I came to Warsaw twice, but there was that damned ghetto wall h" "I understand".	6015.859948708502
Styka blew his nose again.	8056.155344064189
"Were you able to make the arrangements"?	8015.640292367133
Andrei asked.	1422.1698652103182
"There is a man named Grabski who is the foreman in charge of the bricklayers at Majdanek.	10414.503729613956
I did exactly as instructed.	2386.237319213667
I told him you are on orders from the Home Army to get inside Majdanek so you can make a report to the government in exile in London".	10330.578790813232
"His answer"?	42.37316047475648
"Ten thousand zlotys".	1016.2826746303133
"Can he be trusted"?	5729.250438853604
"He is aware he will not live for twenty-four hours if he betrays you".	2581.895254347546
"Good man, Styka".	2812.8127646109674
"Captain h Jan h must you go inside Majdanek?	44875.753085376375
The stories h Everyone really knows what is happening there".	7427.776849587971
"Not everyone, Styka".	3565.1318785823987
"What good will it really do"?	4678.052712435405
"I don't know.	2.569516451302858
Perhaps h perhaps h there is a shred of conscience left in the human race.	4604.512277922038
Perhaps if they know the story there will be a massive cry of indignation".	24799.57759885744
"Do you really believe that, Jan"?	3097.3292462344893
"I have to believe it".	144.23971690757236
Styka shook his head slowly.	5414.894296252876
"I am only a simple soldier.	269.80645139091075
I cannot think things out too well.	594.7860842356798
Until I was transferred into the Seventh Ulanys I was like every other Pole in my feeling about Jews.	30045.521973964253
I hated you when I first came in.	235.35833719098093
But h my captain might have been a Jew, but he wasn't a Jew.	8766.82827477419
What I mean is, he was a Pole and the greatest soldier in the Ulanys.	15560.19839503721
Hell, sir.	599.4993599307758
The men of our company had a dozen fights defending your name.	2726.8697123562533
You never knew about it, but by God, we taught them respect for Captain Androfski".	5504.418457094348
Andrei smiled.	1422.1699770919995
"Since the war I have seen the way the Germans have behaved and I think, Holy Mother, we have behaved like this for hundreds of years.	10086.39552550821
Why"?	4.121996160406815
"How can you tell an insane man to reason or a blind man to see"?	31292.033645554442
"But we are neither blind nor insane.	1601.125759236665
The men of your company would not allow your name dishonored.	5288.703151818602
Why do we let the Germans do this"?	700.2572729380104
"I have sat many hours with this, Styka.	10223.963255767387
All I ever wanted was to be a free man in my own country.	1493.4845560585145
I've lost faith, Styka.	1802.679915223764
I used to love this country and believe that someday we'd win our battle for equality.	14016.320233657752
But now I think I hate it very much".	848.3439317323471
"And do you really think that the world outside Poland will care any more than we do"?	7539.003839755399
The question frightened Andrei.	1265.719519902892
"Please don't go inside Majdanek".	6471.206905206025
"I'm still a soldier in a very small way, Styka".	1246.8659439970504
It was an answer that Styka understood.	489.03365839601366
Grabski's shanty was beyond the bridge over the River Bystrzyca near the rail center.	56392.911587831135
Grabski sat in a sweat-saturated undershirt, cursing the excessive heat which clamped an uneasy stillness before sundown.	245346.26488094838
He was a square brick of a man with a moon-round face and sunken Polish features.	5889.654287449281
Flies swarmed around the bowl of lentils in which he mopped thick black bread.	84557.81788844505
Half of it dripped down his chin.	1502.2074044242347
He washed it down with beer and produced a deep-seated belch.	28643.341333732234
"Well"?	488.3238106138061
Andrei demanded.	1422.1700206015669
Grabski looked at the pair of them.	5545.160608118879
He grunted a sort of "yes" answer.	5434.081962341741
"My cousin works at the Labor Bureau.	4995.1387312791585
He can make you work papers.	461.3572473883584
It will take a few days.	41.77000383833432
I will get you inside the guard camp as a member of my crew.	5450.678321393836
I don't know if I can get you into the inner camp.	534.7617238015972
Maybe yes, maybe no, but you can observe everything from the roof of a barrack we are building".	30264.3674086321
Grabski slurped his way to the bottom of the soup bowl.	2900.3046414370415
"Can't understand why the hell anyone wants to go inside that son-of-a-bitch place".	52229.34429032618
"Orders from the Home Army".	1830.9873837544044
"Why?	4.121996160406815
Nothing there but Jews".	762.3349359459093
Andrei shrugged.	1422.1706732466657
"We get strange orders".	407.51570827665375
"Well- what about the money"?	1000.5572824910438
Andrei peeled off five one-thousand-zloty notes.	37213.04780061487
Grabski had never seen so much money.	11628.031839921228
His broad flat fingers, petrified into massive sausages by years of bricklaying, snatched the bills clumsily.	66851.85545165185
"This ain't enough".	509.19459058108055
"You get the rest when I'm safely out of Majdanek".	51076.873034597505
"I ain't taking no goddamned chances for no Jew business".	15239.104582702168
Andrei and Styka were silent.	8056.157115555677
She was getting real dramatic.	365.6832782063112
I'd have been more impressed if I hadn't remembered that she'd played Hedda Gabler in her highschool dramatics course.	7263.849391670367
I didn't want her back on that broken record.	1797.6460487411734
"Nothing's free in the whole goddam world", was all I could think of to say.	32054.157138114584
When I'd delivered myself of that gem there was nothing to do but order up another drink.	5530.176692037244
"I am", she said.	14.604670302149785
I'd forgotten all about Thelma and the Kentucky Derby and how it was Thelma's fifty dollars I was spending.	32650.14698759818
It was just me and Eileen getting drunk together like we used to in the old days, and me staring at her across the table crazy to get my hands on her partly because I wanted to wring her neck because she was so ornery but mostly because she was so wonderful to touch.	90040.02874798904
Drunk or sober she was the most attractive woman in the world for me.	3496.854591708652
I was crazy about her all over again.	488.4009139776603
It was the call of the wild all right.	623.0529001866349
That evening turned out to be hell like all the others.	917.0114203880294
We moved down Broadway from ginmill to ginmill.	16318.721159729299
It was the same old routine.	141.51306138319657
Eileen got to dancing, just a little tiny dancing step to a hummed tune that you could hardly notice, and trying to pick up strange men, but each time I was ready to say to hell with it and walk out she'd pull herself together and talk so understandingly in that sweet husky voice about the good times and the happiness we'd had together and there I was back on the hook.	316758.8287557872
I did have the decency to call up Thelma and tell her I'd met old friends and would be home late.	35779.262721507235
"I could scratch her eyes out", Eileen cried and stamped her foot when I came back from the phone booth.	36422.28692795476
"You know I don't like my men to have other women.	4663.299355446833
I hate it.	90.33951415505193
I hate it".	90.33951415505193
She got so drunk I had to take her home.	2230.2569440856073
It was a walk up on Hudson Street.	818.0189537096985
She just about made me carry her upstairs and then she clung to me and wouldn't let me go.	19394.67468525874
There was a man's jacket on the chair and a straw hat on the table.	827.1001010245715
The place smelt of some kind of hair lotion these pimplike characters use.	8171.822039476053
"What about Ballestre"?	2626.084538587092
I had to shake her to make her listen.	885.1237587203912
"Precious.	3117.6279988130555
What about him"?	548.2592445194424
Suddenly she was very mysterious and dramatic.	1618.3101159430182
"Precious and I allow each other absolute freedom.	21361.69690086515
We are above being jealous.	1463.106861343102
He's used to me bringing home strange men.	5925.900000876777
I'll just tell him you're my husband.	879.2001621381836
He can't object to that".	486.7453494355153
"Well I object.	460.343350086743
If he pokes his nose in here I'll slug him".	9911.154049237242
"That really would be funny".	1498.661894052237
She began to laugh.	2873.816766005255
She was still laughing when I grabbed her and started rolling her on the bed.	3061.748547977507
After all I'm made of flesh and blood.	3525.3280377635933
I'm not a plaster saint.	146.28650696042038
Waking up was horrible.	18248.6338611592
Never in my life have I felt so remorseful about anything I've done as I did about spending that night with my own wife.	44689.26856229619
We both had hangovers.	2741.0899140043416
Eileen declared she couldn't lift her head from the pillow.	15912.961516042482
She lay under the covers making jabbing motions with her forefinger telling me where to look for the coffeepot.	59125.66581529837
I was stumbling in my undershirt trying to find my way around her damn kitchenette when I smelt that sickish sweet hairtonic smell.	60706.86566511024
There was somebody else in the apartment.	186.23805966225672
I stiffened.	1334.1367632780737
Honest I could feel the hair stand up on the back of my neck like a dog's that is going to get into a fight.	26850.855899525573
I turned around with the percolator in my hand.	927.4746958758809
My eyes were so bleary I could barely see him but there he was, a little smooth olivefaced guy in a new spring overcoat and a taffycolored fedora.	56126.898853254206
Brown eyes, eyebrow mustache.	2438.0267181767135
Oval face without an expression in the world.	1908.3383766452203
We didn't have time to speak before Eileen's voice was screeching at us from the bed.	13815.618654681148
"Joseph Maria Ballestre meet Francis Xavier Bowman.	16417.07533915101
Exboyfriend meet exhusband".	11770.304497228983
She gave the nastiest laugh I ever heard.	651.0803742670588
"And don't either of you forget that I'm not any man's property.	6696.3242638303445
If you want to fight, go down on the sidewalk".	1042.3741130714282
She was enjoying the situation.	187.47476585429214
Imagine that.	30.935449421625748
Eileen was a psychologist all right.	930.7535207265026
Instead of wanting to sock the poor bastard I found myself having a fellowfeeling for him.	12052.362029879725
Maybe he felt the same way.	56.43969814322731
I never felt such a lowdown hound in my life.	886.1942199122803
First thing I knew he was in the kitchenette cooking up the breakfast and I was handing Eileen her coffeecup and she was lying there handsome as a queen among her courtiers.	91129.5502407967
I couldn't face Thelma after that night.	725.9889127683218
I didn't even have the nerve to call her on the telephone.	3543.7363972131943
I wrote her that I'd met up with Eileen and that old bonds had proved too strong and asked her to send my clothes down by express.	57533.104624008105
Of course I had to give her Eileen's address, but she never came near us.	3460.5779911822324
All she did was write me a pleasant little note about how it was beautiful while it lasted but that now life had parted our ways and it was goodbye forever.	127865.68832962986
She never said a word about the fifty dollars.	458.2584604645009
She added a postscript begging me to be careful about drinking.	2868.617531011702
I must know that that was my greatest weakness underlined three times.	2021.855399858578
Afterwards I learned that Eileen had called Thelma on the telephone and made a big scene about Thelma trying to take her husband away.	31330.200865500763
That finished me with Thelma.	2055.0964044423486
Trust Eileen to squeeze all the drama out of a situation.	31649.88725183253
And there I was shacked up with Eileen in that filthy fourth floor attic on Hudson Street.	13910.884588787123
I use the phrase advisedly because there was something positively indecent about our relationship.	8040.554475398323
I felt it and it ate on me all the time, but I didn't know how right I was till later.	4267.117909785661
What I did know was that Precious was always around.	4171.136138700662
He slept in the hall bedroom at the head of the stairs.	921.4836426757759
"Who do you think pays the rent?	22711.84825322865
You wouldn't have me throw the poor boy out on the street", Eileen said when I needled her about it.	27298.69538048941
I said sure that was what I wanted her to do but she paid no attention.	6345.0515353059345
Eileen had a wonderful way of not listening to things she didn't want to hear.	12334.933392220426
Still I didn't think she was twotiming me with Precious right then.	19538.634329973065
To be on the safe side I never let Eileen get out of my sight day or night.	3512.4082504841385
Precious had me worried.	4591.892511362293
I couldn't make out what his racket was.	510.2930914953785
I'd thought him a pimp or procurer but he didn't seem to be.	1186.1516071121653
He was smooth and civil spoken but it seemed to me there was something tough under his selfeffacing manner.	18969.831927852112
Still he let Eileen treat him like a valet.	23449.447712875888
Whenever the place was cleaned or a meal served it was Precious who did the work.	17601.043542885596
I never could find out what his business was.	516.0599401386578
He always seemed to have money in his pocket.	321.4801169417855
The phone had been disconnected but telegrams came for him and notes by special messenger.	26598.040079687653
Now and then he would disappear for several days.	31.8714743812449
"Connections" was all he would say with that smooth hurt smile when I put leading questions.	23741.365692068597
"Oh he's just an international spy", Eileen would shout with her screechy laugh.	70939.66993545594
Poor devil he can't have been too happy either.	10476.804671877386
He got no relief from drink because, though sometimes Precious would buy himself a drink if he went out with us in the evening, he'd leave it on the table untouched.	12124.090193773409
When I was in liquor I rode him pretty hard I guess.	1562.272600808534
Occasionally if I pushed him too far he'd give me a look out of narrowed eyes and the hard cruel bony skull would show through that smooth face of his.	53720.34239788842
"Some day", I told Eileen, "that guy will kill us both".	3928.2914439026836
She just wouldn't listen.	736.7339800857861
Getting drunk every night was the only way I could handle the situation.	6301.4908429767975
Eileen seemed to feel the same way.	205.26559077183583
We still had that much in common.	690.9403807579465
The trouble was drinking cost money.	487.32564939059984
The way Eileen and I were hitting it up, we needed ten or fifteen dollars an evening.	22688.888357850417
Eileen must have wheedled a little out of Precious.	24644.910802134244
I raised some kale by hocking the good clothes I had left over from my respectable uptown life, but when that was gone I didn't have a cent.	38249.897912444096
I don't know what we would have done if Pat O'Dwyer hadn't come to town.	2597.8612261681683
Pat O'Dwyer looked like a heavier Jim.	25870.463127605595
He had the same bullet head of curly reddish hair but he didn't have Jim's pokerfaced humor or his brains or his charm.	33170.66814428609
He was a big thick beefy violent man.	513.0662294934756
Now Pat may have been a lecher and a plugugly, but he was a good churchgoing Catholic and he loved his little sister.	29437.004025077586
Those O'Dwyers had that Irish clannishness that made them stick together in spite of politics and everything.	48215.50388527094
Pat took Eileen and me out to dinner at a swell steak house and told us with tears in his eyes how happy he was we had come together again.	175364.26160829735
"Whom God hath joined" etcetera.	7423.872420378685
The O'Dwyers were real religious people except for Kate.	5334.454249211675
Now it would be up to me to keep the little girl out of mischief.	1049.1044600096293
Pat had been worried as hell ever since she'd lost her job on that fashion magazine.	64991.88888573839
It had gone big with the Hollywood girls when he told them his sister was an editor of Art and Apparel.	52810.89580232763
How about me trying to help her get her job back?	19202.080441951766
All evening Eileen had been as demure as a little girl getting ready for her first communion.	82404.44046233506
It just about blew us both out of the water when Eileen suddenly came out with what she came out with.	16811.294949294283
"But brother I can't take a job right now", she said with her eyes on her ice cream, "I'm going to have a baby, Francis Xavier's baby, my own husband's baby".	36920.80378965483
My first thought was how had it happened so soon, but I counted back on my fingers and sure enough we'd been living together six weeks.	81405.06460257291
Pat meanwhile was bubbling over with sentiment.	15031.04811094889
Greatest thing that ever happened.	2805.789092638756
Now Eileen really would have to settle down to love honor and obey, and she'd have to quit drinking.	17697.437052441164
He'd come East for the christening, by God he would.	2888.5468081606477
When we separated that evening Pat pushed a hundred dollar bill into Eileen's hand to help towards a layette.	70547.5333396056
Before he left town Pat saw to it that I was fixed up with a job.	2619.9696300888286
Pat had contacts all over the labor movement.	7053.452694823232
A friend of Pat's named Frank Sposato had just muscled into the Portwatchers' Union.	16424.511296922316
The portwatchers were retired longshoremen and small time seafarers off towboats and barges who acted as watchmen on the wharves.	125554.9589712328
Most of them were elderly men.	172.71527837018337
It was responsible and sometimes dangerous work because the thieving is awful in the port of New York.	9212.150698898884
They weren't as well paid as they should have been.	1695.3525534905325
One reason the portwatchers let Sposato take them over was to get the protection of his musclemen.	14585.43704974119
Sposato needed a front, some labor stiff with a clean record to act as business agent of the Redhook local.	194904.33471220147
There I was a retired wobbly and structural iron worker who'd never gouged a cent off a fellow worker in my thirty years in the movement.	32392.6541903847
For once radicalism was a recommendation.	1742.838416105634
Sposato couldn't wait to get me hired.	16940.174262184973
With my gray hair and my weatherbeaten countenance I certainly looked the honest working stiff.	43143.32794493001
The things a man will do for a woman.	204.95457869560417
There was one fact which Rector could not overlook, one truth which he could not deny.	4529.784232580336
As long as there were two human beings working together on the same project, there would be competition and you could no more escape it than you could expect to escape the grave.	11161.776997440948
No matter how devoted a man was, no matter how fully he gave his life to the Lord, he could never extinguish that one spark of pride that gave him definition as an individual.	10602.041795417355
All of the jobs in the mission might be equal in the eyes of the Lord, but they were certainly not equal in the eyes of the Lord's servants.	4608.902956915406
It was only natural that Fletcher would strive for a position in which he could make the decisions.	979.5622576143845
Even Rector himself was prey to this spirit of competition and he knew it, not for a more exalted office in the hierarchy of the church- his ambitions for the bishopry had died very early in his career- but for the one clear victory he had talked about to the colonel.	108033.63478223734
He was not sure how much of this desire was due to his devotion to the church and how much was his own ego, demanding to be satisfied, for the two were intertwined and could not be separated.	3096.9894458320446
He wanted desperately to see Kayabashi defeated, the Communists in the village rooted out, the mission standing triumphant, for in the triumph of the Lord he himself would be triumphant, too.	35136.03331827633
But perhaps this was a part of the eternal plan, that man's ambition when linked with God would be a driving, indefatigable force for good in the world.	12462.227282581362
He sighed.	218.20637747281057
How foolish it was to try to fathom the truth in an area where only faith would suffice.	21208.972532645836
He would have to work without questioning the motives which made him work and content himself with the thought that the eventual victory, however it was brought about, would be sweet indeed.	24822.252829942794
His first move was to send Hino to the village to spend a few days.	1764.1053205861533
His arm had been giving him some trouble and Rector was not enough of a medical expert to determine whether it had healed improperly or whether Hino was simply rebelling against the tedious work in the print shop, using the stiffness in his arm as an excuse.	201604.20628478235
In any event Rector sent him to the local hospital to have it checked, telling him to keep his ears open while he was in the village to see if he could find out what Kayabashi was planning.	11417.265698910542
Hino was elated at the prospect.	20163.553918325142
He was allowed to spend his nights at an inn near the hospital and he was given some extra money to go to the pachinko parlor- an excellent place to make contact with the enemy.	15837.467699380135
He left with all the joyous spirit of a child going on a holiday, nodding attentively as Rector gave him his final instructions.	45335.41971543272
He was to get involved in no arguments; he was to try to make no converts; he was simply to listen and report back what he heard.	11153.742127472047
It was a ridiculous situation and Rector knew it, for Hino, frankly partisan, openly gregarious, would make a poor espionage agent.	47031.93618643867
If he wanted to know anything, he would end up asking about it point-blank, but in this guileless manner he would probably receive more truthful answers than if he tried to get them by indirection.	62893.73341701736
In all of his experience in the mission field Rector had never seen a convert quite like Hino.	6713.676740054689
From the moment that Hino had first walked into the mission to ask for a job, any job- his qualifications neatly written on a piece of paper in a precise hand- he had been ready to become a Christian.	16265.547719223847
He had already been studying the Bible; he knew the fundamentals, and after studying with Fletcher for a time he approached Rector, announced that he wanted to be baptized and that was that.	10575.172083513762
Rector had never been able to find out much about Hino's past.	8473.772878113483
Hino talked very little about himself except for the infrequent times when he used a personal illustration in connection with another subject.	143843.1955007669
Putting the pieces of this mosaic together, Rector had the vague outlines of a biography.	38598.05518204526
Hino was the fourth son of an elderly farmer who lived on the coast, in Chiba, and divided his life between the land and the sea, supplementing the marginal livelihood on his small rented farm with seasonal employment on a fishing boat.	221989.44555628742
Without exception Hino's brothers turned to either one or both of their father's occupations, but Hino showed a talent for neither and instead spent most of his time on the beach where he repaired nets and proved immensely popular as a storyteller.	77844.08906953078
He had gone into the Japanese navy, had been trained as an officer, had participated in one or two battles- he never went into detail regarding his military experience- and at the age of twenty-five, quite as a bolt out of the blue, he had walked into the mission as if he belonged here and had become a Christian.	23158.786429534535
Rector was often curious; often tempted to ask questions but he never did.	47479.82747030746
If and when Hino decided to tell him about his experiences, he would do so unasked.	22700.7673470307
Rector had no doubt that Hino would come back from the village bursting with information, ready to impart it with his customary gusto, liberally embellished with his active imagnation.	351979.44756573986
When the telephone rang on the day after Hino went down to the village, Rector had a hunch it would be Hino with some morsel of information too important to wait until his return, for there were few telephones in the village and the phone in Rector's office rarely rang unless it was important.	78586.3575115672
He was surprised to find Kayabashi's secretary on the other end of the line.	476.68599076737127
He was even more startled when he heard what Kayabashi wanted.	5791.609885152408
The oyabun was entertaining a group of dignitaries, the secretary said, businessmen from Tokyo for the most part, and Kayabashi wished to show them the mission.	36469.31901625128
They had never seen one before and had expressed a curiosity about it.	1667.4457216481273
"Oh"?	5.604946306830428
Rector said.	1377.4294786082955
"I guess it will be all right.	127.5890375733212
When would the oyabun like to bring his guests up here"?	8633.125210653683
"This afternoon", the secretary said.	627.8999596936131
"At three o'clock if it will be of convenience to you at that time".	5684.1457801264705
"All right", Rector said.	375.64131614975474
"I will be expecting them".	254.58953986460148
He was about to hang up the phone, but a note of hesitancy in the secretary's voice left the conversation open.	6158.351001222663
He had something more to say.	243.40139337135184
"I beg to inquire if the back is now safe for travelers", he said.	3818.8728593390215
Rector laughed despite himself.	4890.553639775374
"Unless the oyabun has been working on it", he said, then checked himself and added "You can tell Kayabashi-san that the back road is in very good condition and will be quite safe for his party to use".	42196.950821262
"Arigato gosaimasu".	6886.910637010236
The secretary sighed with relief and then the telephone clicked in Rector's hand.	8652.778479655477
Rector had no idea why Kayabashi wanted to visit the mission.	31593.182993575043
For the oyabun to make such a trip was either a sign of great weakness or an indication of equally great confidence, and from all the available information it was probably the latter.	24944.441165684966
Kayabashi must feel fairly certain of his victory in order to make a visit like this, a trip which could be so easily misinterpreted by the people in the village.	17608.249604112727
At the same time, it was unlikely that any businessmen would spend a day in a Christian mission out of mere curiosity.	3289.6498798944967
No, Kayabashi was bringing his associates here for a specific purpose and Rector would not be able to fathom it until they arrived.	28983.208661429962
When he had given the call a few moments thought, he went into the kitchen to ask Mrs Yamata to prepare tea and sushi for the visitors, using the formal English china and the silver tea service which had been donated to the mission, then he went outside to inspect the grounds.	28720.923098295796
Fujimoto had a pile of cuttings near one side of the lawn.	29345.641269593765
Rector asked him to move it for the time being; he wanted the mission compound to be effortlessly spotless.	35062.11593250376
A good initial impression would be important now.	1966.026766449914
He went into the print shop, where Fletcher had just finished cleaning the press.	3859.3668988535505
"How many pamphlets do we have in stock"?	7139.015261082838
Rector said.	1377.4294786082955
"I should say about a hundred thousand", Fletcher said.	1360.5942071918114
"Why"?	4.121996160406815
"I would like to enact a little tableau this afternoon", Rector said, He explained about the visit and the effect he wished to create, the picture of a very busy mission.	24863.183305970633
He did not wish to deceive Kayabashi exactly, just to display the mission activities in a graphic and impressive manner.	21589.297418150523
Fletcher nodded as he listened to the instructions and said he would arrange the things Rector requested.	62525.002105918844
Rector's next stop was at the schoolroom, where Mavis was monitoring a test.	86327.2739784743
He beckoned to her from the door and she slipped quietly outside.	8797.163382355928
He told her of the visitors and then of his plans.	2544.5179353489743
"How many children do you have present today"?	1340.7107329279706
he said.	3.376936803385834
She looked back toward the schoolroom.	2559.9494249868453
"Fifteen", she said.	51.006788981226514
"No, only fourteen.	710.7001915144082
The little Ito girl had to go home.	325.9222936073049
She has a pretty bad cold".	61.163655565618285
"I would like them to appear very busy today, not busy exactly, but joyous, exuberant, full of life.	8366.290651362357
I want to create the impression of a compound full of children.	893.245095097854
Do you think you can manage it"?	47.8175011729379
Mavis smiled.	1422.1699770919995
"I'll try".	20.541336819395212
As Rector was walking back toward the residential hall, Johnson came out of the basement and bounded up to him.	16546.055519355454
The altercation in the coffee house had done little to dampen his spirits, but he was still a little wary around Rector for they had not yet discussed the incident.	19745.407789587975
"I think I've fixed the pump so we won't have to worry about it for a long time", he said.	183.9870664409366
"I've adjusted the gauge so that the pump cuts out before the water gets too low".	10704.844207596538
"Fine", Rector said.	4048.1717903683375
He looked out over the expanse of the compound.	825.9393032971296
It was going to take a lot of activity to fill it.	148.48278732724708
"Have you ever operated a transit"?	3794.858873127967
he said.	3.376936803385834
"No, sir", Johnson said.	791.5567279096942
"You are about to become a first-class surveyor", Rector said.	4028.714029493896
"When Konishi gets back with the jeep, I want you to round up two or three Japanese boys.	22542.539431423826
Konishi can help you.	1381.0398239137776
You'll find an old transit in the basement.	468.33710620692335
The glass is out of it, but that won't matter.	525.0186971251283
It looks pretty efficient and that's the important thing".	3317.4538919976794
He went on to explain what he had in mind.	12.800421904567878
Johnson nodded.	391.15412640177624
He said he could do it.	4.552286980703573
Rector was warming to his over-all strategy by the time he got back to the residential hall.	32720.00079340275
It was rather a childish game, all in all, but everybody seemed to be getting into the spirit of the thing and he could not remember when he had enjoyed planning anything quite so much.	5785.799408842173
He was not sure what effect it would have, but that was really beside the point when you got right down to it.	2643.639674070654
He was not going to lose the mission by default, and whatever reason Kayabashi had for bringing his little sight-seeing group to the mission, he was going to be in for a surprise.	6217.985088598911
He found Elizabeth in the parlor and asked her to make sure everything was in order in the residential hall, and then to take charge of the office while the party was here.	7111.3788170855905
When everything had been done, Rector went back to his desk to occupy himself with his monthly report until three o'clock.	18700.61545596719
At two thirty he sent Fujimoto to the top of the wall at the northeast corner of the mission to keep an eye on the ridge road and give a signal when he first glimpsed the approach of Kayabashi's party.	45975.58133887178
Then Rector, attired in his best blue serge suit, sat in a chair out on the lawn, in the shade of a tree, smoking a cigarette and waiting.	33538.11390951997
The air was cooler here, and the lacy pattern of the trees threw a dappled shadow on the grass, an effect which he found pleasant.	35572.683287490385
She concluded by asking him to name another hour should this one be inconvenient.	34837.07535292254
The fish took the bait.	2117.8791682391443
He replied that he could not imagine what importance there might be in thus meeting with a stranger, but- joy of joys, he would be at home at the hour mentioned.	24451.238563732873
But when she called he had thought better of the matter and decided not to involve himself in a new entanglement.	19989.170227863528
She was told by the manservant who opened the door that his lordship was engaged on work from which he had left strict orders he was not to be disturbed.	15806.910052080046
Claire was bitterly disappointed but determined not to let the rebuff daunt her purpose.	26497.74359289378
She wrote again and now, abandoning for the moment the theme of love, she asked for help in the matter of her career.	3776.499799686471
She could act and she could write.	1967.3171308125682
His lordship was concerned in the management of Drury Lane but, if there were no opportunities there, would he read and criticize her novel?	80640.33232158814
At last he consented to meet her, and following that brief interview Claire wrote him a yet more remarkable proposal Have you any objection to the following plan?	24749.00225719213
On Thursday evening we may go out of town together by some stage or mail about the distance of ten or twelve miles.	31440.35923259586
There we shall be free and unknown; we can return the following morning h She concluded by asking for a brief interview- "to settle with you where"- and she threw in a tribute to his "gentle manners" and "the wild originality of your countenance".	175679.83889468317
She opened his reply with trembling fingers h he agreed!	10235.259636755287
And he would see her that evening.	363.33907524250986
Victory at last!	2354.5585512058724
At their meeting he told her not to bother about "where"- he would attend to that.	18238.320650757203
There was one of the new forte-pianos in the room and, as Claire rose to go, he asked her to sing him one song before she left.	16628.50093055723
She sang him Scott's charming ballad "Rosabelle", which was the vogue of the moment.	6687.773083482581
She had never sung better.	319.44763801506025
"Your voice is delightful", he approved with a warm smile.	3346.0396811488563
"Tomorrow will be a new experience- I have never before made love to a nightingale h. There have been cooing doves, chattering magpies, thieving jackdaws, a proud peacock, a silly goose, and a harpy eagle- whom I was silly enough to mate with and who is now busy tearing at my vitals".	431903.70030833234
And so they went, he choosing of all places an inn near Medmenham Abbey, scene a generation ago of the obscene orgies of the Hellfire Club.	66225.31938051339
He regaled Claire with an account of the mock mass performed by the cassocked bloods, which he had had at firsthand from old Bud Dodington, one of the leaders of the so-called "Order".	10390.726734712995
Each wore the monkish scourge at his waist but this, it seems, was not employed for self-flagellation h. Naked girls danced in the chancel of the Abbey, the youngest and seemingly the most innocent being chosen to read a sermon filled with veiled depravities.	174774.64182482523
The jaded amorist conjured up pictures of the blasphemous rites with relish.	11005.922021196482
Alas, all that belonged to the age of "Devil Dashwood" and "Wicked Wilkes", abbot and beadsman of the Order!	37800.68152410662
The casual seduction of a seventeen-year-old bluestocking seemed tame by comparison.	18593.776881547496
They passed close by the turn to Bishopsgate.	6223.345145921277
A scant half mile away Shelley and Mary were doubtless sitting on their diminutive terrace, the air about them scented with stock, and listening to the nightingale who had nested in the big lime tree at the foot of the garden.	80519.23812158771
Charming and peaceful- but what were charm and peace compared to high adventure?	266996.1098121195
Alone with the fabulous Byron!	5422.336222408577
How many women had longed for the privilege that was hers.	9088.31210139929
How was she to behave, Claire wondered.	14861.41271482723
To be passive, to be girlishly shy was palpably absurd.	10593.456722391305
She was the pursuer as clearly as was Venus in Shakespeare's poem.	4258.759466109868
And while her Adonis did not suffer from inexperience, satiety might well be an equal handicap.	9751.042078360015
No, she would not pretend modesty, but neither must she be crudely bold.	15668.590092885712
Mystery- that was the thing.	2710.7676701939145
In the bedroom she would insist on darkness.	2107.328714795332
With his club foot he might well be grateful.	1371.6677074205422
At the inn, which was situated close to a broad weir, Byron was greeted by the landlord with obsequious deference and addressed as "milord".	98849.6416189781
The place was evidently a familiar haunt and Claire wondered what other illicit loves had been celebrated in the comfortable rooms to which they were shown.	38371.22155241937
The fire in the sitting room was lighted.	945.4455733358678
"What about the bedroom"?	4942.4641480177115
Byron inquired.	371.2639249414941
"Seems to me last time I was here the grate bellowed out smoke as it might have been preparing us for hell".	76582.71613062693
"We found some owls had built a nest in the chimney, milord, but I promise you you'll never have trouble of that sort again".	47580.843158151896
So, not only had he been here before, but it seemed he might well come again.	6656.756709858134
Claire felt suddenly small and cheap, heroine of a trivial episode in the voluminous history of Don Juan.	226533.62379813823
A cold supper was ordered and a bottle of port.	10280.163332494558
When Napoleon's ship had borne him to Elba, French wines had started to cross the Channel, the first shipments in a dozen war-ridden years, but the supplies had not yet reached rural hostelries where the sweet wines of the Spanish peninsula still ruled.	174287.49266889165
As they waited for supper they sat by the fire, glasses in hand, while Byron philosophized as much for his own entertainment as hers.	49734.928724182595
"Sex is overpriced", he said.	290.8136192451553
"The great Greek tragedies are concerned with man against Fate, not man against man for the prize of a woman's body.	41815.29325877959
So don't see yourself as a heroine or fancy this little adventure is an event of major importance".	12032.297643928358
"The gods seemed to think sex pretty important", she rebutted.	32023.427710960623
"Mars and Venus, Bacchus and Ariadne, Jupiter and Io, Byron and the nymph of the owl's nest.	106013.43903631261
That would be Minerva, I suppose.	1658.0990026775287
Wasn't the owl her symbol"?	10081.03040443348
Byron laughed.	365.796042579757
"So you know something of the classics, do you"?	821.6996457283079
"Tell me about Minerva, how she behaved, what she did to please you".	40426.885737139986
"I'll tell you nothing.	98.03759240127434
I don't ask you who 'tis you're being unfaithful to, husband or lover.	33404.890910883565
Frankly, I don't care".	252.01851832757015
For a moment she thought of answering with the truth but she knew there were men who shied away from virginity, who demanded some degree of education in body as well as mind.	43468.14314885923
"Very well", she said, "I'll not catechize you.	120.17314232348402
What matter the others so long as I have my place in history".	1747.8768591148894
She was striking the right note.	1018.5816430566751
No man ever had a better opinion of himself and indeed, with one so favored, flattery could hardly seem overdone.	101745.36079486815
Brains and beauty, high position in both the social and intellectual worlds, athlete, fabled lover- if ever the world was any man's oyster it was his.	180795.99547540853
The light supper over, Claire went to him and, slipping an arm about his shoulder, sat on his knee.	25247.4074666193
He drew her close and, hand on cheek, turned her face to his.	36825.06411865353
Her lips, moist and parted, spoke his name.	5658.168406451001
"Byron"!	482.6377949385609
His hand went to her shoulder and pushed aside the knotted scarf that surmounted the striped poplin gown; then, to better purpose, he took hold of the knot and with dextrous fingers, untied it.	173947.10015275024
The bodice beneath was buttoned and, withdrawing his lips from hers, he set her upright on his knee and started to undo it, unhurriedly as if she were a child.	36696.71086200656
But, kindled by his kiss, his caressing hand, her desire was aflame.	37537.404693118704
She sprang up and went swiftly to the bedroom.	5338.8280868381125
Lord Byron poured himself another glass of wine and held it up to the candle flame admiring the rich color.	46444.137997920356
He drank slowly with due appreciation.	3523.318511457254
It was an excellent vintage.	90.53240422590568
He rose and went to the bedroom.	139.59538083296596
Pausing in the doorway he said "The form of the human female, unlike her mind and her spirit, is the most challenging loveliness in all nature".	44568.34591469742
When Claire returned to Bishopsgate she longed to tell them she had become Byron's mistress.	35764.14619812721
By odd coincidence, on the evening of her return Shelley chose to read Parisina, which was the latest of the titled poet's successes.	20529.30358460327
As he declaimed the sonorous measures, it was as much as Claire could do to restrain herself from bursting out with her dramatic tidings.	53197.88803840634
"Although it is not the best of which he is capable", said Shelley as he closed the book, "it is still poetry of a high order".	3711.6028672073485
"If he would only leave the East", said Mary.	2377.2653544423883
"I am tired of sultans and scimitars".	4859.84705210028
"The hero of his next poem is Napoleon Bonaparte", said Claire, with slightly overdone carelessness.	35686.54853281729
"How do you know that"?	22.095875093546102
demanded Mary.	955.0564003488421
"I was told it on good authority", Claire answered darkly.	6682.894323122147
"I mustn't tell, I mustn't tell", she repeated to herself.	12556.802554625181
"I promised him I wouldn't".	1899.683901571423
CHAPTER 9 WINTER CAME, and with it Mary's baby- a boy as she had wished.	35773.66147150286
William, he was called, in honor of the man who was at once Shelley's pensioner and his most bitter detractor.	6343.664587502965
With a pardonable irony Shelley wrote to the father who had publicly disowned his daughter "Fanny and Mrs Godwin will probably be glad to hear that Mary has safely recovered from a very favorable confinement, and that her child is well".	130634.21071530959
At the same time another child- this one of Shelley's brain- was given to the world Alastor, a poem of pervading beauty in which the reader may gaze into the still depths of a fine mind's musings.	86519.63129280893
Alastor was published only to be savagely attacked, contemptuously ignored.	50246.93319590787
Shelley sent a copy to Southey, a former friend, and another to Godwin.	82658.39564209813
Neither acknowledged the gift.	1203.5710486093014
Only Mary's praise sustained him in his disappointment.	7780.361093926339
She understood completely.	433.7839188479191
Not a thought nor a cadence was missed in her summary of appreciation.	6040.166263156618
"You have made the labor worth while", he said to her, smiling.	4184.06176697176
"And in the future, since I write for a public of one, I can save the poor publishers from wasting their money".	12192.753521496883
"A public of one", Mary echoed reprovingly.	12363.960130573318
"how can you say such a thing?	5849.3968521812185
There will be thousands who will thrill to the loveliness of Alastor.	13069.589563130383
There are some even now.	146.0198672280075
What about that dear, clever Mr Thynne?	25127.38900549635
I am sure he is in raptures".	1620.002860379397
"Poor Mr Thynne, he always has to be trotted out for my encouragement".	61346.70382834333
"There are other Mr Thynnes.	459.0809398539156
Not everyone is bewitched by Byron's caliphs and harem beauties".	29820.579375258512
Mary's supercritical attitude toward Byron had nothing to do with his moral disrepute.	20254.38581562212
She was resentful of his easy success as compared with Shelley's failure.	13277.097660494137
The same month that Alastor was published, Murray sold twenty thousand copies of The Siege of Corinth, a slovenly bit of Byronism that even Shelley's generosity rebelled at.	109315.28399776018
The lordly poet was at low-water mark.	1663.9260950502473
The careless writing was in keeping with his mood of savage discontent.	11477.964939588112
On all sides doors were being slammed in his face.	2151.9079623393022
The previous scandals, gaily diverting as they were, had only served to increase his popularity.	6013.379460556784
Now, under the impact of his wife's disclosures, he was brought suddenly to the realization that there was a limit to tolerance, however brilliant, however far-famed the offender might be.	17171.54337102548
He tried defiance and openly flaunted his devotion to his half sister, but he soon saw, as did she, that this course if persisted in would involve them in a common ruin.	87415.76959383705
For the moment there was no woman in his life, and it was this vacuum that had given Claire her opportunity.	3724.182355885284
But the liaison successfully started in the last days of autumn was now languishing.	20031.34835378266
Byron, since the separation from his wife had been living in a smallish house in Piccadilly Terrace.	9141.840746186092
He refused to bring Claire to it even as an occasional visitor, claiming that his every move was watched by spies of the Milbankes.	55790.69436074632
Beckworth handed the pass to the colonel.	46700.52584867062
He had thought that the suggestion of taking it himself would tip the colonel in the direction of serving his own order, but the slip of paper was folded and absently thrust into the colonel's belt.	138150.86502449863
Despite his yearning, the colonel would not go down to see the men come through the lines.	10511.663823735349
He would remain in the tent, waiting impatiently, occupied by some trivial task.	5106.968738081679
-Beckworth.	1635.8896821446547
-Sir?	2422.8182771871557
-Fetch me the copies of everything B and C companies have requisitioned in the last six months.	36598.92568174647
-The last six months, sir?	568.4357111790016
-You heard me.	888.459863899402
There's a lot of waste going on here.	538.5749609353851
It's got to stop.	848.9637522564537
I want to take a look.	70.32031942185306
This is no damned holiday, Beckworth.	2463.7289190408387
Get busy.	245.2298694905384
-Yes, sir.	309.95541614402623
Beckworth left the tent.	1381.1885396789908
Below he could see the bright torches lighting the riverbank.	7515.4727793891025
He glanced back.	509.25272129412934
The colonel crouched tensely on one of the folding chairs, methodically tearing at his thumbnail.	35858.910120766246
9 THE BOMBPROOF was a low-ceilinged structure of heavy timbers covered with earth.	32699.607528113906
It stood some fifty paces from the edge of the bank.	490.51273043518546
From the outside, it seemed no more than a low drumlin, a lump on the dark earth.	1030.0996653870998
A crude ladder ran down to a wooden floor.	6496.832875929482
Two slits enabled observers to watch across the river.	2223.0049812477873
The place smelled strongly of rank, fertile earth, rotting wood and urine.	43846.7157783302
The plank floor was slimed beneath Watson's boots.	17260.213203174753
At least the Union officer had been decent enough to provide a candle.	1839.6310227578995
There was no place to sit, but Watson walked slowly from the ladder to the window slits and back, stooping slightly to avoid striking his head on the heavy beams.	18401.77923476552
In the corner was the soldier with the white flag.	3993.7055982135194
He stood stiffly erect, clutching the staff, his body half hidden by the limp cloth.	25668.2945768711
Watson hardly looked at him.	246.32301655041059
The man had come floundering aboard the flat-bottomed barge at the last instant, brandishing the flag of truce.	42658.84716702102
Someone had hauled him over the side, and he had remained silent while they crossed.	5581.142000661365
An officer with a squad of men had been waiting on the bank.	2488.872484328921
The men in the boats had started yelling happily at first sight of the officer, two of them calling him Billy.	3775.233759109585
When the boat had touched, the weaker ones and the two wounded men had been lifted out and carried away by the soldiers.	33093.04333339349
Watson had presented his pouch and been led to the bombproof.	18798.71348361536
The officer had told him that both lists must be checked.	1094.6594745851862
Watson had given his name and asked for a safe-conduct pass.	4761.752316956193
The officer, surprised, said he would have to see.	124.60493231977111
Watson had nodded absently and muttered that he would check the lists himself later.	26957.17526623747
He had peered through the darkness at the rampart.	11554.557798436721
The men he would take back across the river stood there, but he turned away from them.	1649.0430457744296
He wanted no part of the emotions of the exchange, no memory of the joy and gratitude that other men felt.	2237.53433352781
He had hoped to be alone in the bombproof, but the soldier had followed him.	6436.1482969766785
Though Watson carefully ignored the man, he could not deny his presence.	1059.6071760178318
Perhaps it would be better to speak to him, since silence could not exorcise his form.	1850.209153030605
Watson glanced briefly at him, seeing only a body rigidly erect behind the languid banner.	44365.520053756634
-We won't be too long.	828.5179595038038
If my pass is approved, I may be a half hour.	555.7960168635848
The soldier answered in a curious, muffled voice, his lips barely moving.	12897.476562697744
Watson turned away and did not see the man's knees buckle and his body sag.	21491.57770535592
-Yes, sir.	309.95541614402623
He had acknowledged the man.	190.43322489693895
It was easier to think now, Watson decided.	3802.218436874732
The stiff figure in the corner no longer blocked his thoughts.	3756.4044747765274
He paced slowly, stooping, staring at the damp, slippery floor.	28490.10142728369
He tried to order the words of the three Union officers, seeking to create some coherent portrait of the dead boy.	7139.699541587931
But he groped blindly.	1521.8448379821773
His lack of success steadily eroded his interest.	5521.308461347664
He stopped pacing, leaned against the dank, timbered wall and let his mind drift.	29042.637486389045
A feeling of futility, an enervation of mind greater than any fatigue he had ever known, seeped through him.	36883.4895631872
What in the name of God was he doing, crouched in a timbered pit on the wrong bank of the river?	6436.545853727062
Why had he crossed the dark water, to bring back a group of reclaimed soldiers or to skulk in a foul-smelling hole?	83589.74290989533
He grew annoyed and at the same time surprised at that emotion.	4967.135197201802
He was conscious of a growing sense of absurdity.	2820.2606832088168
Hillman had written it all out, hadn't he?	9531.634695085457
Wasn't the report official enough?	10081.03040443348
What did he hope to accomplish here?	1349.6679902851172
Hillman had ordered him not to leave the far bank.	18336.185729478726
Prompted by a guilty urge, he had disobeyed the order of a man he respected.	49105.54668421992
For what?	30.159060067635583
To tell John something he would find out for himself.	2833.151016248649
The figure in the corner belched loudly, a deep, liquid eruption.	4049.1622384867014
Watson snorted and then laughed aloud.	14072.187589902116
Exactly!	469.3671729692187
The soldier's voice was muffled again, stricken with chagrin.	29599.94343908171
He clutched the staff, and his dark eyes blinked apologetically.	6701.926753033412
-'Scuse me, sir.	294.5820987815423
-Let's get out of here.	974.0965727462166
Watson ran up the ladder and stood for a second sucking in the cool air that smelled of mud and river weeds.	83719.16610157005
To his left, the two skiffs dented their sharp bows into the soft bank.	8284.738288319148
The flat-bottomed boat swung slowly to the pull of the current.	2633.157358937532
A soldier held the end of a frayed rope.	4570.647814684849
Three Union guards appeared, carrying their rifles at ready.	12127.875622920357
Watson stared at them curiously.	7487.406983220176
They were stocky men, well fed and clean-shaven, with neat uniforms and sturdy boots.	63715.80656140569
Behind them shambled a long column of weak, tattered men.	13743.848434124211
The thin gray figures raised a hoarse, cawing cry like the call of a bird flock.	78511.53456591036
They moved toward the skiffs with shocking eagerness, elbowing and shoving.	39716.852676426985
Four men were knocked down, but did not attempt to rise.	1594.832792777006
They crept down the muddy slope toward the waiting boats.	14486.541871754524
The Union soldiers grounded arms and settled into healthy, indifferent postures to watch the feeble boarding of the skiffs.	67970.55412829848
The crawling men tried to rise and fell again.	6240.642064610249
No one moved to them.	159.05035446842857
Watson watched two of them flounder into the shallow water and listened to their voices beg shrilly.	114945.84026075398
In a confused, soaked and stumbling shift of bodies and lifting arms, the two men were dragged into the same skiff.	50348.60573011808
The third crawling man forced himself erect.	5797.89368506967
He swayed like a drunkard, his arms milling in slow circles.	21737.8836600434
He paced forward unsteadily, leaning too far back, his head tilted oddly.	71133.60347856618
His steps were short and stiff, and, with his head thrown back, his progress was a supercilious strut.	29189.407126174377
He appeared to be peering haughtily down his nose at the crowded and unclean vessel that would carry him to freedom.	26637.87784638285
He stalked into the water and fell heavily over the side of the flat-bottomed barge, his weight nearly swamping the craft.	17650.796351440356
Watson looked for the fourth man.	1345.7948542295867
He had reached the three passive guards; he crept in an incertain manner, patting the ground before him.	9539.441963671816
The guards did not look at him.	663.0359602664906
The figure on the earth halted, seemingly bewildered.	8687.846244392254
He sank back on his thin haunches like a weary hound.	34293.27615880332
Then he began to crawl again.	201.78932253465734
Watson watched the creeping figure.	2171.4863309503985
He felt a spectator interest.	286.34975000384156
Would the man make it or not?	619.4634550310244
If only there was a clock for him to crawl against.	7509.925312331469
If he failed to reach the riverbank in five minutes, say, then the skiffs would pull away and leave him groping in the mud.	7837.553294876614
Say three minutes to make it sporting.	5176.541664068217
Still the guards did not move, but stood inert, aloof from the slow-scrambling man.	27540.098354792342
The figure halted, and Watson gasped.	5726.584261918284
The man began to creep in the wrong direction, deceived by a slight rise in the ground!	20448.207442393534
He turned slowly and began to crawl back up the bank toward the rampart.	39918.554260530866
Watson raced for him, his boots slamming the soft earth.	10024.120302291658
The guards came to life with astonishing menace.	7650.8997251757655
They spun and flung their rifles up.	4980.898661997055
Watson gesticulated wildly.	844.5151391254816
One man dropped to his knee for better aim.	4649.5802880564
-Let me help him, for the love of God!	336.9000395815495
The guards lowered their rifles and their rifles and peered at Watson with sullen, puzzled faces.	35235.35039971147
Watson pounded to the crawling man and stopped, panting heavily.	19199.734857161475
He reached down and closed his fingers on the man's upper arm.	9611.327834590338
Beneath his clutch, a flat strip of muscle surged on the bone.	5829.806268636388
Watson bent awkwardly and lifted the man to his feet.	1864.0570046015393
Watson stared into a cadaverous face.	3769.692736217054
Two clotted balls the color of mucus rolled between fiery lids.	52782.649380015646
Light sticks of fingers, the tips gummy with dark earth, patted at Watson's throat.	53516.54912389804
The man's voice was a sweet, patient whisper.	4140.352400977301
-Henry said that he'd take my arm and get me right there.	6027.415818462365
But you ain't Henry.	889.8643601205345
-No.	171.18291427746752
-It don't matter.	773.4330135926663
Is it far?	208.60704822627517
How far could it be, Watson thought bleakly, how far can a blind man crawl?	34408.467778677725
Another body length or all the rest of his nighted life?	6481.9074265219715
-Not far.	447.2605750436304
-You talk deep.	888.460004074283
Not like us fellas.	2821.7035965200866
It raises the voice, bein in camp.	7832.21809942542
You Secesh?	4375.5623771816745
-Yes.	228.80859561973963
Come on, now.	254.71858804495406
Can you walk?	676.8126047900691
-Why, course I can.	1056.6072717011264
I can walk real good.	621.5083170572345
Watson stumbled down the bank.	765.6530212627737
The man leaned his frail body against Watson's shoulder.	4720.8466257966475
He was no heavier than a child.	295.88990255450733
Watson paused for breath.	385.44193629521516
The man wheezed weakly, his fetid breath beating softly against Watson's neck.	16838.61493212014
His sweet whisper came after great effort.	3888.4427663199526
-Oh, Christ h. I wish you was Henry h. He promised to take me.	16816.80148800215
-Hush.	1635.8896821446547
We're almost there.	169.2864078425941
Watson supported the man to the edge of the bank and passed the frail figure over the bow of the nearest skiff.	19708.814303188432
The man swayed on a thwart, turning his ruined eyes from side to side.	24168.444460060902
Watson turned away, sickened for the first time in many months.	4281.117309856186
He heard the patient voice calling.	1017.0749232754354
-Henry?	2071.707121232654
Where are you, Henry?	3133.652755203996
-Make him lie down!	2113.690206930722
Watson snatched a deep breath.	2697.4396073574676
He had not meant to shout.	767.9356511482287
He stood with his back to the skiff.	2894.415861098461
The men mewed and scratched, begging to be taken away.	8837.45935510256
Watson spoke bewilderedly to the dark night flecked with pine-knot torches.	58343.89419045247
-Goddamn you!	679.5756957128345
What do you do to them?	390.8155814194842
Intelligence jabbed at him accusingly.	11087.469000763707
He was angry, sickened.	1861.8438478521457
He had not felt that during the afternoon.	106.96914323185312
No, nor later.	202.63615044238
All his emotions had been inward, self-conscious.	347.87281924493254
In war, on a night like this, it was only the outward emotions that mattered, what could be flung out into the darkness to damage others.	32754.254296587857
Yes.	3.463452173258582
That was it.	72.75116596846144
He was sure of it.	11.482369391685598
John's type of man allowed this sort of thing to happen.	2179.8147088915193
What a fool he had been to think of his brother!	3804.4380549951115
So Charles was dead.	245.9212155882357
What did it matter?	296.3697124024595
His name had been crossed off a list.	2375.1662707955093
Already his cool body lay in the ground.	555.3030674573612
What words had any meaning?	11065.667006383643
What had he thought of, to go to John, grovel and beg understanding?	4610.092835216958
To confess with a canvas chair as a prie-dieu, gouging at his heart until a rough and stupid hand bade him rise and go?	213670.1017777162
Men were slaughtered every day, tumbled into eternity like so many torn parcels flung down a portable chute.	81608.67481324523
What made him think John had a right to witness his brother's humiliation?	22663.95906738206
What right had John to any special consideration?	11340.09563088407
Was John better, more deserving?	20111.029019692727
To hell with John.	881.8391688196187
Let him chafe with impatience to see Charles, rip open the note with trembling hands and read the formal report in Hillman's beautiful, schoolmaster's hand.	97085.25183052378
John would curse.	1278.6245022014325
He believed that brave boys didn't cry.	1142.3795738791187
Watson spat on the ground.	309.8215212391642
He was grimly satisfied.	361.4801396518515
He had stupidly thought himself compelled to ease his brother's pain.	9495.934994987048
Now he knew perfectly that he had but longed to increase his own suffering.	7941.273815402002
I WOULD not want to be one of those writers who begin each morning by exclaiming, "O Gogol, O Chekhov, O Thackeray and Dickens, what would you have made of a bomb shelter ornamented with four plaster-of-Paris ducks, a birdbath, and three composition gnomes with long beards and red mobcaps"?	287771.9383427224
As I say, I wouldn't want to begin a day like this, but I often wonder what the dead would have done.	10350.969782794411
But the shelter is as much a part of my landscape as the beech and horse-chestnut trees that grow on the ridge.	10754.23003943553
I can see it from this window where I write.	1159.0668903108947
It was built by the Pasterns, and stands on the acre of ground that adjoins our property.	15426.473740804598
It bulks under a veil of thin, new grass, like some embarrassing fact of physicalness, and I think Mrs Pastern set out the statuary to soften its meaning.	99936.36117117893
It would have been like her.	53.22963723952628
She was a pale woman.	214.74212672558525
Sitting on her terrace, sitting in her parlor, sitting anywhere, she ground an axe of self-esteem.	16833.810586726468
Offer her a cup of tea and she would say, "Why, these cups look just like a set I gave to the Salvation Army last year".	114816.94314961888
Show her the new swimming pool and she would say, slapping her ankle, "I suppose this must be where you breed your gigantic mosquitoes".	98090.63127598264
Hand her a chair and she would say, "Why, it's a nice imitation of those Queen Anne chairs I inherited from Grandmother Delancy".	75493.71578738533
These trumps were more touching than they were anything else, and seemed to imply that the nights were long, her children ungrateful, and her marriage bewilderingly threadbare.	127817.24753035072
Twenty years ago, she would have been known as a golf widow, and the sum of her manner was perhaps one of bereavement.	5543.326615536692
She usually wore weeds, and a stranger watching her board a train might have guessed that Mr Pastern was dead, but Mr Pastern was far from dead.	73052.51879941054
He was marching up and down the locker room of the Grassy Brae Golf Club shouting, "Bomb Cuba!	49286.40792516792
Bomb Berlin!	1422.4549668569384
Let's throw a little nuclear hardware at them and show them who's boss".	24526.74175956996
He was brigadier of the club's locker-room light infantry, and at one time or another declared war on Russia, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and China.	18392.683251670544
It all began on an autumn afternoon- and who, after all these centuries, can describe the fineness of an autumn day?	58839.50283429177
One might pretend never to have seen one before, or, to more purpose, that there would never be another like it.	4004.6775978835803
The clear and searching sweep of sun on the lawns was like a climax of the year's lights.	59187.10700058161
Leaves were burning somewhere and the smoke smelled, for all its ammoniac acidity, of beginnings.	123182.28895171382
The boundless blue air was stretched over the zenith like the skin of a drum.	23469.431564058963
Leaving her house one late afternoon, Mrs Pastern stopped to admire the October light.	39026.02781445412
It was the day to canvass for infectious hepatitis.	1766.7018700704014
Mrs Pastern had been given sixteen names, a bundle of literature, and a printed book of receipts.	19373.24928583689
It was her work to go among her neighbors and collect their checks.	2154.6210353350352
Her house stood on a rise of ground, and before she got into her car she looked at the houses below.	10664.316697950928
Charity as she knew it was complex and reciprocal, and almost every roof she saw signified charity.	83737.61976093463
Mrs Balcolm worked for the brain.	920.1058556230067
Mrs Ten Eyke did mental health.	3296.8545757909424
Mrs Trenchard worked for the blind.	3601.555774927266
Mrs Horowitz was in charge of diseases of the nose and throat.	5819.234188192235
Mrs Trempler was tuberculosis, Mrs Surcliffe was Mothers' March of Dimes, Mrs Craven was cancer, and Mrs Gilkson did the kidney.	138030.00705482476
Mrs Hewlitt led the birthcontrol league, Mrs Ryerson was arthritis, and way in the distance could be seen the slate roof of Ethel Littleton's house, a roof that signified gout.	125841.78134870926
Mrs Pastern undertook the work of going from house to house with the thoughtless resignation of an honest and traditional laborer.	80277.73545654665
It was her destiny; it was her life.	549.2668192121331
Her mother had done it before her, and even her old grandmother, who had collected money for smallpox and unwed mothers.	8741.268587204047
Mrs Pastern had telephoned most of her neighbors in advance, and most of them were ready for her.	3695.507867140303
She experienced none of the suspense of some poor stranger selling encyclopedias.	49889.98120383939
Here and there she stayed to visit and drink a glass of sherry.	39302.123135436756
The contributions were ahead of what she had got the previous year, and while the money, of course, was not hers, it excited her to stuff her kit with big checks.	19655.591123724163
She stopped at the Surcliffes' after dusk, and had a Scotch-and-soda.	69146.05881377315
She stayed too late, and when she left, it was dark and time to go home and cook supper for her husband.	9433.814852582436
"I got a hundred and sixty dollars for the hepatitis fund", she said excitedly when he walked in.	18037.633396966314
"I did everybody on my list but the Blevins and the Flannagans.	19390.955600019406
I want to get my kit in tomorrow morning- would you mind doing them while I cook the dinner"?	41348.56215938402
"But I don't know the Flannagans", Charlie Pastern said.	1026.1257246497385
"Nobody does, but they gave me ten last year".	1982.9078081865473
He was tired, he had his business worries, and the sight of his wife arranging pork chops in the broiler only seemed like an extension of a boring day.	15767.954024033113
He was happy enough to take the convertible and race up the hill to the Blevins', thinking that they might give him a drink.	18554.62851623305
But the Blevins were away; their maid gave him an envelope with a check in it and shut the door.	18342.088955896266
Turning in at the Flannagans' driveway, he tried to remember if he had ever met them.	9081.083312043269
The name encouraged him, because he always felt that he could handle the Irish.	5528.584709610149
There was a glass pane in the front door, and through this he could see into a hallway where a plump woman with red hair was arranging flowers.	12842.30678532087
"Infectious hepatitis", he shouted heartily.	35827.71117471326
She took a good look at herself in the mirror before she turned and, walking with very small steps, started toward the door.	23680.166486431106
"Oh, please come in", she said.	399.79221374916045
The girlish voice was nearly a whisper.	4338.925588889185
She was not a girl, he could see.	40.66452341859831
Her hair was dyed, and her bloom was fading, and she must have been crowding forty, but she seemed to be one of those women who cling to the manners and graces of a pretty child of eight.	35851.99726651374
"Your wife just called", she said, separating one word from another, exactly like a child.	19400.18744885866
"And I am not sure that I have any cash- any money, that is- but if you will wait just a minute I will write you out a check if I can find my checkbook.	49416.92145019089
Won't you step into the living room, where it's cozier"?	14182.177216368933
A fire had just been lighted, he saw, and things had been set out for drinks, and, like any stray, his response to these comforts was instantaneous.	32926.20121304729
Where was Mr Flannagan, he wondered.	4086.790468311461
Travelling home on a late train?	85849.332204088
Changing his clothes upstairs?	47299.77135810226
Taking a shower?	1978.5445808191905
At the end of the room there was a desk heaped with papers, and she began to riffle these, making sighs and and noises of girlish exasperation.	21897.908535813596
"I am terribly sorry to keep you waiting", she said, "but won't you make yourself a little drink while you wait?	68078.7411150915
Everything's on the table".	483.76099589684884
"What train does Mr Flannagan come out on"?	12769.260190789882
"Mr Flannagan is away", she said.	352.74978300625975
Her voice dropped.	405.15201056469465
"Mr Flannagan has been away for six weeks h".	11730.482925700602
"I'll have a drink, then, if you'll have one with me".	79.74082003659164
"If you will promise to make it weak".	3724.4968035775823
"Sit down", he said, "and enjoy your drink and look for your checkbook later.	10507.067668964432
The only way to find things is to relax".	215.67154137830815
All in all, they had six drinks.	120.7582163767585
She described herself and her circumstances unhesitatingly.	1445.673038387324
Mr Flannagan manufactured plastic tongue depressors.	11476.941729409105
He travelled all over the world.	158.6486913122038
She didn't like to travel.	113.61562290958037
Planes made her feel faint, and in Tokyo, where she had gone that summer, she had been given raw fish for breakfast and so she had come straight home.	27970.43727856402
She and her husband had formerly lived in New York, where she had many friends, but Mr Flannagan thought the country would be safer in case of war.	6574.879460156682
She would rather live in danger than die of loneliness and boredom.	8888.963307237436
She had no children; she had made no friends.	1276.193766745668
"I've seen you, though, before", she said with enormous coyness, patting his knee.	4976.117640191794
"I've seen you walking your dogs on Sunday and driving by in the convertible h".	9707.028614448222
The thought of this lonely woman sitting at her window touched him, although he was even more touched by her plumpness.	14765.723896182599
Sheer plumpness, he knew, is not a vital part of the body and has no procreative functions.	3192.151468242261
It serves merely as an excess cushion for the rest of the carcass.	6658.451888342288
And knowing its humble place in the scale of things, why did he, at this time of life, seem almost ready to sell his soul for plumpness?	48000.65457433777
The remarks she made about the sufferings of a lonely woman seemed so broad at first that he didn't know what to make of them, but after the sixth drink he put his arm around her and suggested that they go upstairs and look for her checkbook there.	29245.879035646256
"I've never done this before", she said later, when he was arranging himself to leave.	1563.5290853241422
Her voice shook with feeling, and he thought it lovely.	12588.879089803284
He didn't doubt her truthfulness, although he had heard the words a hundred times.	1883.358950644335
"I've never done this before", they always said, shaking their dresses down over their white shoulders.	12657.571321628428
"I've never done this before", they always said, waiting for the elevator in the hotel corridor.	6731.794262449593
"I've never done this before", they always said, pouring another whiskey.	8197.363053267653
"I've never done this before", they always said, putting on their stockings.	10909.811496047543
On ships at sea, on railroad trains, in summer hotels with mountain views, they always said, "I've never done this before".	29853.373073315972
"Where have you been"?	1268.6922515916326
Mrs Pastern asked sadly, when he came in.	1462.2920014992446
"It's after eleven".	1467.5529191819276
"I had a drink with the Flannagans".	1829.9287753299807
"She told me he was in Germany".	130.85647549092488
"He came home unexpectedly".	489.5246608928545
Charlie ate some supper in the kitchen and went into the TV room to hear the news.	18213.287777536883
"Bomb them"!	1422.3832438603276
he shouted.	140.30564209519096
"Throw a little nuclear hardware at them!	16597.22208118276
Show them who's boss"!	3738.5818185447906
But in bed he had trouble sleeping.	1413.2678132588435
He thought first of his son and daughter, away at college.	5562.831677466538
He loved them.	450.21714431454615
It was the only meaning of the word that he had ever known.	153.601653370077
Then he played nine imaginary holes of golf, choosing his handicap, his irons, his stance, his opponents, and his weather in detail, but the green of the links seemed faded in the light of his business worries.	75459.45031146453
His money was tied up in a Nassau hotel, an Ohio pottery works, and a detergent for window-washing, and luck had been running against him.	74400.53219666005
His worries harried him up out of bed, and he lighted a cigarette and went to the window.	3370.6457138400683
In the starlight he could see the trees stripped of their leaves.	4444.3024601101815
During the summer he had tried to repair some of his losses at the track, and the bare trees reminded him that his pari-mutuel tickets would still be lying, like leaves, in the gutters near Belmont and Saratoga.	103848.46822384385
Maple and ash, beech and elm, one hundred to win on Three in the fourth, fifty to win on Six in the third, one hundred to win on Two in the eighth.	78581.491559968
Children walking home from school would scuff through what seemed to be his foliage.	18820.464111599693
Then, getting back into bed, he thought unashamedly of Mrs Flannagan, planning where they would next meet and what they would do.	17478.62735412323
There are, he thought, so few true means of forgetfulness in this life that why should he shun the medicine even when the medicine seemed, as it did, a little crude?	45955.66106365651
It was not as though she noted clearly that her nephews had not been to see her for ten years, not since their last journey eastward to witness their Uncle Izaak being lowered into the rocky soil; that aside from due notification of certain major events in their lives two marriages, two births, one divorce, Christmas and Easter cards of the traditional sort had been the only thin link she had with them through the widowed years.	180352.7164436263
Her thoughts were not discrete.	5700.772813485458
But there was a look about her mouth as though she were tasting lemons.	4585.10347750651
She grasped the chair arms and brought her thin body upright, like a bird alert for flight.	55651.027734825264
She turned and walked stiffly into the parlor to the dainty-legged escritoire, warped and cracked now from fifty years in an atmosphere of sea spray.	42971.90493557457
There she extracted two limp vellum sheets and wrote off the letters, one to Abel, one to Mark.	102958.2940700316
Once her trembling hand, with the pen grasped tight in it, was pressed against the paper the words came sharply, smoothly, as authoritatively as they would dropping from her own lips.	103823.75996836416
And the stiffly regal look of them, she saw grimly, lacked the quaver of age which, thwarting the efforts of her amazing will, ran through her spoken words like a thin ragged string.	144709.63803795708
"Please come down as soon as you conveniently can", the upright letters stalked from the broad-nibbed pen, "I have an important matter to discuss with you".	63542.888238872394
To Abel "I am afraid there is not much to amuse small children here.	10767.818143196278
I should be obliged if you could make other arrangements for your daughters.	17850.827271641712
You may stay as long as you wish, of course, but if arranging for the care of the girls must take time into account, I think a day or two should be enough to finish our business in".	8008.947214453735
To Mark "Please give my regards to Myra".	16819.684414360883
She signed the letters quickly, stamped them, and placed them on the hall table for Raphael to mail in town.	19619.295267442016
Then she went back to the wicker chair and resolutely adjusted her eyes to the glare on the water.	3211.8721096680183
"My nephews will be coming down", she said that evening as Angelina brought her dinner into the dining room, the whole meal on a vast linen-covered tray.	62993.43496247235
She looked at the girl speculatively from eyes which had paled with the years; from the early evening lights of them which had first startled Izaak to look at her in an uncousinly way, they had faded to a near-absence of color which had, possibly from her constant looking at the water, something of the light of the sea in them.	44028.84647234374
Angelina placed the tray on the table and with a flick of dark wrist drew off the cloth.	32846.494939694225
She smiled, and the teeth gleamed in her beautifully modeled olive face.	12612.475835655767
"That will be so nice for you, Mrs Packard", she said.	1014.5658282007021
Her voice was ripe and full and her teeth flashed again in Sicilian brilliance before the warm curved lips met and her mouth settled in repose.	97089.61805754843
"Um", said the old lady, and brought her eyes down to the tray.	79109.602668375
"You remember them, I suppose"?	1363.9088184777052
She glinted suspiciously at the dish before her "Blowfish.	28045.458870445593
I hope Raphael bought them whole".	1571.783752739046
Angelina stepped back, her eyes roaming the tray for omissions.	49501.98477839005
Then she looked at the old woman again, her eyes calm.	3390.6868914902175
"Yes", she said, "I remember that they came here every summer.	761.9983341526502
I used to play with the older one sometimes, when he'd let me.	406.18034923454206
Abel"?	492.8135087558592
The name fell with lazy affectionate remembrance from her lips.	2653.7190103350367
For an instant the old aunt felt something indefinable flash through her smile.	4880.166400637627
She would have said triumph.	139.68503659443184
Then Angelina turned and with an easy grace walked toward the kitchen.	8665.271471062744
Jessica Packard lifted her head and followed the retreating figure, her eyes resting nearly closed on the unself-conscious rise and fall of the rounded hips.	186169.25642082203
For a moment she held her face to the empty doorway; then she snorted and groped for her fork.	31989.025271268954
There's no greater catastrophe in the universe, she reflected dourly, impaling tender green beans on the silver fork, than the dwindling away of a family.	37385.481440653595
Procreation, expansion, proliferation- these are the laws of living things, with the penalty for not obeying them the ultimate in punishments oblivion.	170096.39604317665
When the fate of the individual is visited on the group, then the warm sweet butter dripped from her raised trembling fork and she pushed her head forward belligerently, ah, then the true bitterness of existence could be tasted.	68828.30195321716
And indeed the young garden beans were brackish in her mouth.	15852.898210628637
She was the last living of the older generation.	255.03833856112726
What had once been a widespread family- at one time, she knew, there were enough Packards to populate an entire county- had now narrowed down to the two boys, Abel and Mark.	32030.523099136703
She swung her eyes up to the blue of the window, her jaws gently mashing the bitter beans.	21609.023220484272
What hope lay in the nephews, she asked the intensifying light out there, with one married to a barren woman and the other divorced, having sired two girl children, with none to bear on the Packard name?	152179.4100131603
She ate.	223.3902297117006
It seemed to her, as it seemed each night, that the gloom drew itself in and became densest at the table's empty chairs, giving her the frequent illusion that she dined with shadows.	70691.06052363342
Here, too, she talked low, quirking her head at one or another of the places, most often at Izaak's armchair which faced her across the long table.	24532.444255892726
Or it might have been the absent nephews she addressed, consciously playing with the notion that this was one of the summers of their early years.	12202.906232136234
She thought again of her children, those two who had died young, before the later science which might have saved them could attach even a label to their separate malignancies.	80148.36049180404
The girl, her first, she barely remembered.	2924.276316025792
It could have been anyone's infant, for it had not survived the bassinet.	4286.6469461725865
But the boy h the boy had been alive yesterday.	2118.4204620570144
Each successive movement in his growing was recorded on the unreeling film inside her.	16197.028267276737
He ran on his plump sticks of legs, freezing now and again into the sudden startled attitudes which the camera had caught and held on the paling photographs, all carefully placed and glued and labeled, resting in the fat plush album in the bottom drawer of the escritoire.	325140.6694977696
In the cruel clearness of her memory the boy remained unchanged, quick with the delight of laughter, and the pain with which she recalled that short destroyed childhood was still unendurable to her.	45554.18983260682
It was one with the desolate rocks and the alien water on those days when she hated the sea.	12437.097836650451
The brothers drove down together in Mark's small red sports car, Mark at the wheel.	9081.396019439777
They rarely spoke.	1794.0470346823117
Abel sat and regarded the farm country which, spreading out from both sides of the road, rolled greenly up to where the silent white houses and long barns and silos nested into the tilled fields.	55084.127158381896
He saw the land with a stranger's eyes, all the old familiarness gone.	2990.1851868827707
And it presented itself to him as it would to any stranger, impervious, complete in itself.	6436.396237098042
There was stability there, too- a color which his life had had once.	14521.558580318775
That is what childhood is, he told himself.	1321.5609665552224
Solid, settled h lost.	1123.5667352093287
In the stiff neutral lines of the telephone poles he saw the no-nonsense pen strokes of Aunt Jessica's letter.	16133.8320237969
What bad grace, what incredible selfishness he and Mark had shown.	20266.53245574933
The boyhood summers preceding their uncle's funeral might never have been.	4276.362650038216
They had closed over, absolutely, with the sealing of old Izaak's grave.	15289.907556980213
The small car flew on relentlessly.	991.526108358897
The old woman, stubbornly reigning in the house above the crashing waters took on an ominous reality.	13462.216116866812
Abel moved and adjusted his long legs.	5798.685181595422
"I suppose it has to do with the property", Mark had said over the telephone when they had discussed their receipt of the letters.	4410.490424479062
Not until the words had been spoken did Abel suddenly see the old house and the insistent sea, and feel his contrition blotted out in one shameful moment of covetousness.	73178.6788232806
He and Mark were the last of the family, and there lay the Cape Ann property which had seemed to have no end, stretching from horizon to horizon, in those golden days of summer.	20225.480730427982
Now Abel turned his head to look at his brother.	2458.4558762223005
Mark held the wheel loosely, but his fingers curved around it in a purposeful way and the deliberate set of his body spoke plainly of the figure he'd make in the years to come.	34678.335946780186
His sandy hair was already beginning to thin and recede at the sides, and Abel looked quickly away.	25318.395139366625
Mark easily looked years older than himself, settled, his world comfortably categorized.	53881.1336866039
The vacation traffic was becoming heavier as they approached the sea.	2117.919619428988
"She didn't mention bringing Myra", Mark said, maneuvering the car into the next lane.	10998.99108800907
"She's probably getting old- crotchety, I mean- and we figured uh-uh, better not.	50184.39778911439
They've never met, you know.	197.95161602939726
But Myra wouldn't budge without an express invitation.	8905.50278703766
I feel kind of bad about it".	591.8545442148105
He gave Abel a quick glance and moved closer to the wheel, hugging it to him, and Abel caught this briefest of allusions to guilt.	36175.92323870274
"I imagine the old girl hasn't missed us much", Mark added, his eyes on the road.	3455.177301741213
Abel ignored the half-expressed bid for confirmation.	28227.716544327726
He smiled.	3.131287675965749
It was barely possible that his brother was right.	812.3654962333444
He could tell they were approaching the sea.	411.3707477505392
The air took on a special strength now that they'd left the fecund warmth of the farmland behind.	19708.783545205693
There was the smell of the coast, like a primeval memory, composed of equal parts salt water, clams, seaweed and northern air.	31450.8847011767
He turned from the flying trees to look ahead and saw with an inward boy's eye again the great fieldstone house which, built on one of the many acres of ancestral land bordering the west harbor, had been Izaak's bride-gift to his cousin-wife as the last century ended.	205958.5428136496
Mark's thoughts must have been keeping silent pace beside his own, climbing the same crags in dirty white sneakers, clambering out on top of the headland and coming upon the sudden glinting water at the same instant.	195270.92543337637
"Remember the Starbird?"	2385.8772516313916
Mark asked, and Abel lifted his eyes from the double lines in the middle of the road, the twin white ribbons which the car swallowed rapidly as it ascended the crest of the hill and came down.	31832.28320658232
"The Starbird," Abel said.	1784.4331132219802
There was the day Uncle Izaak had, in an unexpected grandiose gesture, handed over the pretty sloop to Abel for keeps, on condition that he never fail to let his brother accompany him whenever the younger boy wished.	48984.55211154974
The two of them had developed into a remarkable sailing team h all of this happening in a time of their lives when their youth and their brotherhood knitted them together as no other time or circumstance could.	18477.90637710803
They seemed then to have had a single mind and body, a mutuality which had been accepted with the fact of their youth, casually.	16658.53367742898
He saw the Starbird as she lay, her slender mast up and gently turning, its point describing constant languid circles against a cumulus sky.	65450.69219513128
Both of them had known the feeling of the small life in her waiting, ready, for the two of them to run up her sails.	8185.254285764008
The Starbird had been long at the bottom of the bay.	1005.3415634882825
They came unexpectedly upon the sea.	517.5137412000375
Meeting it without preparation as they did, robbed of anticipation, a common disappointment seized them.	31836.59224383458
They were climbing the hill in the night when the headlights abruptly probed solid blackness, became two parallel luminous tubes which broadened out into a faint mist of light and ended.	78312.20921619571
Mark stopped the car and switched off the lights and they sat looking at the water, which, there being no moon out, at first could be distinguished from the sky only by an absence of stars.	49623.822524697025
His eyes were old and they never saw well, but heated with whisky they'd glare at my noise, growing red and raising up his rage.	97052.22341725473
I decided I hated the Pedersen kid too, dying in our kitchen while I was away where I couldn't watch, dying just to entertain Hans and making me go up snapping steps and down a drafty hall, Pa lumped under the covers at the end like dung covered with snow, snoring and whistling.	422112.8236732811
Oh he'd not care about the Pedersen kid.	20605.84435360869
He'd not care about getting waked so he could give up some of his whisky to a slit of a kid and maybe lose one of his hiding places in the bargain.	93701.24347497686
That would make him mad enough if he was sober.	4442.447047587878
I didn't hurry though it was cold and the Pedersen kid was in the kitchen.	4918.666219563811
He was all shoveled up like I thought he'd be.	1613.2654654584358
I pushed at his shoulder, calling his name.	4121.695763000199
I think his name stopped the snoring but he didn't move except to roll a little when I shoved him.	35489.87903905497
The covers slid down his skinny neck so I saw his head, fuzzed like a dandelion gone to seed, but his face was turned to the wall- there was the pale shadow of his nose on the plaster- and I thought, Well you don't look much like a pig-drunk bully now.	116229.59648710045
I couldn't be sure he was still asleep.	2667.744265996169
He was a cagey sonofabitch.	807.2958692773151
I shook him a little harder and made some noise.	4236.624576972465
"Pap-pap-pap-hey", I said.	7362.588995099142
I was leaning too far over.	930.9956265832196
I knew better.	111.97241662682747
He always slept close to the wall so you had to lean to reach him.	13109.439232523644
Oh he was smart.	802.181308339671
It put you off.	900.0349548541078
I knew better but I was thinking of the Pedersen kid mother-naked in all that dough.	17939.867570723996
When his arm came up I ducked away but it caught me on the side of the neck, watering my eyes, and I backed off to cough.	23941.62809475129
Pa was on his side, looking at me, his eyes winking, the hand that had hit me a fist in the pillow.	48497.697210983126
"Get the hell out of here".	174.9517553905665
I didn't say anything, trying to get my throat clear, but I watched him.	5282.865485960287
He was like a mean horse to come at from the rear.	1047.287574351463
It was better, though, he'd hit me.	767.5132292016839
He was bitter when he missed.	991.4865617224638
"Get the hell out of here".	174.9517553905665
"Big Hans sent me.	1339.1433821644282
He told me to wake you".	180.34119290878024
"A fat hell on Big Hans.	7212.587920847691
Get out of here".	231.29523784748721
"He found the Pedersen kid by the crib".	4759.3388688770965
"Get the hell out".	224.0292047989323
Pa pulled at the covers.	6440.7099550014045
He was tasting his mouth.	221.2878510411391
"The kid's froze good.	944.5367862499781
Hans is rubbing him with snow.	899.4014065063856
He's got him in the kitchen".	64.45370303474768
"Pedersen"?	11318.63465748144
"No, Pa.	24.435399293022993
It's the Pedersen kid.	1747.0309385404632
The kid".	135.59312569905936
"Nothing to steal from the crib".	5889.335368915343
"Not stealing, Pa.	345.85790055940237
He was just lying there.	325.98524077132737
Hans found him froze.	4143.728650833812
That's where he was when Hans found him".	1247.8425026256352
Pa laughed.	1055.2591808892298
"I ain't hid nothing in the crib".	19811.761019782007
"You don't understand, Pa.	134.95276309047915
The Pedersen kid.	1928.5665570449291
The kid"- "I god damn well understand".	2353.8557599090814
Pa had his head up, glaring, his teeth gnawing at the place where he'd grown a mustache once.	39125.82501269238
"I god damn well understand.	2075.2738461819818
You know I don't want to see Pedersen.	1291.759908248037
That cock.	1293.2076502846396
Why should I?	29.03682979285039
What did he come for, hey?	3456.4036084816044
God dammit, get.	1660.976195727339
And don't come back.	862.6513092027155
Find out something.	147.43504208763483
You're a fool.	69.26555954944027
Both you and Hans.	2423.0220941127395
Pedersen.	3524.279832361616
That cock.	1293.2076502846396
Don't come back.	405.45036003664075
Out.	259.19606839854345
Out".	259.19606839854345
He was shouting and breathing hard and closing his fist on the pillow.	11579.934860609756
He had long black hairs on his wrist.	631.9242132470347
They curled around the cuff of his nightshirt.	20170.4784274389
"Big Hans made me come.	2399.1804387705806
Big Hans said"- "A fat hell on Big Hans.	36478.83586036628
He's an even bigger fool than you are.	2057.8936006337785
Fat, hey?	3207.467812658155
I taught him, dammit, and I'll teach you.	5586.452457833498
Out.	259.19606839854345
You want me to drop my pot"?	27107.773062575063
He was about to get up so I got out, slamming the door.	491.27977116821484
He was beginning to see he was too mad to sleep.	3394.060446597003
Then he threw things.	324.3638731482745
Once he went after Hans and dumped his pot over the banister.	10817.217848752607
Pa'd been shit-sick in that pot.	34369.144940380815
Hans got an axe.	1224.1101673958374
He didn't even bother to wipe himself off and he chopped part of Pa's door down before he stopped.	33188.05785216932
He might not have gone that far if Pa hadn't been locked in laughing fit to shake the house.	10848.425968188527
That pot put Pa in an awful good humor whenever he thought of it.	3134.0660078917285
I always felt the memory was present in both of them, stirring in their chests like a laugh or a growl, as eager as an animal to be out.	57620.396216043235
I heard Pa cursing all the way downstairs.	4242.132872652359
Hans had laid steaming towels over the kid's chest and stomach.	16578.61320943287
He was rubbing snow on the kid's legs and feet.	2647.826535023042
Water from the snow and water from the towels had run off the kid to the table where the dough was, and the dough was turning pasty, sticking to the kid's back and behind.	141993.05086635132
"Ain't he going to wake up"?	5804.908618361017
"What about your pa"?	4942.4641480177115
"He was awake when I left".	1117.0896414474587
"What'd he say?	9205.839623512293
Did you get the whisky"?	2516.102197269734
"He said a fat hell on Big Hans".	4679.061890624999
"Don't be smart.	181.5494827319267
Did you ask him about the whisky"?	11034.079065047841
"Yeah".	35.197251894126666
"Well"?	488.3238106138061
"He said a fat hell on Big Hans".	4679.061890624999
"Don't be smart.	181.5494827319267
What's he going to do"?	251.9962719672394
"Go back to sleep most likely".	1196.4530243127615
"You'd best get that whisky".	740.8183059638868
"You go.	181.74922834045339
Take the axe.	213.5486534245889
Pa's scared to hell of axes".	12020.926574848147
"Listen to me, Jorge, I've had enough to your sassing.	5320.1933583819
This kid's froze bad.	1160.6262268074809
If I don't get some whisky down him he might die.	3308.467590053368
You want the kid to die?	6059.316167919275
Do you?	25.436372769389113
Well, get your pa and get that whisky".	3437.3341438489447
"Pa don't care about the kid".	22413.978457993126
"Jorge".	3399.79744027935
"Well he don't.	148.51429714757447
He don't care at all, and I don't care to get my head busted neither.	5270.847186170977
He don't care, and I don't care to have his shit flung on me.	8555.989303516453
He don't care about anybody.	4920.577018737918
All he cares about is his whisky and that dry crack in his face.	4573.812494284332
Get pig-drunk- that's what he wants.	1511.755999719667
He don't care about nothing else at all.	2315.5635306191157
Nothing.	27.931795689186487
Not Pedersen's kid neither.	1439.3059574607512
That cock.	1293.2076502846396
Not the kid neither".	340.99520716166603
"I'll get the spirits", Ma said.	409.4763332955497
I'd wound Big Hans up tight.	1235.5511740933114
I was ready to jump but when Ma said she'd get the whisky it surprised him like it surprised me, and he ran down.	16123.759516478769
Ma never went near the old man when he was sleeping it off.	12208.836641944066
Not any more.	84.41747607741924
Not for years.	20.97845994142373
The first thing every morning when she washed her face she could see the scar on her chin where he'd cut her with a boot cleat, and maybe she saw him heaving it again, the dirty sock popping out as it flew.	194461.1030114932
It should have been nearly as easy for her to remember that as it was for Big Hans to remember going after the axe while he was still spattered with Pa's yellow sick insides.	27558.034840641638
"No you won't", Big Hans said.	3495.573434212173
"Yes, Hans, if they're needed", Ma said.	1534.0281813447998
Hans shook his head but neither of us tried to stop her.	17106.538919573544
If we had, then one of us would have had to go instead.	863.5890654281933
Hans rubbed the kid with more snow h rubbed h rubbed.	52278.17842632888
"I'll get more snow", I said.	105.17492206844535
I took the pail and shovel and went out on the porch.	858.7061939643003
I don't know where Ma went.	251.58470586939157
I thought she'd gone upstairs and expected to hear she had.	5613.627536068184
She had surprised Hans like she had surprised me when she said she'd go, and then she surprised him again when she came back so quick like she must have, because when I came in with the snow she was there with a bottle with three white feathers on its label and Hans was holding it angrily by the throat.	85089.69547822328
Oh, he was being queer and careful, pawing about in the drawer and holding the bottle like a snake at the length of his arm.	15028.336057966024
He was awful angry because he'd thought Ma was going to do something big, something heroic even, especially for her h I know him h I know him h we felt the same sometimes h while Ma wasn't thinking about that at all, not anything like that.	80536.04785342868
There was no way of getting even.	390.514765870721
It wasn't like getting cheated at the fair.	2491.688965009728
They were always trying so you got to expect it.	2829.9954948750797
Now Hans had given Ma something of his- we both had when we thought she was going straight to Pa- something valuable; but since she didn't know we'd given it to her, there was no easy way of getting it back.	72404.37504266822
Hans cut the foil off finally and unscrewed the cap.	15099.07133239169
He was put out too because there was only one way of understanding what she'd done.	4276.327727152721
Ma had found one of Pa's hiding places.	22371.980204417265
She'd found one and she hadn't said a word while Big Hans and I had hunted and hunted as we always did all winter, every winter since the spring that Hans had come and I had looked in the privy and found the first one.	86858.23027988864
Pa had a knack for hiding.	30880.135090886146
He knew we were looking and he enjoyed it.	3404.1466743832207
But now Ma.	744.4197146628939
She'd found it by luck most likely but she hadn't said anything and we didn't know how long ago it'd been or how many other ones she'd found, saying nothing.	61879.6407784309
Pa was sure to find out.	669.4992899958247
Sometimes he didn't seem to because he hid them so well he couldn't find them himself or because he looked and didn't find anything and figured he hadn't hid one after all or had drunk it up.	111655.81302988817
But he'd find out about this one because we were using it.	1891.4077744353588
A fool could see what was going on.	234.32265891862377
If he found out Ma found it- that'd be bad.	3170.039232754766
He took pride in his hiding.	3714.945252415716
It was all the pride he had.	156.31603201287388
I guess fooling Hans and me took doing.	4527.098058842714
But he didn't figure Ma for much.	1145.104788617996
He didn't figure her at all, and if he found out h a woman h it'd be bad.	4441.606789018318
Hans poured some in a tumbler.	13106.789017351683
"You going to put more towels on him"?	13192.82408480055
"No".	3.297522726426617
"Why not?	3.3637455197869603
That's what he needs, something warm to his skin, don't he"?	3818.1021571015067
"Not where he's froze good.	1466.6124884405945
Heat's bad for frostbite.	18248.6338611592
That's why I only put towels on his chest and belly.	8572.629124130639
He's got to thaw slow.	319.14952149716834
You ought to know that".	109.04482106243809
Colors on the towels had run.	2826.74376095523
Ma poked her toe in the kid's clothes.	22371.981768859958
"What are we going to do with these"?	169.77682264276086
Big Hans began pouring whisky in the kid's mouth but his mouth filled without any getting down his throat and in a second it was dripping from his chin.	116903.53997321508
"Here, help me prop him up.	585.2385944400023
I got hold his mouth open".	580.2928007415147
I didn't want to touch him and I hoped Ma would do it but she kept looking at the kid's clothes piled on the floor and the pool of water by them and didn't make any move to.	39115.75970989968
"Come on, Jorge".	3365.745833294975
"All right".	3.8043631555700803
"Lift, don't shove h lift".	12020.924028771009
"OK, I'm lifting".	12024.172915566556
I took him by the shoulders.	200.3434371909892
His head flopped back.	556.8989993394231
His mouth fell open.	791.8095210310221
The skin on his neck was tight.	3680.895985403641
He was cold all right.	152.50553264146856
"Hold his head up.	795.6508199336886
He'll choke".	408.3748394699344
"His mouth is open".	217.843572032872
"His throat's shut.	549.5931482194717
He'll choke".	408.3748394699344
"He'll choke anyway".	247.44049087905992
"Hold his head up".	795.6508199336886
"I can't".	109.71348407712766
"Don't hold him like that.	531.7828737768882
Put your arms around him".	507.5653750660085
"Well Jesus".	283.7691692849666
He was cold all right.	152.50553264146856
I put my arm carefully around him.	265.8915881693774
Hans had his fingers in the kid's mouth.	6765.913202975926
"Now he'll choke for sure".	1378.5219958910375
"Shut up.	1422.1698215685517
Just hold him like I told you".	4770.299975421746
He was cold all right, and wet.	908.5948364133728
I had my arm behind his back.	648.0140184552939
He was in his mid-fifties at this time, long past the establishment of his name and the wish to be lionized yet once again, and it was almost a decade since he had sworn off lecturing.	8820.665009085493
There was never a doubt any more how his structures would be received; it was always the same unqualified success now.	29183.932504222397
He could no longer build anything, whether a private residence in his Pennsylvania county or a church in Brazil, without it being obvious that he had done it, and while here and there he was taken to task for again developing the same airy technique, they were such fanciful and sometimes even playful buildings that the public felt assured by its sense of recognition after a time, a quality of authentic uniqueness about them, which, once established by an artist as his private vision, is no longer disputable as to its other values.	86146.65511109112
Stowey Rummel was internationally famous, a crafter of a genuine Americana in foreign eyes, an original designer whose inventive childishness with steel and concrete was made even more believably sincere by his personality.	331190.0119828133
He had lived for almost thirty years in this same stone farmhouse with the same wife, a remarkably childish thing in itself; he rose at half-past six every morning, made himself some French coffee, had his corn flakes and more coffee, smoked four cigarettes while reading last Sunday's Herald Tribune and yesterday's Pittsburgh Gazette, then put on his high-topped farmer's shoes and walked under a vine bower to his workshop.	413986.72927720455
This was an enormously long building whose walls were made of rocks, some of them brought home from every continent during his six years as an oil geologist.	56378.71213863915
The debris of his other careers was piled everywhere; a pile of wire cages for mice from his time as a geneticist and a microscope lying on its side on the window sill, vertical steel columns wired for support to the open ceiling beams with spidery steel cantilevers jutting out into the air, masonry constructions on the floor from the time he was inventing his disastrous fireplace whose smoke would pass through a whole house, visible all the way up through wire gratings on each floor.	257371.1472855509
His files, desk, drafting board and a high stool formed the only clean island in the chaos.	60134.080378632534
Everywhere else his ideas lay or hung in visible form his models, drawings, ten-foot canvases in monochromes from his painting days, and underfoot a windfall of broken-backed books that looked as though their insides had been ransacked by a maniac.	417716.2825398105
Bicycle gear-sets he had once used as the basis of the design for the Camden Cycly Company plant hung on a rope in one corner, and over his desk, next to several old and dusty hats, was a clean pair of roller skates which he occasionally used up and down in front of his house.	56546.174398812764
He worked standing, with his left hand in his pocket as though he were merely stopping for a moment, sketching with the surprised stare of one who was watching another person's hand.	22044.1052220525
Sometimes he would grunt softly to some invisible onlooker beside him, sometimes he would look stern and moralistic as his pencil did what he disapproved.	114866.51944401371
It all seemed- if one could have peeked in at him through one of his windows- as though this broken-nosed man with the muscular arms and wrestler's neck was merely the caretaker trying his hand at the boss's work.	112162.62603456728
This air of disengagement carried over to his apparent attitude toward his things, and people often mistook it for boredom in him or a surrender to repetitious routine.	91058.9476638435
But he was not bored at all; he had found his style quite early in his career and he thought it quite wonderful that the world admired it, and he could not imagine why he should alter it.	21215.535114738672
There are, after all, fortunate souls who hear everything, but only know how to listen to what is good for them, and Stowey was, as things go, a fortunate man.	8094.187684493439
He left his home the day after New Year's wearing a mackinaw and sheepskin mittens and without a hat.	34010.96809812279
He would wear this same costume in Florida, despite his wife Cleota's reminders over the past five days that he must take some cool clothes with him.	18298.660992449848
But he was too busy to hear what she was saying.	679.5066369562794
So they parted when she was in an impatient humor.	2682.041418539727
When he was bent over behind the wheel of the station wagon, feeling in his trouser cuffs for the ignition key which he had dropped a moment before, she came out of the house with an enormous Rumanian shawl over her head, which she had bought in that country during one of their trips abroad, and handed him a clean handkerchief through the window.	27138.47816498764
Finding the key under his shoe, he started the engine, and while it warmed up he turned to her standing there in the dripping fog, and said, "Defrost the refrigerator".	37496.396091429575
He saw the surprise in her face, and laughed as though it were the funniest expression he had ever seen.	1534.3105392789025
He kept on laughing until she started laughing with him.	1655.0577002231648
He had a deep voice which was full of good food she had cooked, and good humor; an explosive laugh which always carried everything before it.	29583.799514558254
He would settle himself into his seat to laugh.	7250.075314309644
Whenever he laughed it was all he was doing.	320.30019679240286
And she was made to fall in love with him again there in the rutted dirt driveway standing in the cold fog, mad as she was at his going away when he really didn't have to, mad at their both having got older in a life that seemed to have taken no more than a week to go by.	47458.15869750883
She was forty-nine at this time, a lanky woman of breeding with an austere, narrow face which had the distinction of a steeple or some architecture that had been designed long ago for a stubborn sort of prayer.	75081.83804282955
Her eyebrows were definite and heavy and formed two lines moving upward toward a high forehead and a great head of brown hair that fell to her shoulders.	79857.80560347464
There was an air of blindness in her gray eyes, the startled-horse look that ultimately comes to some women who are born at the end of an ancestral line long since divorced from money-making and which, besides, has kept its estate intact.	114202.82668206263
She was personally sloppy, and when she had colds would blow her nose in the same handkerchief all day and keep it, soaking wet, dangling from her waist, and when she gardened she would eat dinner with dirt on her calves.	94010.96586370046
But just when she seemed to have sunk into some depravity of peasanthood she would disappear and come down bathed, brushed, and taking breaths of air, and even with her broken nails her hands would come to rest on a table or a leaf with a thoughtless delicacy, a grace of history, so to speak, and for an instant one saw how ferociously proud she was and adamant on certain questions of personal value.	83003.7413820978
She even spoke differently when she was clean, and she was clean now for his departure and her voice clear and rather sharp.	37406.33574525206
"Now drive carefully, for God's sake"!	2132.3511784688576
she called, trying to attain a half humorous resentment at his departure.	12229.468409476538
But he did not notice, and was already backing the car down to the road, saying "Toot-toot"!	6871.672017278071
to the stump of a tree as he passed it, the same stump which had impaled the car of many a guest in the past thirty years and which he refused to have removed.	37310.12681905539
She stood clutching her shawl around her shoulders until he had swung the car onto the road.	26808.43539976901
Then, when he had it pointed down the hill, he stopped to gaze at her through the window.	939.8005241191344
She had begun to turn back toward the house, but his look caught her and she stood still, waiting there for what his expression indicated would be a serious word of farewell.	55928.78745267906
He looked at her out of himself, she thought, as he did only for an instant at a time, the look which always surprised her even now when his uncombable hair was yellowing a little and his breath came hard through his nicotine-choked lungs, the look of the gaunt youth she had suddenly found herself staring at in the Tate Gallery on a Thursday once.	108039.02483358965
Now she kept herself protectively ready to laugh again and sure enough he pointed at her with his index finger and said "Toot"!	117038.84646557746
once more and roared off into the fog, his foot evidently surprising him with the suddenness with which it pressed the accelerator, just as his hand did when he worked.	56051.546369397074
She walked back to the house and entered, feeling herself returning, sensing some kind of opportunity in the empty building.	17358.37759127214
There is a death in all partings, she knew, and promptly put it out of her mind.	2334.381315298721
She enjoyed great parties when she would sit up talking and dancing and drinking all night, but it always seemed to her that being alone, especially alone in her house, was the realest part of life.	85674.03656532888
Now she could let out the three parakeets without fear they would be stepped on or that Stowey would let them out one of the doors; she could dust the plants, then break off suddenly and pick up an old novel and read from the middle on; improvise cha-chas on the harp; and finally, the best part of all, simply sit at the plank table in the kitchen with a bottle of wine and the newspapers, reading the ads as well as the news, registering nothing on her mind but letting her soul suspend itself above all wishing and desire.	198213.31936798003
She did this now, comfortably aware of the mist running down the windows, of the silence outside, of the dark afternoon it was getting to be.	12825.893373329114
She fell asleep leaning on her hand, hearing the house creaking as though it were a living a private life of its own these two hundred years, hearing the birds rustling in their cages and the occasional whirring of wings as one of them landed on the table and walked across the newspaper to perch in the crook of her arm.	124289.02235539435
Every few minutes she would awaken for a moment to review things Stowey, yes, was on his way south, and the two boys were away in school, and nothing was burning on the stove, and Lucretia was coming for dinner and bringing three guests of hers.	32476.432740318935
Then she fell asleep again as soddenly as a person with fever, and when she awoke it was dark outside and the clarity was back in her eyes.	27204.451188661857
She stood up, smoothing her hair down, straightening her clothes, feeling a thankfulness for the enveloping darkness outside, and, above everything else, for the absence of the need to answer, to respond, to be aware even of Stowey coming in or going out, and yet, now that she was beginning to cook, she glimpsed a future without him, a future alone like this, and the pain made her head writhe, and in a moment she found it hard to wait for Lucretia to come with her guests.	123917.17348185657
She went into the living room and turned on three lamps, then back into the kitchen where she turned on the ceiling light and the switch that lit the floods on the barn, illuminating the driveway.	37771.21703202924
She knew she was feeling afraid and inwardly laughed at herself.	12834.079520219868
They were both so young, after all, so unready for any final parting.	6979.3386234651625
How could it have been thirty years already, she wondered?	10537.981174675486
But yes, nineteen plus thirty was forty-nine, and she was forty-nine and she had been married at nineteen.	31970.040827517885
She stood still over the leg of lamb, rubbing herbs into it, quite suddenly conscious of a nausea in her stomach and a feeling of wrath, a sensation of violence that started her shivering.	213953.35523866327
But they all said, "No, your time will come.	4223.096041519004
Enjoy being a bride while you can".	6145.014382780356
There was no room for company in the tiny Weaning House where the Albright boys always took their brides, till they could get a house and a farm of their own.	18094.92631186978
So when the Big House filled up and ran over, the sisters-in-law found beds for everyone in their own homes.	11229.438042283662
And there was still not anything that Linda Kay could do.	561.952758327239
So Linda Kay gave up asking, and accepted her reprieve.	38109.22380649915
Without saying so, she was really grateful; for to attend the dying was something she had never experienced, and certainly had not imagined when she thought of the duties she would have as Bobby Joe's wife.	56108.9095848016
She had made curtains for all the windows of her little house, and she had kept it spotless and neat, shabby as it was, and cooked good meals for Bobby Joe.	32880.06297506052
She had done all the things she had promised herself she would do, but she had not thought of this.	2380.9496363372073
People died, she would have said, in hospitals, or in cars on the highway at night.	4619.574424551526
Bobby Joe was gone all day now, not coming in for dinner and sometimes not for supper.	28913.840517356915
When they first married he had been working in the fields all day, and she would get in the car and drive to wherever he was working, to take him a fresh hot meal.	9230.055353086194
Now there was no work in the fields, nor would there be till it rained, and she did not know where he went.	3830.3669482600985
Not that she complained, or had any cause to.	2568.7370856516372
Four or five of the cousins from East Texas were about his age, so naturally they ran around together.	60162.55426714353
There was no reason for her to ask what they did.	421.26763053978965
Thus a new pattern of days began to develop, for Granny Albright did not die.	13411.843425590781
She lay still on the bed, her head hardly denting the pillow; sometimes she opened her eyes and looked around, and sometimes she took a little milk or soup.	55477.89348233197
They stopped expecting her to die the next minute, but only in the next day or two.	4774.718096699173
Those who had driven hundreds of miles for the burial would not go home, for she might die any time; but they might as well unpack their suitcases, for she might linger on.	46081.05082961063
So the pattern was established.	73.16458199128208
When Linda Kay had put up her breakfast dishes and mopped her linoleum rugs, she would go to the Big House.	26354.211501612313
There was not anything she could do there, but that was where everyone was, or would be.	2840.6507444368476
Bobby Joe and the boys would come by, say "How's Granny"?	28649.18976572711
and sit on the porch a while.	851.9488079172143
The older men would be there at noon, and maybe rest for a time before they took their guns off to the creek or drove down the road towards town.	78470.69850625316
The women and children stayed at the Albrights'.	2869.3356462549086
The women, keeping their voices low as they worked around the house or sat in the living room, sounded like chickens shut up in a coop for the night.	8464.56538396552
The children had to play away from the house in the barn loft or the pasture behind the barn, to maintain a proper quietness.	8452.334768008479
Off and on, all day, someone would be wiping at the powdery gray dust that settled over everything.	57096.97911445008
The evaporative cooler had been moved to Granny's room, and her door was kept shut; so that the rest of the house stayed open, though there was a question as to whether it was hotter or cooler that way.	13614.157914425965
The dust clogged their throats, and the heat parched them, so that the women were always making ice water.	12261.173993693264
They had cleaned up an old ice box and begun to buy fifty-pound blocks of ice in town, as the electric refrigerator came nowhere near providing enough ice for the crowds who ate and drank there.	126161.16918912064
One afternoon, as the women sat clucking softly, a new carload of people pulled up at the gate.	8967.264265467267
It was a Cadillac, black grayed with the dust of the road, its windows closed tight so you knew that the people who climbed out of it would be cool and unwrinkled.	23329.85880219823
They were an old fat couple as Linda Kay described them to herself, a thick middle-aged man, and a girl about ten or twelve.	10641.073592367366
There was much embracing, much exclaiming.	2877.1909164593126
"Cousin Ada!	2206.8407671035498
Cousin John"!	1141.4797230615397
"Cousin Lura"!	2206.8407671035498
"Cousin Howard"!	1550.2944542712598
"And how is she"?	1367.2227084561544
"About the same, John, about the same".	55.93226578538267
All the women got up and offered their chairs, and when they were all seated again, the guests made their inquiries and their explanations.	29723.19343922306
"We were on our vacation in Canada", Howard explained, in a muffled voice that must have been used to booming, "and the news didn't catch up with us till we were nearly home.	48403.97933550272
We came on as soon as we could".	119.97581965561577
There was the suggestion of ice water, and- in spite of the protest "We're not really thirsty"- Linda Kay, to escape the stuffy air and the smothering soft voices, hurried to the kitchen.	25148.09663781443
She filled a big pitcher and set it, with glasses, on a tray.	53388.66729481087
Carrying it to the living room, she imagined the picture she made tall and roundly slim, a bit sophisticated in her yellow sheath, with a graceful swingy walk that she had learned as a twirler with the school band.	154642.18879098035
Almost immediately she was ashamed of herself for feeling vain, at such a time, in such a place, and she tossed back her long yellow hair, smiling shyly as she entered the room.	24471.98487951757
Howard the thick middle-aged man was looking at her.	859.0573075073959
She felt the look and looked back because she could not help it, seeing that he was neither as old nor as thick as she had at first believed.	55289.99528250457
"And who is this"?	1306.752552160053
he asked, when she passed him a glass.	1334.4358987133749
"Oh that's Linda Kay", Mama Albright said fondly.	27231.740607903477
"She married our baby boy, Bobby Joe, this summer".	7166.033648908733
"Let's see", Cousin Ada said.	2828.2715090964907
"He's a right smart younger than the rest"?	2997.9668019927017
"Oh yes", Mama laughed.	2341.5100249869147
"He's ten years younger than Ernest.	8594.732800329964
We didn't expect him to come along; thought for the longest he was a tumor".	23605.25243172681
This joke was not funny to Linda Kay, and she blushed, as she always did; then, hearing the muffled boom of Howard's laughter, blushed redder.	222419.15611290393
"Who is Howard, anyway"?	4863.065039687774
she asked Bobby Joe that night.	593.9869481645333
"He makes me uncomfortable".	813.1946395448513
"Oh he's a second cousin or something.	5663.7128364326145
He got in the oil business out at Odessa and lucked into some money".	7985.045946595235
"How old is he"?	114.57775272603035
"Gosh, I don't know.	269.84520411414246
Thirty-five, I guess.	13.263571409961354
He's been married and got this half-grown kid.	12883.112232297204
If he bothers you, don't pay him any mind.	5329.646317693207
He's just a big windbag".	5519.444817316582
Bobby Joe was thinking about something else.	2035.2173635289478
"Say, did you know they're fixing to have a two-day antelope season on the Double X"?	37906.8718482788
He was talking about antelope again when they woke up.	2033.8453007155865
"Listen, I never had a chance to kill an antelope.	744.5457767634012
There never was a season before, but now they want to thin 'em out on account of the drouth".	19101.131424746593
"Did he ever visit here when he was a kid"?	1429.0429649596142
Linda Kay asked.	2845.915624622971
"Who"?	333.1590357996425
"Howard".	215.20854101818068
"Hell, I don't know.	240.40474644160767
When he was a kid I wasn't around".	237.71484516370765
Bobby Joe took a gun from behind the door, and with a quick "Bye now" was gone for the day.	5798.763546531207
Almost immediately Howard and his daughter Debora drove up in the Cadillac.	34102.712760784874
"We're going after ice", Howard said, "and thought maybe you'd go along and keep us company".	14724.74448757953
There was really no reason to refuse, and Linda Kay had never ridden in a Cadillac.	25146.800607236353
Driving along the caliche-topped road to town, Howard talked.	50085.84127434022
Finally he said, "Tell me about yourself", and Linda Kay told him, because she thought herself that she had had an interesting life.	21495.710311045965
She was such a well-rounded teenager, having been a twirler, Future Farmers sweetheart, and secretary of Future Homemakers.	64143.324487261336
In her sophomore year she had started going steady with Bobby Joe, who was a football player, Future Homemakers sweetheart, and president of Future Farmers.	99922.71712079996
It was easy to see that they were made for each other, and they knew what they wanted.	296.10008162056397
Bobby Joe would be a senior this year, and he planned to graduate.	7601.463684716367
But there was no need for Linda Kay to go on, since all she wanted in life was to make a home for Bobby Joe and blushing raise his children.	8656.911992328767
Howard sighed.	316.4082951705292
"You lucky kids", he said.	467.36491542060634
"I'd give anything if I could have found a girl like you".	717.6217001292936
Then he told Linda Kay about himself.	411.4380261895445
Of course he couldn't say much, really, because of Debora, but Linda Kay could imagine what kind of woman his wife had been and what a raw deal he had got.	43613.96240082435
It made her feel different about Howard.	3680.1390123625347
She was going to tell Bobby Joe about how mistaken she had been, but he brought one of the cousins home for supper, and all they did was talk about antelope.	62431.59409536797
Bobby Joe was trying to get Linda Kay to say she would cook one if he brought it home.	34585.64876865348
"Cook a whole antelope"?	5714.160637463317
she exclaimed.	305.61035693867575
"Why, I couldn't even cook a piece of antelope steak; I never even saw any".	9504.752135735427
"Oh, you could.	26.827653637001372
I want to roast the whole thing, and have it for the boys".	235.62941345069024
Linda Kay told him he couldn't do anything like that with his Grandma dying, and he said well they had to eat, didn't they, they weren't all dying.	141999.7551146041
Linda Kay felt like going off to the bedroom to cry; but they were going up to the Big House after supper, and she had to put on a clean dress and fix her hair a little.	28646.908509958284
Every night they all went to Mama and Papa Albright's, and sat on the open front porch, where they could get the breeze.	19466.424894090764
It was full-of-the-moon or a little past, and nearly light as day.	7088.037673718456
They all sat around and drank ice water, and the men smoked, and everybody had a good time.	5956.951704969777
Once in a while they said what a shame it was, with Granny dying, but they all agreed she wouldn't have wanted it any other way.	25206.983188675953
That night the older men got to talking about going possum-hunting on a moonlight night.	23036.419280285696
Bobby Joe and two or three of the other boys declared they had never been possum-hunting, and Uncle Bill Farnworth from Mama Albright's side of the family said he would just get up from there and take them, right then.	56859.13951847422
After they had left, some of the people moved around, to find more comfortable places to sit.	12075.250580573562
There were not many chairs, so that some preferred to sit on the edge of the porch, resting their feet on the ground, and others liked to sit where they could lean back against the wall.	9516.67307041229
Howard, who had been sitting against the wall, said he needed more fresh air, and took the spot on the edge of the porch where Bobby Joe had been sitting.	4903.117848510934
"You'll be a darn sight more comfortable there, Howard", Ernest said, laughing, and they all laughed.	14155.452515237863
Linda Kay felt that she was not exactly more comfortable.	3631.5259792170355
Bobby Joe had been sitting close to her, touching her actually, and holding her hand from time to time, but it seemed at once that Howard sat much closer.	41231.99135073413
Perhaps it was just that he had so much more flesh, so that more of it seemed to come in contact with hers; but she had never been so aware of anyone's flesh before.	12188.094636199134
Still she was not sorry he sat by her, but in fact was flattered.	50808.69225494659
He had become the center of the company, such stories he had to tell.	224.0917594648346
He had sold oil stock to Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in person; he had helped fight an oil-well fire that raged six days and nights.	98091.67717397459
"But tell me, doctor, where do you plan to conduct the hatching"?	51485.35700130893
Alex asked.	1275.3271721176875
"That will have to be in the hotel", the doctor retorted, confirming Alex's anticipations.	1778.0780971743857
"What I want you to do is to go to the market with me early tomorrow morning and help smuggle the hen back into the hotel".	2559.2422192435765
The doctor paid the bill and they repaired to the hotel, room number nine, to initiate Alex further into these undertakings.	46693.062615523995
The doctor opened the smallest of his cases, an unimposing straw bag, and exposed the contents for Alex's inspection.	43730.948718139894
Inside, carefully packed in straw, were six eggs, but the eye of a poultry psychologist was required to detect what scientifically valuable specimentalia lay inside; to Alex they were merely six not unusual hens' eggs.	153366.2823606324
There was little enough time to contemplate them, however; in an instant the doctor was stalking across the room with an antique ledger in his hands, thoroughly eared and big as a table top.	52797.30128522135
He placed it on Alex's lap.	2594.1890071312323
"This is my hen ledger", he informed him in an absorbed way.	6126.889605896707
"It's been going since 1908 when I was a junior in college.	3252.8644985064197
That first entry there is the Vermont Flumenophobe, the earliest and one of the most successful of my eighty-three varieties- great big scapulars and hardly any primaries at all.	25768.41938804355
Couldn't take them near a river, though, or they'd squawk like a turkey cock the day before Thanksgiving".	76424.98017682077
The ledger was full of most precise information date of laying, length of incubation period, number of chicks reaching the first week, second week, fifth week, weight of hen, size of rooster's wattles and so on, all scrawled out in a hand that looked more Chinese than English, the most jagged and sprawling Alex had ever seen.	149729.65422233325
Below these particulars was a series of alpha-beta-gammas connected by arrows and crosses which denoted the lineage of the breed.	70824.49543893224
Alex's instruction was rapid, for the doctor had to go off to the Rue Ecole de Medecine to hear more speeches with only time for one sip of wine to sustain him through them all.	55401.616714746655
But after the doctor's return that night Alex could see, from the high window in his own room, the now familiar figure crouched on a truly impressive heap of towels, apparently giving its egg-hatching powers one final chance before it was replaced in its office by a sure-enough hen.	125839.64193254788
A knocking at Alex's door roused him at six o'clock the following morning.	17400.12466464103
It was the doctor, dressed and ready for the expedition to the market, and Alex was obliged to prepare himself in haste.	32416.653682546683
The doctor stood about, waiting for Alex to dress, with a show of impatience, and soon they were moving, as quietly as could be, through the still-dark hallways, past the bedroom of the patronne, and so into the street.	136429.65991471868
The market was not far and, once there, the doctor's sense of immediacy left him and he fell into a state of harmony with the birds around him.	13066.130256773891
He stroked the hens and they responded with delighted clucks, he gobbled with the turkeys and they at once were all attention, he quacked with the ducks, and cackled with a pair of exceedingly flattered geese.	272380.0981324332
The dawn progressed and it seemed that the doctor would never be done with his ministrations when quite abruptly something broke his revery.	43293.70342353044
It was a fine broody hen, white, with a maternal eye and a striking abundance of feathers in the under region of the abdomen.	19488.298952229867
The doctor, with the air of a man whose professional interests have found scope, drew Alex's attention to those excellences which might otherwise have escaped him the fine color in comb and wattles, the length and quality of neck and saddle hackles, the firm, wide spread of the toes, and a rare justness in the formation of the ear lappets.	74413.61644232809
All search was ended; he had found his fowl.	13333.464111205216
The purchase was effected and they made their way towards the hotel again, the hen, with whom some sort of communication had been set up, nestling in the doctor's arms.	47691.63501074831
The clocks struck seven-thirty as they approached the hotel entrance; and hopes that the chambermaid and patronne would still be abed began to rise in Alex's well exercised breast.	89424.10405678398
The doctor was wearing a long New England greatcoat, hardly necessary in the June weather but a garment which proved well adapted to the sequestration of hens.	87559.81344703748
Alex entered first and was followed by the doctor who, for all his care, manifested a perceptible bulge on his left side where the hen was cradled.	63669.63135078851
They advanced in a line across the entrance hall to the stairway and up, with gingerly steps, towards the first landing.	32404.69590487278
It was then that they heard the tread of one descending and, in some perturbation glancing up, saw the patronne coming towards them as they gained the landing.	31444.066271153584
"Bonjour, messieurs, vous etes matinals", she greeted them pleasantly.	25957.076609566724
Alex explained that they had been out for a stroll before breakfast while the doctor edged around behind him, attempting to hide the protuberance at his left side behind Alex's arm and back.	88186.94966624261
"Vous voulez vos petits dejeuners tout de suite alors"?	148522.30420922118
their hostess enquired.	5330.915749194779
Alex told her that there was no hurry for their breakfasts, trying at the same time to effect a speedy separation of the persons before and behind him.	15286.573403898137
The doctor, he noticed, was attempting a transverse movement towards the stairs, but before the movement could be completed a distinct and audible cluck ruffled the air in the hollow of the stair-well.	66434.30214051092
Eyes swerved in the patronne's head, Alex coughed loudly, and the doctor, with a sforzando of chicken noises floating behind him, took to the stairs in long-shanked leaps.	245664.0279532003
"Comment"?	11318.63465748144
ejaculated the surprised woman, looking at Alex for an explanation but he, parting from her without ceremony, only offered a few words about the doctor's provincial American speech and a state of nerves brought on by the demands of his work.	96779.44697933638
With that he hurried up the stairs, followed by her suspicious gaze.	2782.4953255418436
When Alex entered his room, the doctor was already preparing a nest in the straw case, six eggs ready for the hen's attentions.	90011.66347355115
There was no reference to the incident on the stairs, his powers being absorbed by this more immediate business.	11328.223656644152
The hen appeared to have no doubts as to her duties and was quick to settle down to the performance of them.	7722.662741469193
One part of her audience was totally engaged, the connoisseur witnessing a peculiarly fine performance of some ancient classic, the other part, the guest of the connoisseur, attentive as one who must take an intelligent interest in that which he does not fully understand.	125561.71741001526
The spectacle progressed towards a denouement which was obviously still remote; the audience attended.	21465.946516013322
Time elapsed but the doctor was obviously unconscious of its passage until an unwelcome knock on the door interrupted the processes of nature.	57006.13444099857
Startled, he jumped up to pull hen and case out of view, and Alex went to the door.	16355.108302546361
He opened it a crack and in doing so made as much shuffling, coughing, and scraping noise as possible in order to drown emanations from the hen who had begun to protest.	72055.38611078393
It was Giselle, the fille de chambre, come to clean the room, and while she stood before him with ears pricked up and regard all curiosity, explaining her errand, Alex could see from the corner of his eye the doctor doing all he could to calm the displeased bird.	119612.76647225121
Giselle was reluctant but Alex succeeded in persuading her to come back in five minutes and the door was shut again.	69810.4498582634
"Who was that, young feller"?	8630.002659566362
the doctor instantly asked.	822.9839857680067
"That was the fille de chambre, the one you thought couldn't get the eggs out.	14680.531061536516
She looked mighty interested, though.	459.54462438361924
Anyhow she's coming back in five minutes to do the room".	15651.042042808598
The doctor's mind was working at a great speed; he rose to put his greatcoat on and addressed Alex in a muted voice.	85297.2494358219
"Have you got our keys handy"?	1942.846224161252
"Right in my pocket".	807.7790584214288
"All right.	3.8043631555700803
Now you go outside and beckon me when it's safe".	5205.7552523671575
The hall was empty and Alex beckoned; they climbed the stairs which creaked, very loudly to their sensitive ears, and reached the next floor.	100671.0669818289
A guest was locking his room; they passed behind him and got to Alex's room unnoticed.	40045.38313206409
The doctor sat down rather wearily, caressing the hen and remarking that the city was not the place for a poultry-loving man, but no sooner was the remark out than a knock at this door obliged him to cover the hen with his greatcoat once more.	85051.3705204123
At the door Alex managed to persuade the increasingly astonished fille de chambre to return in ten minutes.	6393.761740322989
It was evident that a second transfer had to be effected, and that it had to take place between the time the fille finished the doctor's room and the time she began Alex's.	15135.212728485842
They waited three minutes and then crept out on tip-toe; the halls were empty and they passed down the stairs to number nine and listened at the door.	60999.918433611674
A bustle of sheets being smoothed and pillows being arranged indicated the fille de chambre's presence inside; they listened and suddenly a step towards the door announced another important fact.	169261.5398231616
The doctor shot down to the lavatory and turned the doorknob, but to no effect the lavatory was occupied.	21530.90065939732
Although a look of alarm passed over his face, he did not arrest his movements but disappeared into the shower room just as the chambermaid emerged from number nine.	45697.694925004835
Alex suppressed those expressions of relief which offered to prevail in his face and escape from his throat; unwarranted they were in any case for, as he stood facing the fille de chambre, his ears were assailed by new sounds from the interior of the shower room.	174499.2238707176
The events of the last quarter of an hour, mysterious to any bird accustomed only to the predictable life of coop and barnyard, had overcome the doctor's hen and she gave out a series of cackly wails, perhaps mourning her nest, but briefly enjoyed.	132168.03413459184
The doctor's wits had not left him, however, for all his sixty-eight years, and the wails were almost immediately lost in the sound of water rushing out from the showerhead.	21742.08325967646
Alex nodded to the maid as though nothing unusual were taking place and entered the doctor's room.	54360.233180661424
Shortly, the doctor himself entered, his hair somewhat wet from the shower, but evidently satisfied with the outcome of their adventures.	48136.78264475299
Without comment he opened the closet and from its shelves constructed a highboard around the egg case which he had placed on the floor inside.	47687.932072400545
Next, the hen was nested and all seemed well.	3659.213355810397
The two men sat for some time, savoring the pleasure of escape from peril and the relief such escape brings, before they got up and left the hotel, the doctor to go to the conference house and Alex to go to the main post office.	21451.90120254942
Alex returned to the hotel, rather weary and with no new prospects of a role, in the late afternoon, but found the doctor in an ebullient mood.	36714.19180609764
At the time Alex arrived he was engaged in some sort of intimate communication with the hen, who had settled herself on the nest most peacefully after the occurrences of the morning.	53058.613001660895
"Chickens have short memories", the doctor remarked, "that's why they are better company than most people I know", and he went on to break some important news to Alex.	33463.90713682532
"Well", he began, "It seems like some people in Paris want to hear more from me than those fellers over at the conference house do.	26709.887603329113
They've got a big vulture from Tanganika at the zoo here, with a wife for him, too, very rare birds, both of them, the only Vulturidae of their species outside Africa.	14003.029207105445
Seems like she's willing, but the male just flops around all day like the bashful boy who took Jeannie May behind the barn and then didn't know what to do, and the people at the zoo haven't got any vulture chicks to show for their trouble.	61274.57486082789
Going downstairs with the tray, Winston wished he could have given in to Miss Ada, but he knew better than to do what she said when she had that little-girl look.	76986.58825839667
There were times it wasn't right to make a person happy, like the times she came in the kitchen and asked for a peanut butter sandwich.	10009.267114970138
"You know we don't keep peanut butter in this house", he always told her.	9501.120773335557
"Why, Winston", she'd cry, "I just now saw you eating it out of the jar"!	38695.73751179005
But he knew how important it was for her to keep her figure.	2486.3399498396393
In the kitchen, Leona, his little young wife, was reading the morning paper.	8304.454598515858
Her legs hung down long and thin as she sat on the high stool.	50121.8764829228
"Here", Winston said gently, "what's these dishes doing not washed"?	46211.60256711064
The enormous plates which had held Mr Jack's four fried eggs and five strips of bacon were still stacked in the sink.	39041.09601042434
"Leave me alone", Leona said.	2975.822022950561
"Can't you see I'm busy"?	17124.72968940938
She looked at him impudently over the corner of the paper.	482.32780992912666
"This is moving day", Winston reminded her, "and I bet you left things every which way upstairs, your clothes all over the floor and the bed not made.	51472.30045667326
Leona"!	3524.8082516247623
His eye had fastened on her leg; bending, he touched her knee.	22305.541604936454
"If I catch you one more time down here without stockings"- She twitched her leg away.	32445.15318870057
"Fuss, fuss, old man".	12020.921564832597
She had an alley cat's manners.	632.6603672190396
Winston stacked Miss Ada's thin pink dishes in the sink.	14633.365611094374
Then he spread out the last list on the counter.	13631.290945679772
"To Be Left Behind" was printed at the top in Miss Ada; fine hand.	16902.34510582964
Winston took out a pencil, admired the point, and wrote slowly and heavily, "Clothes Stand".	73119.44658964522
Sighing, Leona dropped the paper and stood up.	22877.671075357764
"I guess I better get ready to go".	144.19326475391634
Winston watched her fumbling to untie her apron.	52554.61605769033
"Here".	208.5266607034106
Carefully, he undid the bow.	35043.57401288843
"How come your bows is always cockeyed"?	18109.501885329475
She turned and put her arms around his neck.	3124.7660142422446
"I don't want to leave here, Winston".	1142.8672161563197
"Now listen to that".	16.8416922433395
He drew back, embarrassed and pleased.	4488.857966194303
"I thought you was sick to death of this big house.	7052.637935887934
Said you wore yourself out, cleaning all these empty rooms".	15262.015014408553
"At least there is room here", she said.	182.6734251221986
"What room is there going to be in an apartment for any child"?	22860.84400811226
"I told you what Miss Ada's doctor said".	2296.931728042621
"I don't mean Miss Ada!	714.3493088307301
What you think I care about that?	1869.0678036941626
I mean our children".	70.32244541459158
She sounded as though they already existed.	3487.5568820060953
In spite of the hundred things he had on his mind, Winston went and put his arm around her waist.	2925.074402097185
"We've got plenty of time to think about that.	236.15285942478644
All the time in the world.	14.228985320306471
We've only been married four years, January".	1826.9479802234973
"Four years"!	227.3513110662637
she wailed.	1769.7182555700813
"That's a long time, waiting".	210.77160359784446
"How many times have I told you"- he began, and was almost glad when she cut him off- "Too many times"!- and flounced to the sink, where she began noisily to wash her hands.	95352.17695532093
Too many times was the truth of it, Winston thought.	3995.2119181439903
He hardly believed his reason himself any more.	2415.297481077184
Although it had seemed a good reason, to begin with no couple could afford to have children.	5617.243331561616
"How you going to work with a child hanging on you"?	2219.424110877855
he asked Leona.	923.4685736492687
"You want to keep this job, don't you"?	8177.511972726916
He doubted whether she heard him, over the running water.	7895.756925189311
He sat for a while with his hands on his knees, watching the bend of her back as she gathered up her things- a comb, a bottle of aspirin- to take upstairs and pack.	67777.57814977325
She made him sad some days, and he was never sure why; it was something to do with her back, the thinness of it, and the quick, jerky way she bent.	16173.517104045264
She was too young, that was all; too young and thin and straight.	5168.4090677449185
"Winston"!	2859.3061310790968
It was Mr Jack, bellowing out in the hall.	584.0843240552266
Winston hurried through the swinging door.	10568.534985289425
"I've been bursting my lungs for you", Mr Jack complained.	5422.383380895987
He was standing in front of the mirror, tightening his tie.	878.5993252374443
He had on his gray tweed overcoat and his city hat, and his brief case lay on the bench.	8637.108225587368
"I don't know what you think you've been doing about my clothes", he said.	278.7987927229438
"This coat looks like a rag heap".	3629.128770852485
There were a few blades of lint on the shoulder.	1584.8305150593596
Winston took the clothesbrush out of the closet and went to work.	6820.3255058339155
He gave Mr Jack a real going-over; he brushed his shoulders and his back and his collar with long, firm strokes.	55182.55214964295
"Hey"!	469.3657852978755
Mr Jack cried when the brush tipped his hat down over his eyes.	4259.49535272581
Winston apologized and quickly set the hat right.	20397.03663775118
Then he stood back to look at Mr Jack, who was pulling on his pigskin gloves.	19452.427124912083
Winston enjoyed seeing him start out; he wore his clothes with style.	50155.994298252874
When he was going to town, nothing was good enough- he had cursed at Winston once for leaving a fleck of polish on his shoelace.	32592.439536622052
At home, he wouldn't even wash his hands for supper, and he wandered around the yard in a pair of sweaty old corduroys.	60076.830976016965
The velvet smoking jackets, pearl-gray, wine, and blue, which Miss Ada had bought him hung brushed and unworn in the closet.	93618.39581594324
"Good-by, Winston", Mr Jack said, giving a final set to his hat.	58076.31058910109
"Look out for those movers"!	5768.0806097085915
Winston watched him hurry down the drive to his car; a handsome, fine-looking man it made him proud to see.	32683.049295925928
After Mr Jack drove away, Winston went on looking out the window.	5818.8955267438205
He noticed a speck of dirt on the sill and swiped at it with his finger.	24746.56038060111
Then he looked at his finger, at the wrinkled, heavy knuckle and the thick nail he used like a knife to pry up, slit, and open.	52655.27839855663
For the first time, he let himself be sad about the move.	304.823396213867
That house was ten years off his life.	1641.3052038055398
Each brass handle and hinge shone for his reward, and he knew how to get at the dust in the china flowers and how to take down the long glass drops which hung from the chandelier.	52702.62754027918
He knew the house like a blind man, through his fingers, and he did not like to think of all the time and rags and polishes he had spent on keeping it up.	2376.2340124931543
Ten years ago, he had come to the house to be interviewed.	362.1722012616197
The tulips and the big pink peonies had been blooming along the drive, and he had walked up from the bus almost singing.	35115.63772911299
Miss Ada had been out back, in a straw hat, planting flowers.	20220.072786604338
She had talked to him right there, with the hot sun in his face, which made him sweat and feel ashamed.	6090.4769864645505
Winston had been surprised at her for that.	7916.421195942508
Still, he had liked the way she had looked, in a fresh, neat cotton dress- citron yellow, if he remembered.	20743.686107261492
She had had a dignity about her, even barefoot and almost too tan.	5162.766548329826
Since then, the flowers she had planted had spread all over the hill.	2042.1994129979958
Already the jonquils were blooming in a flock by the front gate, and the periwinkles were coming on, blue by the porch steps.	69969.51091452275
In a week the hyacinths would spike out.	1763.7388734500876
And the dogwood in early May, for Miss Ada's alfresco party; and after that the Japanese cherries.	44885.22536589337
Now the yard looked wet and bald, the trees bare under their buds, but in a while Miss Ada's flowers would bloom like a marching parade.	48114.091042933615
She had dug a hole for each bulb, each tree wore a tag with her writing on it; where would she go for her gardening now?	138830.16973125943
Somehow Winston didn't think she'd take to window boxes.	6548.81274181433
Sighing, he hurried to the living room.	3823.7787478129426
He had a thousand things to see to.	497.3771704606082
Still, he couldn't help thinking, we're all getting old, getting small; the snail is pulling in her horns.	13393.644835820724
In the living room, Miss Ada was standing by the window with a sheaf of lists in her hand.	8443.71590381906
She was looking out at the garden.	358.6361507394067
"Winston", she said, "get the basket for the breakables".	34940.871087167994
Winston had the big straw basket ready in the hall.	6913.9249792303835
He brought it in and put it down beside her.	3254.331099563979
Miss Ada was looking fine; she had on her Easter suit, blue, with lavender binding.	60609.507899640936
Halfway across the house, he could have smelled her morning perfume.	42190.05713910153
It hung in all her day clothes, sweet and strong; sometimes when he was pressing, Winston raised her dresses to his face.	53791.340877393064
Frowning, Miss Ada studied the list.	6144.940180467334
"Well, let's see.	89.28719517723458
The china lemon tree.	886.8548613307345
The alabaster cockatoo".	1748.3877631677776
Winston followed her around the room, collecting the small frail objects Christmas, birthday, and anniversary and wrapping them in tissue paper.	140039.4890677593
Neither of them trusted the movers.	599.7628903445877
When they came to Mr Jack's photograph, twenty by twelve inches in a curly silver frame, Miss Ada said, "By rights I ought to leave that, seeing he won't take my clotheshorse".	146860.9232719756
She smiled at Winston, and he saw the hateful hard glitter in her eyes.	8334.816164896938
He picked up the photograph and began to wrap it.	4586.452080119111
"At least you could leave it for the movers", Miss Ada said.	12948.313773199401
"What possessed you to tell me a clotheshorse would be a good idea"?	12301.480321627965
Winston folded the tissue paper carefully.	10568.535686020903
"He's used it every day; every morning, I lay out his clothes on it".	15318.818077140471
"Well, that's over now.	449.77183330880604
And it was his main present!	779.0425074424877
Leave that fool picture out", she added sharply.	7978.388681935951
Winston laid it in the basket.	3363.3378494194676
"Mr Jack sets store by that".	2865.2316526910427
"Really, Winston.	1430.6865691678709
It was meant to be my present".	212.8049063607622
But she went on down the list.	111.49051455304007
Winston was relieved; those presents had been on his mind.	5062.698307376867
He had only agreed with Miss Ada about getting the valet, but he had actually suggested the photograph to Mr Jack.	45442.234949238824
"You know what she likes, Winston", he had said wearily, one evening in November when Winston was pulling off his overshoes.	39880.17041325165
"Tell me what to get her for Christmas".	2191.811344322403
"She's been talking about a picture", Winston had told him.	710.7022515864279
"Picture!	3524.8082516247623
You mean picture of me"?	2589.766944776509
But Winston had persuaded him.	2163.093992143477
On Christmas night, they had had a disagreement about it.	1189.1255729686497
Winston had heard because he was setting up the liquor tray in the next room.	56419.51399708825
Through the door, he had seen Mr Jack walking around, waiting for Miss Ada.	10463.210367747768
Finally she had come down; Winston had heard her shaking out the skirt of her new pink silk hostess gown.	51501.42500214876
"How do you like it"?	237.66691868765741
she had asked.	96.54959816312363
Mr Jack had said, "You look about fifteen years old".	3748.129343994174
"Is that a compliment"?	1403.770646797235
"I don't know".	2.569516451302858
He had stood at a little distance, studying her, as though he would walk around next and look at the back of her head.	4212.326326731519
"Lovie, you make me feel naked".	16940.174262184973
Miss Ada had giggled, and she went sweeping and rustling to the couch and sank down.	43959.542290256664
"You look like that picture I have at the office", Mr Jack had started.	16383.384810932937
"Not a line, not a wrinkle.	405.3213382468387
I look like an old man, compared", and he had picked up his photograph with the red Christmas bow still on it.	6318.745233652503
"Look, an old man.	77.80856057356046
Will you wear pink when you're sixty"?	8056.984343220714
"Darling, I love that photograph.	30962.888513536807
I'm going to put it on my dresser".	3343.7111618566487
"I guess it's children make a woman old.	3391.8163154844574
A man gets old anyhow".	597.4101347848039
After a minute he went on, "People must think the curse is on me, seeing you fresh as an apple and me old and gray".	60306.60053186063
"I'll give you a medical certificate, framed, if you like", Miss Ada had said.	1489.9364378811533
"No.	3.297522726426617
All I want is a picture- with a few lines.	417.03172638598954
Make the man put them in if he has to".	1771.6457785573803
After that they had sat for five minutes without saying a word.	1307.1728996863621
Then Miss Ada had stood up, rustling and rustling, and gone upstairs.	53450.00859826519
Was it love?	1162.008966678155
I had no doubt that it was.	57.72228790349409
During the rest of the summer my scholarly mania for making plaster casts and spatter prints of Catskill flowers and leaves was all but surpassed by the constantly renewed impressions of Jessica that my mind served up to me for contemplation and delight.	99182.05055825338
Nothing in all the preceding years had had the power to bring me closer to a knowledge of profound sorrow than the breakup of camp, the packing away of my camp uniforms, the severing of ties with the six or ten people I had grown most to love in the world.	49683.64382181802
In final separation from them, in the railroad terminal across the river from New York, I would nearly cry.	8851.633334203796
My parents' welcoming arms would seem woeful, inadequate, unwanted.	41197.397278010445
But that year was different, for just as the city, in the form of my street clothes, had intruded upon my mountain nights, so an essential part of the summer gave promise of continuing into the fall Jessica and I, about to be separated not by a mere footbridge or messhall kitchen but by the immense obstacle of residing in cruelly distant boroughs, had agreed to correspond.	85963.56931742231
These letters became the center of my existence.	3922.5822406147345
I lived to see an envelope of hers in the morning mail and to lock myself in my room in the afternoon to reread her letter for the tenth time and finally prepare an answer.	44954.42603626331
My memory has catalogued for easy reference and withdrawal the image of her pink, scented stationery and the unsloped, almost printed configurations of her neat, studious handwriting with which she invited me to recall our summer, so many sentences beginning with "Remember when h"; and others concerning camp friends who resided in her suburban neighborhood, and news of her commencing again her piano lessons, her private school, a visit to Boston to see her grandparents and an uncle who was a surgeon returned on furlough, wounded, from the war in Europe.	398849.4466701285
In my letters I took on a personality that differed from the self I knew in real life.	7240.193526935801
Then epistolatory me was a foreign correspondent dispatching exciting cables and communiques, full of dash and wit and glamor, quoting from the books I read, imitating the grand styles of the authors recommended by a teacher in whose special, after-school class I was enrolled.	383592.2487941928
The letters took their source from a stream of my imagination in which I was transformed into a young man not unlike my bunkmate Eliot Sands- he of the porch steps anecdotes- who smoked cigarettes, performed the tango, wore fifty dollar suits, and sneaked off into the dark with girls to do unimaginable things with them.	134337.22585407953
Like Eliot, in my fantasies, I had a proud bearing and, with a skill that was vaguely continental, I would lead Jessica through an evening of dancing and handsome descriptions of my newest exploits, would guide her gently to the night's climax which, in my dreams, was always represented by our almost suffocating one another to death with deep, moist kisses burning with love.	237035.8782643169
The night after reading her letter about her surgeon uncle- it must have been late in September- I had a vision of myself returned in ragged uniform from The Front, nearly dying, my head bandaged and blooded, and Jessica bending over me, the power of her love bringing me back to life.	86928.14966618997
For many nights afterward, the idea of her having been so close to me in that imagined bed would return and fill me with obscure and painful desires, would cause me to lie awake in shame, tossing with irresolution, longing to fall into a deep sleep.	88355.49554900824
The weeks went by, and the longer our separation grew, the more unbounded and almost unbearable my fantasies became.	107787.04975998559
They caused my love for Jessica to become warmer and at the same time more hopeless, as if my adolescent self knew that only torment would ever bring me the courage to ask to see her again.	82034.05805273916
As it turned out, Jessica took matters into her own hands.	1930.5596918306082
Having received permission to give a camp reunion-Halloween party, she asked that I come and be her date.	39642.927501377075
I went and, mum and nervous, all but made a fool of myself.	5453.50303680812
Again among those jubilantly reunited bunkmates, I was shy with Jessie and acted as I had during those early Saturday mornings when we all seemed to be playing for effect, to be detached and unconcerned with the girls who were properly our dates but about whom, later, in the privacy of our bunks, we would think in terms of the most elaborate romance.	154657.33304762427
I remember standing in a corner, watching Jessica act the hostess, serving soft drinks to her guests.	11236.851875041573
She was wearing her dark hair in two, thick braids to attain an "American Girl" effect she thought was appropriate to Halloween.	70729.43777644819
It made her look sweet and schoolgirlish, I was excited to be with her, but I did not know how to express it.	6882.730763702832
Yet a moment did come that night when the adventurous letter writer and fantasist seemed to stride off my flashy pages, out of my mind, and plant himself in reality.	35455.155410378014
It was late, we were playing kissing games, and Jessica and I were called on to kiss in front of the others.	3673.086986366989
We blushed and were flustered, and it turned out to be the fleetest brush of lips upon cheek.	27492.32005247692
The kiss outraged our friends but it was done and meanwhile had released in me all the remote, exciting premonitions of lust, all the mysterious sensations that I had imagined a truly consummated kiss would convey to me.	112240.47219447905
It was at that party that, finally overcoming my timidity, inspired by tales only half-understood and overheard among older boys, I asked Jessie to spend New Year's Eve with me.	46697.15097240917
Lovingly, she accepted, and so great was my emotion that all I could think of saying was, "You're amazing, you know"?	131574.55519711925
Later, we agreed to think of how we wished to spend that night.	1650.1441344135849
We would write to one another and make a definite plan.	988.4711580838364
She was terribly pleased.	307.25298489591864
Among my school and neighborhood friends, during the next months, I bragged and swaggered and pompously described my impending date.	56704.59175669943
But though I boasted and gave off a dapper front, I was beneath it all frightened.	21709.417271772734
It would be the first time I had ever been completely alone with a girl I loved.	1119.0581049924874
I had no idea of what subjects one discussed when alone with a girl, or how one behaved Should I hold her hand while walking or only when crossing the street?	83475.8593123891
Should I bring along a corsage or send one to her?	16636.911492449286
Was it preferable to meet her at home or in the city?	3486.4091873419507
Should I accompany her to the door of her home, or should I ask to be invited in?	8051.460913837331
In or out, should I kiss her goodnight?	32294.788159265972
All this was unknown to me, and yet I had dared to ask her out for the most important night of the year!	4787.38645696563
When in one letter Jessica informed me that her father did not like the idea of her going out alone on New Year's Eve, I knew for a moment an immense relief; but the letter went on she had cried, she had implored, she had been miserable at his refusal, and finally he had relented- and now how happy she was, how expectant!	171872.78954669094
Her optimism gave me heart.	1882.030217232383
I forced confidence into myself.	1776.8193531515217
I made inquiries, I read a book of etiquette.	7283.6963456850635
In December I wrote her with authority that we would meet on the steps of the Hotel Astor, a rendezvous spot that I had learned was the most sophisticated.	67720.26661950514
We would attend a film and, later on, I stated, we might go to the Mayflower Coffee Shop or Child's or Toffenetti's for waffles.	83516.28548666745
I set the hour of our meeting for seven.	3137.4014608387697
At five o'clock that night it was already dark, and behind my closed door I was dressing as carefully as a groom.	63818.36198923755
I wore a new double-breasted brown worsted suit with a faint herringbone design and wide lapels like a devil's ears.	83014.0470235828
My camp-made leather wallet, bulky with twisted, raised stitches around the edges, I stuffed with money I had been saving.	58708.753902041404
Hatless, in an overcoat of rough blue wool, I was given a proud farewell by my mother and father, and I set out into the strangely still streets of Brooklyn.	140824.4271125292
I felt superior to the neighborhood friends I was leaving behind, felt older than my years, and was full of compliments for myself as I headed into the subway that was carrying its packs of passengers out of that dull borough and into the unstable, tantalizing excitement of Manhattan.	230866.5891142722
Times Square, when I ascended to it with my fellow subway travellers all dressed as if for a huge wedding in a family of which we were all distant members, was nearly impassable, the sidewalks swarming with celebrants, with bundled up sailors and soldiers already hugging their girls and their rationed bottles of whiskey.	367745.8035088745
Heavy-coated, severe-looking policemen sat astride noble horses along the curbside to prevent the revellers from spilling out in front of the crawling traffic.	127089.52074910126
The night was cold but the crowd kept one warm.	3036.033971227333
The giant electric signs and marquees were lit up for the first time since blackout regulations had been instituted, and the atmosphere was alive with the feeling that victory was just around the corner.	25390.732130359942
Cardboard noisemakers, substitutes for the unavailable tin models, were being hawked and bought at makeshift stands every few yards along Broadway, and one's ears were continually serenaded by the horns' rasps and bleats.	499376.5044134798
An old gentlemen next to me held a Boy Scout bugle to his lips and blasted away at every fourth step and during the interim shouted out, "V for Victory"!	181437.14284721806
His neighbors cheered him on.	1055.8691437626458
There was a great sense of camaraderie.	805.4151557556231
How did one join them?	846.9259868960718
Where were they all walking to?	1704.4238593278756
Was I supposed to buy a funny hat and a rattle for Jessica?	70092.43541761188
It was a quarter of seven when the crowd washed me up among the other gallants who had established the Astor steps as the beach-head from which to launch their night of merrymaking.	75980.83903291558
I looked over their faces and felt a twinge they all looked so much more knowing than I. I looked away.	47684.08746354837
I looked for Jessica to materialize out of the clogging, curdling crowd and, as the time passed and I waited, a fiend came to life beside me and whispered in my ear How was I planning to greet Jessica?	226960.0028006233
Where exactly would we go after the movie?	12446.193767824716
Suppose the lines in front of the movie houses were too long and we couldn't get in?	17639.512271502615
Suppose I hadn't brought along enough money?	5784.960567108785
I felt for my wallet.	1448.1012217376249
Its thick, substantial outline calmed me.	4235.446075780427
But when I saw that it was already ten past seven, I began to wonder if something had gone wrong.	3382.97120451797
Suppose her father had changed his mind and had refused to let her leave?	4966.964351211234
Suppose at this very moment her father was calling my house in an effort to cancel the plans?	33894.56842113553
I grew uneasy.	482.6995957466308
All about me there was a hectic interplay of meetings taking place, like abrupt, jerky scenes in old silent movies, joyous greetings and beginnings, huggings and kissings, enthusiastic forays into the festive night.	165957.76238326827
Whole platoons were taking up new positions on the steps, arriving and departing, while I stayed glued, like a signpost, to one spot.	77791.73053907279
At 725 two hotel doormen came thumping down the steps, carrying a saw-horse to be set up as a barricade in front of the haberdashery store window next to the entranceway, and as I watched them in their gaudy red coats that nearly scraped the ground, their golden, fringed epaulets and spic, red-visored caps, I suddenly saw just over their shoulders Jessica gracefully making her way through the crowd.	202703.62605290348
My heart almost stopped beating.	4946.390720539702
There were thirty-eight patients on the bus the morning I left for Hanover, most of them disturbed and hallucinating.	58691.444740689956
An interne, a nurse and two attendants were in charge of us.	10431.99340716936
I felt lonely and depressed as I stared out the bus window at Chicago's grim, dirty West Side.	38221.64656440613
It seemed incredible, as I listened to the monotonous drone of voices and smelled the fetid odors coming from the patients, that technically I was a ward of the state of Illinois, going to a hospital for the mentally ill.	22669.8482865647
I suddenly thought of Mary Jane Brennan, the way her pretty eyes could flash with anger, her quiet competence, the gentleness and sweetness that lay just beneath the surface of her defenses.	128159.3712016712
We had become good friends during my stay at Cook County Hospital.	4222.932123555384
I had told her enough about myself to offset somewhat the damaging stories that had appeared in local newspapers after my little adventure in Marshall Field Co. She knew that I lived at a good address on the Gold Coast, that I had once been a medical student and was thinking of returning to the university to finish my medical studies.	86006.87558757156
She knew also that I was unmarried and without a single known relative.	41630.520251274655
She wasn't quite sure that I felt enough remorse about my drinking, or that I would not return to it once I was out and on my own again.	49674.84304698972
This had worried her.	400.59964276548266
"I read those newspaper stories about you", she had said.	1333.3027439643504
"You must have loved that girl very much, but you couldn't have meant it when you said that you wanted to kill her".	21724.444047337794
"Why do you say that"?	76.41999484441072
I asked.	2.6665076521639826
"I was full of booze and, well, a drunk is apt to do anything he says he'll do".	3989.580550710793
Nonsense!	469.3671729692187
I grew up in an Irish neighborhood on Chicago's West Side.	7237.61895534209
Don't tell me about drunks.	6583.721996005227
You're not the kind to go violent.	526.1601745529302
Were you in love with that girl"?	14358.273627491893
"Would it make any difference to you if I were, Mary Jane"?	14752.257798705507
She met my eyes, suddenly angry.	3032.2677114290314
"I wouldn't have gone into nursing if I didn't care about people.	8591.35491765815
I'm interested in every patient I've helped take care of.	2324.362703976248
When I think of people like you, well, I"- "You what, Mary Jane"?	10321.807265543253
"You are young, intelligent, have a whole lifetime before you to make something worth while of yourself, but you mess it up with whiskey, indifference, self-destructive attitudes.	75885.85163111363
I don't blame that girl for breaking her engagement with you.	8685.518925648037
Was she pretty"?	4384.344088060682
"Oh, yes", I said, feeling annoyed, "she was very pretty.	1815.122493483987
You don't believe that I'm going back to medical school and finish, do you"?	2388.010921729916
"Why should I?	29.03682979285039
I've worked this ward for three months now.	953.7004387786832
We keep getting the same ones back again and again.	2373.6029732278894
They all mean well, have great promises to make when they are about to go home, but drinking is their sickness.	36740.900925007685
You've not seemed like them, but maybe you are.	1207.4401482064086
You've treated your stay here like a big joke.	3861.780483641355
It's not a joke to be sent to a place like this or to Hanover.	2164.7639949367212
I wanted to go to college, to"- "Why didn't you"?	205.8953206283422
I asked.	2.6665076521639826
"Chicago has some of the best"- Her eyes flashed angrily.	1673.6329411720817
"That's what I mean about you, Anderson", she said.	1050.878296712154
"You don't seem to know much about reality.	211.03389186961064
I'll tell you why I didn't go to college; I'm the oldest of six children.	6454.216803264155
My father's a policeman and makes less than seven thousand dollars a year.	3470.685656675115
There was no money for tuition, for clothes, for all the things you apparently take for granted.	5012.210961499668
Nurses' training here doesn't cost anything.	16940.1684317041
They even pay me six dollars a month.	1286.8010153862303
I think it's a good deal.	247.79542379185924
I'm going to become a good nurse, and I've got two baby brothers that are going to have college if I have to work at my profession until I'm an old maid to give it to them".	9173.798595464206
"Do you have a boy friend"?	479.6158722960641
I asked.	2.6665076521639826
"That's none of your business", she said, then changed the subject.	2735.3628950703965
"What about your father and mother, don't you think of them when you're in a place like this"?	23149.832812325836
"My father and mother died when I was two years old", I said.	1582.6287991674544
"My aunt raised me.	1078.6926692084637
Aunt Mary died when I was doing my military service.	23970.148875187424
I have no one but myself to worry about".	202.12963510210062
Something in my voice must have touched her deeply because her anger passed quickly, and she turned away to keep me from seeing her face.	35761.65512954079
"I'm sorry", she said.	9.483659208008472
"I don't know what I'd do without my family.	102.95822353418303
We've always been so close".	612.3676448586655
"Tell me more about them".	621.8853222861643
Her eyes became bright as she talked about her father and mother, aunts and uncles, cousins.	83180.10584925395
Listening, I felt cheated and lonely as only an orphan can.	59707.03151733702
When she had finished I said "Your dad sounds like a good father and a good policeman.	22223.458724299973
I'll bet he wouldn't be pleased if a rumdum like me were to ask his daughter for a date- I mean, after I'm out of the hospital, a month or so from now".	14806.469064212486
"My father is a sergeant of detectives and has been attached to Homicide for five years.	5955.125011026611
He's a pretty good judge of character, Anderson.	8521.380472853478
I don't think he'd mind too much if he were sure you'd decided not to be a rumdum in the future".	4444.746409761153
"What about you?	544.0617057163211
How would you feel about it if I were to ask you for a date when I get through at Hanover"?	57115.51100675803
"If I thought you were serious about going back to school, that you'd learned something from your experiences here and at Hanover- well, I might consider such an offer.	28677.310843472114
What about your h that girl you were going to kill"?	16547.852028705685
It suddenly seemed very important to me that Mary Jane Brennan should know the truth about me- that I was not the confused, sick, irresponsible person she believed me to be.	33452.09174265586
"There are things about me that I can't tell you now, Mary Jane", I said, "but if you'll go out to dinner with me when I get out of Hanover, I'd like to tell you the whole story.	2198.0334821257215
I can say this I'm dead serious about going back to school.	3075.274236766738
As for that other girl, let's just say that I never want to see her again.	11851.022253778
You will get to come home on long weekends from Hanover, won't you"?	13253.695537774083
"Yes, I'll get one overnight a month".	110.00529386984631
"We'll go up to the Edgewater Beach Hotel for dinner", I said.	592.4391622358759
"Do you like to dance?	323.04215942025667
They always have a good orchestra".	2049.550614940891
"I like to dance", she said, then turned and walked away.	159.27551725226368
There hadn't been anything really personal in her interest in me.	9623.437492551113
I knew that.	20.023116060267025
It was just that she felt deeply about every patient on the ward and wanted to believe that they might benefit from their treatment there.	23915.012505020608
Now, riding this hospital bus, feeling isolated and utterly alone, I knew that she was genuine and unique, quite unlike any girl I had known before.	33822.64036442323
It seemed the most important thing in my life at this moment that she should know the real truth about me.	2284.320739119948
It was a fantastic story.	132.82399669593676
Only two people in the state of Illinois knew that I was entering Hanover State Hospital under an assumed name, or why.	7236.263034953175
It was unlikely that any girl as sharp as Mary Jane Brennan would believe it without proof.	29049.018090826372
But I had the proof, all documented in a legal agreement which I would show her the moment I was free to do so.	5700.076643307236
As the bus turned into the main highway and headed toward Hanover I settled back in my seat and closed my eyes, thinking over the events of the past two weeks, trying to put the pieces in order.	24856.825567183678
I wondered suddenly as I listened to the disconnected jabberings coming from the patient behind me, if I had not perhaps imagined it all.	13451.889829270058
Perhaps this was reality and Dale Nelson, the actor, was delusion; a figment of Carl Anderson's imagination.	22972.012605597196
FOUR I had come to Chicago from New York early in September with a dramatic production called Ask Tony.	39244.074233884596
It was a bad play, real grade-A turkey, which only a prevalence of angels with grandiose dreams of capital gain and tax money to burn could have put into rehearsal.	60127.196191114235
No one, not even the producer, had any real hope of getting it back to Broadway.	10453.666074716475
But because it was a suspense gangster story of the Capone era, many of us felt that it might catch on for a run in Chicago, continue as a road company, and eventually become a movie.	41072.011606468994
Such optimism was completely unjustified.	6201.0243348005915
The critics literally screamed their indignation.	4355.900646869809
Ask Tony was doomed from the moment Kupcinet leveled on it in his Sun-Times column.	41791.070334850585
We opened on Friday and closed the following Monday.	4259.439844361398
Out of the entire cast I alone received good notices for my portrayal of a psychopathic killer.	12636.492338398237
This let me in for a lot of kidding from the rest of the company, two members of which were native Chicagoans.	13358.556654063232
We were paid off Tuesday morning and given tickets back to New York.	3070.0963324595973
I felt lonely and depressed as I packed my bags at the Croydon Hotel.	20048.04303173862
It seemed to me that my life was destined to be one brilliant failure after another.	409.9747540233517
I had been among the top third in my class at NYU, had wanted desperately to go to medical school, but I'd run out of money and energy at the same time.	13461.225862214733
Then later I had quit my safe, secure five-a-week spot on a network soap opera to take a part in this play.	23982.064602257356
It seemed to me that I was not only unlucky but quite stupid as well.	305.1896644158808
I knew that I'd soon be back working as an orderly at the hospital or as a counterman at Union News or Schraffts while waiting for another acting job to open.	29619.080837768757
It suddenly occurred to me that I did not particularly like acting, that I was at some sort of crossroads and would have to decide soon what I was going to do with my life.	6878.110655720233
I closed the last bag and stood all three at the door for the bellboy to pick up, then went to the bathroom for a drink of water.	23427.143978023614
The telephone rang.	931.5220448508991
When I answered it a voice too dignified and British to be real said, "Is this Mr Dale Nelson, the actor"?	138647.42697567187
"All right", I said.	16.936161553711806
"Why don't you bastards lay off for a while"?	2368.8921830346007
"I beg your pardon, sir"?	1457.2561945204063
"All right.	3.8043631555700803
This is Dale Nelson h the actor".	6153.29434301941
"Good.	165.9377663322197
I'm calling you, Mr Nelson, at the request of Mr Phillip Wycoff.	7244.142986075711
Could you possibly have lunch with him today?	6598.114790308019
His car could pick you up at your hotel at twelve".	13751.218803988673
I smiled.	227.9632757956067
"You'll send the Rolls-Royce, of course"?	2411.327676547749
"Yes, of course, Mr Nelson".	260.72342133812685
I started to say something else appropriate, but the man had hung up.	3358.221388544839
I finally went downstairs to the bar off the main lobby where most of the cast were drowning their sorrows over the untimely passing of Ask Tony.	94386.30890323584
They all bowed low as I approached them.	3585.1346463500554
"All right, you bastards", I said, "the great actor is about to buy a drink".	4447.440513399759
I laid a tenspot on the bar and motioned to the bartender to serve a round.	10230.47592571205
He had just returned my change when the doorman came in off the street to page me.	11667.206415752225
I walked over to him.	147.20830836860426
"You Mr Nelson"?	3939.963247824505
he asked.	2.83163735220959
"That's right".	162.09797825765767
"Mr Wycoff's car is waiting for you at the east entrance".	4919.4139783938235
I followed him out through the lobby to the street.	2285.943599348201
An ancient Rolls-Royce, as shiningly impressive as the day it came off the ship, was parked at the curb.	48083.528951373446
The elderly chauffeur, immaculate in a dark uniform, stood stiffly at attention holding open the door of the town car.	26171.901425529246
I was giving the parked cars the once-over.	2700.07372837102
The Oldsmobile with the license number JYJ 114 was in stall number five.	30480.75105296279
"Okay", I said to the attendant, "I'll let you know if I close the deal on the office in this building".	8885.770569604021
I walked with him back to the entrance.	109.91221961556609
He gave me a ticket on the agency car and parked it.	7289.321129679555
I was back in ten minutes.	61.56747550635763
"Forgot to get something out of the car", I told him, showing him my ticket.	9141.447158577572
He started to say something as I walked in and then suddenly grinned and said, "Oh, yes.	12347.468165942866
You're the one I was talking to about a monthly rental.	1979.2583392036602
"That's right", I told him.	55.83523673334041
He consulted the parking ticket, then looked at a notation and said, "You're in the third row back toward the rear.	16007.088550485454
Can you find it all right"?	2206.557507503476
"Sure", I told him.	15.45860161739419
I went back to the agency car and got out an electric bug, one of the newest devices for electronic shadowing.	10428.045060595237
I always keep a set in the car.	344.41942440564776
I put in new batteries so as to be certain I'd have plenty of power and on my way out walked over to the regular parking stalls and stood looking at them thoughtfully.	14639.592473004639
I waited until the parking attendant was busy with a customer, then slipped around the back of the car with license number JYM 114, attached the electronic bug to the rear bumper and walked out.	33231.603105253394
The attendant waved me on.	1481.3711357654556
One of the hardest chores a detective has is hanging around on a city street, trying to make himself inconspicuous, keeping an eye on the entrance of an office building and waiting.	17358.333660259
For the first fifteen or twenty minutes it's possible to be more or less interested in window displays, then in people passing by.	12923.630851395215
After a while, however, a person's mind gets fed up and that magnifies all of the disagreeable physical symptoms which go with that sort of an assignment.	30898.564057531745
You want to sit down.	1824.3346109971153
Your leg muscles and back muscles feel weary.	17698.38863046699
You're conscious of the fact that your feet hurt, that the city pavements are hard.	3361.61557962316
I waited a solid two hours before my man came out of the office building.	5471.606580782066
He came out alone.	146.39287778408863
I wasn't far behind him when he entered the parking lot and hurried over to his car.	2467.0276245686023
The attendant recognized me once more and said, "What did you do about that office"?	36639.31686188396
"I haven't made up my mind yet", I said.	917.907710449377
"It's a sublease.	772.5254441650764
I have a couple of them I'm figuring on; one here and one that's out quite a ways where there's usually curb parking".	35032.354017281505
"That curb parking is undependable and annoying, particularly when it rains", he said.	7304.001397046328
I kept trying to get him to take my money.	696.7828773407593
"Okay", I told him.	17.18138878901218
"I'm in a rush right now.	86.9759175096479
I know where the car is.	352.6160447986022
Want me to drive it out"?	13299.746642829165
"I'll have one of the boys get it", he said.	67.94531536172536
"It's one of the rules on transients.	429.80317803362016
Regulars drive out their own cars".	4905.924547660048
"Make it as snappy as you can, will you"?	5483.928344419492
I asked.	2.6665076521639826
"Oh, that's all right", he said.	47.048410254257334
"You're going to be a regular.	16.339221822310858
You'll get in the office building here.	354.91844407925436
You don't want to lease a place way out in the sticks.	9958.111561500285
You get business where the business is, not where it isn't".	9737.529396495838
I grinned at him, handed him a couple of dollars and said, "By the time you get the parking charge figured up, there should be a cigar in it for you".	41973.260975549776
I hurried over to the agency heap, jumped in, started the motor and was just in time to see the car I wanted to shadow turn to the left.	10335.2479791159
I was held up a bit trying to make a left turn.	2292.5251306436835
By the time I'd made it he was gone.	176.7654824722558
Traffic was pretty heavy.	702.8149117214159
I turned on the electric bug, and the signal came in loud and clear.	7454.40340958339
I made time and picked him up within ten blocks.	6054.290400946467
I stayed half a block behind him, letting lots of cars keep in between us, listening to the steady beep h beep h beep.	75768.64640738312
After fifteen minutes of traffic driving he turned to the left.	1183.187437370942
I couldn't see him, but the electric bugging device gave steady beeps when it was straight ahead, short half beeps when the car I was following was to the left, and long drawn-out beeps when it turned to the right.	28689.51805124076
If it ever got behind me, the beep turned to a buzz.	14703.550776663573
I turned left too soon and got a signal showing that I was still behind him but he was to the right.	3285.1741005921854
After a while the signal became a buzz and I knew he was behind me.	3158.42875920754
That meant he'd parked someplace.	4127.616742803644
I made a big circle until I located the car parked at the curb in front of an apartment house.	30654.848833956414
I found a parking place half a block away, sat in the car and waited.	15819.147784947398
My quarry was in the apartment house for two hours.	3009.272931261796
Then he came out and started driving toward the beach.	1803.1107707824
By this time it was dark.	56.768087339557134
I could get up close to him where there was traffic but had to drop far behind when there wasn't traffic.	20327.34770882696
My lights would have been a giveaway if I'd tried to shadow him in the conventional manner.	13836.18609043358
Moreover, I'd have lost him if it hadn't been for the electronic shadowing device h. His signal was coming loud and clear and then all of a sudden it turned to a buzz.	12182.787741462846
I circled the block and found he was in the parking lot of a high-class restaurant.	10972.808019279146
I sat where I could watch the exit and realized I was hungry.	4034.176594536232
I sat there with the faint odor of charcoal-broiled steaks tantalizing my nostrils and occasionally catching the aroma of coffee.	28639.477346512558
My man came out an hour later, drove to the beach, turned right and after half a mile went to the Swim and Tan Motel.	85019.26939581943
It was a fairly modern motel with quite a bit of electrical display in front.	1764.5461825207756
I remembered it was the Peeping Tom place.	6171.436609840765
I waited until my man was coming out of the office with the key to a cabin before I went in to register.	13207.153383406043
The card the man I was shadowing had filled out was still on the counter.	62511.84530968424
I noticed that he was in Unit 12 and that he had registered under the name of Oscar L Palmer and wife, giving a San Francisco address.	28493.350514970705
He had written out the license number of his car but had transposed the last two figures, an old dodge which is still good.	13571.850080255534
Ninety-nine times out of a hundred the motel manager doesn't check the license number on the plates against the license number the tenant writes out.	51193.11178226085
If he does, it's still better than an even chance he won't notice the transposition of the numbers, and if he should notice it, the thing can be passed off as an honest mistake.	30029.55503605398
I used the alias of Robert C Richards, gave the first three letters and the first and last figure of the license number on the agency heap, but a couple of phony numbers in between.	30079.85581344108
I could have written anything.	241.38177712043733
The manager of the motel was a woman who apparently didn't care.	5463.032964649798
She was complying with the law in regard to registrations but she certainly wasn't checking license numbers or bothering the tenants.	41023.95884328016
"You mean you're all alone, Mr Richards"?	18086.84387445957
"That's right".	162.09797825765767
"Your wife isn't going to join you- later"?	16448.467739138945
"I don't think so".	81.90668441072128
"If you expect her to show up", she said, "you'd better put 'and wife' on there.	1699.2170198846907
It's a formality, you know".	672.976787593807
"Any difference in the rate"?	3024.9811599833633
I asked.	2.6665076521639826
"Not to you", she said smiling.	1169.7484049804357
"It's ten dollars either way.	1649.0965696837648
There are ice cubes in a container at the far end and in another by the office.	5289.694852277082
There are three soft-drink vending machines, and if you should be joined by- anybody- try to keep things quiet, if you will.	6240.387476870319
We like to run a nice quiet place".	3745.9036871459375
"Thank you", I told her.	575.9465602143654
I took another sidelong glance at the other registration card, then took the key to Unit 13 that she had given me and went down long enough to park the car.	38955.6151905772
The construction was reasonably solid; not like the cracker-box construction of so many of the motel units that have stucco all over the outside but walls that are thin enough so you can hear every movement of the people in the adjoining apartment.	62476.04652822745
I put a small electric amplifier against the wall on the side I wanted to case.	1983.8527555538437
With the aid of that I could hear my man moving around, heard him cough a couple of times, heard the toilet flush, heard the sound of water running.	18727.319395702387
Whoever his companion was going to be, she was going to join him later.	1356.3047122238304
She knew where to come.	463.0196236616014
He didn't have to telephone.	324.8345467712147
I was so hungry my stomach felt all lines of communication had been severed.	11063.63758002402
It's one thing to go without food when you're occupied with some work or when you're simply postponing a meal, but when you're dependent on someone else and know that you can't eat until he's bedded down for the night, hunger can be a gnawing torture.	36893.92302496364
I had noticed a drive-in down the road a quarter of a mile.	1163.216932488622
The batteries on the bugging device I had put on the car were still fresh enough to send out good strong signals.	53453.40590997608
The powerful microphone I could press against the wall between my motel unit and that occupied by the man would bring in the sound of any conversation, and I was positively nauseated I was so hungry.	38187.921668859104
I got in the car, drove down to the drive-in and ordered a couple of hamburgers with everything included, a cup of coffee and the fastest service possible.	13235.829715107668
The place wasn't particularly busy at that time of night, and the girl who was waiting on me, who was clothed in the tightest-fitting pair of slacks I had ever seen on a woman and a sweater that showed everything there was- and there was lots of it- wanted to be sociable.	85356.75111040552
"You really in a hurry, Handsome"?	11719.933181953167
she asked.	3.9969589709243873
"I'm in a hurry, Beautiful".	222.36281656304817
"It's early in the evening to be in a hurry.	2421.531840691275
There's lots of time left".	2153.3525818054018
"There may not be any women left", I said.	255.41301770920538
She gave a little pout and said, "I don't get off work until eleven o'clock.	1011.0802986722208
That's when my evening commences".	1678.7537692631167
"I'll be here at ten-fifty-five", I said.	400.40871716068807
"Oh, you!"	29.914446994996624
she announced.	227.58090350796286
"That's what they all say.	383.57931678254874
What's that thing going buzz-buzz-buzz in your car"?	65524.99506037806
I said "Darn it, that's the automatic signal that shows when the ignition key is on.	35815.11473341294
I didn't turn it off".	137.23435884668484
I reached over and switched off the electronic bugging device.	10892.207960800377
She went in to get the hamburgers, and I switched on the device again and kept the signal from Dowling's car coming in steady and clear until I saw her starting back with the hamburgers.	304471.73855385254
Then I shut off the device again.	2064.751008274893
She wanted to hang around while I was eating.	1810.4064293264285
"Don't you think it's selfish to have dinner before you go to pick her up"?	20455.321270544773
"No", I said.	3.0610592479940713
"It's a kindness to her.	221.8258746906605
You see, she's on a diet.	1058.7653179890399
She'll eat just a pineapple and cottage cheese salad and I'm to have one with her so she won't feel out of place".	20668.844270689413
"diets can be terrible", the girl said.	6087.345070378244
"How much overweight is she"?	5111.363395112464
"Not a bit", I said, "but she's keeping her figure in hand".	1623.583795786999
She looked at me provocatively.	1214.3817813519904
"Good figures should be kept in hand", she said, and walked away with an exaggerated wiggle.	7295.271474538373
I turned on the device again, half fearful that I might find silence, but the buzzes came in loud and clear.	27967.867859989343
When I switched on the lights for her to come and get the check, I had the exact change plus a dollar tip.	11232.64906070703
The fat man said, "All we gotta do is go around the corner".	1408.8093734278032
The gun moved.	153.36475097390567
The thin man said, "That-a-way".	5431.907265915934
"- second building on the right".	188.11651690011246
"- it says police right on the door".	1312.5009555447125
"- so even if we was as dumb as you take us for, we could still find it".	9104.624622841648
Roberta and Dave began to back toward the door.	3116.528816619305
The thin man waved the gun again.	3522.652218285667
He said, "Right around the corner".	312.8347360948953
"It says water works, but there is a policeman on duty, too".	2262.8243656166032
"A night policeman just like in the States.	851.5289232944183
You know"?	201.26043309712745
"Canada doesn't have much of this here juvenile delinquency problem, but we keep a night policeman all the same on account of the crazy tourists".	28258.451173891703
At the door, Dave paused to feel for the latch.	9898.823251086527
Roberta glanced up at her husband.	4033.4630971676556
He was going to be sensible and not try to do anything rash with that gun pointed at him.	4423.534505358377
She measured the distance from where they stood to the men and the gun, measured the distance from the men to the back room.	7794.015707308261
She decided to risk it.	1569.9844811445312
There was something phony about all this gun waving- something not quite what it seemed in the detailed directions for finding the police.	30100.601231927376
Dave had the latch under his thumb now and he removed his arm from his wife in order to pull the door open.	60450.26206370042
In a flash she was away to the back, paying no attention to three angry shouts from the male throats.	67759.46903112282
She tore open the back door.	406.35620906096966
It was dark inside the room but enough light spilled from the restaurant behind her to enable her to make out a round table with a green cloth top.	50547.103253816844
There was a small sideboard with some empty beer bottles on it and perhaps fifteen wooden chairs.	9919.78194079055
Slowly she turned to face the men again.	1615.3095849694464
Rat-face at the counter was on his feet.	10601.151619802624
The distance between where she stood and where Dave waited at the outside door was a hundred miles.	24042.622200390473
Keeping her frightened gaze on the men at the counter, she began to feel her way to the door.	15438.204600940646
She sidled along the booths one step at a time.	3205.7593680783893
The gun followed her.	349.3220131075441
As she reached Dave and felt his arm go around her, felt him pull her to the safety of his person, she knew with the certainty of despair that something bad had happened to Lauren.	133054.15155943544
The two men watched as Dave closed the door behind them, watched them cross the sidewalk to their car.	12078.334398370285
It was getting light.	77.79417065397142
The fat man removed his apron, put on a greasy and wrinkled jacket, and zipped it over his paunch.	38473.90287653659
The thin man moved swiftly to the phone and dialed a number.	9036.01600109933
When he was answered, he said, "Albert?	2182.5081246946615
Vince.	3524.279832361616
I'm sending you a couple of customers- yeah- just get them out of my hair and keep them out- I don't give a damn what you tell them- only don't believe a word they say- they're out to make trouble for me and it is up to you to stop them- I don't care how- and one more thing- Cate's Cafe closed at eleven like always last night and Rose and Clarence Corsi left for Quebec yesterday- some shrine or other- I think it was called Saint Simon's- yeah, yesterday.	137431.3585213133
Got it"?	2865.645699152239
He turned from the phone and strode to the front of the restaurant.	2282.566577475518
The white Buick hadn't moved away yet.	2446.991790156423
Good.	165.9377663322197
A line of worry formed, a twitch pulled his mouth over to one side.	8251.152827418493
He said, "Grosse?	927.0780742092695
You ain't kidding me- the kid don't know the name of this town"?	47389.20518736952
"I ain't kidding you, Vince.	11147.564094900103
How could she?	988.7624672877638
She musta been walking in her sleep- you seen her yourself in here".	18862.89486756417
"Howda I know"?	33350.08237331247
"Remember how she looked when Barney held the door for her?	13422.976633590462
Kinda like a zombie?	48680.26290899099
She was just waking up when we found her at the garage".	4219.508277275385
Vince swore.	6886.910637010236
"Stupid fools- ain't got enough brains between the two of you"- Grosse muttered, his head down, one hand playing with the zipper on his jacket.	237186.297400194
"- had enough brains to call ya up so as ya could do sompin about it when the parents- I coulda let her go go"- His eyes were lowered, so he couldn't have seen the narrow, pointed face of his companion suddenly writhe with fury; but he was aware of it just the same.	105556.71856984925
He knew Vince Steiner was one of those men who had to work up a fury once in a while just to prove how dangerous he could be.	4762.155543281669
With a curse, Vince seized the thing nearest, a glass sugar container with a spouted metal top, and threw it against the wall opposite.	36573.251797256475
The heavy glass didn't break, but the top flew off; sugar sprayed with a hiss that was loud in the silence.	42041.8734182877
Not really startled, but careful to appear so, Grosse sucked noisily on his pipe.	38707.568738250426
Vince cursed steadily.	2845.916296285592
"Why does everything have to happen to me"?	2080.6682491691527
Grosse quietly got a broom and started to sweep up the sugar.	26212.704318148724
Vince watched him.	2845.915519803051
His mouth worked over the profanity, the obscenities in his vocabulary.	39693.84483725852
Once he said, "Why'n hell didn't you look in the back seat of the car before you drove off?	9516.709846077405
Don't you and Barney ever use your brains"?	9061.35565151702
The fat man didn't answer.	253.4013696116817
He got one of the menus and brushed the spilled sugar onto it and carried it to a box on the floor behind the counter.	64107.7915208841
He returned the menu to its place between catchup bottle and paper napkin dispenser.	25843.050745184755
He spoke soothingly.	860.3666927685063
"She don't know nothing about them cars.	3477.2158886551388
She thinks she's in a ordinary garage".	4722.480340221467
"How do you know, stupid?	393.6326396504934
And put Cate's gun back".	1508.3928057684464
"I know".	18.29685342835352
Grosse tucked the gun under the counter.	46700.52584867062
"- one word of this gets to Guardino"- "Who's telling Guardino"?	61177.23675686704
Vince swore again.	2845.9155453295784
"You get that kid over to Rose's house".	6586.855384158871
The fat man winced.	631.5848479220066
He ran a finger down his cheek, tracing the scratch there.	7293.656431476639
"Why can't I leave her locked up in the tool crib"?	4894.201344039836
The thin man stopped his pacing long enough to glance at the clock.	7883.0004133821185
"You and Barney get her over to Rose's before it gets too light.	19703.097949822994
After Guardino's left, we'll dump the kid somewhere near the border where she kin get home.	29324.322251625403
God help you if she knows where she's been".	9663.087806788812
Grosse spread his hands.	1381.0421576472997
"What am I going to do with her all day?	67.11332443055122
In the tool crib she can't get away".	2039.6927181415708
"What the hell do I care what you do with her all day?	1562.1725640692896
Just get her where Guardino won't see her and start asking questions".	20341.458979897012
Grosse swore now.	2845.9155528642464
"Dammit all, Vince.	18248.6338611592
I ain't no baby sitter".	2274.2360216298944
Vince shouted finally, "Get her over to Rose's and I'll come by and see that she stays put".	23333.934738633292
Grosse rubbed the bridge of his nose where it was swollen.	62234.61499081616
He spoke sullenly.	860.3666927685063
"You don't hafta get nasty.	2687.797431603301
I wish you luck when you try scaring that kid".	7444.526598240117
Suddenly he grinned.	230.82952524260543
His voice lost its sullen tones and he chuckled.	11386.279870787394
"I got one question".	252.1405951517307
"What is it"?	2.9074488611034295
Impatiently.	3524.279832361616
"Are you a poor dumb Canadian or a smart aleck from the States"?	9318.865678855202
Vince lifted his hand as if to strike, but his thin lips spread in a smile.	32126.453346384038
Grosse ducked and sniggered.	18248.6338611592
"Where'd you say you was born"?	26646.216830844536
"In a Chicago slum just like you.	509.665446596805
And I ain't going back there on account of one lousy kid".	19097.807147104177
Lauren Landis rubbed her face against the blanket.	22805.19197111529
She had cried a little because she was frightened.	2665.1172792535044
She could easily understand why the two men had been startled to find a strange girl in the back seat of their car she had figured that out, but she couldn't understand their subsequent actions.	23788.875778458216
Was it because she had shown panic?	5897.130679221409
Who could blame her for that?	1544.9272391668649
It was one thing to awaken outside a restaurant where your parents were eating and quite another to awaken in a strange garage and know your parents had gone on home without you.	52462.989710410664
She was glad the fat man had left.	465.4154356454766
Barney was not really frightening.	6962.0045308819745
She jumped as the little man now appeared at the window and, reaching through the opening, offered her a bottle of coke.	92743.37852042532
She smiled at him wetly.	6144.4312943795585
Although she found she was thirsty, she was about to refuse never, never take candy from a strange man when she saw the bottle was unopened.	39273.15736091118
He placed a bottle opener on the counter.	15557.242823231945
So, he understood her panic.	606.7385271945834
She blew her nose on a tissue and opened the coke bottle.	52371.28683450593
It was icy cold and tasted delicious.	3987.7100175828095
She felt a lift in spirit.	2545.60646067629
When she was finished she pushed it back.	350.4199731217222
The man was busy doing something to the inside of the door-frame on the driver's side of a car.	1569.6644795683217
She called softly, "Barney".	4644.694556560324
He looked in her direction but he didn't answer.	2448.8080024505634
She said, "Barney, why is he keeping me here"?	5833.617108981777
Still no answer.	428.2576345992843
He seemed to be looking at a point above the little window.	2356.689641367056
Lauren said, "Why can't I call my home?	40421.5727105559
Or borrow some money from someone and go home by bus?	76412.00635139339
I could send the money right back".	728.9767390518629
Barney finished the cigarette he had been smoking.	62474.78805050725
He dropped it and carefully ground it to nothing with the sole of his heavy shoe.	43272.660666952
Now he looked at her.	23.682890358500888
He said, "I only work here".	267.46578339377305
Lauren said, "Please"?	48680.26290899099
But he was back at work on a car.	119.06753721090614
She dropped her head on her arms on the counter.	28291.85898667668
How could he be kind one moment and cruel the next?	9033.808579388722
Did he know something that made him feel sad and sorry for her?	22124.84369040662
And was he afraid to do anything as definite as releasing her?	19819.279470294645
Her heart was thumping painfully; the unknown was so much worse than- what dangers lay ahead for her?	50445.276187884505
What awful thing had she to face in the next few hours?	14169.682292020223
Something wet and hot was trickling on her wrists.	10656.28330567266
Tears?	492.8151738923339
With a sturdy act of will she turned her mind away from herself; as long as she could do nothing constructive about the situation she was in, she would think about something else.	54046.06285860407
Her mother and father, for instance.	173.02747582649297
Where were they now?	436.98736758117
In her mind she followed the white Buick along the road somewhere between here and the Niagara River.	16143.25997947874
Her father's attention would be on the road ahead and it wouldn't deviate an inch until he crossed the bridge at the Falls and took the River Road to LaSalle and, finally, turned in at their own driveway at 387 Heather Heights.	107792.3257237638
Then he would yawn and stretch and shout, "All out.	5598.125299805626
This is the end of the line".	12.411992355163635
And what would her mother be doing right now?	5098.971360375387
Her mother would be fast asleep curled up against that wonderful, big, safe, solid shoulder next to her on the front seat.	50876.18018075864
Lauren Landis was in trouble and she was alone.	5356.893194404664
Roberta Landis put her hand on her husband's arm as he slid in the driver's seat beside her.	83700.60522449324
Somewhere birds were sweetly calling, were answered.	8401.154892616247
Her teeth chattered so that she made three attempts at speech before she became intelligible.	27719.082208098673
"Dave.	2492.0421682618858
I saw that woman's apron behind the door.	625.6755305841241
There was a wet spot- she couldn't have been gone long".	4203.053689790767
Dave made some sound meant to convey agreement.	15712.189303165762
He inserted the car key in the lock.	17816.251984755003
Roberta was violently trembling.	18248.6338611592
She stammered, "You heard what he said about police?	44001.256263347204
Why don't we drive around the corner"?	8201.879251459533
The car door crashed shut.	602.3825428786059
The engine throbbed into life.	398.78968643279387
Dave said, "I got the message.	1377.6252824019853
We're going".	19.447248259274666
Roberta said, "No.	5020.143639132334
You go.	181.74922834045339
Walk.	213.6782937764132
Suppose Lauren comes looking for us?	2753.659908063831
I can sit here in the car while you walk around the corner".	2500.1699873802972
The big car sprang away from the curb like something alive.	6142.096897141948
He said, "I'm not going to leave my wife and my car out here in sight of those"- Roberta glanced at him and stopped trembling.	6988.494933894018
His jowls were spiked by barbs of graying beard.	10583.935283947147
His small, mean eyes regarded Marty steadily, unblinkingly.	22528.66487309235
His eyes were threaded by little filaments of red as if tiny veins had burst and flooded blood into them.	35423.43624322202
As he chewed his gum and exuded wheezing breath, Marty smelt the reek of bad whiskey.	63537.101549191495
Marty recognized the man.	1345.3800772773614
He had driven the car that passed them on the road outside Admassy's place.	8103.588750688799
This was Acey Squire, proprietor of the juke joint.	3843.1908028047815
Marty smiled at Squire pleasantly and said, "There was a cab waiting for me here.	73165.14509632192
Do you know where it might have gone"?	1487.9483065592472
Squire chewed his gum, his jaw moving in a steady rhythm.	54775.46236429052
He looked straight at Marty.	1160.0217144526255
He did not answer.	3.5879000311744966
Marty scanned the faces of the others nearest him, looked into their staring eyes.	33138.65747370271
"Did anyone see my cab"?	3921.5646752966436
he asked, keeping his voice casual.	2343.9827465618955
He avoided showing any surprise or annoyance when no one answered him.	21351.698313152046
"I have to get back to Jarrodsville", he went on.	102.75477278987755
"I see there are some cars here.	1433.5504322915717
I wonder if one of you gentlemen could drive me back to town?	16872.10476098373
I'd be happy to pay for the favor, of course".	413.32481543837764
The seventeen men stood and stared at him for a moment longer.	9260.178912411982
And then a startling thing occurred.	634.1439448953436
It was so utterly unexpected that Marty stood for several moments with his mouth hanging open foolishly after it had happened.	10412.275451701078
There was no word spoken, no apparent signal given.	1007.3551253732356
Yet the men all moved at the same instant.	2414.729903335034
They piled into the waiting cars, motors roared, the cars sped off.	27280.613433989052
The station wagon and the old Plymouth headed east toward Jarrodsville.	28190.64574788064
The Ford and the pickup truck sped west toward Sanford's Run.	31015.996148296592
In seconds all four cars were out of sight.	1011.0781598407877
Marty Land stood alone on a red-clay road as storm clouds gathered ominously in the sky again.	102389.65923827533
From a great distance thunder growled and broke the silence.	3443.1675888295367
Land looked back toward the dilapidated house.	4524.163097815635
He thought he saw a pale face at a window.	310.44286234839325
Perhaps it was Dora May.	346.40055738549876
Perhaps she would be glad that they hadn't hurt him.	11380.156947097641
There were other farmhouses nearby.	289.91155556550757
Across the road there was one no more than a hundred yards away.	804.1825451404359
There was another on this side, a little further down.	865.1545248889336
There were many more between here and Jarrodsville.	1548.9934616294972
Telephone poles lined the road.	764.3138107267613
They reared tall and mocking.	6156.152155384579
Their wires stretched out into infinity.	2944.8687729413255
Not a single strand of wire reached into the silent houses beside the red-clay road.	15660.426114381853
There was nothing he could do but walk.	768.0992771787377
And Jarrodsville was more than three miles away, down an old dirt road that the rain had turned into a quagmire.	96855.68136764785
Marty faced east and started walking down the left side of the road.	2426.2297182631482
After he had proceeded a few feet, he paused and turned up the cuffs of his trousers, which were already damp and mud-caked.	26098.96547564976
The viscous mud was ankle-deep, and in places great puddles spread across the road and reflected the murky light.	18435.043129456917
As he approached the first farmhouse, thunder sounded behind him again, closer now and louder, like a steadily advancing drum corps.	24722.220451909
There were several people on the porch of the farmhouse.	905.0166882829261
There was a very old man and a young woman and a brood of children ranging from toddlers to teen-agers.	2182.4000827408654
For just an instant he thought of appealing to them for help.	2493.088904110029
Perhaps they had a car or truck and would drive him into town.	7438.161842586556
Then he realized the utter futility of the idea.	791.9715558621212
They were staring at him in the same blank and menacing way that the men outside the gate had stared.	29557.897146742795
Even the eyes of the smallest children seemed malicious.	1830.585531745092
On his side of the road there were two farm hands, well back in a field, leaning against a plow.	16059.219837367013
They, too, stared at him.	94.73500803773821
The drums of thunder were right behind him now.	3344.895964022901
A foolish thought came into his head.	1515.2199842824107
He remembered a story he had read as a youth.	2185.712973663644
It was probably one of Kipling's tales of the British Army.	876.2784752558016
It concerned an officer who had been disgraced and drummed out.	4799.528816266258
The steady roll of the drums had sounded behind him as he walked between the endless ranks of the men he had commanded, and each man about-faced and turned his back as the officer approached.	51319.4151634383
Marty wished these poor farm people would turn their backs.	84339.60894070454
The fencing by the roadside ended.	2924.526389939659
Now the dirt highway was bordered on either side by a fairly deep drainage ditch, too broad to leap over unless you were an Olympic star.	99392.19532510737
The day's rain had been added to the stagnant water.	6008.704034093618
He was trapped on the road when he heard the sound of an approaching car.	6647.6197870940605
It was coming toward him.	116.07270374263486
The car was now in sight.	98.8401000298799
Marty's heart skipped a beat when he recognized it.	29580.813230246797
It was the station wagon that had passed his cab on the road, the station wagon that had been parked at the Burch farm.	16251.696231821532
Acey Squire's station wagon.	1381.5141792867062
It had headed back toward Jarrodsville.	2927.664050632134
That had only been a ruse to lure him out on the deserted road.	29988.86392697157
Now Acey and his friends were returning to seek him out.	4810.2467008681815
The station wagon came to a stop a couple of hundred feet in front of him, beside a fenced field.	5904.038186910549
Then there was another sound.	151.02448277107953
A second car was coming from the west, from the direction of Sanford's Run.	4631.43644204815
It was the Ford that had been outside Burch's farm.	1930.459202951978
Marty looked helplessly in both directions.	11757.828108878444
It was a narrow road, barely wide enough for two cars to pass.	2425.0108345944177
He could not leave the road because of the water-filled drainage ditch.	1113.3394704020773
When the two cars were equidistant from him, the station wagon started up again and the Ford gathered speed.	13834.604583049002
They bore down on him.	183.77966485106603
There was nothing he could do except jump into the ditch.	3165.045341025833
He jumped, and sank to his knees in muddy water.	6269.415081618323
As the two cars roared by, there was a high-pitched eerie, nerve-shattering sound.	5872.404498702248
Marty knew how the Union soldiers must have felt at Chancellorsville and Antietam and Gettysburg when the ragged gray ranks charged at them, screaming the wild banshee howl they called the Rebel yell.	437058.8483131952
For moments he stood in water, shivering and gasping for breath.	4121.86750515526
He had turned his ankle slightly, and it pained him.	7350.630524166517
The cars, with their load of howling men, had disappeared in the distance.	5125.138893110775
There had been two more cars parked at the farm, a Plymouth and a pickup truck.	10020.474609263289
They would be coming for him next, bearing down on him from both directions.	6770.648931191807
And then the station wagon and the Ford would seek him out again.	3045.490208803524
He would be harassed repeatedly and would escape death by inches time after time, all the way to Jarrodsville.	10254.305993705124
He still had three miles to go.	515.3841668887885
Back East the more affluent juvenile delinquents, who could afford hyped-up autos instead of switch blades as lethal weapons, played this same game and called it "Chicken".	205301.64792273103
He could not go through the fields.	362.74679896621274
That way was barred on both sides of the road by a high barbed-wire fence.	2735.4062778344046
He had to make for the section of road just ahead that was bordered by the rail fence, the section by the farmhouse.	26665.06155703492
At least he could climb up on the fence when his tormenters roared by again.	13833.584932305148
The Admassy place could not be far now.	4524.7934222644435
He would go in there, climb through the window, and at least be safe for a little while and able to rest.	4132.04135763346
There was even a bare chance that the phone had not been disconnected.	7069.820365671284
He did not dare climb back up to the road.	206.33677931492994
He was deep in water, but at least they could not reach him there.	2381.6518293353392
He splashed on, mud sucking at his feet with each step, until he reached the end of the drainage ditch and the beginning of the fence that enclosed the farm.	15564.868827744576
He climbed back to the road, and he felt utterly exhausted.	1172.7102346473396
He stood, panting, for a moment.	142.65371237309517
And then he saw something that he had not seen before, and panic gripped him again.	4663.14910930714
The fence, his only refuge when the metal death came roaring at him, was made of rails, all right, but the rails were protected by a thick screening of barbed wire that would rip his flesh if he pressed against it.	59413.2061986024
He lurched on down the road despairingly, because there was no place else to go.	4348.142394745959
He lost all sense of dignity.	56.642578280759395
You could not stand on dignity when you were soaked and muddied and your life was at stake.	3875.5951188499007
Probably people were watching him from the porch or from behind the windows of this farmhouse, too, but he did not bother to look.	2881.7573050170377
He broke into a dogtrot, breathing heavily, streaming with sweat.	4273.172021172082
He had to reach Admassy's place.	283.00489880885993
It was his only sanctuary.	133.8345001708653
The fences on both sides of the road bristled with the barbed wire.	1348.0735534374105
The fences stretched on endlessly.	4657.048202651245
And then he heard them.	328.323494206673
And now he saw them.	114.54823242225422
The Plymouth was coming at him from the east, the pickup truck from the west.	12681.770946303584
They had timed it better this time.	727.9774427528417
They would reach him at almost exactly the same instant.	1934.3069743097108
He stopped stone-still.	669.2144468053117
If he backed against the fence, one of the cars would brush him as it passed, and he would be cruelly lacerated by the wire.	27123.524943079843
He stumbled to the middle of the road and simply stood there, waiting for them, a perfect target.	2937.830091277946
The cars must have had their gas pedals pushed down to the floor boards.	12215.186927215078
They were coming on at reckless speed for such old vehicles.	5775.67611644447
They thundered at him.	351.3521781696876
He held his arms close to his sides and made himself as small as possible.	1419.1417484248177
When the Plymouth neared, it veered toward him and seemed about to run him down.	9457.294492513543
He forced himself to stay frozen there.	4261.329321614228
If he moved, he would be in the path of the other car.	264.08980703289797
He thought the fender of the Plymouth brushed his jacket as it went by.	11883.042326950934
In a fraction of a second the pickup truck hurtled by on the other side.	491.6584071922109
The weird, insane sound of the Rebel yell reverberated again and echoed from the distant hills.	52862.23356925295
He did not leave the middle of the road.	29.100336409016055
He did not try to run.	61.12594498911124
He trudged on, his aching eyes focused straight ahead.	6718.0474621900385
He was nearing the Admassy house.	1105.6739986515013
He was going to make it, he told himself.	50.066142916676284
And then he heard a car coming from the east, and he felt as if he would break down and weep.	8589.758156466887
"Oh, no, not again", he said aloud.	351.55229480310686
"Not again so soon".	837.6778891352509
There was a new sound, a sound as piercing as the Rebel yell, yet different.	9061.965722794332
It was the sound of a siren.	683.5038572233102
Now he saw that the approaching car was painted white, and he began to wave his arms frantically.	22946.08517315544
It was the prowl car from the sheriff's office.	2143.1146557207403
The car drew up alongside him and stopped.	3120.1355906747185
"Get in", Charley Estes said brusquely.	9528.488339384277
He staggered into the back seat and lay back, fighting for breath.	8703.50708131159
There was someone in front with the sheriff.	7544.672948072442
It was Pete Holmes, the cabdriver.	6608.509122680714
Pete turned around and said to Marty, "I guess you think I'm a yellow-bellied hound.	24107.969123856114
But there wasn't no use in me staying there.	3749.9978763274426
I couldn't fight a dozen or so of 'em.	780.0071678308369
If I'd stayed, all that I'd have got was four punctured tires and one busted head.	9559.409134960437
Why didn't you wait at the Burch house?	4454.936716247611
You must've known I'd gone to get the sheriff.	17918.579539501083
I was lucky they let me go, I guess".	542.665235286398
The sheriff was occupied with maneuvering the car around in a very narrow space.	11731.768172962746
When it was finally pointed east, he said, "You should never have come out here alone.	3255.755184897199
This is redneck country.	416.0715847216198
Every man in every one of these houses is a Night Rider.	8000.270485792525
Then he turned the telephone over to Rourke, and went into the bedroom to change his slippers for dry socks and shoes.	13823.465946517354
Rourke was talking on the phone when he came back.	21835.52725244933
"About an hour, eh?	7743.285706904781
Are you positive"?	951.4535548397081
He listened a moment and then said, "Hold it".	4983.455088019204
He turned his head and said, "Alvarez will definitely be in a back room at the Jai Alai Club on South Beach within an hour.	14389.149770750982
Want to try and meet him there"?	28476.750995500835
Shayne looked at his watch.	6798.944040094643
That wasn't too far from Fifth Street, and should allow him to make Scotty's Bar by midnight.	29584.375489441027
He said with satisfaction, "That's fine, Tim.	7253.175143506437
I'll be there".	48.77289171961769
Rourke confirmed the appointment over the phone and hung up.	12956.69218829878
"I don't know what you're getting into, Mike", he said unhappily.	1285.0907695093024
"I hope to Christ h".	198.72257561983793
Shayne said briskly, "Grab another drink if you want it.	5971.761218155651
We've got one other call to make before I meet Alvarez".	6100.12153585288
"Where"?	36.763511553165756
"It's out in the Northeast section.	1258.2415794801655
Have you got my car here"?	632.5806938748253
"It's parked in front".	113.85629602335251
Rourke hastily slopped whiskey into his glass on top of half-melted ice-cubes.	85245.99575063244
"I'd better keep on driving yours", Shayne decided, "because I'll be going on over to the Beach.	16602.79865917028
I can drop you back here to pick mine up".	6203.299562084136
He went to a closet to get a light jacket, and took his hat from beside the door.	3694.5688621951786
Timothy Rourke gulped down the whiskey hastily and joined him, asking, "Who are we going to call on in the Northeast section"?	64216.888504688955
"A lady.	22.223760689650586
That is, maybe not too much of a lady.	76.48859527543388
At least, I want to find out whether she's home yet or not".	218.72704964431995
He opened the door and followed Rourke out.	2162.211729546884
In Rourke's car, Shayne drove east to Biscayne Boulevard and north toward Felice Perrin's address which had been given to him by the Peralta governess.	39856.56690185369
As he drove, he filled in Timothy Rourke briefly on the events of the evening after leaving the reporter to go to the Peralta house, and on his own surmises.	23804.646762670287
"I want to be in Scotty's Bar at midnight when Marsha makes her phone call there", he ended grimly.	20280.99470429905
"I don't know whether that threatening letter of hers has anything to do with this situation or not, but I want to see who takes the call".	5153.115608093875
"This deal at Las Putas Buenas where the two knife-men jumped you", said Rourke with interest, "that sounds like it was set up with malice aforethought by the luscious Mrs Peralta, doesn't it"?	191593.1787085893
"It does", Shayne grunted sourly, still able to taste her mouth on his in the Green Jungle parking lot.	43375.802715506
"That story of hers about an unsigned note directing her to be there tonight sounds completely phony.	47405.42472884679
If it was designed to put me on the spot, it would have to have been written before Peralta ever called me in on the case".	260.19389483377665
"Do you think Laura did have the counterfeit bracelet made without her husband's knowledge"?	16401.771197385184
"I haven't the faintest idea.	423.6135708094858
I think her husband strongly suspects so, and that's why he called me in on the thing in direct defiance of his confederates h and almost certainly without telling them why he was doing so.	54184.895517110635
Isn't this Felice's street"?	6167.986775909153
Shayne asked, peering ahead at the partially obscured street sign.	45635.647996384745
Rourke could see it better out the right-hand side, and he said, "Yes.	6352.85275039954
Turn to the left, I think, for that number you gave me.	323.0653641905456
Not more than a block or so".	140.7575283779806
Shayne got in the left-hand lane and cut across the Boulevard divider.	32591.973656415033
There was a small, neon-lighted restaurant and cocktail lounge on the southeast corner of the intersection as he turned into the quiet, palm-lined street where most of the houses on both sides were older two-story mansions, now cut up into furnished rooms and housekeeping apartments.	75470.38354729646
Shayne drove westward from the Boulevard slowly, letting Rourke crane his head out the window and watch for street numbers.	61291.575249968766
A single automobile was parked half-way up the block on the left-hand side.	5704.371007383627
Shayne noted idly that it carried Miami Beach license plates as he approached, and then saw the flare of a match in the front seat as they passed, indicating that it was occupied.	152143.91062837662
He turned to see the briefly-illumed faces of two men in the parked car just as Rourke said, "It's the next house, Mike.	40590.959331053156
On the right".	4.37847863492057
Instead of pulling into the curb, Shayne increased his speed slightly to the corner where he swung left.	27808.85731539842
He went around the corner and parked, turning off his lights and motor.	14021.586172257275
"I told you, Mike", said Rourke in an aggrieved voice.	8944.807953631596
"It was back there h".	364.90066190598316
Shayne said, "I know it was, Tim".	12527.103495966592
His voice was chilling and cold.	290.845650328257
"Did you see the car parked across the street"?	788.843357309712
"I didn't notice it.	351.8480667898563
I was watching for numbers h".	1090.8537396581296
"It has a Beach license, Tim.	2144.2034026790875
Two men in the front seat.	395.541505737915
I got a quick look at their faces as we went past.	5534.3133662785
Unless I'm crazy as hell, they're two of Painter's dicks.	25782.456054293078
A couple named Harris and Geely.	4161.5224016215825
Those names mean anything to you"?	1780.8569192846514
"Wait a minute, Mike.	1609.2517077219354
In Painter's office this evening h".	3876.8755152619174
Shayne nodded grimly.	11770.304497228983
"The pair whom Petey is officially commending for slapping me around and pulling me in".	31863.68792311784
"What are they doing here"?	886.5974799353058
"A stake-out, I suppose.	3670.168716979919
On Felice Perrin.	3174.7501856948434
Maybe with specific orders to see that I don't make contact with her.	4467.29433856548
I'm not positive, Tim.	618.552572785325
I may be wrong.	132.91533745069842
I'll slide out and walk around the block back to the cocktail lounge on Biscayne.	16420.149761552646
You drive on and circle back and pull up beside them parked there.	27735.008597806736
You're a reporter, and you're looking for Miss Perrin to interview her.	3216.177608430581
Make them show their hands.	438.6295339516506
If they are Beach cops on a stake-out, they'll admit it to a reporter.	8927.398194566227
They've got no official standing on this side of the Bay.	162.38256448699482
As soon as you find out if they are Geely and Harris, come on around to the lounge where I'll be waiting".	8199.552257264115
Shayne opened the door on his side and stepped out.	12203.972656700069
Timothy Rourke groaned dismally as he slid under the wheel.	6658.252966808884
"The things you talk me into, Mike h".	3805.2422231562628
Shayne chuckled.	6886.910637010236
"How often do they add up to headlines?	4547.003758702769
You should complain".	708.2913050973289
He crossed the street and walked swiftly southward to circle back to the Boulevard and north a block to the open restaurant.	9816.022545069989
He was standing at the end of the bar enjoying a slug of cognac when Rourke came in six or eight minutes later.	5497.113207721231
The reporter nodded as he moved up beside him at the bar.	2333.6569655670337
Shayne told the bartender, "Bourbon and water", and Rourke told him, "It's those two, all right.	24195.262526280116
Harris and Geely.	1273.2456124769094
I made them show me their identification before I could be persuaded not to call on Felice Perrin".	51582.00889709752
Shayne said happily, "I've got it all worked out, Tim.	34765.253250225185
Take your time with your drink.	2687.94934804313
I'll beat it.	56.54204888633668
In exactly three minutes, go in that phone booth behind you and call Police Headquarters.	76266.9000503159
Be excited and don't identify yourself.	4598.269718801227
Just say that a couple of drunks are having a hell of a fight down the street, and they better send a patrol car.	11255.233738161849
Then hang up fast and come walking on down to the Perrin address.	16760.301487269197
I'll be waiting for you there".	138.62312564209876
The bartender brought Rourke's drink and Shayne laid a twenty-dollar bill on the bar.	11923.864616145425
He said in a low voice, "I've got a date with a lady, Mister.	1653.0425934599643
Will that pay for a pint I can take with me.	4832.615771119758
You know how it is", he added with a conspiratorial wink.	2249.1190438864464
"Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker h and you don't have any candy for sale here anyhow".	27413.038036349895
"We sure don't".	406.3997387618274
The bartender winked back at him and palmed the bill.	6263.941174842211
He turned away and returned in a moment with a pint of brandy in a small paper sack which he slid over the counter to Shayne.	77611.93557675811
As the detective slid it into his pocket, Rourke asked sadly, "What in hell are you going to do, Mike"?	18198.23902373823
"Make a couple of punk detectives named Geely and Harris wish to God they'd stayed out of my way this afternoon.	40540.72370712688
Three minutes, Tim".	3168.452327532875
Shayne strode out blithely, and Rourke checked his watch and sipped his drink, getting a dime ready to make the telephone call to the police.	83441.29512398473
Outside, Shayne hesitated when he saw that Rourke had parked his coupe directly in front of the bar headed south.	12686.962565094129
He walked over to the right-hand door, opened it and got the reloaded automatic out of the glove compartment and put it in his hip pocket.	25677.070084450344
He hoped he wouldn't be forced to use it in taking care of the Beach detectives, but its weight was comforting at his hip.	27538.365411883562
On this side of the Bay, Miami Beach cops had no more legal rights than any ordinary citizen, and Shayne's pistol permit was just as good as theirs.	23261.911182763535
He went swiftly up the sidewalk toward the parked car with the two Beach detectives in the front seat.	31119.74787298176
He tugged the brim of his hat low as he approached, stepped out into the street just behind the car and strode around to the right-hand side.	34056.63295383675
The big, paunchy man named Geely was on that side, half-turned in the seat toward his hatchet-faced companion so that his back partially rested against the closed door.	71822.84525660319
Shayne turned the handle and jerked the door open before either of the men were quite aware of his presence in the night.	22297.53819746529
Geely grunted and slid partly out, and Shayne's left arm snaked in around his neck to help him, while he set himself solidly on the roadway and swung his right fist to the big, gum-chewing jaw before Geely could straighten up.	223115.55870469895
Shayne stepped back to let him slump to the ground, and then dived over him through the open door into Harris who was cursing loudly and trying to drag a gun from a shoulder holster, somewhat impeded by the steering wheel.	223559.72343595285
Shayne locked his big hands around Harris' thin neck and dragged him out over the seat into the roadway.	142894.17067983391
He hit him once on the sharp point of his chin and felt the body go limp.	12904.996381916571
He dropped him into the street a couple of feet away from Geely's recumbent figure and stared down at both of them for a moment before kicking the big man lightly in the side.	32174.193083371963
He didn't stir.	704.8788989867827
They were both breathing heavily, out cold, and Shayne didn't think either of them had recognized him or could describe him.	32419.332812433095
He got the pint of liquor out of his pocket and unscrewed the top, sprinkled the pungent stuff liberally over both men, and then tossed the open bottle in on the front seat.	50440.72936547368
He turned, then, to look toward the lighted Boulevard, and saw Rourke's tall, emaciated figure come out of the lounge and hurriedly start to angle across the street toward the opposite side.	35541.58731496857
Shayne strolled across to intercept the reporter in front of the two-story house where Felice Perrin lived, and asked casually, "Get the police okay"?	81722.23278023614
"Sure.	219.72205145867906
Said they'd have a patrol car here fast.	2972.5785071206824
Let's get inside.	442.0610192518969
What happened with you"?	81.78004625433168
"Why the two damned fools got all excited when they saw the bottle, and knocked each other out cold", Shayne said good-humoredly.	50475.560101841336
"They'll have fun explaining that to the Miami cops.	4123.236394695245
Got no business over here on a stake-out anyway".	41582.961005357865
They went up onto a front porch and into a small hallway where a dim bulb burned high in the ceiling.	11897.742701798292
A row of mailboxes along the wall had numbers and names on them.	11297.780791788973
Shayne found one marked PERRIN 2-A.	8857.128105606724
The stairway on the right was dark, but there was a wall-switch at the bottom which lighted another dim bulb at the top, and they went up.	20067.57970750913
There were two front rooms, both dark behind their transoms, and there was no sound or light in the entire house to indicate that any of the occupants were awake.	31906.862538552068
Eight, nine steps above him, Roberts had paused.	17711.008481323166
Mickey paused with him, waiting, no longer impatient, trying now to think it out, do a little planning.	90955.97795905409
He looked down over the banister at the hotel desk, with the telephone and pen set.	6798.715662148984
If I could call in, they could check the story while we were on our way.	4083.418569785173
I wouldn't have to tell them I had Roberts- Then he heard it, like a muffled thud, felt a subtle change in air pressure.	12339.388959285
He glanced up in time to see Roberts hurtling down on him from above, literally flying through the air, his bloody face twisted.	36649.0615313985
Mickey tried to flatten against the banister, gripped it with one hand, but Roberts' full weight struck him at that moment in the groin.	141399.28495374977
He gasped for air and the impact tore his hand from the rail.	19979.832536540784
He tumbled with Roberts, helpless and in agony, over and over, down the steps.	5408.675838801517
By a wrenching effort, he managed to hunch and draw in, to take the final fall on his back and shoulders rather than his head.	15691.287223704066
He was fuzzy in his mind and, for a moment, helpless on the lobby floor, but he was conscious, and free of the weight of Roberts' body.	6739.326576847805
When his vision cleared he saw the taller one scrambling upward, reaching.	22272.465927818823
Mickey was on his knees when Roberts turned on the stairs and the razor flashed in his hand.	10504.814848133157
He felt his empty pocket and knew that Roberts had retrieved the only weapon at hand.	7326.300375680961
Mickey's eyes fixed on the other's feet, which would first betray the moment and direction of an attack.	52812.4678206538
He rose stiffly, forcing his knees to lock.	13751.625782925557
The knifelike pain in his groin nearly brought him down again.	18571.121332524024
He made himself back off slowly, his eyes wary on Roberts, who now had no more to lose than he.	22555.491182713882
The pain dulled as he moved, and he steadied inside.	12556.054902527345
After a moment he extended one hand, the fingers curled.	5457.6667097761265
"Come on", he said.	58.82548190870652
"You want to be that big a fool- I was hoping for this".	8784.102199745541
Roberts brushed at his eyes with his free hand and started down the steps.	22224.365057408515
He held the razor well out to one side.	561.9835503843556
He was invulnerable to attack, but he could be handled, Mickey knew, if he could be brought to make the first move.	1787.65409231624
They were eight feet apart when Roberts cleared the last step.	1109.7470922855796
Mickey waited with slack arms.	6242.707323621122
"Any time, Roberts", he said.	496.8869948959754
"Or would it be easier if I put my hands in my pockets"?	35522.46418440942
The taunt was lost on Roberts.	2772.678591288169
He advanced slowly, directly, giving no hint of a feint to either side.	36003.39949351385
He was just short of arm's reach when he stopped.	4406.912804470328
Mickey backed off two steps, forcing him to come on again.	17209.06818068622
There was a fixed grin on Roberts' face, made hideous by the swollen nose and the smeared blood.	24923.974799569838
Mickey backed off again and Roberts hesitated, then came along.	38500.61117347991
They moved in a series of rhythmic fits and starts, a macabre dance- two steps back, two steps forward, two steps back.	58665.19367485358
Mickey felt his shoulders come up against the wall beside the heavy slab front door.	26108.57780327018
This was going to be it now, any second, and what he had to remember was to keep his eye on the razor, no matter what, even if Roberts should feint with a kick to the groin, the deadly hand was his exclusive concern.	19752.11942115957
The kick came, sudden and vicious but short.	8075.025042484898
Mickey's guts twisted with the effort, but he kept his eye on the weapon.	10303.572979972289
It moved in a silver arc toward his throat, then veered downward.	15522.302799009149
He hunched his left shoulder into it and slashed at Roberts' forearm with his own, felt the blade slide off his sleeve.	118148.8295425231
Before Roberts could move inside to cut upward toward his face, he slammed his right fist into Roberts' belly.	104037.06010382992
Roberts sagged and slashed at him wildly.	14442.07004321672
Ducking, Mickey tripped and fell to one side, landing heavily on the wood floor.	47712.63408552885
Then Roberts was on him, gasping for breath and for a couple of seconds Mickey lost sight of the blade.	11201.526619111426
He felt it rip at the side of his jacket and a momentary sting under his left ribs.	31827.60847842382
He got a knee up into Roberts' belly, used both hands and heaved him clear, then scrambled to his feet.	16122.619789058395
They were in the center of the lobby now.	95.57489777129281
Still clutching the razor, Roberts came up into a crouch, shaking his head.	26650.819241003417
When he charged Mickey was ready.	929.0436300196534
He hit Roberts with his left fist in the ribs and the razor cut toward him feebly, then wobbled in mid-air.	74617.2266160924
With his right fist, and nearly all his weight behind it, he smashed at the bloodstained face.	6464.294541928864
Roberts careened backward, his back arched, fought for balance and, failing, stumbled against the newel post at the foot of the stairs.	21722.04867291807
The sound of his head striking the solid wood was an ultimate, sudden-end sound.	7721.03039511562
He fell on his side across the lowest step, rolled over once, then lay still.	31473.494553014327
Mickey found himself leaning against the desk, with stiff hands, panting for breath.	34091.9167856889
After a minute he went to Roberts, looked at one of his eyes and felt for a pulse.	13587.683612741017
He couldn't feel any.	283.4142600339346
Roberts appeared to be dead; if not yet, then soon, very soon.	61178.106335175835
Suddenly it was cold in the lobby.	1408.8752671173083
12 It seemed to him that a long time had passed before he decided what to do.	2317.908289922188
Actually it was no more than eight or ten minutes, and the sum of his reasoning came to this There's no way to take him in now and keep those other two- Wister and the one who hired the two of them- from finding out about Roberts and lamming out.	28183.53126052702
The local law here would hold me till they check clear back home, and maybe more than that.	6402.449914007783
They would have to.	66.40831354141255
By then they could never catch up with the others.	488.00742089620786
There's no other way; I'll have to do it myself.	207.90865545392748
He looked at where Roberts lay sprawled on the step.	1357.731462227214
Mickey was sure now he was dead.	3138.6072966792926
One thing, he thought, nobody knows about it yet.	734.5631250088865
Only me.	150.1514059797954
He climbed the stairs, went into Roberts' room, found a suitcase and packed as much into it as he could.	18290.070504885476
He left a few things.	159.27002722575583
It didn't have to be perfect.	624.073503879162
Roberts was a wastrel.	14895.160804602792
Walking away on impulse, he might logically leave behind what it was inconvenient to carry.	94782.06787711443
When he had closed the suitcase he found a rag and moved about the room, wiping carefully everything he might have touched.	18949.986684391588
It took him nearly an hour.	214.11399585374312
He went to the room he had rented and got into his overcoat.	877.960665397266
He left the rest of his things and returned to the lobby.	709.6726148975733
He set Roberts' suitcase near the front door, went outside and walked back to the garage.	6972.880013127901
He was mildly surprised to find it was snowing.	2957.6851170978807
It snowed softly, silently, an undulating interruption of his vision against the night sky.	55034.23322207702
He could feel it on his face and in his hair.	413.0070794246602
He found the key to the Jeep, got it started and warmed it up for five minutes.	5785.383186417459
Then he backed out and swung around to the front drive.	5292.883283787844
He went into the hotel and searched till he found the razor.	5329.929409440414
He put it in his own pocket for safekeeping.	3212.935119059762
He took the suitcase out to the Jeep and put it in the front seat.	11553.879352778426
Then he went back for Roberts.	334.51919954391826
The body was heavier than he had anticipated.	1609.0187529061836
He got it onto his shoulder after some work and carried it outside and down to the Jeep.	45084.70289288206
He dumped it into the back and made sure it wouldn't roll out, then returned to the porch and closed the front door, making sure it was unlocked.	46353.33430315853
He drove carefully in the direction of the brief tour they had taken earlier.	5295.491553370824
It snowed continuously, but quietly, evenly.	24641.314947869698
When he reached the dip in the woods, he saw that already the earlier ruts were barely discernible.	28202.356161222346
The Jeep fought its way through the low spot and got onto higher ground.	6225.244393712206
He drove in low gear to the fork in the road and swung as close as possible to the entrance to the abandoned mine.	6520.391124469854
He parked facing it and left the headlights on, but when he started into the tunnel with the suitcase, he found the illumination extended no farther than half a dozen feet into the passage.	91494.46902228791
He went back and got the flashlight, returned to the tunnel and carried the suitcase to the edge of the pit he had found earlier.	25945.656181786537
He tossed the bag into the pit and watched dry dust spray up around it.	20073.020623973633
When the dust settled, he went back to the Jeep and carefully worked Roberts' body onto his shoulder.	5790.441876972768
It wasn't like carrying the suitcase.	2784.5177518759706
The soft snow was deceitful underfoot.	6503.79148805246
Twice he nearly fell.	335.5083056417322
Inside the passage, he had to work his way over the fallen timber and nearly collapsed under his clumsy burden.	17468.205583365503
By the time he reached the edge of the pit he was panting and his shoulder and back ached under the drag of the dead weight.	8382.869740567607
He stood looking down for a few seconds, then backed up two or three paces from the edge.	2352.0351147582464
There was too much weight casually to toss it away.	1623.4309073673298
He could feel himself falling in with it and being unable to get out.	715.5931388514288
It would be a bad place to die.	339.90508223857466
It was a bad place for Roberts to wind up, but Roberts had asked for it.	1872.7773439823818
It was too late to worry about that.	664.876174178811
He knelt slowly and dumped the corpse onto the floor of the tunnel.	7942.45247799064
It was a relief to get rid of the weight.	193.74889511900597
He was shaking with tension and it took him a couple of minutes to get his breath and settle down.	20352.47118256185
Then he got on his knees and rolled Roberts' body toward the edge.	3405.285228250324
It hung momentarily on the point of dropping off.	5233.983537971759
He gave it a strong push, heard it slide, then tumble dryly into the hole.	14172.87517615758
He got to his feet and threw the flashlight beam into the pit.	3817.2898436399096
The body lay in an awkward sprawl twelve or fifteen feet below the level of the tunnel floor.	5918.034039070174
Deep enough, he decided.	3773.801186235306
There was little chance anyone would enter this shaft during the winter.	2089.9351638724106
The external signs of his approach to it would be covered by the snow, probably by the next day.	11039.040257351755
It wasn't cold enough in the tunnel to preserve the body intact.	7300.557204182341
By spring it would be a skeleton.	5892.660805878574
He made his way back to the Jeep.	528.4198950241208
He had started to back into the turn when he remembered the razor in his pocket.	3797.587056903025
He climbed down, went back into the tunnel and tossed the razor into the pit.	51583.85542719517
It landed on Roberts' sprawled right thigh, poised precariously, then slid off to the ground.	15842.097839716567
He went back once more to the Jeep and started the short drive to the hotel.	2210.9515211732096
In the garage he checked the Jeep for signs of the use he had made of it.	6728.376626155475
There were stains here and there and he cleaned them off, using an oiled rag he found on a nail.	33052.59503793918
He wiped the steering wheel and all the places he might have touched the Jeep.	52019.9986580638
He replaced the flashlight where it had been stowed, got into his own car and backed it out of the garage.	32633.79362035737
There were tire marks where it had been, but they were overlapped by others and on the dusty floor would not be noticeable except under close scrutiny.	16302.9797937591
Liz Peabody, he thought, might spend some time grieving for her lost lover, but he doubted that she would launch an investigation.	81856.02386051793
He judged her to be a woman of some pride, though not much sense.	20583.476874059168
Still she would probably have sense enough not to call in the local sheriff to find her boy friend who, apparently, had run away.	40789.77101286933
He put in a call to Cunningham from his hotel room.	4893.066362892466
The maid answered and he decided Nancy must be at work.	3061.498080539306
Jeb cautioned him not to be too hopeful and then, ignoring his own advice, said excitedly, "But it does sound good.	65472.93964577148
A woman named Lisa who tells nobody anything about herself.	4727.12552351332
That courtyard picture with the same initials".	15611.868989806626
"I'm not exactly jumping up and down with enthusiasm.	598.3885122549302
I'll call you in a day or so".	241.0610242508797
On the highway he relaxed and enjoyed the drive over Lake Pontchartrain and along the coast.	8747.482467243151
Gulf Springs was ten miles inland- more of a quaint old coast town than those along the beach made garish by tourist attractions.	166751.55093056653
He checked into a motel and drove downtown.	6799.802119610948
The courthouse was a white-stucco building minus the customary dome.	12205.6609005019
Instead of the usual straggling privet hedges and patches of bare dirt in most small-town squares, the building was hemmed in by a semitropical growth of camellias and azaleas and a smooth lawn the improbably bright-green shade of florist's grass.	113837.37956559188
He figured his best bet was a call on the sheriff.	32285.807489703646
A clerk in the outer office took him in to Sheriff Carruthers, a big, paunchy man with thick, white hair and a voice with a senatorial resonance which suggested he should be running for higher office.	152109.14996743933
Seated in front of the desk, Hank said, "I'm looking for some information with very little to go on, Sheriff".	25688.184797112062
He explained the background of the case, ending with the tenuous clue which had brought him to Gulf Springs.	6162.341615583233
The sheriff's swivel chair tilted back.	2772.6774678287366
"So you're looking for a woman who married a man who might have lived here a year ago and might have been poisoned.	27586.173033812036
If there was such a person, I'm afraid she got away with it.	959.0927840923647
Pity we don't know more about him.	6019.968097875162
I think the best bet is to go through the society columns of last year and see if any of the grooms match with the obituaries a little later.	28496.19283197216
It'll be a tedious job, but if you want to try it, the old newspaper files are in the basement here in the county supervisor's office".	2334.862976764565
"Maybe the society editor would remember a good-looking out-of-town bride".	14750.854904773005
"That's an idea.	79.20432424354344
Mrs Calhoun has been society editor here for twenty-five years.	1485.9173263906087
The editor says that marriages may be made in heaven, but weddings are made in Mrs Calhoun's columns.	12626.248822991976
She's the one who decides which wedding is to get the lead space in the Sunday paper and all that".	2574.795567415751
He smiled.	3.131287675965749
"Once, when the editor was just out of the hospital from a gallstone operation, Mrs Calhoun and the mother of the bride went out to his house and fought it out beside his bed.	28128.19767384845
She'd be sure to remember any bride who was vague about background.	6632.084628560499
She'd have made a great scientist dedicated to tracking down heredity and environment.	6522.212737462277
She'd also remember if the groom died later".	4546.355252023052
He stood up.	18.720330420755094
"I wish you good luck, but please don't dig up too tough a case for me this close to election.	26545.986478729268
If you find out anything, come on back here and we'll get started on it".	1095.19650624986
Tracking down Mrs Calhoun was like trying to catch up with Paul Revere between Lexington and Concord.	103728.64188044432
It turned out that she also sold real estate, cosmetics, and hospital insurance.	3287.704690563765
The wearying trek stretched into the afternoon- from newspaper plant to insurance office to her house and back to the newspaper, where he found her at five o'clock.	34565.461193596915
She was a large woman with a frizzled gray poodle cut and a pencil clamped like a bit between her teeth while she hunted and pecked on an old typewriter.	107041.24555037163
It took a couple of minutes to run through her various businesses and get down to the one he wanted.	8446.185310739964
"Last year?	181.76723354930573
Well, I do remember one.	212.82206447819374
From Baton Rouge.	2911.462931397699
Married a man named Vincent Black.	29914.63299981329
I remember her because she didn't want her picture in the paper.	1602.4504934474974
First bride like that I've seen in twenty-five years".	779.780230826955
"What reason did she give"?	11127.448065992698
"Said she had a breaking-out on her face- some sort of allergy- and none of her old pictures was good enough.	58844.61247816841
I didn't see her till several days later at the wedding, and her face looked like it had never had a blemish on it.	27310.407148106784
But, of course, you couldn't see too well through the veil".	1119.0007930988254
"Was her name Lisa Carmody"?	12093.88632735058
"Now how in hell would I remember that"?	10990.667466634482
"Never mind.	17.953993677043982
I can look it up.	53.32068996350375
Do they still live here"?	214.4846014310044
"I think they moved away shortly after they were married.	1063.1544028197861
He was a salesman for something or other and must have been transferred.	7922.747086285222
I'm sure it'll be in the files.	775.9737614164967
We usually run a social note when somebody moves away".	11677.733442129515
He stood up and thanked her.	234.5431641677515
"Have they inherited some money or something"?	8730.58338683636
she asked with a reportorial gleam in her eye.	1947.0777539697885
He said vaguely, "Well, it is a little legal matter, but nothing like that".	1262.7618396203973
He hurried across to the courthouse and caught the sheriff just as he was leaving.	17690.556722099824
"Sounds like what you're after", he said when Hank had finished.	12564.17253324193
"Come on, let's hurry down before they lock up for the day".	4492.426455121021
In the basement the sheriff took him to a small, dingy office occupied by a tall, thin man informal in rolled-up shirt sleeves.	37972.320640105754
"Mr Ferrell h Hirey Lindsay, chairman of the board of supervisors.	7583.841675715427
Mr Ferrell is a private detective, Hirey.	5103.240071372553
Wants to look up something in the newspaper files, so don't lock him in here".	33370.22227361496
"Sure", said Hirey.	892.6115695749696
"I'll just leave the door open.	620.580080686865
It latches when you close it, so stay as long as you like".	5658.278050199315
Carruthers crossed the room to a metal door with an open grillework in the top half.	52628.76568744643
He pulled it open.	187.3794460708043
"Now don't shut this door.	1637.3728295684375
It won't open from inside.	171.74111071518803
Before we built the new jail, we used to keep prisoners in here overnight sometimes when the old jail got too crowded.	75371.56422800792
Hirey treats himself a lot better than we do prisoners.	10337.804863493386
They were a sight more comfortable than the ones in the jail with the cold air from Hirey's air conditioner coming through the grille".	38377.35842191898
He walked past the sheriff into a windowless room with shelves full of big, leather-bound volumes from floor to ceiling all around the walls.	33329.5065761571
A metal table and four chairs stood in the center.	1506.5912372618193
"They're all here, back to 1865", Carruthers told him.	671.2878719035323
"It's all right to smoke, but make sure your cigarettes are out before you leave.	13788.943357854265
And, of course, you know not to take clippings".	594.8952952684374
"I'll leave the air conditioner on for you, Mr Ferrell", said Hirey.	18115.02184714087
"Don't forget to turn it off and close the door good so it'll latch".	8473.198742091681
Hank thanked them and promised to observe the rules.	4507.554527637479
When they had gone, he stood for a minute breathing in the mustiness of old paper and leather which the busily thrumming air conditioner couldn't quite dispel.	47959.510113889824
CHAPTER FOURTEEN In a tour around the stacks, he found that the earliest volumes began on the left and progressed clockwise around the room.	29704.84883770004
An old weakness for burrowing in records rose up to tempt him.	11964.325896388584
It was, indeed, all here- almost a century.	335.6095551204649
From reconstruction to moon rockets.	2138.6489172494234
But he pulled away from the irrelevant old volumes and walked around to the newer ones.	14097.037912494567
Last year's volume was at the top a couple of inches below the ceiling.	6902.380894259283
Near it was a metal ladder on casters attached to the top shelf.	25750.453237617985
He pulled it over, climbed up, and lifted out the big volume, almost losing his balance from the weight of it.	30233.031483230345
He staggered over and dropped it on the table.	1279.0651429625536
Since Mrs Calhoun remembered only that the marriage had been in the spring, he started to plod through several months.	18658.583181835787
He tried to turn right to the society page in each one, but interesting stories kept cropping up to distract him.	18766.104916192984
At last he found it in the paper of April 2.	1754.1979212430697
It told him little more than Mrs Calhoun had remembered, stating that it had been a small, modest wedding compared to some of the others.	7405.8437785678925
There was a marked contrast in the amount of information on bride and groom.	1136.8855951549772
Mr Black's life was an open book, so to speak, from his birth in Jackson, Mississippi, through his basketball-playing days at LSU and his attainment of a BA degree, which had presumably prepared him for his career as district sales manager for Peerless Business Machines.	162310.4852889448
The one line on the bride said she was Miss Lisa Carmody from Baton Rouge.	26020.326173703197
No mention of New Orleans.	168.7795689829165
Hank was beginning to feel sharp concern for Mr Black.	19276.810059962638
If Mrs Black was who he thought she was, Mr Black's Peerless selling days might well be over.	32244.55972910707
Now for their exodus from Gulf Springs.	1417.8628452408936
This time the search took twice as long, cutting down on his extra reading, for he had to pick through several columns of one- and two-line social notes in each issue.	24071.30223607676
He found it in the edition of May 15.	2634.7422195317695
The item said Mr and Mrs Black had moved to Jackson, his home town- so the lovely Lisa had been with him a year ago.	10146.825768715533
Next on his program was a call to the Jackson office of Peerless Business Machines to find out if Vincent Black was still with them- or, more specifically, still with us.	17636.059733510832
He glanced at his watch, saw it was only seven, and decided to indulge his weakness now.	44010.87478060618
For the next hour he scrambled happily up and down the ladder, sharing the excitement of reporters who had seen McKinley's assassination, the Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago, and the Hall-Mills trial.	55994.02478774631
In the middle of the stock market crash, he heard a slight noise in the outer office.	511.7483407436201
He turned around, saw nothing, and decided it must be a mouse.	3450.394848975831
Something else distracted him, yet there was no sound, only tomblike silence.	17187.79356270068
Then he knew it was not sound, but lack of it.	393.75850472604316
The air conditioner was no longer running.	1868.2519214098986
He jumped up and turned around to see the metal door closing.	6229.140394106007
It clanged shut as he sprang toward it.	3711.7320645747313
He pressed his face against the grille.	13002.953742020558
"Who's there"?	3306.274616213017
The light shining through the grille dimly illumined the office beyond- enough for him to see there was no one there.	8432.884579011848
Then he heard the outer door closing.	912.8107750039815
"Hey, come back", he shouted.	4063.5113174782623
He thought it must be some damn janitor or cleaning woman puttering around, figuring that Hirey had gone off and forgotten to turn off everything and lock up.	62876.61083131106
_hen the faint beginnings of fear stirred in his mind.	7454.636194992265
Unless he was stone-blind, the person who'd just left couldn't have missed seeing Hank through the open door of the brightly lighted room.	61437.216740285854
And even if he'd somehow missed seeing him, he wouldn't have gone off and left the light on and door open in the file room.	19285.71018078393
Whoever it was had meant to shut him up in here, had followed him and waited till the courthouse and square were deserted.	146511.52464610827
But why?	179.939368681601
To search his room at the motel?	21420.624965673287
To come back later and kill him after the stores had closed around the square and everybody had left?	49252.391239537385
No, they could kill him just as easy right now.	1092.043689475941
Nobody could hear what was going on in this underground vault.	4819.978762903445
Then he heard it and smelled it- the steady hissing, the dread, familiar pungency of gas escaping.	38503.38932854573
It must be coming from an upright heater against the far wall in the supervisors' office.	14426.835553793655
Until now, Lilac Gaylor and Lila Kingsley had been like an anagram which he could unscramble at his own pace and choosing.	150181.0928397278
Except for those minutes in her room, he had lost touch with her as a reality.	1920.6418260085368
Gaylor's obsession and Cunningham's chimera-chasing reminiscences had mesmerized him into thinking of Lila and Lilac, separately or together, as a legend.	182887.40408993798
They kept drifting apart and merging again in his mind like some minute form of life on a microscope slide.	23751.927958902932
"Well"- said Mr Skyros.	1805.6448554387346
"I take a little time to think it over".	27.008482437794328
It was awkward very awkward.	2037.0032436021538
There would be all the nuisance of contacting someone else to take over.	932.376970479663
Someone reasonably trustworthy.	529.8705250033419
And Angie would hear about it.	1349.4394733285105
And Angie knew- "Time", said Angie, and he smiled very sweet and slow at Mr Skyros.	136842.96446320633
"Not too much time, because I'll be needing some more myself pretty much right away.	10020.863595533809
And I done favors for you, big favor not so long back, didn't I, and I'm right here to take on where Pretty left off.	22986.50307080609
No trouble.	169.82542250435452
I don't want no trouble, you don't want no trouble, nobody wants trouble, Mr Skyros".	1717.8567195388414
Dear heaven, no, thought Mr Skyros, turning away as another man came in.	40694.421086185044
He straightened his tie at the mirror with a shaking hand; the genial smile seemed painted on his face.	25000.625220017915
Angie knew- Speak of dangerous information!	46704.52693595541
Angie knew too much entirely already.	12020.924028771009
Really he had Mr Skyros at bay h "Big favor I done you.	25471.251854271854
Acourse there's this deal o' Denny's- and Jackie's- kinda hangin' fire, ain't it, maybe you've been kinda worryin' over that.	140628.6846129834
And can't say I blame you", said Angie thoughtfully.	28485.046134155094
"This deal with the ace o' spades.	14856.331223439536
Anything to do with an ace o' spades, bad luck".	7932.675666767935
Ace of spades- a widow, that was what they called a widow, these low-class crooks remembered Mr Skyros distractedly.	91056.58034311859
All about that Angie knew, too.	529.6385113220298
When things got a little out of hand, they very rapidly got a lot out of hand- it seemed to be a general rule.	9718.473060535736
All just by chance, and in a way tracing back to poor Frank, all of it, because naturally- brothers, living together- and Angie- Mr Skyros did not at all like the look on Angelo's regular-featured, almost girlishly good-looking face- or indeed anything about Angelo.	154731.53198671935
Mr Skyros was not a man who thought very much about moral principles; he found money much more interesting; but all the same he thought now, uneasily, of the way in which Angelo earned his living- and paid for his own stuff- and eyed the soft smile, and the spaniel-like dark eyes, and he felt a little ill. "Look, my friend", he said, "in my life I learn, how is it the proverb says, better an ounce of prevention to a pound of cure.	160040.52950142525
I stay in business so long because I'm careful.	23006.376441725995
Two weeks, a month, we talk it over again, and maybe if nothing happens meanwhile to say the cops know this and that, then we make a little deal, isn't it"?	33492.7588820931
"That's a long while", said Angie.	1655.0211795286614
"I tell you, you want to leave it that way, I don't fool around with it.	763.8599298966644
I go over to Castro and get fixed up there.	4084.4489188856064
I can't wait no two weeks".	394.94309025101467
And Mr Skyros didn't like Angie, but what with Prettyman and three of his boys inside, and not likely to come out- And Angie such a valuable salesman, Prettyman said- All the nuisance and danger of getting in touch with practically a whole new bunch of boys- Why did everything have to happen at once?	288946.9965681571
Denny said stupidly, "Why, you ain't turning Angie down, are you, Mr Skyros?	125751.55361327261
I mean, we all figured- I guess anybody'd figure- Angie"- Angelo gave him an affectionate smile.	30025.62375666541
"Mr Skyros too smart a fellow want to get rid of me", he said.	1152.7102814671364
"It's OK, Denny, everything's OK Ain't it, Mr Skyros"?	107874.36615744395
Oh, God, the name repeated over and over, anybody to hear- Not being a fool, Mr Skyros knew why.	34615.549511989404
But aside from everything else, it would scarcely be pleasant to have dealings with one who was nominally an underling and actually held- you could say- the whip hand.	142978.59862442804
And all because of Domokous!	4154.581327891647
If Mr Skyros had dreamed of all the trouble that young man would eventually cause- Of course, there was another factor.	15915.928168889473
Angie worth his weight in gold right now, but these users, they sometimes went down fast.	53782.54499036504
Who knew, Angie might not last long h. The sweat broke out on Mr Skyros' forehead as he realized he had been actually thinking- hoping- planning- perhaps- Good God above, had not Domokous been enough?	493268.1737485251
He patted Angelo's thin shoulder paternally.	11076.158940846051
"Now you don't want to go talking that way", he said.	160.45865291128345
"Sure, sure, you're the one take over for Pretty, soon as I get the supply, get started up again, isn't it?	11634.626279903527
You don't need worry, Angelo.	1002.9433326911229
I tell you, I know how it is with you, my friend, I sympathize, and I'll make it a special point- a special favor- get in touch, and get some stuff just for you.	7368.187897410379
I don't know if I can manage it tonight or tomorrow, but I'll try my best, my friend.	2273.682800394201
You see, you got to remember, we all got schedules, like any business!	5922.631201545911
My man, he won't be around a little while, he just fixed me up with this stuff they took out of the Elite.	74297.21823969427
It's awkward, you see that, isn't it"?	782.1949180780919
"Well, that's your business, Mr Skyros", said Angie, and his dreamy eyes moved past Mr Skyros' shoulder to gaze vaguely out the ground-glass window.	118761.71742574833
"I appreciate it, you do that.	175.32050259296818
Sure.	219.72205145867906
We don't none of us want no trouble h. I'm in a room over the Golden Club on San Pedro, you just ask for me there, you want see me.	23395.79233137679
Or maybe I call you- tonight?	10158.085654494427
About nine o'clock, I call and see if you got any.	3766.598759900272
A couple decks for me, Mr Skyros- and ten-twelve to sell, see, I like to have a little ready cash".	30199.275501142656
"Oh, now, I don't know about that much", said Mr Skyros.	1441.1011610280732
"And you know, Angelo, Pretty, he always keeps it a strict cash basis, like they say"- "Sure", said Angie.	76175.79472388615
"Sure, Mr Skyros.	879.2073039419992
Fifty a throw, that the deal?	15626.11047519202
Sure.	219.72205145867906
I bring you the cash, say five hundred for ten decks.	20232.504348685663
Never mind how much I cut it, how much I get", and he smiled his sleepy smile again.	13062.354949769693
"Standard deal, Mr Skyros.	7675.693997133138
You go 'n' have a look round for it".	5408.132886569863
"I do my best", said Mr Skyros earnestly, "just for you, my friend.	3556.2965337140945
This is awkward for everybody, isn't it, we all got to put up with inconvenience sometimes.	17982.067794990267
But I do my best for you".	108.48984263381392
He got out of there in a hurry, brushing past another man in the door, mopping his brow.	11874.77613412732
The expedient thing- yes, very true, one must make do as one could, in some situations.	4449.232936797514
It could all be straightened out later.	1278.4973776351112
Not very much later, but when things had settled down a little.	6395.146468129859
After this deal with the Bouvardier woman went through.	5041.686752998777
An ace of spades h. He was not a superstitious man, but he felt perhaps there was a little something in that, indeed.	16298.77827463047
He rather wished he had never got into the business, and still- scarcely to be resisted, a nice little profit with not much work involved, easy money h Katya Roslev, who would be Katharine Ross so very soon now, rang up her first sale of the day and counted back the change.	78117.31062654515
She did not notice that the customer seized her purchase and turned away without a smile or a word of thanks.	17345.673299540995
Usually she marked the few who did thank you, you didn't get that kind much in a place like this and she played a little game with herself, seeing how downright rude she could act to the others, before they'd take offense, threaten to call the manager.	126472.42454169608
Funny how seldom they did used to it, probably.	24421.120800772984
The kind who came into a cheap store like this!	6581.001229325397
Grab, snatch, I saw that first!	4640.027795082239
and, Here, I'll take this, I was before her, you wait on me now or I don't bother with it, see!	21830.715031209278
This kind of place h She'd be through here, just no time at all- leave this kind of thing 'way behind.	13234.11210289942
Off at noon, and she'd never come back.	2679.8993785307293
Never have to.	73.01562983669196
Money- a lot of money, enough.	320.67829306071917
She'd be smart about it, get him to give it to her in little bills so's nobody would suspect- maybe couldn't get it until Monday account of that, the banks- But that wasn't really long to wait.	47370.85078979779
Not when she'd waited so long already.	7241.27927697916
No need say anything at all to the old woman.	590.5157119790794
She had it all planned out, how she'd do.	5626.846822721284
She'd say she didn't feel good on Sunday, couldn't go to church- there'd be a little argument, but she could be stubborn- and when the old woman had gone, quick pack the things she'd need to take, all but the dress she'd wear Monday, and take the bag down to that place in the station where you could put things in a locker overnight, for a dime.	118115.70479794474
Then on Monday morning- or it might have to be Tuesday- get up and leave just the usual time, and last thing, put the money in an envelope under the old woman's purse there in the drawer.	31201.59924882345
She wouldn't be going to get that for an hour or so after Katya had left, go do the daily shopping.	20709.932744875026
No need leave a note with it, either- or maybe just something like, Don't worry about me, I'm going away to make a better life.	24495.38262545763
A better life.	124.73021662217153
Escape.	528.5882111472877
It wasn't as if she wanted much.	788.3415096761156
She didn't mind working hard, not as if she figured to do anything wrong to live easy and soft- all she wanted was a chance, where she wasn't marked as what she was.	38970.45016835382
To be Katharine Ross, and work in a nicer shop somewhere, at a little more money so she could have prettier clothes, and learn ladies' manners and all like that, and get to know different people than up to now, not just the ones like her here, with foreign-sounding names, the ones went to the same church and- Different place, different job, different people, she'd be all different too.	140769.51553329456
Prettier, she'd do her hair another way; smarter, and wear different kinds of clothes- she'd be Katharine Ross, just what that sounded like.	131625.09666556105
"You've give me the wrong change", said the customer sharply.	4020.954896641491
"Think I can't count"?	6746.8280448570795
Katya made up the amount in indifferent silence.	22805.189878022044
She was listening to other voices, out of the future.	556.7223900406055
Some of those vaguely-imagined new, different people.	1425.8669144152766
Oh, Katharine's awfully nice, and pretty too, I like Katharine- Let's ask Katharine to go with us, she's always lots of fun- Katharine- Soon, very soon now h SIXTEEN Mendoza didn't wake until nearly nine-thirty.	193829.79159445214
It was going to be another hot day; already the thermometer stood close to ninety.	5719.380672820827
Alison was still sound asleep; he made fresh coffee and searched through all the desk drawers for more cigarettes before thinking of her handbag, and found a crumpled stray cigarette at its bottom, which tasted peculiarly of face powder.	310677.9106200947
He left a note propped on the desk asking her to call him sometime today, and drove home.	31382.484080449023
After he'd got out fresh liver for Bast, he paused to look at her crouched daintily over her dish.	16395.32306960047
Surely she was just a trifle fatter around the middle?	27582.472188727756
He seemed to remember reading somewhere that Abyssinians had large litters, and suffered a dismaying vision of the apartment overrun with a dozen kittens.	43640.95720482495
"Y que sigue despues?- what then"?	6098.151560695009
he asked her severely.	191.60825476400632
"A lot of people are so peculiar that they don't like cats, it's not the easiest thing in the world to find good homes for kittens- and, damn it, you know very well if I have them around long, impossible to give them away!	34445.87715567286
And I suppose now that you've finally grown up, if a little late, you'd go on producing kittens every six months or so.	12392.240886589905
Yes, well, it's a pity to spoil your girlish figure- which all those kittens would do anyway- but I think when you've raised these we'll just have the vet fix it so there won't be any more h. I wonder if the Carters would take one h. And it's no good looking at me like that", as she wound affectionately around his ankles.	119748.56951368206
Maude's long nose unexpectedly wrinkled up.	12020.921591044656
"Happened to be in the hall!	6111.304201519609
Happened to hear you quarrel about her!	46704.52693595541
Oh, well, you can't really blame Lolotte.	3867.8353566362443
She lost her beau to you".	281.34445802115374
But she was talking of Emile when she saw the black line of the open door; Sarah remembered it clearly.	9846.559952576757
Maude went on.	688.1111644670528
"I've got to get busy.	30.966655905961172
Miss Celie's taken to her bed, with the door locked.	7399.494844669767
She opened it an inch and poked out the keys for me to give you.	8669.204490497184
Here"- She thrust a bundle of keys strung on a thick red cord into Sarah's hand.	45202.51643731476
"Not that there's much use in locking up the smokehouse and the storehouse now.	15378.198519978354
Drink your coffee"- Coffee.	26298.596627531337
"It's- cold".	269.9369810235973
Maude suddenly looked quite capable of pouring it down her throat.	47122.109243385385
"I don't want it", Sarah said, firmly.	3531.5401171711724
"Oh.	4.203310795054198
Well- I'll take it down with me as I go".	1661.2829537657196
Maude swooped up the cup and hiked up her top hoop as if about to take off with a racing start.	55479.20645100883
At the door she turned back, her Roman nose looking very long now and satiric.	36718.50303634623
"I forgot.	243.84516569086645
Ben and Lucien have gone after them.	5012.133322894553
It's just like that book your Northern friend wrote- except there aren't any ice floes to cross and no bloodhounds".	112445.40827035718
"I don't know Mrs Stowe h. What can they do if they find them"?	16783.091812364637
"They can't do anything.	86.00679648975724
It's silly, childish, running after them like that.	6382.267700409011
I told Ben so.	443.57849885246054
But of course the paterollers won't be of any help, not with everything so upset and that Yankee cavalry outfit they say is running around, God knows where".	66078.34243004654
She had swished away, she had been gone for a long time probably when Sarah suddenly realized that she ought to stop her, pour out the coffee, so no one would drink it.	42672.6943526392
But then the so-called coffee was bad enough at best, cold it was all but undrinkable- especially that cup!	31673.552536212064
She was deeply, horribly sure that Lucien had filled it with opium.	23773.423725686116
She had quarreled with Lucien, she had resisted his demands for money- and if she died, by the provisions of her marriage contract, Lucien would inherit legally not only the immediate sum of gold under the floorboards in the office, but later, when the war was over, her father's entire estate.	36219.02002934328
She felt cold and hot, sticky and chilly at the same time.	3119.4081890544853
Now wait a minute, she told herself, think about it; Lucien is not the only person in this house who could have put opium in that coffee.	43532.4718490032
She had lost a bottle of opium- but that was on the trip from New Orleans.	1995.933473984325
Or someone had taken it during her first day at Honotassa.	22379.736246124055
Yes, she had missed it after her talk with Emile, after dinner, just before Emile was shot.	24688.67697990019
Rilly or Glendora had entered her room while she slept, bringing back her washed clothes.	97000.10990335072
So somebody else could have come in, too- then or later while she was out of the room.	2845.2484348290213
It would have been easy to identify as opium by its odor.	2576.544336578233
It was not very reasonable to believe that Lucien had procured unprocurable opium and come back to Honotassa with a formed plan to murder her.	33538.30456804377
He didn't even know that she was there.	111.37068235816074
And he certainly couldn't have guessed that she would resist his demand for the gold or that she was not the yielding- yes, and credible fool he had every right to expect.	17182.784861694887
No, he had been surprised, unpleasantly surprised, but surprised.	1712.0725804140866
Then somebody else?	1069.3033513718206
Don't question, Rev had said, don't invite danger.	9426.496429306446
Her skin crawled Lolotte had told Maude that she was in the hall and the door was open.	6537.638741964135
Sarah had begun to tell Lucien of Emile, she had begun to question and a little draft had crept across the room from the bedroom door, open barely enough to show a rim of blackness in the hall.	50708.4045301725
So Lolotte- or anybody- could have listened, and that somebody could have already been supplied with the missing bottle of opium.	170162.67704944054
That was not reasonable either.	296.23113810858524
The opium had disappeared before Emile's death and whoever shot him could not by any stretch of the imagination have foreseen Sarah's own doubts and suspicions- and questions.	82391.07093053217
She began to doubt whether there had been in fact a lethal dose of opium in the cup.	40329.17723966318
So suppose somebody only wished to frighten her, so she would leave Honotassa!	25356.90631848678
That made a certain amount of logic.	1108.5598577483236
Added to the argument was the fact that while she might have tasted the coffee if it had been still hot, she might even have drunk some of it, she wouldn't have taken enough to kill her, for she would have been warned by its taste.	49575.182385163134
No.	3.297522726426617
It was merely an attempt to frighten her.	389.8503007523409
She wouldn't go back to New York as Maude suggested; she wouldn't run like a scared cat.	55758.12940798301
But- well, she'd be very careful.	2702.960163417552
She dressed and the accustomed routine restored to her a sense of normal everyday life.	16038.591497319278
But before she left her room she dug into her big moire bag, took out the envelope holding her marriage contract and the wax seal had been broken.	45878.768370990336
So somebody else knew what would happen to her father's money if she died.	6089.954157146537
Rev had known all along.	3433.076745700914
Rev didn't need to break the wax seal, read the contract and find out.	31320.1477132902
He could conceivably have wished to make sure; Rev loved Honotassa, it was like a part of his breath and body; Rev had stressed the need for money.	13328.443527707093
Rev would never have tried to give her poison!	21909.56002552646
She thrust the envelope back in the bag; there was no point in locking it up in the armoire now, it was like locking the barn after the horse was stolen.	115479.31304537372
And in all likelihood, by now, there was more than one person in the house who knew the terms of her marriage contract.	2714.378596037153
There was no point either in telling herself again what a fool she'd been.	3449.3089376774114
She went downstairs and received another curious shock, for when Glendora flapped into the dining room in her homemade moccasins, Sarah asked her when she had brought coffee to her room and Glendora said she hadn't.	157591.54281050924
"Too much work this morning, Miss Sarah- everybody gone like that"- Sarah swallowed past another kind of constriction in her throat.	57266.64810245753
"Well, then who brought it"?	507.5513582287776
"Miss Maude.	1453.5166360650308
She come to the kitchen and say she take it up to you".	1121.92694248394
Glendora put down a dish of lukewarm rice.	58759.41312651891
"Not much breakfast this morning.	1456.2660339925399
I don't know what we're going to do, Miss Sarah".	110.20008018742179
"We've got to eat", Sarah said, curtly, because a chill crawled over her again.	6853.189569044599
Maude?	11318.63465748144
Glendora flapped away.	2845.915558773787
The rice wasn't dosed with opium, indeed it had no taste at all, not a grain of salt.	44382.44479078465
She ate what she could and went out along the covered passageway, with the rain dripping from the vines.	72080.38778760104
In the kitchen Glendora was despairingly picking chickens.	1764.5015613152596
"Get a basket", Sarah told her.	1251.0650169479507
"We'll go to the storehouse".	594.8181204783065
Glendora dropped a chicken and a flurry of feathers, and went with her through the drizzle, to the storehouse.	35914.19668576279
Sarah found the right key and unlocked the door.	2522.4746716037703
It was a long, low room, like a root cellar, for it was banked up with soil, and vines had run rampant over that, too.	8330.762890765576
It was dark but dry and cool.	199.84294735048314
She doled out what Glendora vaguely guessed were the right amounts of dried peas, eggs, cornmeal, a little salt.	103552.1617087004
The shelves looked emptier than when Miss Celie had shown her the storeroom, and since the men from the Commissary had called; there were certainly now fewer mouths to feed but there was less to feed them with.	91871.82531776035
She took Glendora to the smokehouse, unlocked it and saw with satisfaction there was still a quantity of hams and sides of bacon, hanging from the smoke-stained rafters.	130079.85955037664
They wouldn't go hungry, not yet.	1646.8222532472612
And the fields were green and growing.	1373.5277119853142
"Can't you possibly imagine what life is going to be like, here"?	7734.8435106565
Maude had said.	688.1095201886392
Maude.	3524.279832361616
She sent Glendora back to the house, her basket and her apron laden.	16476.395673105
She stood for a moment, rain dripping from the trees over her head, thinking of Maude.	30193.323506127832
Maude had the opportunity to take the bottle of opium from Sarah's room.	8591.656950128196
Maude had the cool ruthlessness to d o whatever she made up her mind to do.	11331.732427746732
She couldn't see how her death could affect Maude.	10450.325548071954
She couldn't see any reason why Maude would attempt to frighten her.	9603.326098750887
Besides, there was something hysterical and silly, something almost childish about an attempt to frighten her.	11009.785931432714
Maude was neither hysterical nor silly and Sarah rather doubted if she had ever been childish.	70369.49842186755
Yet Maude had suggested that Sarah return to New York.	3525.1030473061774
Maude could have shot Emile- if she'd had a reason to kill him.	12877.87904994646
There was no use in standing there in the drizzle, trying to find a link between Emile's murder and opium in a cup of coffee.	3309.1393365053377
She started back for the house, saw a light in the office, opened the door and surprised a domestic little scene which was far outside the dark realm of murder or attempted murder.	63301.17672701701
Rev, George and Lolotte were mending shoes.	18205.792564320276
a lighted lamp stood on the table that dusky, drizzling day.	9717.894635924784
They were all three bent over a shabby riding boot; George had a tack hammer.	27620.895467173374
Lolotte held a patch of leather, Rev steadied something, a tiny brad, waiting for George's poised hammer.	260694.33320202754
George said, "First thing I do when I get to Vicksburg again, is get me a Yankee"- "With boots on", Lolotte laughed softly.	136938.58337027128
Rev looked up and saw her.	1686.6568268721905
Lolotte looked up and stiffened.	28952.196012400607
George didn't look up at all.	391.2446147103169
There was no way to know, no way to guess whether any one of them was surprised at Sarah's appearance, believing her to be drugged and senseless- and just possibly dead.	18143.192887792604
Rev said, "Come in, Sarah.	36686.834532819026
Reckon you know the news".	5135.488195781675
And what news, Sarah thought as satirically as Maude might have said it.	17554.661729632855
Rev's face was suddenly a little fixed and questioning.	29580.818290690095
He turned to George and Lolotte.	1054.400270727416
"Take your cobbler's shop somewhere else.	2687.948824272219
I want to talk to Sarah".	244.3041728646467
Everything in the office, the spreading circle of lamplight, the patch of leather in Lolotte's hands.	6581.247269796447
George poised with the tack hammer, the homely, everyday atmosphere, all denied an attempt at murder.	77085.61433955836
A rush of panic caught Sarah.	7868.431594861834
"No.	3.297522726426617
Not now.	108.49940299748746
I mean I've got to- to see to the kitchen.	192.77964232523027
Glendora"- Her words jumbled together and she all but ran from the office and from the question in Rev's face.	56697.417877662396
Now why did I do that?	2421.934020899653
she thought as warm, drizzling rain touched her face.	5078.091107374755
She was no schoolgirl, refusing to bear tales.	2476.019307817281
As she reached the kitchen door the answer presented itself; if she told anyone of the opium it must be Lucien, her husband.	20258.030643401176
It might be, indeed it had already proved to be a marriage without love, but it was marriage.	5097.827617946422
So she couldn't choose Rev as a confidant; it must be Lucien.	25533.86789549713
Always provided that Lucien himself had not dosed her coffee with opium, she thought, as coldly and sharply, again, as Maude might have said it.	138190.36896365735
She paused at the kitchen door, caught her breath, told herself firmly that the opium was only an attempt to frighten her and went into the kitchen, where Glendora was eyeing the chickens dismally and Maude was cleaning lamp chimneys.	167726.28018187196
Glendora gave a gulp.	18248.6338611592
"Miss Sarah, I can't cut up no chicken.	8366.444233070706
Miss Maude say she won't".	8188.969303600595
Again the homely, everyday details of daily living refuted a vicious attempt to frighten her- or to murder her.	52689.59211617279
The homely everyday details of living and domestic requirements also pressed upon her with their immediate urgency.	73151.11668486266
No matter what had happened or hadn't happened, somebody had to see about dinner.	5942.272993225243
She eyed the chickens with, if she had known it, something of Glendora's dismal look and thought with a certain fury of the time she had spent on Latin verbs.	90673.11754457015
"Not since last night.	224.83278456981327
I didn't think there was any reason to".	1562.1186733563216
"Maybe there isn't.	369.63127760238126
Speak to him again anyway.	523.9624147327165
Try talking to some of the fellows he works with, friends, anyone.	8896.101961605858
Try to find out how happy he is with his wife, whether he plays around with women.	2328.583414770206
You might try looking into his wife too.	1380.4064322373408
She might have been talking to some of her friends about her husband if they've been having any trouble".	3821.149362565571
"You think Black's the one we're looking for"?	4610.443987660514
"Yeah.	35.197251894126666
I think he might be", Conrad said grimly.	939.3428298882733
"Then again he might not".	57.17232682808568
"What a stinking world", Rourke said.	2530.0504171644366
"Black is Gilborn's best friend".	1657.1992431811539
"I know".	18.29685342835352
"Will you be coming back soon"?	1920.0846916761516
"I think so.	100.31572943267287
I'm on my way to see the Jacobs woman".	345.30304159476174
"Gilborn's secretary?	20786.28634948607
What for?	203.60227099103872
You don't think Gilborn is the-"?	1910.682547433109
"I don't think anything.	100.61452452827321
I just don't want to go off half-cocked before picking up Black, that's all".	1689.192526179222
Conrad interrupted.	5903.762704023845
"Gilborn says he was in his office all day with her yesterday.	13871.845242625852
I'd like to make sure.	14.813480560318443
Also, it's just possible she might know something about Mrs Gilborn".	14591.527129786034
"Right.	259.9649462081851
I'll see you later".	120.88084829035374
"Aren't you ever going to go home"?	1223.0929976370774
"It sure as hell doesn't look like it, does it?	12397.852720773266
I'm telling you, if these corpses ever knew the trouble they put us to, they'd think twice before letting themselves get knocked off".	37412.682002681526
"Remember to tell that to the next corpse you meet".	3207.987042411094
Conrad hung up and sat on the small telephone-booth bench, massaging his right leg.	71350.13707979217
He looked at his watch.	73.0049374033958
It was ten minutes before eleven.	2075.4441053230253
He wondered how long it would be before they had a signed confession from Lionel Black.	26179.978380887096
Thirty years' experience let him know, even at this early stage, that Black was his man.	11105.813177304251
But he still wanted to know why.	64.54150652548101
It was a cold, windy day, the day after Kitti's death, but Stanley Gilborn paid no attention to the blustery October wind.	32106.59792933787
After leaving Conrad, Gilborn had no destination.	4111.212353915629
He simply walked, not noticing where he was, not caring.	2273.963821440529
He stopped automatically at the street corners, waiting for the traffic lights to change, unheeding of other people, his coat open and flapping.	29357.844772449644
As he walked, he tried to think.	190.1216472823172
Of Kitti.	1742.9558629224373
Of himself.	181.31424886907345
Mainly of what Conrad had tried to make him believe.	3001.259513803551
There was nothing coherent about his thinking.	399.4711217185039
It was a succession of picture-images passing through his mind the same ones, different ones, in no apparent sequence, in no logical succession.	48878.19461868638
The enormity of what Conrad had told him made it impossible for Gilborn to accept, with any degree of realism, the actuality of it.	14769.520605133708
Conrad's words had intellectual meaning for him only.	22805.188622167614
Emotionally, they penetrated him not at all.	905.5082215854153
Whoever he was and your wife were intimate.	3788.6569641904807
Gilborn remembered Conrad's exact words.	8056.155435089322
They made sense and yet they didn't.	1105.6316440700389
He knew Conrad had told him the truth.	716.1019076917664
It was so.	55.71420413643657
Yet it wasn't so.	215.60024835489614
It wasn't so because it couldn't be so.	784.7303067850945
When Kitti was alive- and he remembered the pressure of her hand resting lightly on his arm- she had been the center of his life.	9841.757662402253
She was the sun, he the closest planet orbiting around her, the rest of the world existing and visible yet removed.	5402.63797580669
For fifty-five years he had lived, progressing towards a no-goal, eating, working, breathing without plan, without reason.	22921.617985971174
Kitti had come along to justify everything.	16940.1684317041
She was his goal, she was his reason.	978.3387496853692
He had lived all his life waiting for her.	610.3910033062397
Not once, in the time that he had known her, had he ever considered the possibility, not once, not for one one-thousandth of a second, of her infidelity.	14188.254986410622
He could not consider it now.	98.19008780627391
Not really.	137.73013456720219
And so he walked, aimless again.	598.0574753607519
The walk ended, inevitably, right in front of his hotel building.	2816.5630012197585
The doorman began to nod his head automatically, then remembered who Gilborn was, what had happened to him the night before.	14783.478293044742
He looked at Gilborn with undisguised curiosity.	1032.416353385471
Gilborn passed by him without seeing him.	16940.167629068852
He crossed the lobby and rode up in the elevator lost in his own thoughts.	3673.3462729900566
In the apartment itself, all was still.	1921.1344419694378
The police were no longer there.	182.22533436206098
There was no evidence that anything was different than it had been.	226.83143115428965
Except that Kitti wasn't there.	488.34854920071837
Without taking off his coat, he sat in the blue chair which still faced the closed bedroom door.	35366.06970959449
At last, sitting there, in the familiar surroundings, the truth began to sink in.	7472.891489366377
Who?	333.1590357996425
He felt no anger towards Kitti, no sense that she had betrayed him.	8092.049382163459
Who?	333.1590357996425
She was all he had, everything he had, everything he wanted.	2090.0779421420184
Someone had taken her away from him.	550.1480004862484
Who?	333.1590357996425
Where there is a left-hand entry in the ledger, there is a right-hand one, he remembered from his school days.	11996.18658968657
Where there is a victim, there is a killer.	215.44800479349254
Who?	333.1590357996425
Whoever he was and your wife were intimate.	3788.6569641904807
He rose from the chair, took off his coat.	3310.098578861375
Quickly, he went into the bedroom.	2255.7076351691885
The bed still showed signs of where Kitti had lain.	17120.606884376975
Gilborn stood there for a long time.	172.65218156125565
He looked at the bed unblinkingly.	362.69045899544176
The bed was empty now.	498.9327310794175
Kitti would lie in it no more.	3681.430281446699
He would lie in it no more.	323.6320876501071
Gilborn wondered whether Kitti had lain in that same bed with h Who?	244119.34489139187
For thirty minutes, Stanley Gilborn stood there.	2185.4875925413057
At the end of the half-hour, racking his brains, thinking over and over again of Kitti, her friends, her past, he left the bedroom.	5035.402973341145
Who?	333.1590357996425
He could think of no answer.	123.75378863999508
Gilborn put on his coat again.	12020.92158878749
Before leaving, he took one last, lingering look at the apartment.	2703.9740367018403
He knew he would never see it again.	229.02979276095354
In the street, walking as quickly as he could, Stanley Gilborn was a lone figure.	8288.32420710694
On Blanche Jacobs, Kitti Gilborn's death had a quite different effect.	21083.771057936585
For Blanche, Kitti's death was a source of guilty, but nonetheless soaring, happy hope.	29469.12619059732
In Blanche's defense, it must be said she was unaware of the newborn hope.	2466.322928936912
If anyone had asked her, she would have described herself only as nervous and worried.	9956.120024993064
The figures on the worksheet paper in front of her were jumping and waving around so badly it was all she could do to make them out clearly enough to copy them with the typewriter.	97480.1927912756
She wondered whether Stanley would call.	3100.839225416521
She wanted to be with him, to give him the comfort and companionship she knew he needed.	734.6621549257839
She had skipped her lunch hour in the fear that he might call while she was out.	7211.534643346021
He hadn't.	108.90529144883071
And now she was feeling sick, both from concern about Stanley and hunger.	12280.806881170107
Why hadn't he called?	9945.925225899555
Men, she reflected, even men like Stanley, are unpredictable.	18815.917467497256
She tried to think of his unpredictable actions in the eleven years she had known him and discovered they weren't so many after all.	35227.92140954452
Stanley really was quite predictable.	21379.66044220554
That was one of the things she liked about Stanley.	328.8281586913287
He wasn't like so many other men.	50.259369077765854
The dentist last night, for instance.	341.13808454026605
Dinner and the movies had been fine.	6145.4514474308435
He had taken her upstairs to say good night.	1328.3654831916024
She had invited him in for coffee.	1898.1567488485698
It was in the kitchen, as she was watching the kettle, waiting for the water to boil, that he had grabbed for her.	2886.88461199777
Without warning, without giving her a chance to prepare for it.	4648.983818023337
From behind, he had put his arms on her shoulders, turned her around, and pressed her to him, so close she couldn't breathe.	32436.91332224713
Later, she apologized for the long scratch across his face, tried to explain she couldn't help herself, that the panic arose in her unwanted.	40659.280140983974
But he hadn't understood.	192.4782862281766
When he left, she knew she would never see him again.	1530.605374037652
Stanley wasn't like that.	1101.7837286159843
She could always predict what Stanley was going to do, ever since she first met him.	3059.5742178066885
Except for that one morning.	410.4324129673215
The morning he walked in to announce to her, blushing, that he was married.	8414.998775190441
She thought she was going to die.	116.27735043725147
She had assumed before then that one day he would ask her to marry him.	12794.577085747032
Blanche couldn't remember when she had first arrived at this conclusion.	5049.115899691699
She thought it was sometime during the second week she worked for Stanley.	11074.964473047587
It was nothing that he said or did, but it seemed so natural to her that she should be working for him, looking forward to his eventual proposal.	17678.563596169086
She was thirty-one years old then.	595.7149346038128
Her mother was already considerably concerned over her daughter's future.	2321.876533241925
But Blanche had been able to maintain a serene and assured composure in the face of her widowed mother's continued carping, had been able to resist her urgings to date anyone who offered the slightest possibility of matrimony.	30152.053229507343
For Blanche, it was only a matter of time before Stanley would propose.	6006.183391563302
It was to be expected that Stanley would be shy, slow in taking such a momentous step.	6459.170519035798
Stanley went along in life, she knew, convinced that he deserved the love and faith of no woman.	25396.42923301965
As a result, he never looked for it.	70.45963691670808
But one day, she expected, he would somehow discover, without her having to tell him, that there was such a woman in the world; a woman who was willing to give him love, faith, and anything else a woman could give a husband.	14651.58704431877
Indeed, there was a woman who, unasked, had already given him love.	1347.434894293545
Unquestionably, Blanche loved Stanley.	4541.837803483836
And then, unexpectedly, Stanley made his announcement.	2004.4237139646998
On that first day, Blanche literally thought she was going to die, or, at the very least, go out of her mind.	5520.489208447389
It might have been easier for her if Kitti Walker hadn't been everything that Blanche was not.	6260.471909216932
Kitti was thirty years younger than Stanley, taller than Stanley, prettier than Stanley had any right to hope for, much less expect.	167533.1155673052
Kitti could have married a score of men.	1985.556936571425
There was no reason for her to marry someone like Stanley Gilborn, there was no need for her to marry Stanley.	4837.840141877482
Kitti had come into the office, on somebody's recommendation, because she needed help in preparing her income tax return.	36960.537639233364
Stanley had filled out the return and because, when he was finished, it was close to the lunch hour, he had politely asked Kitti to join him, never expecting her to accept.	53335.664320936856
Blanche knew all this because the door to Stanley's office was open and, without straining too hard, she could hear everything that was said.	146001.07524995727
Stanley had gone out, saying he would be back in an hour.	1257.6415218051136
He hadn't come back for over two.	1634.6235400249197
After that day, Blanche still didn't know exactly what had happened.	1475.9653352094117
There were mornings when Stanley came in late, afternoons when he left early, days when he didn't come in at all.	23929.008599522414
Blanche knew something must be causing Stanley's new, strange behavior but she never once connected it with Kitti Walker.	236593.51201278853
It was too unprecedented.	538.5836879445284
Then, six weeks after the day Kitti first came into the office, Stanley announced he and Kitti were married.	20017.621810466946
Somehow, Blanche managed to cover the stunned surprise and offer her congratulations.	40063.87905797571
That night the two of them left for a week's honeymoon in Acapulco.	6990.587489955328
While they were away Blanche came into the office every morning, running things as she had always run them for Stanley, going through the week in a dazed stupor, getting things done automatically, out of habit.	63336.74141117012
For exactly one week, she was able to continue in this manner.	568.319855471488
On the morning of Stanley's return, however, her strength left her.	3634.977456758172
Two hours of watching his serenely happy face, listening to his soft humming as he bent over his penciled figures, and Blanche had to leave.	49771.31063819443
She stayed away for ten days.	341.57184277034685
Those ten days were like no others that Blanche had known.	16268.57059472578
Mostly, she stayed in bed.	2376.322279182583
She didn't tell anyone, even her mother, what was wrong.	858.8974425370525
She refused to have a doctor, insisting there was nothing a doctor could do for her.	6589.41013633314
"Right", said the fingerprint man.	2666.057594856218
"Also, if you're going to believe those prints, you'll have to look for a killer who's a top-grade piano player".	1270.2221611697194
He demonstrated by playing an imaginary piano, doing a staccato passage with a broadly exaggerated attack.	49775.99596770276
To make it clearer he shifted to acting out, but with no change of manner, the killing of Rose Mallory.	19466.090457760296
His hands snatched at an imaginary bucket, swooping down hard to grab it and coming away with equal snap like a ball that's been bounced hard.	106412.42153820329
In the same way he pantomimed grasping a mantel and bouncing cleanly off that, pressing his hands against the floor and bouncing cleanly off that.	30354.01877203673
He was moving like a ballet dancer, playing for laughs.	12758.840032036354
If Rose Mallory's killer acted this way, catching up with him was going to be a cinch.	13879.248670235875
We'd know him by his stretch pants and the flowers he'd wear twined in his hair.	23781.178323061024
Perhaps if Felix had first come upon us when this boy was not cavorting so gaily up and down the hall outside the murdered woman's apartment, we might have had less trouble convincing Felix of our seriousness.	70222.28378198466
This, you will remember, was still New Year's Day.	454.4180130105706
By the time Felix turned up it was early afternoon, which, one would think, would be late enough so that by then, except for small children and a few hardy souls who had not yet sobered up, it could have been expected that people would no longer be having any sort of active interest in the previous night's noisemakers and paper hats.	58913.93183518491
Felix was the exception.	887.3688888111731
He had retained his hat and his horn, and, whatever fun might still be going, he was ready to join it.	14660.789498088374
That, incidentally, might give you some idea of what Felix was like.	1074.13966335261
After all, he hadn't happened upon us in that second-floor hall without warning.	3213.8642963379934
The ME's boys had finished their on-the-spot examination and the body had been removed for autopsy.	39370.64989024887
The meat wagon, therefore, was not out in front of the house any more, but the cluster of squad cars was still there and there was a cop on the door downstairs to screen any comings and goings.	60922.16598171876
There was, furthermore, the crowd of curious onlookers gathered in the street and a couple more cops to hold them at a decent distance.	12484.861450400782
Just put yourself in Felix's place for a moment.	936.6172888449529
You're a taxpayer, householder, landlord.	2781.3291526189373
You've been away from home for the New Year festivities, but now the party is over and you come home.	2119.408227044708
Defining sobriety in the limited sense of being free from the clinical symptoms of the effects of alcohol ingested and not yet eliminated from the system, you are sober.	102563.3701999544
You still have your paper hat and you're wearing it, but then, it is an extraordinary paper hat and, in addition to anything else you may be, you are also the sculptor who created that most peculiar dame out in the back yard.	7979.852585763809
It's not too much to assume that you will have a more lasting interest in paper hats than will Mr Average Citizen.	11308.83815657214
You have your paper horn clutched in your big, craggy fist, and for your entrance you have planned a noisy, colorful and exuberant greeting to your friends and tenants.	74361.0643252012
You find your house a focus of public and police attention.	6101.351714332205
Can you imagine yourself forgetting under the circumstances that you are approaching this startling and unexpected situation so unsuitably hatted and armed with a paper horn?	79456.13394880865
Maybe one could be startled into forgetfulness.	11120.283667034542
You shoulder your way through the cluster of the curious and you barge up to the cop on the door.	43601.52167719493
You identify yourself and ask him what's going on.	4624.701269387326
Instead of answering you, he sticks his head in the door and shouts up the stairs.	3818.83498138331
"Got the upstairs guy", he bellows.	41437.47561623855
"The owner.	27.568760733897747
Do I send him up"?	2937.1049722354337
Then he turns back to you.	273.5136824806982
"Go on in", he says.	51.48890064852065
"They'll tell you what's cooking".	169.20466090932456
Even then, as you go into the house oppressed by the knowledge that something is cooking and that your house has passed under this unaccountable, official control, could you go on forgetting that you still had that ridiculous hat on your head and you were still carrying that childish horn in your hand?	169774.28631928077
What I'm getting at is that we were fully prepared for Felix's being an odd one.	3481.5265383402475
We'd seen his handiwork out in the back yard, and the little his tenants had told us of him did make him sound a little special.	13990.460953078284
We were not, however, prepared for anything like the apparition that confronted us as Felix came up the stairs.	1811.3866765944326
He, of course, must have been equally unprepared for what confronted him, but, nonetheless, I did find his reaction startling.	15315.227739012023
If Felix was still wearing the hat and carrying the horn because he'd forgotten about them, he now remembered.	54472.26932216971
He came bounding up the stairs and joined the dance.	973.2660981519651
He adjusted the hat, lifted the horn to his lips as though it were a flute, and fell in alongside our fingerprint expert to cavort with him.	55089.56157680401
Our man stopped dead and glowered at Felix.	13334.168875002993
Felix threw his head back and laughed a laugh that shook the timbers of even that solidly built old house.	67094.41088770061
This was a bull of a man.	96.86146521016292
He was big-chested, big-shouldered and heavy-armed.	25299.690595651788
His face was ruddy and heavy and unlined, and when he laughed he showed his teeth, which were big and white and strong and unquestionably home-grown.	32278.756078414088
I don't remember ever seeing teeth that were quite so white and at the same time quite so emphatically not dentures.	26051.006623883615
His hair had receded most of the way to the back of his neck.	2010.9574679417656
He had only a fringe of hair and he wore it cropped short.	9440.405374809283
It was almost as white as his teeth.	694.5808876510134
For a man of his mass he was curiously short.	1917.6698410753324
He wasn't a dwarf but he was a bit of a comic figure.	1320.5741662121325
A man with so big and so staggeringly developed a torso and such long and powerful arms is expected to stand taller than five feet five.	43697.32648433532
For Felix it was a bit of a stretch to make even that measurement.	15064.76884529854
The man was just this side of being a freak.	1589.1843484453539
We waited till he had finished laughing, and that gave us a few moments for taking stock of him.	14175.839998584965
He was dressed in a manner Esquire might suggest for the outdoor man's country weekend.	20833.973720022615
Dark gray sports jacket, lighter gray slacks, pink flannel shirt, black silk necktie.	160005.22735903968
His eyes were clear.	157.83833830291718
He was freshly shaved, and if there had been any alcohol in him we could never have missed detecting some scent of it on the massive gusts of his laughter.	25927.972681282845
Not even a whiff.	684.2433714374746
Eventually he subsided.	1390.919982043467
"Felix"?	492.8085136164775
Gibby said.	1422.169809547823
"Me", he said merrily.	32812.82047953771
"Me, the happy one".	1973.022278090509
"That much Latin we remember", Gibby said dryly.	12684.147656247527
"You always live up to your name, always like this, always making happy"?	25953.141747227375
"I try", Felix said blithely.	2691.8466415977614
"The world is full of blokes who put their hearts into making the tragic scene.	8656.853820571054
I've never noticed that it improves things any".	1394.8383122132404
"Bully for you", Gibby said.	14966.590281504656
"What's the rest of your name"?	414.9148827916849
"No rest of it.	233.297019882739
Felix is all there is".	870.997764320971
"All there ever was"?	1277.2272458920909
"The past I leave to historians", Felix intoned, demonstrating that he could be pompous as well as happy.	29855.866248717535
"You live in the present"?	2611.281110789815
"In the present", Felix proclaimed.	660.6545165300114
"For the future.	15.68967417079594
Is there any other time in which a man can live"?	113.40214593105983
"We", Gibby announced, "are not philosophers.	10768.755674004686
We are Assistant District Attorneys.	2003.9050615230394
This gentleman is a police officer.	2202.6682831139315
He is a fingerprint specialist.	251.95153985222484
Could your future, your immediate future, be made to include taking us upstairs, giving us a bit of space in which our friend can work, and making available to him your finger tips"?	53178.548702429085
The happy one could never have looked happier.	8480.531405283014
This was more than joy.	326.74327027927814
It was ecstasy.	558.9200323373136
"Those lovely whorls", he chortled.	9501.900858062801
"So intricate, so beautiful.	2008.8614822434893
Come right along.	572.5243584149566
I love fingerprints".	1109.8694531157387
He was prancing along the hall, heading for the next flight of stairs.	10070.92044098748
Gibby called him back.	1381.0682693993028
"We're here because of what happened last night", he said.	352.2742489117033
"Past, yes, but important.	790.5964646833877
Since it is important, for the record let's have the full name".	479.86891268401683
"That important"?	266.71595008789956
Felix asked.	248.45738793964048
"That important".	140.1099040522632
"Grubb", Felix whispered.	18248.6338611592
"Felix Grubb"?	5898.480706887623
Gibby asked, not bothering to whisper.	16940.174262184973
"Shh", Felix implored.	18248.6338611592
"I can't see what would make it necessary for you to know.	322.2618306095939
Nothing could make it necessary to proclaim it to the whole world".	191.25868737849666
Obligingly Gibby lowered his voice.	8056.1557291706085
"Felix Grubb"?	5898.480706887623
he repeated.	164.44506459296045
"No.	3.297522726426617
Edmund, but not for years.	242.52343518085863
For years it's been just Felix.	3690.8701512533894
First thing I did after my twenty-first birthday was go into court and have it officially changed, and this is something I don't tell everybody.	64195.68182249332
That was almost forty years ago".	96.16702485979553
Having volunteered that he was a man of about sixty, he bounded up the stairs and with each leap rendered the number less credible.	30258.346155294323
This was a broth of a boy, our Felix, and nothing was more obvious than the joy he took in demonstrating how agile he was and how full of juice and spirit.	25833.1639624045
We followed him up the stairs.	65.63527069839637
The cops would gather up Connor and the foursome on the third floor and bring us those of them who would voluntarily submit to fingerprinting.	73648.64970342546
You may think we didn't need Nancy and Jean, but you always get what you can when you can, and we had no guarantee that a fingerprint record on them couldn't be useful before we were through with this case.	41706.5887958526
Also, if we had excluded the ladies we would have to that extent let the whole world know at least that much of where we stood.	20306.983264050832
The killer, if in our present group, would certainly be interested in knowing that much, and even though with the fingerprint evidence what it was I could see no way he could use this bit of information to improve on his situation, there might always be some way.	74117.35220535957
If you can possibly avoid it, you don't hand out any extra chances.	2881.3733147620287
Felix took us into his studio.	3578.120995564491
It was that oddly shaped space at the very top of the house, where ceiling heights had to accommodate themselves to the varying angles of roof slope.	15359.308764509758
At each angle of its pitch a big skylight had been fitted into the roof and all these skylights were fitted with systems of multiple screens and shades.	87875.3705435181
When Felix first opened the door on it, all these shades were tightly drawn and the whole studio was as dark as night.	34936.80963627186
He quickly fixed that, rolling back the shades on some of the skylights and adjusting screens on the others.	12762.099256563886
He flew about the place making these adjustments and it was obvious that what he was doing was the fruit of long experience.	2720.396970900183
None of his movements was tentative.	388.2421007870046
There was no process of trial and error.	877.1933808836043
Starting with the room completely blacked out, as it was when we came in, he unerringly fixed things so that the whole place was bathed in the maximum of light without at any point admitting even so much as a crack of glare.	75760.18919902138
Expecting something more-than-average wacky, I was surprised by what we found.	10508.554111019635
There was no display of either works in progress or of finished work.	6574.611490625207
Here and there on work table or pedestal stood a shape with a sheet or a tarpaulin draped over it.	37739.296225774124
These shapes might have been mad, but there was no telling.	7000.167249825809
They were all completely shrouded.	1009.7683542594012
The equipment was solid and heavy and in good condition.	1220.9939858714079
Everything was orderly and it seemed to be arranged for the workman's comfort, convenience and efficiency.	10304.5238927672
There were tools about but they were neatly kept.	3265.8912433332257
There was no confusion and no litter.	1782.892771317758
Supplies of sheet metal were neatly stacked in bins.	29053.70933533186
ANDY DID NOT SEE the newspapers the next day.	5240.1628285524
Someone on his staff- he suspected it was Ed Thornburg- intercepted them and for this Andy was grateful.	70873.13022740615
He finally fell asleep around six in the morning with the aid of a sleeping capsule, a crutch he rarely used, and didn't awaken until early afternoon.	17770.533453684573
Memory flooded him the instant he opened his eyes and the sick feeling knotted his stomach.	43410.685580979516
Outside his window bloomed a beautiful summer day.	5344.177799674211
Presumably the same sun was shining upon little Drew also, and those who had kidnapped him.	7058.971527926867
But where?	34.56539716835942
It was still a very big world, despite all the modern cant to the contrary.	675.4941674474621
Hub was sitting in a chair that blocked the hall door.	10694.889566791293
He was dozing, perhaps the only sleep he'd gotten.	17032.691320240265
He snapped to alertness at Andy's entrance.	5158.221427099009
"Sorry, Mr Paxton.	18248.6338611592
Nothing new.	147.2640037549749
Lot of people waiting to see you, though".	6170.972171636181
"Reporters"?	492.8151738923339
"Our own people.	78.24668628066401
Questions about the show tonight".	1644.380520833286
Hub picked up the telephone.	5328.35401248404
"Shall I let them know you're awake"?	45458.67327652732
"I suppose.	124.94078458962387
How's Lissa, do you know"?	5511.2990991108945
Hub considered.	1422.1700206015669
"Some better.	136.93503930668615
She's got plenty of guts, Mr Paxton.	17988.004574711227
You want me to call her"?	3369.602397966
"She expecting me to"?	2125.986087499754
Hub shook his head so Andy told him not to bother.	35801.11238074315
The only reason for contacting Lissa was to comfort or to be comforted.	27643.293999391786
He could not manage the former or expect the latter; they had nothing to give to each other.	5304.067179981832
The omission might look peculiar to outsiders, but Andy could not bring himself to go through the motions simply for the sake of appearances.	23924.098131809184
He had little time to himself, anyway.	185.62034722390362
As the afternoon sped toward evening, the suite saw a steady procession of Paxton aides pass in and out, each with his own special problem.	28126.294269197555
Thornburg arrived with the writers.	7865.318245048241
They had spent the morning revising the act, eliminating all the gay songs, patter and dancing with a view of the best public relations.	24753.674338217115
What remained lacked the original verve but it was at least dignified, as befitting the tragic circumstances.	25204.006247947244
Raymond Fox reported that the orchestra had hastily rehearsed "Cradle Song" in case it was needed.	28454.56126234703
Charlie Marble was back and forth on several occasions, first to confer with Andy on the advisability of cancelling the Las Vegas engagement- they decided it was wise- and later to announce that a prominent comedian, also an agency client, had agreed to fill the casino's open date.	214330.8244082789
And once Bake slipped in, pale and drawn, last night's liquor still on his breath with some of today's added to it.	48215.089256507774
He asked if there was anything he could do.	9.74697046156525
Andy invented a job to keep him busy, sending him ahead to El Dorado to supervise last minute arrangements.	129336.4382954361
But from Rocco Vecchio, they heard nothing.	4302.179781099053
At last it was time to depart.	125.76073878331076
Hub, nosing about, spotted reporters in the lobby, so Andy was hustled away quietly through the hotel's service entrance in a strange car which Hub had procured somewhere.	241207.9973062814
They succeeded in eluding the curious at the hotel, but there was no chance of avoiding them at the nightclub.	10611.92126456491
El Dorado was surrounded by a mob.	138.90901671548812
They overflowed the parking lot, making progress by automobile difficult.	13770.44525787877
Long before he reached the protection of the stage door, Andy was recognized.	3764.433708313539
Word of his arrival spread through the crowd like a brushfire.	18534.709733762415
They surged around him, fingers pointing, eyes prying.	17604.24557685583
It was not a hostile gathering but Andy sensed the difference from last night's hero-worshippers.	16431.02307714396
They had come not to admire but to observe.	4128.87305835839
"It's worse inside", Thornburg informed Andy.	13015.481320046945
"Skolman's jammed in every table he could find.	4307.946499928425
Under the heading of it's an ill wind, et cetera".	1577.4045610972694
Backstage was tomblike by contrast.	8056.156191298628
Andy's co-workers kept their distance, awed by the tragedy.	17328.731865016547
But in his dressing room was a large bouquet and a card that read, "We're with you all the way".	16702.048065017923
It was signed by everyone in the troupe.	4175.977425174932
Andy couldn't help but be touched.	10864.926792642835
He instructed Shirl Winter to compose a note of thanks to be posted on the call board.	25338.480799032593
Bake was waiting to report that Lou DuVol had been sobered up to the point where he could function efficiently.	13777.016632888173
Andy gathered that this had been no small accomplishment.	5401.863041504737
Bake himself looked better; any kind of job was better than brooding.	41889.64219323172
Andy told him, "Bake, I wish you'd talk to Skolman, see if some kind of p a system can be rigged up outside.	91342.9594518709
It's just barely possible with this crowd that the kidnapper wasn't able to get a table.	16342.394686013604
I wouldn't want him to miss the message".	902.952283989579
"I'll try.	20.541336819395212
Skolman isn't going to like it much, though, giving away what he should be selling".	127090.25820667247
Skolman wasn't the only one who didn't care for Andy's scheme.	17762.815969729712
A short time later, Lieutenant Bonner stomped into the dressing room.	4877.349089797837
"I got a bone to pick with you, Mr Paxton.	7233.157215606293
It's those damn loudspeakers".	1735.389135484331
Andy rolled up the revised script he had been studying.	33705.42827333379
"What about them"?	113.44077086383354
"They're going to louse me up good.	488.5648061543921
My men have been here all afternoon, setting up for this thing".	9881.710244177431
Bonner explained that, with the nightclub's cooperation, the police had occupied El Dorado like a battlefield.	80967.80466083577
Motion picture cameras had been installed to film the audience, the reservation list was being checked out name by name, and a special detail was already at work in the parking lot scrutinizing automobiles for a possible lead.	95098.17793268907
However, it was virtually impossible to screen the mob outside, even if Bonner had manpower available for the purpose.	12178.043655860178
"I want you to have the speakers taken out".	525.7825468162218
Andy sighed.	1377.4303151358586
"Seems like we're never going to see eye to eye, Lieutenant.	120278.08649945611
Didn't they tell you what I wanted the p a system for"?	7714.085491890721
"Sure, I know.	90.96522449976446
But it's such a long shot"- "No longer than yours.	4690.895424001926
What do you expect to get tonight, anyway?	5863.344565929978
You think somebody is going to stand up in the audience and make guilty faces?	4734.403117356413
Or have a sign on his car that says, 'Here Comes the Paxton Kidnapper'"?	39112.3275529357
Andy crumbled the script in his fist.	45750.68230100334
"I can't stop you from doing what you think is right.	1752.2585026998058
But don't try to stop me, either".	128.8721624742978
"Someday", Bonner said, "you're going to ask us for help.	1008.9634813303611
I can hardly wait".	111.58998845900604
"What you don't understand is that I'm asking for it now".	1146.4301338840494
But Bonner departed, still full of ill will.	2185.3139928219703
He had gotten stuck with a job too big for his imagination; he had to cling to routine, tested procedures.	49433.21122883102
To act otherwise would be to admit his helplessness.	7138.695758863871
But, admit or not, Bonner was helpless.	5447.267663688481
The crime showed too much planning, the kidnappers appeared too proficient to be caught by a checklist.	101427.50791518122
Andy's performance was scheduled for eleven o'clock.	2354.214709472881
He stalled for a half-hour longer, hoping to hear something from Vecchio about the ransom money.	25623.235168128132
Bake and Shirl Winter, on separate telephones, could not reach him at any conceivable location in Los Angeles, nor could they secure any clear-cut information regarding his efforts.	68873.17314289356
Bake cursed.	2123.85321269737
"The sweaty bastard's probably halfway to Peru with our money by now".	20077.865475840936
When no one smiled, he felt constrained to add, "Just kidding, natch".	17712.368308983827
Thornburg popped in to advise, "Andy, Skolman's sending up smoke signals.	63634.494798600696
You about ready"?	3675.306386599223
"What's he complaining about"?	1453.2432337918117
Bake asked.	261.7801465933664
"They're drinking, aren't they"?	1162.6107804355106
"No.	3.297522726426617
We got a bunch of sippers out there tonight.	2960.8264758057862
I guess nobody wants to pass out and miss anything".	7590.393066660066
Thornburg added in a lower voice but Andy overheard, "They act more like a jury than an audience".	55089.578707578716
Andy said, "Well, I guess we can't wait any longer.	2238.7445230942444
Hub, you stick by the stage door.	22805.188148947378
If Rock shows up during the number- or you hear anything- give me the signal".	18705.441385545248
Shirl Winter said, "I'll stay on the phone, Mr Paxton.	24484.377170434967
There's a couple of call-backs I can work on".	2532.2685610138315
"You're a sweetheart- but leave one line open.	2539.137836406915
He may try to phone us".	640.7741077489104
Andy passed into the corridor, their "good lucks"!	59248.13235489598
following him.	158.9851350523715
It was what they said before every performance but tonight it sounded different, as if he really needed it.	8957.517013413
They were right.	85.51230603647478
The act, cut to shreds and hastily patched together during the afternoon, had not been rehearsed sufficiently by anyone.	12782.148948590093
The result had nothing of the polish, pace or cohesion of the previous night.	6743.040947902591
Here's where luck would normally step in.	4765.153984562916
But this was no ordinary show and Andy knew it.	651.1143699554452
Whether he sang well or badly had nothing to do with it.	599.5829589335962
The audience had come not to be entertained but to judge.	6178.065222655875
Twenty-four hours had changed him from a performer to a freak.	6383.33278540217
Within this framework, what followed was strained, even macabre.	20682.78050898897
Eliminating the patter and the upbeat numbers left little but blues and other songs of equal melancholy.	196243.26599348136
The effect was as depressing as a gravestone, the applause irresolute and short-lived.	9473.484519088011
Yet Andy plowed ahead, mouthing the inconsequential words as if they possessed real meaning, and gradually his listeners warmed to him.	63867.82132985118
Their clapping grew more fervent; the evening was still not beyond salvaging, not as a show but for him as a person.	10394.317287531416
The worst was yet to come.	440.0093770919721
As Andy reached the finale of his act, a subdued commotion backstage drew his attention to the wings.	24275.468301172485
Rocco Vecchio- a perspiring, haggard Vecchio- was standing there, flanked by two men in the uniforms of armored transport guards.	65768.4835329829
Vecchio was nodding and pointing at the large suitcase he held.	43215.476531603046
Andy felt his heart thud heavily with relief.	8683.224795732818
He waved at Fox to cut off the finale introduction.	2032.7298350864023
The music died away discordantly.	1895.440267607119
He drew a deep breath.	1710.8652899031588
"Ladies and gentlemen, in place of my regular closing number tonight, I'd like to sing something of a different nature for you.	14624.009722292132
Ray, if you please- the 'Cradle Song'".	27611.93263255638
He sensed rather than heard the gasp that swept across the audience.	3759.5814266502894
Nor could he blame them.	289.2272931715202
This particular song at this particular time could only be interpreted as the ultimate in bad taste, callous exploitation beyond the bounds of decency.	38766.24989244745
Having no choice, he plunged into it, anyway, holding onto the microphone for support.	44930.97557842079
"Lullaby and goodnight h" His voice shook.	23907.75783744865
For the first time in his life he forgot the lyrics midway through and had to cover up by humming the rest.	2213.976752595322
He wondered if the audience would let him finish.	964.5523633524932
They did; though contemptuous, they were still polite.	6394.732508763098
But when he was finally through, their scorn was made apparent.	2374.4494974884747
Someone clapped tentatively then quickly stopped.	4381.212823950708
Otherwise, the silence was complete.	150.69426369130233
As the lights came up, Andy could see that a number of patrons were already on their way toward the exit.	13398.477145281598
He stumbled off-stage.	1974.98877133584
"My God", he muttered.	1431.2454580336332
"My God".	142.03637737621776
Hub was there to support him.	4798.718889198932
"It's okay, Mr Paxton.	8119.859284528626
The money's here, all of it".	368.7304550272941
At this moment, all he could think of was what he'd been forced to undergo.	3343.3830835148433
"Did you hear them?	95.89650062711804
Do you know what they think of me"?	435.56914837354213
"Bunch of damn jerks", Hub growled.	46700.52584867062
"Who needs them"?	934.5530742709403
Thornburg patted his arm.	1345.5346904937385
"Sure, Andy, it'll be all right.	1267.3462862920076
Nothing broken that can't be mended".	9498.374375207099
The words were hollow.	631.8751792205237
Thornburg knew, better than any of them, that a public image was as fragile as Humpty Dumpty.	35814.200374305554
All the king's horses and all the king's men h Vecchio shouldered in.	18453.654194118968
"I got it, Andy.	1445.8191049486113
God knows how, but I got it.	449.9872822287863
You'll never believe the places I've been today.	1020.1776415765896
I practically had to sign your life away, you'll probably fire me for some of the deals I had to go for, but"- Andy nodded dully.	30162.037934519078
"It doesn't matter, Rock.	2191.021329043966
We've done our part".	115.71616013277391
He clutched that knowledge to him as he returned to his dressing room.	5890.381094945982
The usual congratulatory crowd was conspicuously absent; the place had the air of a morgue.	21233.872995902115
Andy had no desire to linger himself but Hub reported that the mob outside was still large despite the efforts of the police to disperse them.	49517.12171819994
His son watched until he got as far as the hall, almost out of sight, then hurried after.	25882.27590943722
"Dad.	261.29502691765526
Dad, wait".	345.92419502517856
He caught up with the old man in the living room.	36.942099230435915
Old man Arthur had put down the suitcase to open the front door.	5449.784296945436
"Just this one favor, Dad.	2572.9552703536374
Just don't tell Ferguson that crazy opinion of yours".	4005.2056214215613
"Why not"?	3.3637455197869603
The old man gave the room a stare in leaving; under the scraggly brows the pale old eyes burned with a bitter memory.	30460.65499976022
"It's the truth".	22.089954312389164
"The Bartlett girl was killed by Mr Dronk's son.	9380.603780579353
Rossi and Ferguson have been across the street, talking to the kid.	49301.638758812245
They've found some sort of new evidence, a bundle of clothes or something, and it must link the kid even stronger to the crime.	15574.215938567851
Why won't you accept facts?	4168.657214592211
The two kids were together a lot, they were having some kind of teen-age affair- God knows how far that had gone- and the kid's crippled.	86053.5655372795
He limps, and the man who hit you and took the cane, he limped.	65043.65959677417
My God, how much more do you want"?	14838.356696428176
His father looked him over closely.	2690.8274420559483
"You sound like an old woman.	290.7360199623677
You should have gone to work today, 'stead of sneaking around spying on the Dronk house".	13057.2818513025
"Now, see here"- "The trouble with you", old man Arthur began, and then checked himself.	17880.913833486404
Young Mrs Arthur had opened the oven and there was a drifting odor of hot biscuits.	45440.51145645878
The old man opened the door and stepped out into the sunlight.	417.00497479052615
"Isn't enough time to go into it", he finished, and slammed the door in his son's face.	9985.52651809415
Mrs Holden turned from the window draperies.	18262.782915898653
"They found something else up there", she said half-aloud to the empty room.	23540.182106693093
"They took it away, overalls or something".	6043.599496409374
She walked restlessly across the room, then back to the windows.	2716.385794649771
"Now they've gone, they didn't come back, and they didn't arrest that Dronk boy".	8103.601676857469
She stood frowning and chewing her lip.	11767.132202901494
She was wearing a brown cotton dress, cut across the hips in a way that was supposed to make her look slimmer, a yoke set into the skirt and flaring pleats below.	38500.29805190506
She smoothed the skirt, sat down, then stood up and went back to the windows.	1130.798784502321
"Why on earth did I send him off to work?	12325.640345601698
There was excuse enough to keep him home h that young Mr Arthur's still over there".	11463.424039190462
With sudden energy, she went to the phone and rang Holden's office and asked for him.	5404.481883290078
"I think you had better come home".	90.65130825937868
"Mae, we're so busy.	2456.812376994819
Mr Crosson's been on everybody's neck, an order he expected didn't come through and he's"- "I don't care.	83826.39197395471
I want you here.	101.25919915779116
I'm all alone and certain things are going on that look very ominous.	16925.79710481476
I need someone to go out and find out what's happening".	1346.3086353962683
"But I couldn't do that, even if I were home"!	422.6056276523579
His voice grew high and trembling.	4049.9600265175936
"I can't be underfoot every time those cops turn around!	9118.795858846783
They'll h they'll think I did something".	1247.5908646600049
He couldn't see the grin that split her mouth; the teeth that shone into the phone were like a shark's.	72580.40331542947
"You'll just have to risk it.	487.1958883249804
You can't wander along in the dark, can you?	2488.032778301107
I'd think that you h even more than I h would be wondering what they're up to.	5882.408412456776
They found some clothes", she tossed in.	2119.7694639068527
"What"?	277.23158220897403
Deliberately, she ignored the yelp.	35827.71117471326
"Also, that Mr Ferguson was here.	399.4992346738323
I guess he wants to ask you some questions.	2649.606950690931
I stalled him off.	360.57256122873645
He doesn't expect you until five".	1098.1398613300707
"Then I'd better wait until five".	645.8043139062447
"No h o h o.	4536.208010581062
Come home right away".	1161.3687051665033
She slapped the receiver into its holder and stepped away.	15354.072281616662
Her eyes were bright with anticipation.	2606.6835663151364
In his office, Mr Holden replaced the phone slowly.	2760.226434487803
He rose from his chair.	101.98111494987586
He had to cough then; he went to the window and choked there with the fresh breeze on his face.	3550.483577546765
He got his hat out of the closet.	2149.6789018436525
For a moment he thought of going into Crosson's office to explain that he had to leave, but there was now such a pain in his chest, such a pounding in his head, that he decided to let it go.	4641.36964624052
He passed the receptionist in the outer office, muttering, "I've got to go out for a little while".	3407.817415003111
Let her call Crosson if she wanted to, let Crosson raise the roof or even can him, he didn't care.	26998.413601282136
He got into the car.	13.124552325753168
Putting the key into the switch, pressing the accelerator with his foot, putting the car into reverse, seemed vast endeavors almost beyond the ability of his shaking body.	93420.53381962422
Once out in the street, the traffic was a gadfly maze in which he wandered stricken.	8906.165217654192
When he turned into the highway that led to the outskirts of the city and then rose toward home, he had to pull over to the curb and wait for a few minutes, sucking in air and squinting and blinking his eyes to clear them of tears.	32485.388792807753
What on earth was in Mae's mind, that she wanted him up there spying on what the cops were doing?	81207.57776715263
What did she think he could do?	610.8947421227352
He tried to ignore what his own common sense told him, but it wasn't possible; her motives were too blatant.	14722.052589265859
She wanted him to get into trouble.	574.3909315112868
She wanted the police to notice him, suspect him.	4553.701293175146
She was going to keep on scheming, poking, prodding, suggesting, and dictating until the cops got up enough interest in him to go back to their old neighborhood and ask questions.	22875.00071502916
And he knew in that moment, with a cold sinking of despair, a dying of old hopes, that Mae had spread some kind of word there among the neighbors.	12761.112651826486
Nothing bald, open; but enough.	4012.797253514396
They'd have some suspicions to repeat to the police.	766.7559285797291
Though his inner thoughts cringed at it, he forced himself to think back, recreating the scene in which Mae claimed to have caught him molesting the child.	31896.391873022843
It hadn't amounted to anything.	2096.0996180665265
There had been nothing evil or dirty in his intentions.	1266.664354664712
A second scene flashed before his mind, the interior of the garage at the new house and the young Bartlett girl turning startled to meet him, the dim dark and the sudden confusion and fear and then the brightness as Mae had clicked on the light.	64652.4068330222
Suppose the cops somehow got hold of that?	2938.35104768722
Well, it hadn't been what it seemed, he'd had no idea the girl was in there.	1881.3122061291836
He hadn't touched her.	339.07831545697337
And when he came to examine the scene, there was a certain staginess to it, it had the smell of planning, and a swift suspicion darted into his mind.	6047.786980429618
Too monstrous, of course.	321.8609787594282
Mae wouldn't have plotted a thing like that.	8850.9780456235
It was just that little accidents played into her hands.	3834.6246307092333
Like this murder.	299.40301073543077
He leaned on the wheel, clutching it, staring into the sunlight, and tried to bring order into his thoughts.	13727.880904382846
He felt light-headed and sick.	868.5378432348341
There was no use wandering off into a territory of utter nightmare.	3694.190298363843
Mae was his wife.	1381.044003533958
She was married to him for better or for worse.	201.64417134849958
She wouldn't be wilfully planning his destruction.	4636.30491333802
But she was.	4.402611688530659
She was.	18.096986458965585
Even as the conviction of truth roared through him, shattering his last hope of safety, he was reaching to release the hand brake, to head up the road for home, doing her bidding.	202746.40591921358
He drove, and the road wobbled, familiar scenes crept past on either side.	19533.72237407833
He came to a stretch of old orange groves, the trees dead, some of them uprooted, and then there was an outlying shopping area, and tract houses.	24250.63563559153
He had the feeling that he should abandon the car and run off somewhere to hide.	6424.662439280893
But he couldn't imagine where.	384.42340775311396
There was really no place to go, finally, except home to Mae.	10580.095274026975
At the gate he slowed, looking around.	2221.362608883407
Cooper was beside his car, on the curb at the right, just standing there morosely; he didn't even look up.	74410.81478328933
Behind him on the steps of the little office sat old man Arthur; he was straight, something angry in his attitude, as if he might be waiting to report something.	53090.17315895106
Holden stepped on the gas.	5395.032374976289
A new idea drifted in from nowhere.	1386.8018776885308
He could go to the police.	150.43166972212083
He could tell them his fears of being involved, he could explain what had happened in the old neighborhood and how Mae had misunderstood and how she had held it over him- the scene was complete in his mind at the moment, even to his own jerkings and snivelings, and Ferguson's silent patience.	60018.13185290599
He could throw himself on the mercy of the Police Department.	2827.330401089082
It wasn't what Mae would want him to do, though.	560.4463301520428
He was sure of this.	32.78627312920857
Once he had abandoned himself to the very worst, once he had quieted all the dragons of worry and suspense, there wouldn't be very much for Mae to do.	45145.49162708998
At that moment, Holden almost slammed on the brakes to go back to Cooper and ask if Ferguson was about.	16427.564212738987
It would be such a relief.	79.2471052076354
What was that old sign, supposed to be painted over a door somewhere, Abandon hope, all ye who enter here?	43436.20318000842
Why, Holden said to himself, surprised at his own sudden insight, I'll bet some of those people who enter are just as happy as can be.	40510.99161032499
They've worried, they've lain awake nights, they've shook at the slightest footstep, they've pictured their own destruction, and now it's all over and they can give up.	26737.47408526449
Sure, they're giving up hope.	789.4946330099338
Hand in hand with hope went things like terror and apprehension.	2474.8539673730447
Good-bye.	67.89971598539633
Holden waved a hand at the empty street.	9949.84826746527
Glad to see you go.	4329.311273959315
He drove into the paved space before the garage and got out, slamming the car door.	50465.65100121987
He looked up and down the street.	11.955044513203845
If Ferguson's car had been in sight, Holden would have walked directly to it.	19797.59645869241
He went to the front door and opened it and looked in.	618.288625679399
Mae entered the room from the hallway to the kitchen.	3626.3175965884943
She had a cup of something steaming, coffee perhaps, in one hand, a fresh piece of toast in the other.	2351.6097864607814
She stood there, watching Holden come in, and she put the piece of toast in her mouth and bit off one corner with a huge chomp of her white teeth.	131135.22810466465
"Mae"- "I've been thinking", she said, swallowing the toast.	9539.301817504052
"Didn't you have an old pair of painting overalls in the garage?	27588.649690006256
You used them that time you painted the porch at our other house.	24898.633308513854
And then you wiped up some grease".	1374.090308338686
She had caught him off guard, no preparation, nothing certain but that ahead lay some kind of disaster.	36242.3649343648
"No.	3.297522726426617
Wait a minute.	99.63692778530937
What do you"- "I've been looking for them, and they're gone.	163.20046439880514
I'm sure they were in the garage up until a couple of days ago.	800.7797294970956
Or even yesterday.	355.6315160898817
You used to paint in them, and then you just took them for rags.	12824.725833425135
The police have them now".	115.94994443355316
"I don't remember any overalls at all".	486.03706332466385
"They were all faded.	143.3192429125669
Worn through at the knees".	8056.156191298628
She stood sipping and chewing and watching.	4268.415964506615
"Green paint, wasn't it?	4729.989058184211
Well, I'm not sure of the color.	95.3857209257713
But you had them".	46.46197913765508
"Mae, sit down.	1897.282613651853
Put down the cup of coffee.	347.43773724328423
Tell me what this is all about".	417.1981453941644
She shook her head.	282.7216618097605
She took another bite of toast.	872.9412090158116
Holden noticed almost absently how she chewed, how the whole side of her cheek moved, a slab of fat that extended down into her neck.	184762.20911251937
"My goodness, you ought to remember if I do.	3036.0834989655323
You're going to have to go to the police and explain what happened.	252.81743836732252
Tell them the truth h or something h before they come here".	10361.893800204964
A seeping coldness entered Holden's being; his nerves seemed frost-bitten down to the tips of his tingling fingers and his spine felt stiff and glass-like, liable to break like an icicle at any moment.	124243.13434874504
"I've never owned any painting overalls.	1331.533092986998
A man with a sketch pad in hand sat with a large pink woman in a small office at the end of a long, dim corridor and made pencil lines on paper and said, "Is this more like it, Mrs MacReady?	45785.064705672026
Or are the eyebrows more like this"?	736.0720917224955
When he had finished with that, he would go to another part of the hotel and say much the same things to someone else, most probably a busboy.	18451.83871599144
"Begin to look like him now, would you say?	35881.30535743186
Different about the mouth, huh?	1739.9104202652788
More like this, maybe"?	10645.574924634288
Men blew dust on objects in a room on the seventeenth floor of the Hotel Dumont and blew it off again, and did the same in a tiny, almost airless room in a tenement in the West Forties.	126384.60544742193
And men also used vacuum cleaners in both rooms, sucking dust up once more.	17448.048793521404
Men from the Third Detective District, Eighteenth Precinct, had the longest, the most tedious, job.	56107.48061107699
At the Hotel Dumont there had, at the time in issue, been twenty-three overnighters, counting couples as singular.	47529.32385002833
These included, as one, Mr and Mrs Anthony Payne, who had checked in a little after noon the day before, and had not checked out together.	6744.024331981639
But Gardner Willings was not included; he had been at the Dumont for almost a week.	8228.754480631962
There was, of course, no special reason to believe that the man or woman they sought had stayed only overnight at the hotel.	539.7248385593033
The twenty-three or twenty-two with the Paynes themselves omitted provided merely a place to start, and their identification was the barest of starts.	9748.789165866816
With names and addresses listed, verification came next.	3784.4397038965567
It would take time; it would, almost inevitably, trouble some water.	5583.107011553595
"I certainly was not at the Dumont last night and my husband couldn't have been.	4751.257969324963
He's in Boston.	64.94285609293843
Of course he's in"- The Hotel King Arthur across the street provided almost twice as many problems.	25382.160089136807
The King Arthur offered respectable and convenient lodgings to people from the suburbs who wanted to see a show and didn't want- heaven knew didn't want!- to lunge anxiously through crowded streets to railroad stations and, at odd hours of night, drive from smaller stations to distant homes, probably through rain or, in November, something worse.	211884.78884604847
The King Arthur was less expensive than the Dumont.	10969.690140631887
The King Arthur had fifty-four overnighters, again counting rooms rather than people.	21857.920583501687
Check the overnighters out.	470.85820232972907
Failing to find what was wanted, as was most likely, check out other guests, with special- but not exclusive- attention to those with rooms on the street.	32468.92531468113
Anyone active enough can reach a roof, wherever his room may be.	13223.530561387617
And know, while all this went on, that there was no real reason to suppose that the murderer had been a guest in either hotel.	9099.45697359435
It was not even certain the shot had been fired from either hotel.	1951.0293747129433
There were other roofs, less convenient but not impossible.	1423.6953571956512
It is dull business, detecting, and hard on feet.	6881.963161414578
There was also the one salient question to ask, and ask widely Did you notice anything out of the way?	4657.9334405566415
Like, for example, a man carrying a twenty-two rifle, probably with a telescopic sight attached?	22921.34186230097
There was, of course, no hope it really would be that simple.	486.7266256873468
The sniper, whether psychopathic marksman or murderer by intent, would hardly have walked to his vantage point with rifle over shoulder, whistling a marching tune.	177548.0997305352
Anybody carrying anything that might hide a rifle?	45390.097886050375
Long thin suitcase?	5250.199477867993
Or long fat suitcase, for that matter?	2363.4745021704116
Shrugs met that, from room clerks, from bellhops.	72102.7110124061
Who measures?	2510.1401894022565
But nothing, it appeared, long enough to attract attention.	6142.5047645683935
Cases, say, for musical instruments?	43937.24841360503
None noted at the Dumont.	8784.460203610439
Several at the King Arthur.	1207.6983758667386
A combo was staying there.	1783.1321613385048
And had been for a week.	114.99272121454798
Anything else?	558.1932445208632
Anything at all?	195.2106483905803
Shrugs met that.	2845.915551859622
Detective Pearson, Eighteenth Precinct, thought for a time he might be on to something.	30243.185268536963
A refuse bin at the Dumont turned up a florist's box- a very long box for very long-stemmed flowers.	58308.60479186787
Traces of oil on green tissue?	85849.332204088
The lab to check.	969.5655033331907
The lab Sorry.	1928.5665570449291
No oil.	167.4961157156907
Anything at all strange?	7615.881930222983
Well, a man had tried, at the King Arthur, to register with an ocelot.	16389.945959913694
At the Dumont, a guest had come in a collapsible wheel chair.	9046.186159837986
At the King Arthur one guest had had his head heavily bandaged, and another had a bandaged foot and had walked with crutches.	47782.67017156544
There had also been a man who must have had St Vitus or something, because he kept jerking his head.	3066.6430036756738
As reports dribbled in, William Weigand tossed them into the centrifuge which had become his head.	31330.17495752991
Mullins came in.	688.9698659597848
There was no sign of Mrs Lauren Payne at her house on Nod Road, Ridgefield, Connecticut.	10655.862021498317
The house was modern, large, on five acres.	4148.042130311149
Must have cost plenty.	943.2840141058402
The State cops would check from time to time; pass word when there was word to pass.	9569.827585594867
Weigand tossed this news into the centrifuge.	46700.52584867062
Sort things out, damn it.	12020.92149776691
Sort out the next move.	3462.0558509136017
Try to forget motive for the moment.	254.21197321416452
Consider opportunity.	209.28964280532338
Only those actually with Payne when he was shot, or who had left the party within not more than five minutes make five arbitrary positively had none.	11162.083674543497
The Norths; Hathaway, Jerry's publicity director; Livingston Birdwood, producer of Uprising.	53142.96629077121
They had been with Payne when he was shot, could not therefore have shot him from above.	11523.974907373331
Take Gardner Willings.	2947.421135592457
He had left after the scuffle; had been seen to leave.	1552.4039178900528
He would have had ample time to go into a blind somewhere and wait his prey.	4251.680228184718
Consider him seriously, therefore?	11069.136280863102
Intangibles entered, then- hunches which felt like facts.	41687.77748696647
Willings would ambush, certainly; Willings undoubtedly had.	22805.188980983054
Willings was, presumably, a better than average shot.	8892.495149762259
But- hunch, now- Willings would not ambush anything which went on two legs instead of four.	36914.81869610206
Because, if for no other reason, Willings would never for a moment suppose he was not bigger, tougher, than anything else that went on two legs.	18095.5740044383
Ambushes are laid by those who doubt themselves, as any man may against a tiger.	85023.69668199596
Faith Constable had had to "go on" from the party and had, presumably, gone on.	20429.317567434304
To be checked out further.	441.38352041714666
Forget motive?	3737.5328148852022
No, motive is a part of fact.	379.04043618208726
Nobody in his right mind punishes a quarter-century-old dereliction.	14653.279127002017
Grudges simply do not keep that well in a sane mind.	36171.807255161846
Faith Constable had accomplished much in a quarter of a century.	2172.5763950809874
Jeopardize it now to correct so old a wrong?	151398.27518323914
Bill shook his head.	94.9873514099028
Also, he thought, I doubt if she could hit the side of a barn with a shotgun.	3815.2384888193924
Lauren herself?	20786.28634948607
She had left the party early, pleading a headache.	4257.079973788583
No lack of opportunity, presuming she had a gun.	2858.208566033232
She might, conceivably, have brought one in in a large-enough suitcase.	34402.877036661484
Check on the Payne luggage.	3892.299271744633
She might now have taken it away again.	5557.866336345408
Motive- her husband wandering?	66335.2226527641
Bitter, unreasoning jealousy?	48680.26290899099
Heaven knew it happened and hell knew it too.	10482.411842764941
But- it happened, almost always, among the primitive and, usually, among the very young.	3953.414891208417
Call it mentally young; call it retarded.	12193.991595726733
There was nothing to indicate that Lauren Payne was primitive.	3311.36752731163
She did not move in primitive circles.	575.0609661252644
She was young, but not that young.	1374.90162791902
It occurred to Bill Weigand that he was, on a hunch basis, eliminating a good many.	14972.265327787254
He reminded himself that all eliminations were tentative.	6853.40787634358
He also reminded himself that he had an unusual number of possibilities.	2543.9755424077484
The Masons, mother or son, or mother and son?	19434.480519918496
Opportunity was obvious.	2845.9158261215734
Motive.	3524.279832361616
Here, too, the cause to hate lay well back in the years.	213.4710720503176
But bitterness had more cause to remain, even increasingly to corrode.	31741.413239628026
With the boy, particularly.	739.8348940618489
The boy had, apparently- if Mrs MacReady was right in what she had told Mullins- only in recent months been forced to give up college, to work as a busboy.	50321.63236369534
Seeing the man he blamed for this made much of- youth and bitterness and- Bill picked up the telephone; got Mullins.	111779.23458991839
"Send out a pickup on Mrs Mason and the boy when you've got enough to go on", Bill said.	15282.7366786836
"Right"?	489.9492496742616
Mullins would do.	688.1196658940163
A man named Lars Simon, playwright-director, had expressed a wish that Anthony Payne drop dead.	26811.184901414497
He would say, of course, that he had not really had any such wish; that what he had said was no more than one of those things one does say, lightly, meaning nothing.	3905.454621160591
Which probably would turn out to be true; which he obviously had to be given the opportunity to say.	693.0644651324235
A man named Blaine Smythe, with "y" and "e" but pronounced without them, had been fired at Payne's insistence.	22755.309177861265
He was also, if Pam North was right, a closer acquaintance of Lauren Payne's than she, now, was inclined to admit.	30014.360457660507
He might deny the latter; would certainly deny any connection between the two things, or any connection of either with murder.	30089.249407236603
He would have to be given the opportunity.	37.06045956983546
Mullins?	11318.63465748144
It was evident that Mullins was the man to go.	639.2810225084124
It was evident that a captain should remain at his desk, directing with a firm hand and keeping a firm seat.	38496.42330919689
Bill Weigand was good and tired of the wall opposite, and the crack in the plaster.	85658.40912688294
Let Mullins keep the firm seat; let Stein.	10205.96915527852
When Siamese cats are intertwined it is difficult to tell where one leaves off and another begins.	24528.531124233126
Stilts and Shadow, on Pam's bed, appeared to be one cat- rather large, as Siamese cats go, and, to be sure, having two heads and two tails.	56975.554003366575
On the other hand, they, or it, seemed to have no legs whatever.	294.70766383041195
Pamela North said, "Hi", to her cats, and added that proper cats met their humans at the door.	30794.94199163782
Of four dark brown ears, one twitched slightly at this.	16422.14915088665
"All right", Pam said.	375.64131614975474
"I know it isn't dinnertime".	592.3503357069076
But at this the one too-large cat suddenly became two cats, stretching.	30963.83344943794
Shadow, the more talkative, began at once to talk, her voice piteous.	88525.74936918124
Stilts, a more direct cat, leaped from the bed and trotted briskly toward the kitchen.	36774.087575817444
Shadow looked surprised, wailed, and trotted after her.	35126.77152717356
The hell it isn't dinnertime, two waving tails told Pam North.	17542.39773092584
It was not, whatever tale was told by tails.	1232.6258562559658
Martha presumably would cope.	16691.905888201265
She might be firm.	732.2102752148638
It was most unlikely that she would be firm.	1810.0450758359914
They want to be fat cats, Pam thought, and lighted a cigarette and leaned back on a chaise and considered pulling her thoughts together.	46437.459714095196
After a time, it occurred to her that her thoughts were not worth the trouble.	3509.4545597578945
A vague feeling that Anthony Payne had had it coming was hardly a thought and was, in any event, reprehensible.	30328.26807913372
Had Faith Constable's explanation of her confidence, so uninvited, been a little thin?	143414.7467529648
That was more like a thought, but not a great deal more.	131.60544167712888
Had that tall dark boy, carrying trays too heavy for him, found what he might have considered adulation of a man he probably hated more than he could bear?	145237.81910983528
And possessed himself- how?- of a rifle and killed?	26018.7959688185
Pam found she had no answers; had only a hope.	21799.75896921859
The poor kid- the poor, frail kid.	14602.819118119249
Some people have luck and some have no luck and that, whatever people who prefer order say, is the size of it.	11203.542839892893
The poor, unlucky- The telephone rang.	4946.030205429283
Pam realized, to her surprise, that she had been almost dozing.	25672.747761018552
At four o'clock in the afternoon.	19.64396860212879
Two martinis for lunch- that was the trouble.	9493.317856624497
I ought to remember.	104.43466164614784
Don't pretend.	1403.4919980798531
You do remember.	191.33319631018907
You just- "Hello?	7418.57075991442
Yes, this is she?	1457.3252436739579
What"?	277.23158220897403
The voice had music in it.	296.57314542678506
Even with words coming too fast, they came on the music of the voice.	1665.167490369518
"I said I would", Pam said.	231.5822665308953
"They won't talk about who gave the information.	4213.696380839098
Not unless they have to.	917.426401757887
They don't, Mrs Constable.	1247.5242887134743
Not unless they have"- She was interrupted.	17339.895356733254
"Call this a cry for help", Faith Constable said.	12561.862287938056
"Through a door conveniently unlocked", Madden supplemented.	12562.97406358975
"That damn door", said the police chief.	5109.696785656421
"A gift horse to be viewed with suspicion".	3510.0081393228184
Madden's dark face wore a meditative look.	16940.16926462809
"If there was collusion between an outside murderer and a member of the household it would be an elementary precaution to check on the door later.	9186.943354713914
And it makes a very poor red herring for an inside job.	4497.429177608416
Much better to break a cellar window".	4300.595774478597
"Don't forget, there was the hope it would pass for a natural death", Pauling reminded him.	7309.527564370745
"Well, with a house as big as that there must be at least one cellar window that wouldn't be noticed right away unless there was a police investigation".	21028.81105508849
"Yeah.	35.197251894126666
And a pane of glass isn't hard to"- The telephone interrupted him.	17735.443229736433
He scooped up the receiver and said, "Police chief", into the mouthpiece, and then, "Oh yes, Mr Benson.	114537.89497085239
I was hoping I'd hear from you today".	2323.7587247637625
With his free hand he pulled a pad and pencil toward him and began to make notes as he listened, saying, "Uh-huh" and "I see" at intervals.	70492.71488880654
At last he said, "Well, thank you for calling, Mr Benson.	5085.655519944782
Although there was no doubt in my mind and we've been handling it as one I'm glad to have it made official".	682.804120832792
He hung up.	122.54057432887495
"Coroner", he said to Madden.	23271.75856096577
"He's just heard from the pathologist who says Mrs Meeker apparently died from suffocation".	64541.31903829154
Pauling looked at his notes.	5685.77125654271
"Many minute hemorrhages in the lungs; particles of lint and thread in the mouth and nostrils.	55578.59235188672
Scrapings from the bed linen identical with the lint and thread found in the nasal and oral cavities.	269366.3898225625
No other cause of death apparent.	1010.4412177480015
Trachea clear of mucus and foreign objects.	16940.168709345373
Brain examined for thrombosis, clot or hemorrhage.	22371.98724442319
No signs of these, no gross hemorrhage of lungs, heart, brain or stomach".	30868.046508170373
He paused.	140.53933296830112
"That's about it.	86.42827107592785
Oh, the time of death.	20.492058791051747
The duration of the digestive process varies, the pathologist says, but the empty stomach and the findings in the upper gastrointestinal tract indicate that Mrs Meeker died several hours after her seven-o'clock dinner.	99174.34069273327
Probably around midnight, give or take an hour either way".	16969.10822248066
Pauling paused again.	2765.210098602323
"So there it is", he said.	43.34629869199753
"Not your problem, of course, unless Johnston and the murderer are one and the same".	2405.069586081983
They discussed this possibility.	238.1820697716144
However likely it was, Pauling said, he couldn't limit himself to it.	15714.361464543053
He had to look for other prospects, other motives until more conclusive evidence pointing to Johnston came to light.	6710.554903745892
Madden, with his investigation centered on the fraud, said that tomorrow he would go to the Bronx bank through which Mrs Meeker's checks to Johnston had cleared.	156451.10410572786
Arthur Williams had to be located, they agreed.	1958.404273753331
He might have been in collusion with Johnston on the fraud; he might be Mrs Meeker's murderer or have played some part in her death.	23308.20716953585
This was Madden's suggestion; the police chief shook his head over it.	5155.583950145336
If Arthur Williams was involved in the fraud or the murder, then he too had another identity.	39379.105677664746
No one the Medfield police had questioned professed to know any more about him than about Johnston.	38416.190453166666
Scholarship applicant?	20052.086237584885
Pauling looked doubtful.	2765.210828262469
Madden explained that he was thinking of an application sent directly to Mrs Meeker.	37138.80970406702
Then he asked to use the phone and called Brian Thayer, who said that he was just leaving to keep a lunch date but would be home by two o'clock.	11164.208566146068
Madden said that he would see him at two and made another call, this one to Mrs Meeker's lawyers.	67430.31851122271
Mr Hohlbein was out for the day, but Mr Garth would be free at one-thirty.	19594.487046305458
The secretary's tone indicated that an appointment at such short notice was a concession for which Madden should be duly grateful.	68762.74849116312
He inferred that Hohlbein and Garth were high-priced lawyers.	19814.35224886282
He had lunch with Pauling.	1441.4111053452095
Promptly at one-thirty he entered Hohlbein and Garth's elegant suite of offices in Medfield's newest professional building.	35862.014704836736
He disliked Garth on sight, conservative clothes and haircut, smile a shade too earnestly boyish for a man who must be well into his thirties, handclasp too consciously quick and firm.	75875.66398763379
Youngish man on the make, Madden labeled him, and was ready to guess that in a correct, not too pushing fashion, the junior partner of the firm had political ambitions; that Mrs Garth would be impeccably suitable as the wife of a rising young lawyer; that there were three children, two boys and a girl; that she was active in the Woman's Club and he in Lions, Rotary, and Jaycee; and finally, that neither of them had harbored an unorthodox opinion since their wedding day.	218695.9194631335
Madden knew that he could be completely wrong about all this, but also knew that he would go right on disliking Garth.	17995.73117868866
Garth was prepared to be helpful in what he referred to with fastidious distaste as this unfortunate Johnston affair, which would not, he said more than once, have ever come about if Mrs Meeker had only seen fit to consult Mr Hohlbein or him about it.	71977.75132703988
Madden regretted not being able to find fault with so true a statement.	19723.805059385653
He asked to see a copy of Mrs Meeker's will.	541.9336967020927
Garth brought one out.	1949.2082196168476
The date, October 8, 1957, immediately caught the inspector's eye.	6519.8869753512845
"Fairly recent", he remarked.	3236.413477839228
"Was she in the habit of making new wills"?	30169.396561608875
"Oh no.	29.64225683590631
She had reason to change the one she made right after Mr Meeker's death.	11000.710887912242
Her estate had grown considerably.	1697.308819163074
She wanted to make a more equitable distribution of it among the groups that would benefit the most; particularly the scholarship fund.	10674.332550622557
At the time the will was drawn Mr Hohlbein mentioned to me how mentally alert she seemed for her age, knowing just what changes she wanted made and so forth".	29969.349680506868
Garth hesitated.	6670.253906581705
"Mr Hohlbein and I have noticed some lapses since, though.	7500.209236999092
Most of them this past year, I'd say.	425.0354063173437
Even two or three years ago I doubt that she'd have become involved in this unfortunate Johnston affair.	1731.8504092840042
She'd have consulted us, you see.	1686.4089543833577
She always did before, and showed the utmost confidence in whatever we advised".	10797.684438574901
The inspector nodded, doubting this.	2772.677449388169
Mrs Meeker hadn't struck him as ready to seek anyone's advise, least of all Garth's.	94743.2779024397
With her sharp tongue she'd have cut his pompousness to ribbons.	10012.764075691617
It would have been Hohlbein who handled her affairs.	1060.1938749664675
Madden settled back to read the will.	3932.1263274863295
He skimmed over the millions that went to Meeker Park, Medfield Hospital, the civic center, the Public Health Nursing Association, the library, and so on, pausing when he came to the scholarship fund.	33349.76237355557
Two millions were added to what had been set aside for it in Mrs Meeker's lifetime, and the proviso made that as long as Brian Thayer continued to discharge his duties as administrator of the fund to the satisfaction of the board of trustees hereinafter appointed by the bank administering the estate he was to be retained in his present capacity at a salary commensurate with the increased responsibilities enlargement of the fund would entail.	78064.4506450076
A splendid vote of confidence in Thayer, Madden reflected.	12878.221423195417
Tenure, too.	688.1082102200083
Very nice for him.	298.26917048553526
He went on to personal bequests, a list of names largely unknown to him.	769.8822873923787
Twenty-five thousand to each of the great-nieces in Oregon not much to blood relatives out of millions ten thousand to this friend and that, five thousand to another; to Brian Thayer, the sum of ten thousand dollars; to the Pecks, ten thousand each; to Joan Sheldon the conditional bequest of ten thousand to be paid to her in the event that she was still in Mrs Meeker's employ at the time of the latter's death.	46093.92925065583
No additional five thousand for each year after Joan's twenty-first birthday; Mrs Meeker hadn't got around to taking care of that.	21883.67552470611
Too bad, Madden thought.	404.80373859718327
Joan Sheldon had earned the larger bequest.	17699.240923867128
Mr Hohlbein was left twenty thousand, Garth ten.	11730.484159350013
There were no other names Madden recognized.	413.5832092863474
Arthur Williams's might well have been included, he felt.	2890.713210695307
Mrs Meeker had spent a small fortune on a search for him but had made no provision for him in her will if he should be found after her death, and had never mentioned his name to her lawyers.	64854.24615427056
Madden took up this point with Garth, who shrugged it off.	25946.555268940865
"Old people have their idiosyncrasies".	5069.1700166010505
"This one came a bit high at thirty thousand or more".	3759.4958334083026
"Well, she had a number of them where money was concerned", Garth said.	5343.954285935592
"Sometimes we'd have trouble persuading her to make tax-exempt charitable contributions, and I've known her to quarrel with a plumber over a bill for fixing a faucet; the next moment she'd put another half million into the scholarship fund or thirty thousand into something as impractical as this unfortunate Johnston affair.	205109.06286577674
There was no telling how she'd react to spending money".	1245.8892989730932
Madden inquired next about the audit of the scholarship fund.	37213.05181881071
There was an annual audit, Garth informed him.	1494.6163368224559
No discrepancies or shortages had ever been found.	4307.146621995383
Brian Thayer was a thoroughly honest and competent administrator.	29580.82338126987
His salary had reached the ten thousand mark.	4252.136762472621
His expenses ran another four or five thousand.	8611.583610726495
The lawyer didn't know him very well although he saw him occasionally at some dinner party- Thayer, like himself, Madden reflected, was the extra man so prized by hostesses- and found him easy enough to talk to.	128023.38688032891
But he didn't play golf, didn't seem to belong to any local clubs- his work took him away a lot, of course- which probably accounted for his tendency to keep to himself.	71780.41742554813
Garth's glance began to flicker to his watch.	22805.19197111529
He said that he had already told the police chief that he didn't know what insurance man had recommended Johnston to Mrs Meeker.	8584.383976330535
He would offer no theory to account for her murder.	1710.7187480031605
The whole thing, his manner conveyed, was so far outside the normal routine of Hohlbein and Garth that it practically demanded being swept under the rug.	31757.03464494542
No doubt Mrs Meeker had snubbed him many a time and he felt no grief over her passing.	14514.410084785884
Even so, Madden's dislike of the suave, correct lawyer deepened.	16183.401859761825
It would be all right with him, he decided, if his investigation of the fraud, with its probable by-product of murder, led to Garth's door.	9677.16333683457
Motive?	11318.63465748144
Ten-thousand-dollar bequest.	6414.555222076102
At first glance, not much of a motive for a man of his standing; but for all his air of affluence, who could tell what his private financial picture was?	20798.773837727593
The inspector knew as he left that this was wishful thinking.	4667.292683897876
Nevertheless, he made a mental note to look into Garth's financial background.	4341.161066410033
Brian Thayer had a downtown address.	12020.923180080323
He lived in an apartment house not over three or four years old, a reclaimed island of landscaped brick and glass on the fringe of the business district.	11222.543873773908
He occupied a two-bedroom apartment on the fourth floor, using the second bedroom as his office.	26309.489382866337
Airy and bright, the apartment was furnished with good modern furniture, rugs, and draperies.	144398.39934688772
Done by a professional decorator, Madden thought, and somehow as impersonal, as unremarkable as its occupant.	60092.53289728759
In Dunston the rent would run close to two hundred a month; in Medfield, perhaps twenty-five less, not all of it paid by Thayer, who could charge off one room on his expense account.	141093.556651657
He took Madden into the room he used as an office.	2832.931251819825
It contained a desk, files, a typewriter on a stand, and two big leather armchairs.	7935.6724859973565
A newspaper open at stock-market reports lay on one of them.	3598.975957542731
Thayer folded it up and offered a drink.	18329.372441930533
The inspector declined.	422.7388704002441
To begin the interview, he asked if Thayer, with more time to think it over, could add to what he had said the other day about Johnston.	13633.68277411426
Thayer shook his head.	353.6608122831146
"It's all I think about, too.	600.8447315275644
That and her death.	515.6945763218646
It's still unbelievable that it was murder.	3674.1331897782748
For all her domineering ways, I can't conceive of her having had a deadly enemy".	13519.157135687992
"Dammit, Phil, are you trying to wreck my career?	49559.76361381328
Because that's what you're doing- wrecking it, wrecking it, wrecking it"!	16475.382609469973
Griffith had confronted Hoag on the building's front steps- Hoag had been permitted no further- and backed him against a wrought-iron railing.	316006.27152377705
His rage had built up as he made his way here from the second floor, helped by the quantity of champagne he had consumed.	11059.366260192022
Hoag said, "I didn't send for you, Leigh.	47283.802478164995
I want the captain in charge.	264.30808921339684
Where is he"?	459.5278769461532
"Phil, for God's sake, go away.	5740.659216184831
The undersecretary's in there.	266.72765458321214
I told you there's nothing between Midge and me, nothing.	6738.5466443283085
It's all in your mind".	441.2514010111288
A couple of sobs escaped him, followed by a sentiment that revealed his emotional state.	8302.523939492272
"Why, I'm not fit to touch the hem of her garment".	1055.6427981704937
"Leigh, get a grip on yourself.	16073.429345973684
It's not about you or Midge.	3285.1164251957143
I have some security information about the prime minister".	934.075322396284
Griffith looked at him suspiciously through red-rimmed eyes.	40110.434131036745
"Not about me?	137.0962180163851
You mean it, Phil?	9373.018427017007
You wouldn't pull my leg, old man?	15165.381296009955
I did get you on the platform this morning".	2387.095715172728
"I'm not pulling your leg.	297.75016421711416
Will you call that captain"?	3496.3917423913513
"No use, he won't come".	1599.7967432784371
He peered closely at Hoag in the gathering darkness.	4892.993915774705
"What happened to your head"?	862.7935476819542
"I was hit- knocked out.	305.92120918133946
Now will you get him"?	2518.5521265353195
"He says I'm to take the message".	561.1835374019987
He stared at Hoag drunkenly.	1034.0536222505261
"Who'd hit you in the head"?	7965.630938515224
"It doesn't matter.	144.23772262298647
You get back to the captain and tell him this Somebody's going to take a shot at the prime minister, and Mahzeer is in on the plot.	29093.167856257623
Tell him under no circumstances to trust the prime minister with Mahzeer".	29802.25170197855
Griffith said, "That's impossible.	5097.148951557579
Mahzeer's the ambassador".	11770.304497228983
"Nevertheless it's true".	769.4423024875451
"Impossible".	3524.279832361616
Griffith was trying to clear his head of the champagne fuzz that encased it.	44883.60091304006
"I'll show you how wrong you are.	150.98777545051263
Mahzeer and the prime minister are alone right now".	12180.335549314235
He nodded triumphantly.	509.25298954106995
"So that proves it"!	453.8744975524611
Hoag looked terrified.	11770.304497228983
"Where are they"?	186.06987388630225
"Where'd you expect, the john?	26646.216830844536
Mahzeer's office".	1422.1698652103182
"Where is that"?	452.95412162314085
"Facing us, two flights up.	3359.0237704090137
Look, old man, you can't go up.	771.159980277796
They won't even let you in the front door.	1239.172178674737
So why don't you be a good boy and"- Hoag grabbed him by the shoulders.	3389.038338155739
"Listen to me, Leigh.	2009.6179103544157
If you want to spend another day in the State Department- another day- you get in there and tell that captain what I told you".	17405.370197210425
He bit out the words.	496.1895523720553
"And you know I can do it".	85.01230988742262
Griffith raised placating hands.	4048.171876575147
"Easy does it, Phil.	6741.027554277976
I was just going.	97.38693701098904
I'm on my way".	96.58801212374868
He turned and fled into the house and made his way up the marble stairs without once looking back.	8685.006490979853
On the second landing he paused to look for Docherty, didn't see him, and accepted a glass of champagne.	28806.879563468152
He took several large swallows, recollected that Docherty had gone up another flight, and decided he would be wise to cover himself by finding him.	46520.824905209694
The way Hoag was, no telling what he might say or do.	17850.969389073634
He finished his champagne and climbed uncertainly to the next landing.	12946.790339233974
At the top a uniformed officer blocked further progress.	1428.7542161167908
"Yes, what is it"?	22.395288123059633
he asked.	2.83163735220959
"I want Captain Docherty".	1637.3160653062323
He spotted Docherty coming out of a room at the far end of the corridor and called to him.	1853.2449340478938
Docherty said, "It's okay, Bonfiglio, let him by".	12330.27894187401
They walked toward each other.	172.50993088169406
"Well"?	488.3238106138061
Griffith said, "Hoag told me to tell you"- he waited until they were close; it was hideously embarrassing- "not to let the prime minister be alone with Mahzeer".	65871.01457403018
Griffith looked half-crocked to the captain; it would be just like him.	49561.400884623545
"Why not"?	3.3637455197869603
"He claims Mahzeer's in a plot to kill the PM".	2083.421974900324
Docherty went taut was it possible?	85849.332204088
Could the ambassador himself be the man on this side the prime minister feared?	21542.787709711145
Not possible, he thought; the prime minister knew who his enemy was here; he wasn't going to allow himself to be led meekly to the slaughter.	42609.836532701265
And if by some wild chance Mahzeer was the man, he wouldn't dare try anything now- not after Docherty had looked in on the two of them to see that all was well.	24376.32004762856
Docherty was damned if he would make a fool of himself again the way he had earlier over the laundry truck.	9464.300591614476
One more muddleheaded play like that one and they'd be leading him away.	5219.30486038194
Still, this had to be checked out.	658.7131098550104
"Where'd your friend Hoag get his information"?	13938.02722514628
he asked.	2.83163735220959
"Haven't the faintest, Captain".	26298.596627531337
"Would you mind sending him up here?	3468.8159927316706
I'd like to talk to him".	4.413359620168899
Troubled, he continued along the corridor, poking his head into the next office for a careful look around.	84250.3165861717
3 But Hoag had not stayed on the front steps when Griffith disappeared into the building.	6919.21127911182
He was unwilling to rely on Griffith's carrying his message, and he had no confidence the police would act on it.	11176.193205591222
If Mahzeer was alone with the prime minister he could be arranging his execution while Hoag stood out here shivering in the darkening street.	30199.623617148016
He would have to do something on his own.	85.83606908509026
But what?	27.32498773866604
The door opened and three men and a woman in a sari swept past him and down the stairs.	2060.25399324814
In the lighted interior he saw other men and women struggling into their wraps.	29582.45519013068
These were the early departures; in half an hour the reception would be over.	4669.835697032011
If Mahzeer was planning to set up the prime minister for Muller he would have to do it in the next few minutes.	3955.9655039401855
Hoag descended the stone steps to the street and looked up at the building.	13020.641919634258
Wide windows with many small leaded panes swept across the upper stories.	39849.00997742927
On the second floor he saw the animated faces of the party guests; the scene looked like a Christmas card.	10578.15769808866
On the third floor one of the two windows was lighted; it was framed in maroon drapes, and no faces were visible.	16754.101707877915
This would be Mahzeer's office.	284.72034227718734
He and the prime minister would be back from the window, seated at Mahzeer's desk; they would be going over papers Mahzeer had saved as excuse for just such a meeting.	14635.112176742496
In a minute, or five minutes, the business would be done; Mahzeer would stand up, the prime minister would follow.	15629.472517832375
Mahzeer would direct the prime minister's attention to something out the window and would guide him forward and then step to one side.	39049.38337827991
The single shot would come; Hoag would carry its sound to his grave.	6649.738519927527
Mahzeer, of course, would be desolate.	6049.616180404893
How was he to suspect that an assassin had been lurking somewhere across the street waiting for just such a chance?	61115.870728315334
Hoag turned.	6886.910637010236
Where across the street?	2600.559562401618
Where was Muller waiting with the rifle?	15259.196311778725
Narrow four-story buildings ran the length of the block like books tightly packed on a shelf.	79817.17868435284
Most of them could be eliminated; Muller's would have to be one of the half dozen almost directly opposite.	2718.719188287821
The legation was generously set back from the building line; if the angle of fire were too great the jutting buildings on either side would interfere.	124778.74747484845
Would the shot come from a roof?	9313.177496559625
He ran his eye along the roof copings; almost at once a figure bulked up.	4834.154241365474
But dully glinting on the dark form were the buttons and badge of a policeman.	86100.54567131973
With a cop patrolling the road Muller would have to be inside a building- if he was here at all, and not waiting for the prime minister somewhere between this street and the terminal building at La Guardia Airport.	34537.30106620325
Hoag crossed the narrow street, squeezing between parked cars to reach the sidewalk.	68900.13462885332
From this side he could see farther into the legation's third-story window, but he saw no faces; the room's occupants were still seated or they had been called into the hallway by an alarmed police captain.	102080.16391520607
If only the latter were true h. He walked rapidly along the buildings scanning their facades one was a club- that was out; two others he ruled out because all their windows were lighted.	110448.27171732196
That left three, possibly four, one looking much like the next.	3657.741021374031
He climbed the steps of the first and opened the door to the vestibule.	11268.646728034433
He quickly closed it again.	744.5932193810021
He had assumed that all these buildings had been divided into apartments, but this one, from a glance at the hall furnishings, was obviously still a functioning town house, and its owners were in residence; that made it doubtful as the hiding place of a man whose plans had to be made in advance.	34943.9929175824
He went on to the next building and found what he expected- the mingled cooking aromas of a public vestibule.	12290.711978102896
On one wall was the brass front of a row of mailboxes; there were six apartments.	11625.382683918584
Now what?	40.894749759438035
The names on the mailboxes meant nothing to him.	1351.2068557746306
This was senseless- he had no idea what to look for.	720.2074562031175
He peered in the boxes themselves; all were empty except one, and that one was jammed with letters and magazines.	11255.713841767994
The occupants of Apartment Number 3 were probably away for a few days, and not likely to return on a Friday.	7332.871189253554
Had Muller made the same deduction?	28181.80465276429
Muller was attracted to the lore of mailboxes.	64124.72693159872
He opened the inner door; the cooking odors were stronger- all over the city, at this hour, housewives would be fussing over stoves.	51468.00183580346
He climbed, as quickly as he could urge his body, up the two unbroken flights to the third floor, pulling himself along on a delicate balustrade, all that remained of the building's beauty.	53446.62444104486
He paused on the landing to steady his breathing and then bent to examine the single door by the light of the weak bulb overhead.	19187.966928039103
Now he was certain the lock had not yielded to Muller's collection of keys; fresh scars showed that the door had been prized open.	37122.31920879184
It had been shut again, but the lock was broken; he noted with a thrill of fear that the door moved under his touch.	20043.91794657549
What was he to do now?	47.53957081940956
He had thought no further than finding Muller.	5633.948998826485
He realized now he had more than half hoped he wouldn't find him- that Muller would not be here, that the attempt would be scheduled for somewhere beyond Hoag's control.	27843.875713949114
He could not break in on an armed man.	1498.6103345362744
He would have to climb back down to the street and signal a cop.	3954.4383153662034
Was there time?	852.7588857777183
His thoughts were scattered by the sharp report of a rifle from the other side of the door.	1772.8406589354502
Hoag pushed open the door at the far end of the long dark room Muller was faintly silhouetted against the window, the rifle still raised; he stood with his feet apart on a kitchen table he had dragged to the sill.	81282.71561531484
He turned his head to the source of the disturbance and instantly back to the window and his rifle sight, dismissing Hoag for the moment with the same contempt he had shown in their encounter at Hoag's apartment.	59878.23481562114
Hoag stretched his left hand to the wall and fumbled for the switch evil flourishes in the dark.	10239.399643255234
The room was bathed in light at the instant Muller's second shot came.	10183.988044072757
Muller, nakedly exposed at the bright window like a deer pinned in a car's headlights, threw down the rifle and turned to jump from the table; his face wore a look of outrage.	419828.2384467784
A shot caught him and straightened him up in screaming pain; a following volley of shots shattered glass, ripped the ceiling, and sent him lurching heavily from the table.	53873.86486193529
He was dead before his body made contact with the floor.	1314.0268062539926
Hoag stumbled back into the hall, leaned against the wall, and started to retch.	13069.788779925642
4 After Captain Docherty sent Arleigh Griffith for Hoag he was able to complete his detailed inspection of the third floor and to receive a report from his man covering the floors above before Griffith returned, buoyed up by a brief stop for another glass of champagne.	99807.12790870285
The safe at Ingleside District Station stands next to the gum machine in a narrow passageway that leads to Captain Harris's office to the left, the lieutenant's office farther along and to the left and the janitor's supply closet straight ahead.	73804.02362069732
The safe is a repository for three dead flashlight batteries, a hundred and fifty unused left-hand fingerprint cards, a stack of unsold Policemen's Ball tickets from last year, and thirty-seven cents in coins and stamps.	149218.75806141918
Gun set the captain's fifth of Hiram Walker inside the safe before he reported to Lt Killpath, though he knew that Killpath's ulcer prevented him from making any untoward incursion on Herman Wolff's gift.	141792.86284351244
It was more a matter of tact, and also it was none of Killpath's goddam business.	9569.416576048146
He walked up to the lieutenant's office, leaned wearily against the gun rack that housed four rifles and a gas gun nobody remembered having used and a submachine gun that was occasionally tried out on the Academy Range.	129011.32361658968
He stared at the clerk who sat at a scarred and ancient fumed-oak desk stuffing envelopes.	13523.237668795178
"Where's the Lieut"?	27011.67372884715
The clerk wagged his head toward the captain's office.	7991.150728145329
Gun went to the connecting door, which was open, and stood at attention while Orville Torrence Killpath, in full uniform, finished combing his hair.	132018.25454719982
The lieutenant's sparse brown hair was heavily pomaded, and as Killpath raked the comb through it, it stuck together in thatches so that it looked like umbrella ribs clinging to his pink skull.	316605.24690899043
The lieutenant eyed Gun's reflection in the mirror over the washbowl and then glanced back at his own face, moving the comb methodically around his head.	75858.43911235192
Leave me alone, Gun thought.	2975.822083575258
Fight with Sam Schaeffer, fight with the whole damned Bureau.	31301.642153856188
But leave me alone.	880.6524118965752
Because I'm looking for the son of a bitch that killed that old man, and I'm going to get him.	7243.18897706348
If you just leave me to hell alone, Lieutenant.	9909.704858981664
Killpath peered through half-closed lids at his reflection, thrust up his chin in a gesture of satisfaction and about-faced.	116653.14925846327
Gun waited for Killpath to sit down behind the desk near the window.	16362.134209496595
He sat stiff-backed in a chair that did not swivel, though it was obvious to Gun that Killpath felt his position as acting captain plainly merited a swivel chair.	31963.54795812918
The desk before him was in no better repair than the rest of the furniture crowded into the room, including wooden file cabinets with some of their pulls yanked off and a wardrobe stained with the roof seepage of countless seasons.	59008.78977888677
Killpath pulled one thin leg up, clamping his arms around the shinbone to press his knee into an incredibly scrawny gut.	277516.13853194634
It was the posture which the men had come to recognize as that of Killpath defying his ulcer.	19634.417958380527
He put his chin on his kneecap, stretching his neck like that of a turkey on a chopping block, and stared wordlessly at his sergeant.	70728.83485370305
Gun waited.	1579.1238199526792
The 745 bell rang and he could hear the outside doors bang shut, closing in the assembled day watch.	26772.801439112
Finally, Orville intoned through his hawk nose, "We can't have people running in any time they please, Sergeant".	100511.89236985247
"No, sir".	24.135262133901563
"Running in, running out.	1324.5046020501138
Can't have it.	111.40334609375614
Makes for confusion and congestion".	1307.6929255625482
He rocked back in the chair, knee locked against stomach, his beady eyes fixed on Matson.	99376.02509546312
He was silent again, possibly listening to the sounds in the squadroom.	21798.351910966758
Roll was being called.	887.3725564927843
Gun cleared his throat.	432.87277123098454
Killpath said, "You were expected to report to my office twenty minutes ago, Sergeant.	37811.95434495739
That's not getting all the juice out of the orange, now is it"?	11184.123170620587
"No, sir".	24.135262133901563
Then Killpath smiled.	725.7070742120084
Gun knew that nothing but aces back to back would give the lieutenant an ulcer and a smile at the same time.	25298.701257729506
The day-watch platoon commander, Lt Rinker, was calling out the beat assignments, but Matson couldn't make the names mean anything.	54041.76201347638
"I called the station at three this morning", Killpath's nasal voice pronounced.	24378.248008303937
"Do you have any idea who might have been in charge at the time"?	649.0465830184381
"Sergeant Vaughn, sir".	462.0924585654442
"Now, now, you're just guessing, Sergeant".	1179.4713220341719
He smiled thinly, savoring his joke.	2576.643951290089
"What if I said nobody was here but a couple of patrolmen"?	31776.19700225007
"Sir, Vaughn knows better than to leave the station without a relief.	11409.16804534988
He must have"- "He let a patrolman take over the duties of the station keeper.	12235.37813254956
Now that's not regulation, is it"?	1180.1786010410958
"No, sir".	24.135262133901563
"But you didn't know a thing about it, did you"?	2704.1457389919096
Killpath leaned forward; his foot slipped off the chair and he put it back again, frowning now.	63084.662783705426
"That's not taking one's command with a responsible attitude, Matson".	17008.464789123158
Gun told himself that the old bastard was a fool.	14549.877331658476
But stupidity was no consolation when it had rank.	10343.475546500194
"I was out in the district, sir".	63.68390543643785
"Oh, yes.	23.805695246202742
So I have heard".	54.390847972311526
He stretched a pale hand out to the scattered papers on his desk.	26070.629330932712
"I might point out that your inability to report to my office this morning when you were instructed to do so has not h ah h limited my knowledge of your activities as you may have hoped".	52250.95385547979
He took up a white sheet of paper, dark with single-spaced data.	9613.580540706525
A car pulled into the driveway outside the window.	3029.4210755259246
Gun knew it was Car 12, the wagon, returned from delivering Ingleside's drunk-and-disorderlies to the City Jail.	130962.25924256386
But for some fool reason he couldn't remember which men he'd put on the transfer detail.	21253.192863594228
He stared at the report in Killpath's hand, sure it was written by Accacia- just as sure as if he'd submitted it in his scrawled longhand.	23250.269079033347
He sucked in his breath and kept quiet while Killpath laid down the sheet again, wound the gold-wire stems of his glasses around his ears and then, eying the report as it lay before him on the desk, intoned, "Acting Lieutenant Gunnar Matson one failed to see that the station keeper was properly relieved two absented himself throughout the entire watch without checking on the station's activities or the whereabouts of his section sergeants three permitted members of the Homicide Detail of the Inspector's Bureau to arrogate for their own convenience a patrolman who was thereby prevented from carrying on his proper assignment four failed to notify the station commander Acting Captain O T Killpath of a homicide occurring in the district five frequented extralegal establishments known as after-hours spots for purposes of an unofficial and purportedly social nature and six"- he leaned back and peeled off his glasses "- failed to co-operate with the Acting Captain by returning promptly when so ordered.	576512.747488119
What have you to say to that, Sergeant"?	19582.19352549732
Killpath sailed the paper across the desk, but Matson didn't pick it up or even glance at it.	54919.26244949936
"Well"?	488.3238106138061
"I didn't think Accacia knew so many big words, Lieutenant".	11460.776393561011
Killpath licked his lips.	418.3191045821977
"Patrolman Accacia is an alert and conscientious law-enforcement officer.	19783.47230274256
I don't think his diligence mitigates your negligence, Matson".	5590.274441443577
"Negligence, hell"!	345.986557016411
Gun held his breath a moment, pushing the volume and pitch of his voice down under the trapdoor in his throat.	20369.69818334229
"Sir.	214.07102656578297
I would have been negligent and a goddam lousy cop to boot, if I'd sat around this station all night when somebody got away with murder in my district.	30966.04790213941
It's too bad I didn't call you, and it's too bad I let Schaeffer use Accacia when he could have had a boy who'd be glad to learn something of Homicide procedure.	44973.82948190542
But I'm not one damned bit sorry I went out to question the people I know in the places they hang around, and"- "Let's not push our patience beyond the danger line, Sergeant", Killpath nasaled.	60907.838078230045
"I shouldn't like to have to write you up for insubordination as well as dereliction of duty".	28340.747739210263
Gun stiffened, his hands balling into fists at his sides.	15999.420413327794
He clamped his jaws to keep the fury from spilling out.	19145.79836670077
An argument with Orville Torrence Killpath was as frustrating and as futile as a cap pistol on a firing range.	69043.5592091201
Killpath leaned forward again, rocked comfortably with his arms still wrapped around one knee.	85740.6058438553
"Let's just remember, Sergeant, that we must all carry our own umbrella.	13826.870127665785
A district station can't run smoothly, unless"- He interrupted himself, looking around Gun at the doorway.	33442.04181414704
"Morning, Lieutenant Rinker".	2317.247525832301
"Sorry, Orville.	11770.304497228983
I thought you hadn't come in yet".	1535.5514430167336
"I've been here for some time".	23.67622471429689
He stood up, cocked his head and eyed Gun coldly.	3208.3235843116045
"The sergeant is just leaving".	5189.593635586712
It had come as no great surprise to Matson that the hot water in the showers didn't work, that Loren Severe had thrown up all over the stairs, or that some thieving bastard of a cop had walked off with his cigarettes.	139566.27725723115
It was the best he could hope for on a watch that had ended with a session in Killpath's office.	11636.724145095723
Now, as he passed the open counter that divided the assembly room from the business office, he nodded and said good night to the station keeper and his clerks, not stopping to hear the day-watch playback of his chewing out.	85923.02647598664
Not that he gave a damn what the grapevine sent out about Killpath's little speech on the comportment of platoon commanders.	26566.872611304476
He just didn't want to talk about it.	34.83815581739342
If the acting captain wanted his acting lieutenant to sit on his ass around the station all night, Killpath would just have to go out and drag Gun back by the heels once an hour; because he'd be damned if he was going to be a mid-watch pencil-pusher just to please his ulcerated pro-tem captain.	107231.83971714054
At the doorway he squinted up at the gray morning overcast and patted his jacket pockets for the cigarettes, remembering then that he'd left them at the Doughnuttery.	111537.7763187071
He could pick up another pack on his way home, if he were going home.	9512.151360466714
But even before he started across the oiled road to his Plymouth, parked in the lot under the cypress trees across from the station, he knew that he wasn't going home.	17334.38231340504
Not yet.	26.7192131556379
It was nine o'clock in the morning the hour which, like a spade turning clods of earth, exposed to the day a myriad of busy creatures that had lain dormant in the quiet night.	26835.216070664384
Mission Street at this hour was populated by a whole community that Gun could not have seen on his tour of duty- the neighborhood that had known Urbano Quintana by day.	81217.92160137223
TEN Sol Phillips had purchased the Alliance Furniture Mart seventeen years ago.	15037.393388712042
It was professedly worth three thousand dollars in stock and good will, and the name was written in gold in foot-high letters across each of the two display windows.	22532.255756505903
On the right window, at eye level, in smaller print but also in gold, was Gonzalez, Prop, and under that, Se Habla Espanol.	69612.95619967421
Mr Phillips took a razor to Gonzalez, Prop, but left the promise that Spanish would be understood because he thought it meant that Spanish clientele would be welcome.	99404.66425705707
Language was no problem anyway; Mr Phillips had only to signal from his doorway to summon aid from the ubiquitous bilingual children who played on the sidewalks of Mission Street.	265650.1547938399
Aside from the fact that business was slow this time of year and his one salesgirl was not the most enterprising, Mr Phillips had no worries at all, and he said as much to Gun Matson, who sat across from him in civilian clothes, on a Jiffy-Couch-a-Bed, mauve velour, $79.89 nothing-down special!	91097.41094700176
"She's honest as the day", Mr Phillips said, and added, "Mr Gunnar, I can say this to you Beebe is a little too honest.	28148.909294031055
You can't tell a customer how much it's going to cost him to refinance his payments before he even signs for a loan on the money down!	53746.54476931499
A time plan is a mere convenience, you understand, and when"- He interrupted himself, smiling.	49719.567256797956
"I put her in lamps.	1808.1537021034746
That way I don't lose so much".	1365.0787868362872
"Why don't you just hire somebody else"?	979.9554296396966
"She says she has to finish a story".	420.1528050634399
He shrugged.	241.59224860062338
"I asked her why she couldn't do it tomorrow, but it seems the muse is working good tonight and she's afraid to let it go".	13740.580988660593
Casey made some comment, but his mind was busy as he considered the man.	27881.280736288554
His name was George Needham and he, too, had come from a good family.	834.8507984216325
He was perhaps thirty-two, nicely set up, with light brown hair that had a pronounced wave.	25295.92386885626
He was always well groomed and well tailored, and he had that rich man's look which was authentic enough and came from two good prep schools and a proper university.	48312.878534477306
An only child, he had done all the things that young men do who have been born to money and social position until his father double-crossed him by dying broke.	41427.3752596908
Since then he had worked at this and that, though some said his main interest was gambling.	16427.69698080682
All this went through Casey's mind in the first instant, but what held his interest was the fact that these two should be together at all.	16396.339636210436
For he had understood that Betty had been engaged to a boy named Barry Jenkins.	16687.87562991637
She had grown up with young Jenkins, and he had heard that they had been at the point of getting married at least twice.	2819.646422005536
He wanted to ask her about Jenkins now, but he knew he couldn't do so in Needham's presence.	2834.882823296212
And so, still wondering and a little perplexed, he grinned at the girl and spoke lightly to make sure that she would know he was kidding.	46166.88576637202
"Where did you pick him up"?	3714.523427513274
"Oh, I've known him quite a while".	703.7853737856868
She glanced at her companion fondly.	6072.11398068589
"Haven't I, George"?	12336.71130922679
"I've been after her for years", Needham said, "but I've never been able to get anywhere until the last few days".	948.5664824262619
The girl's eyes were softly shining as she reached out and touched Casey's hand.	15705.571711307437
"Can I tell you a secret?	7052.721155790098
We're going to get married.	18.95704549125914
Do you approve"?	1190.0595477641564
Casey kept his smile fixed, but some small inner disturbance was working on him as he thought again about Needham, who was eight or ten years older than the girl.	23752.057236141012
He wondered whether Needham was going to swear off gambling and get a steady job or whether he was counting on the income from Betty's estate to subsidize him.	51977.15874800364
None of this showed in his face, and he tried to keep his skepticism in hand.	433.7988071527767
He made a point of frowning, of acting out the part of the fond father-confessor.	11687.01858536987
"I'll have to give it some thought", he said.	203.14507212635067
"You wouldn't want me to say yes without making sure his intentions are honorable, would you"?	74426.43933628168
She made a face at him and then she laughed.	6300.1116251613275
"Of course not".	108.24754505390302
"I'll get my references in order", Needham said, and though he spoke with a smile, Casey somehow got the idea that he was not particularly amused.	7354.387843331576
"Stop by any time, Casey".	8131.055105861455
He stood up and touched the girl's arm.	654.7488137163463
"Come on, darling.	3365.745833294975
If you're really serious about working on that story, I'd better take you home".	4702.314058543609
Casey watched them go, still frowning absently and then dismissing the matter as he called for his check.	121131.71945592789
As he went out he told Freddie the dinner was perfect, and when he got his hat and coat from Nancy Parks and put a fifty-piece piece in the slot, he told her to be sure that it went toward her dowry.	55525.36997067791
A taxi took him back to the bar and grill where he had left his car, and a few minutes later he found a parking place across the street from his apartment.	3697.0686744538243
Because his mind had been otherwise occupied for the past couple of hours, he did not think to look and see if Jerry Burton's car was still there.	29189.937024643816
In fact, he did not think about Jerry Burton at all until he entered his living room and closed the door behind him.	761.3293117381429
Only then, when his glance focused on the divan and saw that it was empty, did he remember his earlier problem.	9348.071040224615
Even from where he stood he could see the neatly folded blanket that he had spread over Burton, the pillow, the sheet of paper on top of it.	36203.800478413825
Then he was striding across the room, his thoughts confused but the worry building swiftly inside him as he snatched up the note.	29987.439255545658
Jack Look in the wastebasket.	8941.76025435763
I knew the only way I could beat you was to play possum, but it was a good try, kid, and I appreciate it.	9449.890282544407
J  The wastebasket stood near the wall next to the divan, and the instant Casey picked it up he knew what had happened.	27505.57516621451
The discarded papers inside were sodden, there was a glint of liquid at the bottom, and the smell of whisky was strong and distinct.	12340.326181432714
He put the basket down distastefully, muttering softly and thoroughly disgusted with himself and his plan that had seemed so foolproof.	67251.2909125012
For he remembered too well how he had brought back the loaded drinks to Burton and then returned to the kitchen to get weaker drinks for himself.	8811.951327455867
For another second or two he gave in to the annoyance that was directed at himself; then his mind moved on to be confronted by something far more serious, and as the thought expanded, the implications jarred him.	69628.56634533535
It no longer mattered that Burton had outsmarted him.	8232.62829496028
The important thing was that Burton had gone somewhere to meet a blackmailer with a gun in his pocket.	2314.9601082289837
And that gun was empty.	699.3672609533974
Even before his mind had rounded out the idea, he thrust one hand into his trousers pocket and pulled out the six slugs he had taken from the revolver.	65303.10861051305
He considered them with brooding eyes, brows bunched as his brain grappled with the problem and tried to find some solution.	23725.31431706514
He said "The crazy fool", half aloud.	4986.868197747888
He put the shells on the table, as though he could no longer bear to hold them.	1953.9489134620565
He thought Where the hell could he have gone?	20662.561555225762
How can I find him?	779.2705701150671
There was no answer to this and he began to pace back and forth across the room, his imagination out of control.	500.4189894349911
He tried to tell himself that maybe Burton had sobered up enough to get some sense.	5898.711942974706
Maybe he only intended to scare the blackmailer, whoever he was, in which case an unloaded gun would be good enough.	10657.517426761417
He thought of other possibilities, none of them satisfactory, and finally he began to think, to wonder if there was some way he could reach Burton.	12042.260752334782
Then, as he turned toward the telephone, it rang shrilly to shatter the stillness in the room and he reached for it eagerly.	23779.4623225411
"Yeah", he said.	18.854313571883974
"Casey"?	8071.1012558275
"Yeah".	35.197251894126666
"Tony Calenda".	5718.035025519367
Casey heard the voice distinctly and he knew who it was, but it took him a while to make the mental readjustment and control the disturbance inside his head.	18212.36008648711
When he heard Calenda say "What about that picture you took this afternoon"?	29906.248631871527
it still took him another few seconds to remember the job he had done for Frank Ackerly.	38627.70427571213
"What picture"?	338.2292145204697
he demanded.	2.9551516125786947
"You took a picture of me at the corner of Washington and Blake about three thirty this afternoon".	20370.20243849843
"Who says so"?	923.4405868426172
"One of my boys".	23.867344747736414
Casey believed that much.	1113.6832636982203
Calenda was not the sort who walked around without one of his "boys" close at hand.	23621.84818418042
"So"?	269.59074468988877
"With my trial coming up in Federal Court next week I wouldn't want that picture published".	35827.68125074957
"Who says it's going to be published"?	6866.574992827559
"I wouldn't even want it to get around".	1070.8452419327116
Under normal circumstances Casey was a little fussy when people told him what to do with pictures he had taken.	13032.862516870815
Even so, he generally listened and was usually reasonable to those who voiced their objections properly.	10368.895830766773
Right now, however, he was still too worried about Jerry Burton, and the gun that had no bullets, and the story Burton had told him, to care too much about Tony Calenda.	16870.503071525323
His nerves were getting a little ragged and his impatience put an edge in his voice.	42398.298482692844
"Look", he said.	4.677302573400177
"I was hired to take a picture.	102.4043359659258
I took it.	94.15865726110299
That's all I know about it and that's all I care".	3603.8886379152154
"Maybe you'd better tell the guy who hired you what I said".	1588.997279213439
"You tell him".	120.13475268922986
"All right", Calenda said, his voice still quiet.	1851.6800292790936
"But I meant what I said, Casey.	3338.709588523838
If that picture gets around and I find out you had anything to do with it, I'm going to send a couple of my boys around to see you".	12772.374084463412
"You do that", Casey said.	890.3944690013586
"Just be sure to send your two best boys, Tony".	21089.26929442004
He hung up with a bang, annoyed at himself for running off at the mouth like that but still terribly concerned with the situation he had helped to create.	105752.50887892157
As soon as he could think logically again he reached for the telephone directory and found Jerry Burton's home number.	11187.562134525439
He dialed it and listened to it ring ten times before he hung up.	36714.527382739165
He called the bar and grill where he had picked Burton up that afternoon.	3295.2241757065462
When he was told that no one had seen Burton since then, he thought of three other places that were possibilities.	2368.2708593428424
Each time he got the same answer and in the end he gave up.	1849.4435812067134
By the time he had smoked three cigarettes he had calmed down.	1663.0931548057413
He had done all he could and that was that.	405.7341909842342
And anyway Burton was not the kind of guy who would be likely to get in trouble even when he was drunk.	8749.820117614743
He, Casey, had been scared for a while, but that had come mostly from the fact that he felt responsible.	5974.849277607591
He should have stayed here and watched Burton.	3154.3604477407375
He didn't.	19.601884173098796
So he made a mistake.	18.509294160729652
So what?	4.0340155806932785
He kept telling himself this as he went out to the kitchen to make a drink.	2431.265156853539
Only then did he decide he didn't want one.	3144.950484392637
He considered opening a can of beer but vetoed that idea too.	15285.460746986488
Finally he went into the bedroom and sat down to take off his shoes.	2746.387009090683
He had just finished unlacing the right one when the telephone rang again.	5866.396828593695
When he snatched it up the voice that came to him was quick and urgent.	15472.710755211276
"Casey?	8071.1012558275
You don't know me but I know you.	824.6742599787697
If you want a picture get to the corner of Adams and Clark just as fast as you can.	2580.9756895152314
If you hurry you might beat the headquarters boys".	4696.586017721381
Casey heard the click of the distant receiver before he could open his mouth, and it took him no more than three seconds to make his decision.	22392.362730644745
For over the years he had received many such calls.	454.5859191055706
Some of them came from people who identified themselves.	285.7336763902456
Some telephoned because he had done them a favor in the past.	2390.1663922617386
Others because they expected some sort of reward for the information.	14577.31989645142
A few passed along a tip for the simple reason that they liked him and wanted to give him a break.	2616.4860828073893
Only an occasional tip turned out to be a phony, and, like the police, Casey had made a point of running down all such suggestions and he did not hesitate this time.	13241.220978451442
He was in his car with his camera and equipment bag in less than two minutes, and it took him only three more to reach the corner, a block from Columbus Avenue.	3610.7519126878483
It was a district of small factories and loft buildings and occasional tenements, and he could see the police radio car as he rounded the corner and slammed on the brakes.	41434.31627392305
He did not bother with his radio- there would be time for that later- but as he scrambled out on the pavement he saw the filling station and the public telephone booth and knew instantly how he had been summoned.	110024.23378254147
The police car had pulled up behind a small sedan, its headlights still on.	16240.34569871347
slowly he pulled out the hand throttle until the boat was moving at little more than a crawl, and watched Elaine rapidly spin from one station to another, tune in the null, then draw in a line on the chart.	225241.43636128772
"We're out just a little too far.	180.69402274928885
Make a 90 degree straight for shore".	2121.578096665184
Poet came in, raising his eyebrows appreciatively as he saw Elaine.	99946.3201592755
"Now"?	282.1561806838335
he asked.	2.83163735220959
"Pretty quick", she replied.	1075.998008317556
"Will you drop the anchor"?	3514.147183749792
Poet nodded, swung below and a moment later emerged from the forward hatch where he picked up the anchor.	115725.28369205273
The rock and roll music coming from the radio station suddenly faded as the boat coasted into the null on the RDF.	78099.010736409
"Reverse", Elaine said, then peered through the loop of the RDF and waved to Poet.	206481.89167651316
A second later she came behind the wheel and backed off the anchor line until it was set in the ocean floor.	22254.597205954236
She cut the engines and slowly the cruiser swung around on the end of its lines until its bow was pointing into the wind and the cockpit faced toward the shore.	46503.51950475499
Nick watched her somewhat enviously as she efficiently cut the engines, and started the auxiliary motor.	61493.35224850158
Poet came up from below, wearing new bathing trunks.	35126.77698433713
The price tag hung from the belt and he pulled it off as he entered the chartroom and looked at it curiously.	46052.15298756433
Nick wondered if Elaine had bought them, but he said nothing.	5722.3228115773645
Nobody, he suddenly realized, was saying anything.	5449.641009642348
It seemed as if they were all under a spell.	36.2200081183981
There should be an excited conversation, for somewhere, directly below them, was a treasure lost for more than four hundred years.	14814.379469128335
But instead of chatter there was a null, like on the radio direction finder.	25836.75495940102
Once, in New York, he had gone flying with some friends in a small private airplane with a single engine.	8048.315970239083
They had all been laughing, joking, when suddenly the engine had failed.	12989.803563999483
No one had screamed.	157.55852347399468
No one had prayed.	572.738083491429
All had fallen into a complete silence, listening to the wind whistle over the wings.	5042.592057011721
The pilot had been good.	337.4389721606844
He'd landed the plane on a small airstrip in Connecticut and as soon as the aircraft had coasted to a stop, everyone had burst into chatter at the same moment.	36082.86543874637
There had been tension in the plane during the silent descent; a tension similar to the one now.	5276.400210811789
But in the plane there was a concrete reason for it.	771.3865650318666
Now, at this moment, there should be none h unless skin diving was much more dangerous than he had been led to believe.	2094.8226196937303
Yet tension existed.	463.0067834927933
The same taut-nerved relationship as there had been between the passengers on the plane now strained at the three of them here on the boat.	48474.8439453801
It hung over them like a cloud, its arrival as sudden as a cloud skidding over the sun.	19815.159693528312
Silently, Elaine picked up her keys from the table and went out into the cockpit, Poet behind her, Nick trailing behind him.	46694.834045076816
She threw back a cushion over one of the seats, unlocked a padlock on the chest beneath it, then presently straightened, holding a long knife and a wicked looking spear gun in her hand.	148453.60912499687
Poet whistled softly as he looked at the gun.	9789.601256223506
"Hydraulic"?	11318.63465748144
he asked.	2.83163735220959
Elaine nodded.	302.8702808365169
"They are the best".	4.751971412413598
She kicked the locker lid shut and replaced the cushion.	30579.334524573685
"They are the most efficient".	14.771092255321802
"And the deadliest", Poet commented as he buckled on his tank harness.	30214.43674446297
"Why do you need an arsenal"?	1738.5105171353398
Nick asked, apprehensively, staring at the weapon.	27821.919715358606
"It's quite possible there's more than codfish down there, man", Poet replied with a short, nervous laugh as he held the harness for Elaine.	107315.6385298604
A moment later, moving awkwardly because of the swimming fins, she picked up the gun, handed the knife to Poet, then rolled off the transom of the boat, back first.	79360.22923140205
Poet nodded to Nick and entered the water in a similar fashion.	8939.094238258454
Another moment and they were out of sight, leaving behind only a string of bubbles as a clue to their whereabouts.	27903.252284300645
For a while Nick followed the twisting course of the bubbles, wondering which set came from Elaine.	44549.54522953154
They remained close together, their air trail wiggling like serpents traveling side by side.	10885.569665695832
Eventually the bubbles became lost in the sparkle of the ocean surface, and he rolled over on his back.	17302.12156939483
Clasping his hands behind his head, he stared at the blue sky.	32384.06140597932
There was nothing quite like being alone on a boat on the ocean.	10595.837156514368
Alfredo certainly must have enjoyed being alone.	16595.621199997433
Next to the ocean, probably the loneliest spot was the desert.	9713.885875702596
If Elaine's uncle had stuck to this desire for aloneness, he probably would still be alive.	58202.25920714899
Yet Alfredo wanted money h wanted money to roam through the deserts.	54453.83163859885
And Graham wanted money probably to roam among the dice tables in Las Vegas.	42106.21779299229
It was an odd combination h a strange pair to stumble upon the wreck of the Trinidad.	25374.47855643827
But Graham hadn't stumbled on it.	1116.6587872025066
Two to three weeks prior to the charter of the Virginia, Graham had been snooping around the San Luis Rey Mission.	105500.57731363892
The small helicopter with its two steel skids churned offshore and Nick raised up to watch it heading south.	45936.40822136164
That was a hell of a note, he thought.	69.43601703027839
A couple couldn't even find a secluded spot anywhere on a beach to neck nowadays without someone swooping down upon them.	26043.161675930045
If the character flying that thing had gone over San Clemente Island yesterday he would have had an eyeful.	16891.489090475112
Off to the west a beautiful schooner slowly beat its way into the wind, headed on a tack toward San Clemente.	31717.13577106982
Behind it a cabin cruiser drifted crossways in the small ground-swell, a lone fisherman in the chair aft.	109634.57644559983
The fisherman was right in the middle of the Deep.	2678.2259705869615
Nick recalled stories that the two best fishing spots in Southern California were over the La Jolla Deep and the Redondo Deep, two spots where the ocean dropped off to fantastic depths almost from the shoreline.	271277.161136625
Someday, geologists had warned, the land on both sides of these deeps would fall into the ocean and no more La Jolla or Redondo Beach.	63698.04081636498
Meanwhile, fishermen took advantage of them to pull up whoppers.	4332.65698088978
Sometimes the fish exploded as they neared the surface because of the difference in pressure.	3217.741664637348
Why, he wondered, had Elaine wanted him along on this trip?	25164.973984847118
He couldn't skindive, he couldn't run a boat, except on the open sea.	5607.0534235711375
He stood up, stretched, looked around for the bubbles, but could see none.	6667.864042310744
Strolling down to the galley, he lit the butane under the coffee pot and when the brew was heated, poured himself a cup and went up to the chartroom.	413833.95430510974
Turning on the hi-fi, he went back to the cockpit, stretched out on the cushions and listened to the music.	10225.708213010203
Elaine and Poet returned together, popping up over the transom almost like dolphins breaking water.	31097.85745491835
He sat up and watched as they pulled themselves over the stern.	5022.049168633343
"Any luck"?	2276.064406465504
he asked.	2.83163735220959
Poet shook his head, sliding his face mask up on his forehead.	35389.7611573187
"We're right on the edge of the Deep", Elaine said.	1009.1887534053801
Pulling off her face mask, she carefully placed the spear gun across the stern, then lifted her wet hair from her back and squeezed out the water.	92190.58038252266
"Which is a break as the area to search is less than a square mile", she added as she swung her legs over the transom.	9980.014406679387
"Any news"?	1897.4993920330555
"Not a thing".	88.819929549122
He tossed her a towel, then repeated the service for Poet.	45442.70758902568
"Cigarette"?	11318.63465748144
Elaine shook her head as she slipped out of her harness, but Poet nodded.	44583.60617716022
His feet still hung over the stern of the transom, but as he reached for the smoke he raised them to swing them in.	34266.516477616315
The fin on his foot caught on the moulding, throwing him off balance.	31223.03522366823
His forearm smashed painfully into the narrow washboard and he grimaced as he grabbed his bruised limb with his other hand and rolled into the boat.	75471.8849575664
"Kee-reist"!	11771.71631755548
The word hissed distinctly from Poet's lips as he struggled to his feet.	4298.240355735456
Nick's body became rigid.	5020.145524046207
Turning slowly he saw Poet in a brilliant glare of horror.	19402.905080060096
Poet!	3118.0954459989366
His face was still creased in pain as he studied the underside of his arm.	2954.065187463579
Poet a murderer?	29906.600669504878
Turning quickly toward Elaine, Nick saw that she, too, stood in shocked surprise.	28652.387803974445
The sudden silence was too silent.	2362.8218406383767
Instinctively aware of the charged atmosphere, Poet raised his head slowly, looking first at Elaine.	101353.14694800922
She had caught the implication of the oath.	6120.1251986592715
Her face was frozen into the mask of a mannequin, her body absolutely motionless.	40631.87169756794
And then Nick knew that all of them knew h Elaine, himself h and Poet.	28253.636086073213
Elaine recovered first, so quickly that Nick thought he might have imagined her sudden reaction.	26021.470224037934
"Do you need a bandage"?	2127.1446731231285
she asked steadily.	208.14432222036513
Poet rubbed his arm.	1263.3641122722029
"It's like banging a shin", he said, his eyes lingered on Nick's face, then moved back to Elaine.	26765.671438664176
"Hurts like hell for a second, then it disappears".	14307.09867471656
"I'll get some ointment".	301.6205534185178
Elaine turned and started toward the companionway.	14047.862765659529
But her walk was too steady, too slow, telegraphing her fear.	14190.895008303545
Nick sensed it.	2580.0322251304174
So did Poet.	888.1719977383888
Springing like a cat, he leaped back, swooped up the spring gun and, whirling, pointed it toward the cabin.	45030.108573647325
At the same instant, Nick hit the barrel and threw himself upon the smaller man.	5772.866928965902
The gun fired next to his ear with a vicious whoosh like the first stroke of an old steam engine.	42352.2446969886
At the same instant, Elaine screamed wildly, the sound ending abruptly as Nick went off the boat and into the water on top of the frantic, struggling Poet.	27140.405902727103
The moment the sea closed over Nick, some atavistic sense warned him that he would survive in this alien element only if he did not panic.	28767.071884065645
But the murderer to whom he clung had a tremendous advantage.	6714.029882571794
The wide flippers on Poet's feet gave his legs incredible power, driving the two of them down into the water as they rolled over and over.	31107.980593146527
Poet was the captured, arms pinioned to his side, and he twisted convulsively trying to escape.	28463.843017545565
Poet would escape, Nick thought grimly, because he wore the apparatus which would keep him alive under water.	67533.07823506722
But Nick would not let go.	3766.7656390512425
The rubber and glass face mask slipped from Poet's forehead, bounced painlessly off Nick's chin, then disappeared.	60138.77934668888
Poet twisted again and Nick's knuckles scraped on the air tank, ripping off the skin.	51243.447875223384
For a split second, Nick relaxed his grip and Poet's slippery body spun completely around before Nick could stop him, holding him now from the rear.	36015.43541360937
Something flailed at the side of Nick's head as they rolled around and around.	31607.319811079044
Suddenly Poet stopped struggling and the two of them hung suspended in the water, not rising, not sinking.	50747.17675974247
A sharp pain lanced across Nick's chest and a bubble of air escaped from his tortured lungs, joining dozens of others that sailed lazily toward the surface like helium balloons rising into the sky.	76497.55124755719
A black, snake-like object swayed eerily in front of him, spewing bubbles from its flat cobra head.	33113.08320048753
The air hose was free!	1487.5387050788297
The discovery struck Nick like a blow.	2053.364625115173
Desperately, Nick flashed one hand up, catching Poet's neck in the bend of his elbow.	196243.26599348136
At the same instant, he grabbed the loose, writhing hose with his other hand and bit down on the hard rubber mouthpiece.	40907.51023835587
Instinctively he exhaled through his nose then sucked in the air from the hose.	43494.27986896456
At once the excruciating pain in his chest stopped and he was seized with a sudden, wild exultation.	16302.982516060569
As if this was a signal, Poet abruptly began to thrash the water and the quick movement slowly made them sink through the water.	24628.615038202315
Relentlessly, Nick held on, sucking on the hose, inhaling the air that belonged to Poet.	212671.47864281206
Poet was not fighting Nick now.	11147.332096364005
HARBOR POINT sticks out into the ocean like the fat neck of a steamer clam.	150752.23651822456
It's a rich village but not much for action- too many solid residents, not enough tourists or working stiffs.	53006.7417094366
It's at the far end of the county and the last time I came here was for a hit and run manslaughter- about seven months ago.	3931.1684989942783
Chief Bob Moore looked his same hick-self; a man mountain running to lard in his middle-age.	53870.19275026183
Seeing me he said with real surprise, "Well, well, ain't we honored!	41384.212950534806
Hardly expected the head of County Homicide up for this murder.	16100.900940051873
You sure climbed fast, Jed.	9220.998307573556
Rookie investigator last summer and now it's Inspector Jed.	31734.661885230926
Took me 19 years to become Chief of our three man police force.	36738.86614719195
Proves a college education pays off".	11010.130302947833
His sarcasm was followed by a stupid grin of his thick mouth and bad teeth.	22390.687827536767
"I guess it helps", I said, paying no attention to his ribbing.	14805.544437013423
"Never could figure out why you ever wanted to be a cop, Jed.	27361.579032102814
You're not only young but h well, you don't even look like a police officer.	5687.2575766750115
A runt with narrow shoulders and that brush haircut h hell, you'd pass for a juvenile delinquent of the hotrod set.	74129.54746462543
In my day the first requirement for a cop was to look like the law, big and tough.	9622.244309630678
Man, when my 275 pounds and six-four comes along, why it's the same as another badge.	41955.468222643474
When I say move, a guy moves"!	4586.438846918526
"Don't worry about my being tough, Moore.	2229.942262702818
Also, it's far too early in the day for corny lines like the bigger they come h You've had your gassy lecture, let's get to work.	25665.628487186485
Who was the murdered woman h Mrs Buck"?	22452.335832921337
"Widow, nice sort of woman.	11147.332565544639
Comfortably fixed.	1422.1706732466657
Ran a fair-sized farm.	3675.084033311162
Came to the Harbor as a bride and h Don't worry Jed, this one is in the bag.	50473.02249807585
I know the killer, have the only road off the peninsula covered".	4017.4163211813907
"Yeah, passed your road block as I drove in", I said, sitting on his polished desk.	16160.707990899911
Although Bob dressed like a slob, he kept a neat office.	4419.257009715671
"Okay, what happened"?	521.8384463793816
"About nine this morning Mrs Buck phones me she's having trouble with one of her farm hands- money trouble.	47827.88976142206
Colored fellow named Tim Williams- only hand she has working for her now.	38097.708715724184
Tim come with the migratory workers that follow the crops up from the South last year, but Tim and his wife settled here.	72838.40697041553
Never had no trouble with him before, thought he was a hard worker, hustling around to get a full week's work.	12390.647928910212
Anyway, Julia asks me to h".	841.0439310684991
"Julia"?	10862.896734973487
"Come on, Inspector, look alive.	4488.3464321472375
Julia Buck, the deceased", Moore said, slipping me his smug, idiot-grin again.	119670.33297485854
"Julia asks me to come out at once.	5048.77473924792
But she didn't sound real alarmed h you know, like there was any immediate danger.	11623.344395671968
I got there at 947 AM, found her strangled.	11115.434859483134
I would have come sooner if I'd known h. No doubt about Tim being the killer- I have a witness.	20881.09864187371
Don't know why the County had to send anybody up here.	5682.245989826181
Told them I can handle this".	3142.742630591511
"Yeah, seems you have a nice package, with all the strings tied.	12671.728546352051
Who's h"?	3306.274616213017
"I'll collar Tim before night".	766.9726129812287
"Who's your witness"?	29906.600669504878
"Julia had- has- an old Indian woman cooking for her- Nellie Harris.	69280.58422419846
Probably the last of the original Island Indians.	410.63950074926055
Nellie was in the kitchen, had just come to work, when she heard Tim arguing with Julia in the living room.	5984.506540836325
Swears she recognized his voice, that Tim yelled, 'It's my money and I want it'!	46927.93245843175
and then rushed out of the house.	90.06240198557258
Then she heard Julia phone me.	917.1787880254456
Nellie went on with her house work- until I found Julia dead.	64556.42686743122
And before you say it, Nellie ain't near strong enough to have strangled Julia.	42692.455601282694
There's no doubt this Tim sneaked back and killed Mrs Buck.	14012.663190532918
Another fact Tim's disappeared- on the run.	1555.6077449869867
But there's no way off the Point except through my road block.	4188.770196005043
Guess you want to see the body- have her up the street in Doc Abel's office".	32662.460215588195
"Let's see it".	104.8853854276356
We walked up Main Street to this big white house, then around to the back.	3308.848078879029
Being the Harbors sole doctor, Abel was also its Medical Examiner.	14573.365163969673
The corpse was on a table, covered by a sheet.	2971.8415430331443
Doc Abel was busy up front with some of his live patients.	26838.138316888664
Pulling back the sheet, I examined the bruises around Julia Buck's once slender throat.	85740.6047707569
Powerful hands had killed her.	2467.9071446883563
"Find any prints"?	5130.832407928255
Chief Moore shook his big head, seemed lost in thought as he stared at the nude body.	59179.39910329882
Then he said, "Never noticed it before h I mean, when she was dressed h but for a woman her age, Julia had a real fine figure".	29416.62468346088
I dropped the sheet, glanced at my watch.	9672.421690023883
It was almost one and I hadn't had lunch.	2721.4777175335707
Still, I wanted to get this over with, had a lot of paper work waiting in my own office.	7302.996474355838
I told him, "I want to go see the Buck house".	237.9376472886824
"Sure".	219.72205145867906
Walking back down Main Street, I said, "I saw the Harbor's one squad car at the road block, we'll ride out in my car".	14873.157141168653
"Naw, we'll use mine", Moore said, opening the door of a sleek white Jaguar roadster.	50686.5571663555
As I slid in beside him he said, "Some heap, hey?	42276.426971516164
Got a heck of a buy on this, dirt cheap".	75214.0230657863
"Yeah, it's a real load", I told him, looking up the street at my battered Ford.	10167.676472867355
Five racing minutes later we pulled into the driveway of this typical two-story house, and when the Jaguar stopped I managed to swallow.	26223.6242105265
There was a garage and a modern barn in the rear, all of it standing between two large flat fields planted in early potatoes.	31043.972372370976
Everything shouted gentleman farming, the kind of grandfather-father-to son folding money the Point is known for.	37896.808987639
The fins of a Caddy were sticking out of the garage, while the inside of the house was a comfortable mixture of old and expensive contemporary furniture.	26337.043603003585
Nellie Harris wasn't old, she was ancient- a tiny shriveled woman with a face like a tan prune.	123239.34571642087
She was also stone deaf in her right ear.	6239.715149742507
She calmly repeated what Moore had told me.	7623.629759817306
When I asked, "Why didn't you go into the living room to see how Mrs Buck was"?	5444.676923134429
the old gal stared at me with her hard eyes, said, "She didn't call.	22570.940049711648
I do the living room last.	322.8628630964716
I went up stairs and did the bath and her bedroom- way I always do in the morning".	8610.434043965437
"Have you any idea what this Tim and Mrs Buck were arguing about"?	11302.86192127335
"Probably wages.	244.09613137529047
Miss Julia was a hard woman with a dollar.	3191.84634552222
Years ago when I asked her to put me in Social Security, so's I wouldn't have to be working now, Miss Julia threatened to fire me- all because it would mean a few more dollars a year to her".	38152.89937402925
"Did you hear Tim return"?	2214.390336103933
"No sir.	215.41290685206843
Nobody came until Chief Moore".	5442.4581483412785
I drummed on the kitchen table with my pencil.	7392.558336859303
"Mrs Buck have any men friends"?	21865.195218764224
"Her"?	252.29477339171981
The wrinkled mouth laughed, revealing astonishingly strong, white, teeth.	19040.91869818393
"I never see none.	181.40927640207
But then I wasn't her social secretary".	1241.8794992492403
"Was she on friendly terms with other members of her family"?	8589.096328048357
"Didn't have no family- around here.	1652.0818891353695
They had a son- killed in the war".	133.78561612325024
I walked into the living room.	19.17332514302575
There didn't seem to be any signs of a struggle.	652.233054764789
I told Moore, "Where does Tim's wife live"?	10485.404648964557
"I'll take you there.	109.2711335128794
Look Jed, this is an open and shut case and I have to relieve my men at the road block soon.	12444.833529016054
Okay, come on".	339.88711010791866
We did 80 miles an hour across a hard dirt road to a cluster of shacks.	42716.32981245134
In late summer migratory workers lived five and six to a room in these.	5998.598577266179
Now they were empty, except for a cottage across the road.	835.1321261956844
Mrs Tim Williams was about 21, with skin the color of bitter chocolate, and if you discounted the plain dress and worn slippers, she was startlingly pretty.	108356.45039649257
The inside of their place was full of new furniture, five bucks down and a buck a week stuff, but all of it clean and full of the warmth of a home.	13326.361594849774
Mrs Williams was both sullen and frightened.	3412.7687363675336
She said she didn't know a thing- Tim had left the house at six in the morning, as usual.	1627.1431167198841
She hadn't seen him since.	1815.1908759214673
"Did Mrs Buck owe him any wages"?	24980.3812645287
I asked.	2.6665076521639826
"Well, for this week, but they wasn't due 'till Saturday.	1846.5645530030642
Listen, Mr Inspector, no matter what anybody say, my Tim didn't kill that woman!	27758.99712500283
Tim is a good man, hard working.	508.66396142012763
He strong as a bull but gentle as a baby.	5662.511626081931
Even if he angry, Tim wouldn't hurt a woman.	1445.5818087595355
He never in his life took a hand to a woman or h" "We'll get him soon, see what he says", Chief Moore cut in.	12052.684607546762
"Does your husband have a car"?	6449.33704201095
I asked.	2.6665076521639826
"Got us an old station wagon.	3547.017930352704
Need it for the job".	90.85173863095267
I asked a silly question "You've no idea where your husband could be, now"?	15598.470087461512
She shook her head.	282.7216618097605
I knew she was lying.	732.1280521009592
I stood there, staring at her for a moment- thinking mostly of her beauty and her poverty.	16020.639028883854
Moore said, "Come on, Jed, I have to get to my men".	12099.600069000082
On my way out I told her, "If you should h eh h just happen to see your husband, get him to give himself up.	22410.37137623674
He'll get a fair trial.	4.353709039364672
Hiding out like this won't get him anything, except more trouble, or a bullet".	54456.92108322411
"Yes.	3.463452173258582
I'll tell him- if I see him".	318.445289073456
We made it back to the Harbor in less than four minutes.	1798.0625618402462
I tried not to act scared.	3149.9964749492706
That Jaguar could really barrel along.	3860.8815950586854
I told Moore I was going to eat, get some forms filled out by Doc Abel.	56569.00624856696
Chief Moore said, "If I don't see you when I return, see you for certain at my road block, Inspector".	47980.598098927396
I had a bowl of decent chowder, phoned the Doc and he said he'd leave the death statements with his girl- in a half hour.	10721.819307713387
Lighting my pipe, I took a walk.	6738.460888279062
The Harbor is a big yachting basin in the summer.	2553.063638427856
Even now, there were several slick cruisers tied to the dock, an ocean-going yawl anchored inside the breakwater.	35904.2001843728
There was a 34 foot Wheeler with CHIEF BOB'S in big gold letters on its stern also tied up at the dock.	66760.19119711804
It wasn't a new boat, about five years old, but fitted with fishing outriggers and chairs.	9986.413964093155
I asked an old guy running a fishing station if the boat was Moore's.	23051.762828655334
He said, "You bet.	91.21526076521019
Bob Moore is plumb crazy about blue fishing".	8501.507994604419
I dropped into the doctor's office, picked up my forms.	11666.881115701051
As I was walking back to the Police Station, which was in the same building with the City Hall and Post Office, I saw Mrs Tim Williams sneaking into the back of my car.	35554.91593211399
If she moved gracefully, she was clumsy at it.	2184.880594444066
I got into the front seat.	482.8483344056778
She was 'hiding' on the floor of the back seat, the soft curves of her back and hips- rousing lines.	5142.9642858733905
I drove out of the Harbor, turned off into a dirt road among the scrub pine trees and stopped.	47477.71166422379
I waited a few minutes and she sat up.	5698.833351887937
For another moment we didn't talk, then she began to weep.	4177.11696479241
She mumbled, "I just know that Chief Moore is out to kill my Tim"!	67380.01001025269
"Maybe.	182.2128338062902
I never saw him so anxious before", I said, lighting my pipe and offering her a cigarette.	4223.741678591009
"Of course, it could be because this is his first murder case.	704.8473212562693
You know where Tim is, don't you, Mrs Williams"?	23673.01165125703
She puffed on the cigarette slowly, sitting slumped against the back seat; didn't answer.	22112.71259886186
But the police have dropped the case.	255.86989408125592
I want you to go to Pearson City and find out why- first-hand stuff for your modern crime series.	11193.819384450613
Take the same train Diana Beauclerk took and get there at the same time.	1946.5056079793208
Go to the same hotel and occupy the same suite- 1105".	14210.093629362656
"Will the hotel rent it so soon after the crime"?	9405.349472584374
"Why not?	3.3637455197869603
The police have finished with it.	239.74997230849246
Besides, the number of the suite hasn't been published in any newspaper.	986.0234332480852
To the hotel people, you'll just be an innocent tourist who happens to ask for that particular suite".	6766.67591160166
"Still, they may not want to rent it".	748.4622738556692
"That's your headache.	1597.6902515403028
Once inside, keep your eyes open"!	8739.180425145323
"For what"!	193.3229063996336
Alec was growing more and more skeptical.	8356.707348240767
"The police will have gone over every square inch of the place with a fine-tooth comb.	21019.00056804863
The hotel people will have scoured and vacuumed it.	3836.3593902394127
Ten to one, it's even been redecorated"!	8886.43476355044
"There's always a chance they may have overlooked something", returned the chief.	27225.067504195762
"I'm betting on that chance.	764.9613595925107
Interview the bellboy and chambermaid who waited on Beauclerk.	71839.56078117325
Study the topography of the suite.	2354.375231155322
Soak up local color.	5020.143167905188
Reenact everything Beauclerk did.	5020.143111357978
Try to imagine you're going to be murdered yourself- between eleven pm and one am the night you arrive".	9256.099631879357
Alec smirked.	6886.910637010236
"Cheerful way to spend an evening"!	4039.085363994226
A sudden thought wiped the smirk from his face.	2794.5396284765416
"Suppose the murderer should return to the scene of the crime"!	8500.372419318002
The chief's eyes gleamed.	3524.4488013322093
He spoke softly.	159.0321138421225
"That is exactly what I'm hoping for.	729.4130998399082
After all, the murderer is still at large.	161.914141562632
And the key to the suite is still missing".	1210.8463299574253
On the train Alec refreshed his memory of the Beauclerk case by reading teletype flimsies- spot-news stories about the crime sent out by the Pearson City Star, a member of the Syndicate Press.	71161.20612481721
Diana Beauclerk was a second-rate actress living in New York.	1805.8065492517017
Two weeks ago she had gone west to Pearson City.	12000.339929442358
Daniel Forbes, her divorced husband, lived there.	5338.6669347833285
So did the firm of lawyers who had got her the divorce, Kimball and Stacy.	34812.31626127486
She reached Pearson City at nine pm and went straight to the Hotel Westmore.	18599.979257538285
She telephoned the junior partner of her law firm, Martin Stacy, and asked him to call at her hotel that evening.	22206.85534007946
At the time of her divorce Forbes had promised to pay her a lump sum in lieu of further alimony if she remarried.	15276.03687784898
According to Stacy, she told him she was planning to remarry and she wanted him to ask Forbes for the lump sum.	67416.81836965683
Stacy replied that it would bankrupt Forbes, who had just sunk all his money in a real estate venture.	36386.756854108
Stacy said he left her suite at nine forty-five pm.	49496.676008407
She was in good health and spirits, but still determined to get the money from Forbes.	3411.4683474019603
No one saw Stacy leave.	502.76822125507664
No other visitor inquired for her that evening.	1338.3170400206457
Next morning she was found dead in her suite with a bullet from a .22-caliber Colt revolver in her brain.	24473.40900000173
According to the medical examiner, she was shot between eleven pm and one am.	7572.294713590176
Her door was locked and the key was missing.	5394.046559813782
So was the gun.	78.58721996993188
When Alec finished reading he was sure that either Forbes or Stacy had killed Diana Beauclerk.	78285.87581867805
Forbes had motive and Stacy had opportunity.	16595.621782842103
Find a motive for Stacy or an opportunity for Forbes and the case would be solved.	24428.458118840823
The Hotel Westmore proved to be one of the older hotels in Pearson City, and definitely second-rate.	6064.806821765473
Alec's first impression of the lobby was gloomy, Victorian dignity- black walnut and red plush, a black and white tiled floor, and Persian rugs.	77493.29755504658
He studied the night clerk as a man measures an adversary.	7031.6655272015305
"I'd like the room I had the last time".	159.36989374576137
"Certainly, sir".	24.27387805717021
The clerk was young and limp, with a tired smile.	11484.211870204763
"Do you recall the number"?	2308.9138896479176
"It was 1105".	660.7688302833537
The clerk's smile congealed.	3433.4690672742895
"That suite is taken".	1057.6102467616965
Alec's glance went to a chart of guest names and room numbers hanging on the wall behind the clerk.	74626.62738352161
Opposite the number 1105 stood one word Unoccupied.	12847.8163940196
The clerk's glance followed Alec's.	5687.133943328745
"We have better rooms vacant now", he babbled.	9981.529655338147
"Larger and more comfortable.	1381.3511867798456
At the same rate".	19.114348591818075
Alec's face was dark, blunt, and sulky.	71839.56078117325
He always looked impertinent and he could look dangerous.	2282.1250695164367
He was looking dangerous now.	384.01688378729415
He raised his voice.	854.2759281857043
"Anything wrong with the plumbing in 1105"?	34377.95338756599
There was a sudden stillness in the lobby.	302.82230004545943
Two women, who had been chattering like parrots, were struck dumb.	7787.721278401664
A man, lighting a match for his cigar, paused until the flame burned his fingers.	10946.860406308624
Even the bellboys on their bench were listening.	3631.45196298586
The clerk's eyes flickered.	3433.4690672742895
"Of course not"!	447.75024770116056
"Anybody with a contagious disease been in there"?	12476.21035422841
"No"!	266.0160940236645
The clerk was almost hysterical.	1406.8905012310584
"It's just that- well, 1105 is being redecorated".	17619.979285082536
"I don't believe it".	55.248565891564276
Alec leaned on the desk, holding the clerk's eyes with his.	54775.44875635666
"Suppose you tell me the real reason", he drawled.	3092.9032404099153
"There might be a story in it".	266.80540757872745
"St-story"?	670.3361025768274
"I'm with the Syndicated Press, Feature Service.	1779.8887160185434
Either I get the story- or I get the suite".	14294.12449205305
It was blackmail and the clerk knew it.	1273.0217929746063
"There is no story", he piped tremulously.	2484.7080180014395
"Front!	469.3657852978755
Show this gentleman to 1105"!	4619.660702783158
The stillness persisted as Alec followed a bellboy across the lobby to the elevator.	29228.44363334725
He could feel eyes on his back.	748.6486412260024
He wished it had not been necessary to announce the number of his suite quite so publicly.	6600.966307589387
The corridor on the eleventh floor was dimly lighted by electric globes at intervals of thirty feet.	37833.31971025016
A thick, crimson carpet muffled every footfall.	14529.571544197803
At the end of the corridor Alec noticed a door marked Fire Stairs.	3311.6474537431745
It was a neat setup for murder.	189.86885742218428
The bellboy unlocked a white door numbered 1105.	17594.438237199043
The room was dark but a neon sign flashed and faded beyond the window.	6562.530475664082
A few snowflakes sifted down through that theatrical red glow, languid as falling feathers.	24285.072610943957
Hastily the boy switched on a ceiling light.	22805.188203549675
The room looked normal and even commonplace.	1932.5953070190399
There was no hint of a violent struggle now.	2023.8619292564008
Deal furniture with a mahogany finish was neatly arranged as if it stood in the window of a department store.	38915.87279980132
The blue rug was suspiciously bright and new.	1534.3915169826528
It had never been stained with blood.	142.43426978022913
Table covers and towels were clean, ashtrays empty and supplied with fresh matches.	74056.735049837
The mirror over the bureau was a blank eye, round and innocent.	22574.059500029824
Alec played the part of an innocent tourist.	20187.279961646556
"Is there anything wrong with this room"?	881.0585435127321
"N-no".	424.8369866249234
The boy dropped his eyes.	230.90481438895804
"Afraid you'll lose your job if you don't keep your mouth shut"?	87022.07609303166
The boy raised his eyes.	223.0959167029807
"Listen, mister.	1170.0956815194397
If you want my advice, pack up and take the next train back to New York".	2495.4877769219256
"Were you on duty here two weeks ago"?	7149.941178899553
The boy hesitated.	873.4152686937272
Then, "I'm not talking.	108.07262347963648
But I wouldn't spend a night in here for a million bucks"!	12608.896464798372
He was in a hurry to get out of the room.	14.374950424134575
Alec gave him a tip and let him go.	6097.377153515734
Alone, Alec examined the doors.	748.4353363376483
There were three- one leading to a bathroom, one to the hall, and one to the room next door which was immovable- locked or bolted on the other side.	5731.964028510942
Alec locked the hall door and put the key with his watch on the bedside table.	97000.10474230601
It was just quarter of nine.	615.5761319724786
As he ranged his belongings on the bureau he noticed a film of white dust on the dark surface of the wood beyond the linen cover.	68958.84273541106
Not gray like the dust that collects in an unused room, but white.	27465.497528255277
Women didn't use white face powder nowadays, he recalled.	15599.492705172777
They used pink, tan, or cream powder.	7646.471605361481
Alec glanced into the bathroom.	2468.40741531906
Blood in the bathtub where the murderer appears to have washed his hands.	5903.958555699222
It seemed clean now, but Alec decided against a bath.	23738.685495010355
He crawled into bed and switched off the light.	4243.631446576764
In the darkness he could see the rosy reflection of the neon sign on the wall opposite the window.	6985.490044847491
It winked as steadily as a metronome- on, off- on, off.	45341.603553857625
In less than five minutes Alec was asleep.	14569.686811379248
He never knew just what woke him.	520.0693607069088
Yet suddenly he was wide-awake.	3558.30771210554
There was no sound and apparently no movement in the room except the noiseless pulsation of the red light on the wall.	5837.3730277283585
He lay still, listening to the silence, watching the light.	2789.1213747254374
Somewhere in the city a big clock sounded twelve solemn notes- midnight.	2464.0900171116473
According to the medical examiner she was shot between eleven pm and one am h. Alec heard a faint sound.	28958.00838099778
His heart seemed to swell and knock against the wall of his chest.	2279.1842166204588
For the sound was inside the room.	463.3430728148329
he let his eyelids droop and breathed heavily, feigning sleep.	14998.589445039537
The sound was coming nearer.	1311.0009163725142
A monstrous shadow fell across the illuminated wall, distorted and indefinable.	40988.050401997134
When the neon sign faded out, the shadow disappeared.	2525.1049981634765
When the neon sign flashed on, the shadow was still there.	1345.3666899231155
It stretched to an impossible height, climbing the wall to the ceiling.	4022.4597276938357
That meant that something between the light and its reflection on the wall was moving closer to the source of the light- in this case, the window.	2059.0080959358675
Cautiously Alec tensed his muscles, ready to jump.	11921.43007169975
The bedsprings betrayed him with a creak.	15136.90888355684
The shadow vanished.	1488.4723028315439
Someone had moved beyond the range of the light from the window.	576.9688353957409
Abandoning caution, Alec leaped out of bed and groped for the light switch.	29301.57238566775
Before he could snap it on, a stinging blow caught him in the ribs.	23647.05587871737
He lashed out blindly with his right.	2630.485617497798
There was a thick, squashy crack of fist on flesh.	3684.5679573198267
Something hard grazed his knuckles.	5796.081700700678
He put everything he had into the next and aimed down where the stomach ought to be.	8062.754007518218
Rough cloth rasped his fist.	26298.596627531337
There was a grunt, curiously inarticulate, like that of an animal in pain.	1953.897165927528
Something heavy shook the floor as it dropped.	7113.429150576996
Alec waited a moment, on guard.	9446.580177569584
Nothing happened.	192.70998794144234
Again he groped for the light switch.	3258.8650971850807
The blue rug had been rolled up and stacked in one corner of the room.	2400.2824222111376
On the bare floorboards a man lay face down.	4091.55659084868
He had a short, heavy, powerful body.	381.60051076467613
Alec turned him over and discovered a round, lumpy face with narrow, slanting eyes- a primitive Tartar face from Russia or the Balkans.	368587.69594220386
The man's shoes were too pointed, his overcoat too broad at the shoulders and too narrow at the waist.	51628.488261003185
There was a slight bulge under the left armpit- a shoulder holster.	6754.4162701602345
Alec promptly removed the gun.	8056.156191298628
He was familiar with this type.	206.76191325909198
He had seen it in the lineup at Police Headquarters in New York, in Broadway night clubs and Seventh Avenue pool rooms, in the criminal courts.	14915.71622445191
But he was surprised to meet it here.	634.6290920323275
Diana Beauclerk had no connection with the underworld.	43341.58374592573
A professional gunman would not have killed her with a weapon of such small caliber as a .22.	22960.529474490013
Nor would he choose a respectable hotel as the scene for a killing when it would be so much safer to take his victim for a one-way ride on a lonely country road.	29993.72160919837
The man's eyelids fluttered.	1766.1856486666677
He opened his eyes.	235.01557968931226
"What are you doing here"?	839.0414155825953
demanded Alec.	4624.895748909795
The man made no reply.	47.327459026792276
His eyes were dazed.	573.7553547398145
His lips were bruised and swollen where Alec had hit him.	7017.560510221469
"Did you kill Diana Beauclerk"?	4869.510247362284
Alec expected an indignant denial, but there was no response at all.	6513.530903723402
"Oh, come on, snap out of it!	807.1350707436717
Or I'll turn you over to the police"!	6318.348391049874
The silence was getting on Alec's nerves.	4341.863192488547
The man opened his mouth, but no words came.	1188.5663320223791
Only that curious, animal grunting Alec had heard during their fight.	16281.34557491825
"Don't you speak English"?	2391.266507382659
The man opened his mouth wider.	2886.2937028662577
A forefinger pointed toward his gullet.	9393.149844873918
Alec leaned forward to look.	2468.2740624137077
There were hideous scars inside the throat and the palate was mutilated.	24932.377461993645
In good time I shall get to the distressing actuality, to Red McIver and Handley Walker, to murder and sudden death.	50978.59774147865
But you realize, I am sure, how much old deeds incite to new ones, and you must forgive me if I tell you first of the old ones.	6527.153129767273
It was in 1814 that Abraham Wharf and his sister sat by a meager fire in their house on Dogtown Common, a desolate place even then.	59824.573891238426
He was sharpening his razor.	2100.6249245334293
"Sister", said he "do you think people who commit suicide go to heaven"?	92799.53340414623
and she answered, "I don't know, but I hope you'll never do such a thing".	1858.3523520056465
Without a tremor, "God forbid"!	1601.8300151294243
he said, and went out and cut his throat in the cave near Granny Day's swamp.	1628.7799199857147
What has this to do with the present?	680.7416920800417
Much, I assure you.	171.38718408404736
You must know what gets into people, even such as Red and Handley, before you can tell what comes out of them.	15906.119486641774
They had learned, both of them, about Abraham Wharf.	1504.64750002495
That's why I beg you not to forget him.	2192.743021302834
His ghost is not laid.	1779.8939320251588
Red and Handley, God help them, knew the old Dogtown lore; and I knew they knew it, for I'd told them a lot of it.	29825.844049710468
And isn't it true that you get a deeper perception about a man and his motives when you know what it is he knows?	16015.950162889534
Yes, gentlemen, I am getting to the point, to my point.	566.6667989157734
You know the facts; they are set forth in your own newspapers.	2971.857821472888
You want from me the story, but a story is about 'why' and then, perhaps, about 'how'.	18678.098456094245
The 'when' you know; yesterday morning.	2527.997769488836
So what I am trying to tell you is the 'why'- that is my point- and that concerns the spirit of the matter.	10251.879129019513
There is an inwardness and a luster to old furniture look at that mahogany highboy behind you which has a provocative emanation, if I may say so.	39553.63952183738
Places, too, have their haunting qualities.	6208.20084013679
Even people.	151.03212603394385
And my point in this sad story is the spirit of the matter.	1273.1441123273316
When you hold the spirit of a thing, then somehow you know the truth- you know a fake antique from the real thing.	3158.760704342909
And the truth is what you've come for, is it not?	2073.294892551876
Now, Dogtown is one of those places that creeps into the marrow as worms get into old wood, under the veneer.	55331.6926661503
In fact, all the folk who lived on the back of Cape Ann, they are not just like others.	3835.780215474456
There's a different hall-mark on them.	787.7859582445756
There were no witch burnings here because everyone had a witch in the family.	2759.62539908324
Just think of old Granther Stannard who pulled the teeth of Dark Younger her real name was Dorcas, and because he bungled the job and left two protruding tusks she put such a hex on him that he thought his legs were made of glass.	149325.58414854814
After that he was never known to run or even walk fast.	2946.702054084799
Today Dogtown is the only deserted village in all New England that I know of.	10141.220490780945
There it sits, a small highland, with towns like Gloucester near by; but now it's the most lost and tortured place in the world.	33146.28680471911
Those who lived in that desolation of rocky deformity took on some of the moraine's stony character.	11356.045612398353
Scientists say it is the last spewings of a great glacier, but one rather feels that only a malevolent giant could have piled up those crouching monsters of granite which still seem to preserve a sort of suspended, ominous life in them.	110510.1339019481
We'll walk up there later.	697.4938513500972
It's perhaps a mile from here where we sit.	14202.071617418922
And not one single dwelling left there, though once, in the early eighteenth century, there were close to a hundred houses.	2832.418743690755
I myself have identified about sixty sites, from the old maps and registers.	14664.418914324477
A fascinating pursuit, I assure you.	614.033608437312
Even I can remember nothing but ruined cellars and tumbled pillars, and nobody has lived there in the memory of any living man.	34706.06829371759
It is now a sweep of boulders and ledges, with oak, walnut and sumac creeping across the common, and everywhere the ruins and the long, long shadows.	45379.43753924338
That's your setting, and a sinister one.	4662.019730464026
Please get that in your reports.	3045.51178682891
It accounts for so many things.	1847.1168367338012
Both Red McIver and Handley Walker lived nearby, almost as near as I do.	10131.823804989801
Red lived at Lanesville, and from his house he could be up on the Common in a half hour's brisk walk; Handley lived further on, at Pigeon Cove.	109267.71615925974
I'd often find one or other of them up around Dogtown sketching.	16006.72809442179
They were both painters, They were?	3953.0839358784165
They are?	23.139525125958123
What should one say?	2136.0478092006706
Well, anyhow, Dogtown Common is so much off the beaten track nowadays that only Sunday picnickers still stray up there, from time to time.	17370.964563715235
Sea-road, railroad, lack of water, killed Dogtown.	26243.56354085735
Dead, dead as a brass door nail, and I sometimes feel like the Sexton, for I'm about the last to be even interested.	53713.446111138
I knew Red and Handley well.	1136.3559928092766
As I said, they were both painters.	277.63987868262825
They'd come, separately, to Gloucester some twenty years ago- there's always been an artists' colony somewhere on Cape Ann- and each married here.	30835.083805989598
They married cousins, Anta and Freya Norberg.	16096.374396752999
There are a lot of Scandinavians in this neck of the woods, and many still make painted furniture and take steam-baths.	42386.05517901027
Pretty girls among them, with blonde hair and pert faces.	13231.822353252803
Handley married Freya and Red, of the red beard, married Anta.	100048.57097447227
And it was because of an old Norberg inheritance that I got to understand them all so well.	3063.0387668853887
The quarrel ended in a ridiculous draw, but I must tell you about it.	2253.934226513656
Oh, yes, I'm quite sure it's important, because of the Beech Pasture.	3760.2444967307138
What's that?	230.8711935349384
Why, that's what gave me the feeling, gave me as-it-were the spirit, the demoniac, evil spirit of this whole affair.	13818.494961330674
You see, besides being custodian of antiquities, I am also registrar.	9254.012465256415
No, I don't hold with those who live entirely among dead things.	2097.5005284374497
I know as well as the next man that a ship is called from the rigging she carries, where the live wind blows, and not from the hull.	18714.008007571003
But you've got to know both.	109.21970923854938
What's below the water-line interests me also.	6473.3844475637625
As I was saying, I've known all about the old records, including the old Norberg deed.	4930.514382094164
Some ten years ago that page was torn out, I don't know by whom.	16135.542033735073
About five years ago, Handley came to ask me if he could see the tattered register.	2002.8377114274451
He was courteous and casual about it, as though it were of no consequence.	1884.6338815160552
He's always like that, in spite of being a big man.	845.7505417925881
When you see him, you'll notice his habit of fingering, I might almost say, stroking a large mole with black hairs on it, by his right temple.	22332.177260768254
A sensual man, but very courteous, some would say slick.	34204.3028825154
Like his glossy black hair.	898.1941926289321
Too many outside manners, to my taste.	697.6263165502844
He is the sort who, with an appraising eye, would cross the street to help a strange woman on to a bus and then pinch her.	27735.03725883974
A real gentleman, I feel, would do neither.	2231.2326424559988
He's always worn a broad-brimmed hat, and I've noticed, in my small study at the Society, that he rather smells of cosmetics.	88174.35931955004
The next week, cousin Red wandered in as casually, but curt and untidy.	14507.40738390552
Red was small and fine-boned, like ivory-inlay.	33513.50787135353
He too asked to see the same page.	1310.6750665299785
When I told him someone had torn it out, he shouted.	6953.928432288935
"By God, it's that damn Handley, the sneak"!	6245.337740221916
And later in the same week they both came together to examine the register.	6882.616012746975
Fortunately we were alone in the building- so few people nowadays are interested even in their own past or in the lovely craft of other days- for they began to abuse each other in the foulest language.	123970.82060611468
Red thrusting out his tawny beard, Handley glowering under his suddenly rumpled black hair.	47681.93794762507
They actually bristled.	384.09706713085137
Le rouge et le noir.	9695.851279855124
Violent men both.	2845.9156868138793
Red always was morose, yet that day the dapper Handley was the louder of the two.	18864.212832167923
But for my presence, they would have been at each others' throats.	3800.1478338367756
During the quarrel I learned what the trouble was, from the accusations each hurled at the other.	4601.668440662571
The Beech Pasture had suddenly become valuable.	4653.808839844384
There's a fine granite quarry there, and granite's coming back for public buildings.	15361.722102190875
Both men knew it was in the Norberg family holdings, but to which of the cousins did it belong, Anta or Freya?	64656.049364598905
Fortunately, I knew almost exactly what the will had said.	1480.4848586486696
It began with a preamble, of course.	380.33010874224084
This explained that the judge of probate of Essex County, 1785 or 1786, appointed three free-holders of Gloucester to divide and establish the Norberg estate.	110945.2586156036
After the usual Honorable Sirs, it went on to say that there had been set off to the widow one full third part of the real estate of the deceased Salu Norberg, one lower room, on the Western side, privileges to the well and bake-oven and to one third of the cellar I can show you the cellar when we go up, also one Cow Right, and lastly they set off to the widow her own land that she brought with her as dower, namely the Beech Pasture.	125228.64115039648
And I remember that the whole of the privileges, not counting the Beech Pasture, was valued at twenty pounds.	12452.078955085479
I wish you could have seen the crests fall on these two sparring coxcombs when I told them that obviously the pasture belonged to their wives jointly.	21327.214931635885
That battle scene, ridiculous at it was, remained in my mind.	3529.556343248367
A disturbing picture of bad blood, to be further heightened with illicit if buccolic colors, for on a subsequent day I saw Handley escorting Anta, Red's wife, up on Dogtown Common.	205076.3002833929
I felt it would be inopportune to disclose my presence.	5181.557290207701
Not that I intentionally go unperceived, but the boulders up there are very high and I am a small woman.	22353.43878002437
One other cause of jealousy between them I must tell you.	2444.5014494275483
Paint!	3400.3071950501667
Gloomy and unkempt as Red McIver was, he was much the better painter.	25222.391771303108
I suppose Handley knew it.	298.4962214569024
If Red had a show at Gloucester, Handley would hurry to hang his pictures in Rockport.	93418.27761629243
You may say this has little pertinence, but, gentlemen, remember that all this prepared my mind, alerted my intelligence.	51757.645253285526
By such touches the pattern takes shape.	3410.722312831448
You would call these the motives of crime.	2248.882311772599
I would call them the patterns of life, perhaps even the designs of destiny.	3453.8201510943645
Yet with all this knowledge I had nothing of substance to unravel our case, as you would call it, till yesterday.	16617.772743094436
One month ago, on the 20th of October, was the opening of the gunning season in Massachusetts.	8957.934548050362
Not much to shoot, but there are a few pheasant.	2984.1597006952143
Rabbits, too, if you care for them, which most of the folk around here haven't the sense to appreciate.	30242.387610682144
Any more than they have the sense to eat mussels.	8763.236165965816
That was the day Red was said to have gone away.	552.3293016027679
Oh yes, he'd talked about doing so.	2727.790821228589
In fact, he often disappeared, from time to time,- off to paint the sea, aboard a dragger out from Gloucester.	10578.494011222752
Anta, his wife, never seemed to mind.	6685.434411233114
I suppose these absences gave her more clearance for her embraces with Cousin Handley.	31117.782779377532
Anyhow, I wasn't surprised, early that morning, to see Handley himself crossing from Dogtown Common Road to the Back Road.	322444.8226509577
No, he didn't have his gun, which he should have.	400.18059344805243
It would have been a good excuse for his being there at all.	628.2650914532369
I myself had been up there by seven o'clock, after mushrooms, since there'd been a week of rain which had stopped early that morning and the day was as clear as Sandwich glass.	27329.286469523337
That's what the man had said.	239.26064774608628
Haney peered doubtfully at his drinking companion through bleary, tear-filled eyes.	74902.69813182953
He had no ready answer, as much from surprise as from the fit of coughing.	19202.73271015674
Was the man drunk or crazy or both?	9433.260752118282
But his new-found buddy had matched him drink for drink until he lost count, and the man's eyes were still clear.	33330.00785386363
The guy is off his rocker, Haney thought to himself, and looked away from those eyes.	4389.142299405034
Eyes that were clear, but also bright with a strange intensity, a sort of cold fire burning behind them.	31748.48953451466
Why hadn't he noticed it before?	7280.913798673793
No, the man was not drunk h He wondered how he got tied up with this stranger.	6955.325793845723
But, of course, he remembered now.	157.39032284580958
It was blurred, after two hours of steady drinking, but the occasion of it came back to him.	5532.98383656143
The stranger, his head seemingly sunk in thought, started to cross the street against the light just as a huge moving van roared through the intersection.	28787.91450383672
Brakes howled and a horn blared furiously, but the man would have been hit if Phil hadn't called out to him a second before.	60028.46787440039
His shout had been involuntary, something anybody might have done without thinking, on the spur of the moment.	3887.0096147440886
As a matter of fact, he wouldn't have cared at all if the guy had been hit.	954.2123417668213
Actually, he regretted having opened his mouth when the truck came to a stop and the angry driver jumped down from the cab and walked back toward them.	40443.9798408146
By then, the stranger was thanking Haney profusely and had one arm around his shoulders as if he were an old friend.	12911.233424236307
So the driver started to curse at both of them as if they had been in a plot together to ruin his safe-driving record.	7423.153499544074
Then the man he saved turned and looked squarely into the truck driver's face, without saying a word.	17728.733625415098
Very suddenly, the driver stopped swearing at them, turned on his heel and went back to his truck.	19978.478273127555
Haney hadn't given it much thought at the time.	5669.12793099345
Now he recalled it very clearly, and wondered what the truck driver had seen in those eyes to make him back off.	38200.41738342854
It must have been the sort of look that can call a bluff without saying a word.	2960.9336519804265
When the light went their way, they went on across the street.	411.99344345670244
And when the stranger found out that Phil was on the way to one of his favorite bars, he insisted on offering to buy drinks for both of them.	8071.662547012228
Phil usually went alone and kept to himself, sitting in a corner and passing the time by nursing his favorite grudges.	86309.24017716548
But he decided he wouldn't mind company in return for free drinks, even though he made good money at his job.	6872.1270303653455
Phil was like that.	391.19639252312174
NOW he wondered if it was worth it, having a screwball for company.	9191.71314508601
He really didn't take the offer seriously, but he began to feel uneasy.	557.2597370835351
When he finally got the coughing under control, he realized that Pete all he gave was his first name was still waiting for an answer- he didn't even seem to wink as he continued to stare.	101126.39227162245
Haney managed a weak laugh.	26298.596627531337
"Guess I can't think of anyone, Pete.	12657.850447337594
Thanks anyhow".	356.84232657580634
A faint crease appeared between the man's eyebrows.	16175.242787316138
"I think you aren't taking me seriously, Phil.	5049.522819827084
I meant it.	465.5480523541974
And everybody has some kind of grudge.	4952.6511872176625
I might have got hit by that truck if it wasn't for you.	3727.376032891624
I believe in returning favors.	837.6547230476843
I'll do anything for somebody I like.	530.3821881244581
It won't cost you a cent, Phil.	6903.328610163721
Go ahead and try me"!	1420.6335378756207
Phil rubbed his forehead wearily.	22452.955317815864
He was beginning to feel woolly.	1243.3264538253115
Maybe it would be better to humor the guy and then make an exit.	17992.29411874105
He really didn't expect anything to come of it, and there were a few people h "All right", he conceded finally, "if you must know, I don't get along with the landlord.	12160.098751176052
He keeps riding me because I like to listen to the radio and sing while I'm taking a bath.	39727.370608059704
He says the neighbors complain, but I don't believe it.	777.9459411358634
Why don't they tell me themselves if it bothers them"?	7145.787276497389
The man closed his eyes and nodded.	682.293369998742
When he looked up again, he seeemd almost contented.	3026.9272165825882
"Fine.	2621.6022082965114
Give me your address.	101.84461880791216
It will take a little time.	60.13787834360899
I want to study your landlord's habits and movements first.	1529.1183719082196
You see, I always make it look like an accident.	2933.4296077024633
Maybe suicide, if it looks reasonable.	3850.2805601197047
In that way there's no trouble for the customer".	3076.538883454673
Haney's eyebrows flew up.	5020.143064302134
"Customer"?	11318.63465748144
Pete smiled modestly.	2636.973129580158
"It's my line of work", he said h Five minutes later, before Haney could make his break, the stranger stood up and nodded farewell.	41770.93950482092
Haney watched the small but wiry man slip out the door quickly and silently, and felt relieved to see that nobody else seemed to notice his departure.	191207.44444180516
Phil decided to stay a little longer, and as time passed it seemed as if the strange little man had never been there, but for the other glass on the table.	6410.2176124310145
Some time before midnight he returned to his apartment and hit the sack, putting the whole incident out of mind before he fell asleep.	38300.633565055155
The next day, Sunday, the hangover reminded Haney where he had been the night before.	1254.6353738368498
The hangover in turn reminded him of his conversation with the weirdy, and he groaned.	30103.634182940612
He went for more aspirin later in the day, and passed the surly landlord on the way- he was still alive and scowling as usual, as if tenants were a burden in his life.	11153.218567624255
Phil shrugged and ignored him.	6878.104454906643
He went back to work Monday.	375.75593948852537
By Wednesday the landlord was still alive.	2319.479391816416
Of course h On Thursday, Haney mailed the monthly check for separate maintenance to his wife Lolly, and wished the stranger could do something about her h Coming home from work, he was startled to see a police car parked in front of the apartment building.	48217.17774319225
Inside the lobby, people were standing around, talking excitedly.	27841.518846951614
His spine crawled with a foreboding premonition as he asked one of his fellow tenants what had happened.	14590.121046543833
The landlord had died.	854.7600837602675
Late that afternoon, it seemed, he had fallen off the roof while on some obscure errand or inspection.	16562.554856163428
He had apparently been alone.	276.1142114084379
Nobody witnessed the fall- just the sickening impact when his body smashed on the pavement just outside the basement delivery entrance.	76145.83008228823
Haney hoped that nobody noticed his sudden pallor, as he felt the blood drain from his cheeks.	123763.82561661507
He muttered something about how terrible it was, and walked with deliberate slowness to the elevator.	16722.15564940379
Once inside his apartment, he poured a drink with trembling hands and flopped limply in a chair.	14715.495239378934
After a while he began to feel better about it, especially when no one bothered to ask any questions.	7560.808145555628
But after all, why should they?	18.768238563932666
Still later, he finally convinced himself that it was an accident- just a coincidence.	4951.24367034416
The stranger really had nothing to do with it, of course h Haney went to bed, happy that at least he was rid of that lousy landlord.	27385.88606420758
After all, the man had no family, so no one suffered, and everybody was better off for it.	3136.904128340799
Really, he said to himself, nobody kills a man just as a favor!	26515.90264719442
So you thought I didn't mean what I said.	695.2073652218004
The stranger's eyes were large and sad, as if Phil Haney had hurt his feelings.	32753.48220894671
It was like a recurrent, annoying dream, but now the dream was beginning to take on overtones of a nightmare.	5351.821570751111
However, Haney knew it was not a dream.	872.8607915800993
He might be very tight, but he knew where he was.	337.18722207868547
It was the same bar, and it was two weeks later- Saturday night, when he had an excuse to drink heavier than usual.	1658.6417774464119
HE had been sitting in the usual corner at the little table, as far as possible from any talkative, friendly lushes.	22427.97920925921
He was enjoying the weekly ritual of washing down his pet grievance with bourbon slightly moistened with water.	19500.46747092571
This favorite grievance was not the landlord.	10697.91358080518
He had already quite forgotten about him.	374.75368257566714
In fact, he had only mentioned him on the spur of the moment.	72.25955648654391
His real grievance was Lolly.	4195.649933638398
Toward the end of his fourth hairy highball, while he was moodily making wet rings on the table-top with the bottom of the glass, he became aware that he was not alone.	12933.677733061564
He looked up with bloodshot eyes and beheld the stranger sitting across the table, smiling a secret smile at him, as if they were fellow conspirators.	20280.9463475562
He hadn't even noticed- what was his name?	1225.5231317467249
Pete?- he hadn't seen him sit down.	5357.990264066272
The man was uncanny, like a shadow, and made as much noise as a shadow.	11894.235612507578
Haney felt like shrinking out of sight, but he was already trapped in the corner with the wiry, dark little man.	31247.792742651734
He began to wish that he hadn't shouted that other evening when the truck bore down through the crossing.	28366.14507775112
Was he going to be saddled from now on with a creep for a bar-buddy?	52187.875464680445
He'd have to start going to some of the other places again.	390.9324899128847
In a low voice, almost whispering, the man had asked Phil if he was happy with the way the landlord had been taken off his back.	20229.121101986395
He made the mistake of answering in an offhand way, and instantly realized that his skepticism must have showed in his face or voice.	21046.07478857596
Pete frowned slightly, then became sad and moody.	30589.993643911486
Haney didn't want to encourage his company, but felt he ought to buy him a drink anyhow, to prevent possible trouble.	118692.93455479838
But there was no trouble.	13.326875589963306
The guy sulked over his drink, obviously upset by Haney's lack of appreciation.	5037.033876649769
To break the uncomfortable silence, Haney began to talk.	1943.1497854766303
In time, and two drinks later, he was complaining bitterly about his wife, He was on the subject for ten minutes or so when he noticed the renewed interest in his listener- it showed in the alert face and the suddenly bright eyes.	51675.801187789824
When he paused to moisten his throat, the stranger broke in.	4717.5818740242685
"But why pay her bills?	3815.6399540528873
If she runs around with other men, and if you hate her as you say, why not just divorce her"?	10506.335755430226
Haney scowled.	6886.910637010236
"That bitch would love a divorce", he growled.	15596.961270095406
"Then she'd get half of everything I have.	2007.3738978552278
Community property deal- you know.	1415.6130606539189
I'd have to sell out my business to pay her off with her share.	1334.753426134868
She can drop dead"!	1311.0325212627197
Pete nodded understandingly.	2758.8949798079166
"Oh yes.	273.8056465346629
Now I see.	83.64509891434462
You must understand, I haven't been in this state too long.	3569.750442998641
I came out here to retire.	55.06056544667754
That's why I- why I do a free job now and then.	3175.959760262728
You should have told me about her before".	602.4648682932072
Haney felt a twinge of annoyance when he heard the now familiar line again.	58331.985061367835
Then a wild thought ran circles through his clouded brain.	5890.799055191963
Suppose- just suppose this guy was really what he said he was!	5436.723654488137
A retired professional killer h If he was just a nut, no harm was done.	24948.529110933694
But if he was the real thing, he could do something about Lolly.	444.6431763561506
He felt very cunning, very proud of himself as he played on the other man's soft spot.	7057.899450863806
"No offense intended", he said gently.	16947.664225925226
"But it's just that- well, you know.	756.701631912982
The cops didn't suspect a thing, and I thought it was a coincidence.	1203.7520454014973
After all, I didn't know you, Pete.	814.1305712543441
It could have been an accident".	53.29910169971643
He shrugged casually.	2387.2936764998667
"But if you say you managed it h" The stranger was hooked.	8615.71479171737
His eyes burned feverishly.	1200.0186754808
"Yes, yes", he muttered impatiently.	2155.523474761992
"Of course it looked like an accident.	273.67954735177915
I always work it that way- and always at a time when the customer has an alibi.	6201.732747407995
Let me prove it, Phil.	3428.0068859555427
I think I can manage one more favor for you".	290.38867138855375
He waited eagerly.	740.3271611383493
Haney swished the liquor in the bottom of his glass.	7363.733817789225
About halfway back Pops groped against a wall and stopped, pulled away two loosely nailed wide boards at one end, and went through.	24544.235925510722
"C'mon", he whispered; "floor level's about three feet down, so don't fall".	5966.663829545048
I went through and down, into pitch darkness.	3085.5081888000436
He said, "Jist stay still.	571.0562252253385
I'll pull the boards back and then get us a light.	7200.104973858986
Jist stay where you are".	1143.8417873459423
I jist stayed where I was while he fumbled around and then walked away.	25868.00391409945
A moment later he struck a match and lighted a candle, and I could see.	4382.828220634303
It was a big room, empty except for a few things of Pop's at the far end- a wooden crate on which stood the candle, a spread out blanket, and an unrolled bindle.	45163.313387745824
I looked back over my shoulder while I went to join him; he'd hung another half of a blanket over the boarded window so no light would show through.	53094.38220748498
I took the pint bottle from my pocket and handed it over as I sat down beside him on the spread blanket.	31570.927942567327
"You first", I said.	156.89941242559794
He drank and handed it back.	204.37742527351455
"Nice place", I told him.	143.197699792243
"Listen, I got a buddy I travel with, real nice guy named Larry.	17803.284647482866
I know where he is, right near here.	1175.1922237924575
Could he join the party and sleep here tonight too?	5490.344664007258
We'll both be blowing town tomorrow so we won't be moving in on you".	6801.3801933451
He hesitated a second, looking at the bottle, before he said "Sure-sure", and I reassured him.	23797.566793455837
"He'll bring a bottle too, and I'll get another one or maybe two while I'm out.	6456.810116246514
You can work on this one while I'm gone, kill it if you want".	13334.330814809138
I took a short swallow from it myself and handed it to him.	921.6256742958207
His "sure-sure" was enthusiastic this time.	2093.872272036819
He put the bottle down.	377.75977525844155
"Git over by the window while there's light, an' I'll put th' candle out.	29467.325423111793
When yuh come back I'll put it out agin till you're both inside".	11881.206347452056
Charlie was waiting, leaning against a building front.	24750.274259191054
"Perfect set-up", I told him.	134.94855932966706
"But we got to go back to Fifth and get another bottle or two.	2109.6111704370014
On the way I'll give you the scoop".	359.7412251055037
On the way I gave him the scoop.	1347.6542297402273
I bought another pint of sherry and when we got back Pops let us in in the dark, put back the blanket and then lighted the candle again.	53911.841654470554
I introduced my friend Larry to Pops and we made ourselves comfortable.	21272.495704732395
There was still a little, not much, left in the first bottle and we passed it around once and killed it, and Charlie opened his.	22006.015952465732
I was reminded, amusedly, by a poem of Kenneth Patchen's called The Murder of Two Men by a Young Kid Wearing Lemon Colored Gloves, which Patchen himself read on a record against jazz background.	89164.23989760631
The poem consisted of only two words, the word "Wait", repeated over and over at irregular intervals and with different inflections, and then the word "Now"!	28765.384223001627
and a blaring final chord from the jazz group.	6392.786047938514
This was the same, except that it was the murder of one man by two men and neither of us was wearing gloves.	2927.9088108084347
But we could wait all right; there was no hurry.	2828.769927901994
I said, "Wait h wait" to Charlie and he grinned, digging the reference.	13166.16619032641
We'd heard the record together once.	1168.6199992629333
The second bottle passed a few times.	240.52590596988915
Pop was taking long ones, but not showing the effect yet.	42565.60077237162
He seemed as drunk as when I'd first talked to him, but no drunker.	15046.705172674125
He had a capacity; if we'd really been trying to get him dead drunk we'd have had to go out for more wine.	3210.1182599506533
About halfway through the second bottle, Charlie looked at me across Pops, who was sitting between us and asked "Now"?	126886.56537612497
I said, "Wait", and handed the bottle to Pops for his final drink.	6346.834642280019
When he handed it back and I had hold of it safely, Pops was looking toward me and I said "Now", to Charlie and he swung the short length of lead pipe he'd meanwhile taken from his pocket, once.	85929.06747033882
It was a lead pipe cinch.	782.6975111992492
There was a sound like the one you produce by flicking a watermelon with your finger, only louder, and Pops fell forward from the waist and then over sidewise.	77261.90675600994
Out cold, if not dead; and he'd never known what hit him- he'd never known that anything had hit him.	10629.929253313432
I reached my hand toward him to put it inside his shirt to feel for a heartbeat, but Charlie said "Wait"!- and said it sharply, not as in the Patchen bit, but as an order- so I stopped my hand and looked at him.	54338.30212654559
He was holding the piece of lead pipe out to me.	3060.3936247055594
"We don't want to know whether he's dead, yet.	428.96518466191156
I gauged that blow to be borderline.	17083.61799196874
To kayo him and maybe or maybe not kill.	11167.796846275518
You hit again about twice that hard before we know whether he's dead or not.	20776.800133051212
That way we'll never know which of us really killed him and which was just the accomplice.	20936.04228966451
Dig"?	11318.63465748144
I dug him, I saw his point; it made sense.	7184.94252576199
I took the piece of pipe from Charlie's hand and used it, harder than he had.	4523.876089940058
The thunk was louder, anyway, and I thought I heard bone crack.	8515.553370915388
Charlie said, "Good boy.	6351.6664301996625
That did it, if mine didn't.	3601.3584498986006
And we'll never know which.	855.9750473360674
All right, now I'll give you a hand".	309.64223913120776
We straightened Pops up and I made sure there was no trace of a heartbeat.	9471.784942292545
I nodded to Charlie.	4251.575653267393
"Let's put him down again the way he was.	1920.718584282063
It's a more natural position".	353.16981941877066
We did that.	89.08367061284221
"How do you feel"?	31.4343897413246
Charlie asked me.	2139.6059571559604
"Cool", I told him.	257.43260323263365
"What do you feel"?	25.565796850102117
"Nothing.	27.931795689186487
Well h maybe I'm exaggerating.	14959.393889033727
It was a kick, but not a big enough one for me to want to take the chance again, except for stakes.	9823.586627537892
But let's not talk about it abstractly until we're out of here.	16534.98328362864
Now, first question the bottles.	766.0681528577542
Shall we take them all with us, or leave one"?	4212.087118161558
"Take them", I said.	67.30572094226969
"If we left one we'd have to wipe it for fingerprints.	6036.838050974637
Here's the picture we want to leave for the fuzz- whenever the body gets found.	16229.982571562034
This happened in the middle of a drinking bout with another bum.	1369.6063941698435
If they'd been working on a bottle or a jug he'd have taken it with him".	2823.233299730447
"Right.	259.9649462081851
And he'd have taken the weapon with him too, so we take that.	5021.10811015221
Now"- He looked around.	350.1813314447678
"I've been careful about fingerprints.	726.3708418219676
How about you"?	139.76257941061849
"Same.	261.29502691765526
There are the boards over the window, of course, but they're not painted and too rough to take prints.	4724.746416293671
Same goes for the rough cement of the ledge.	28697.751131183835
Besides, I doubt if the cops will even try dusting.	6454.571733271323
They find dead winos every day, maybe they won't even autopsy him for the cause of death".	3351.5796287924713
"We can't take a chance on that.	1383.8257268281511
We've got to assume they'll decide he was murdered and we've got to keep the picture consistent.	2663.82296036737
Our hypothetical other bum who killed him would have turned out his pockets.	4549.227836383874
Let's do that".	97.86240014769884
We did that and found a dirty handkerchief, some matches and fourteen cents in change.	20834.87957117487
We took the matches- they were book matches and once they'd been touched might retain fingerprints- and the change.	20159.431981439648
We discussed the candle and decided the hypothetical other bum would have left it burning to light his way to the window and because he'd have no reason to blow it out.	11140.3627703818
The candle had been stuck on a tin lid so it wouldn't set fire to the crate when it guttered out.	52720.64369477744
A fire wouldn't have mattered except that it would cause Pops to be found sooner.	47987.60408659535
He might not be found for days, even weeks, otherwise.	2663.0964396351515
We went once more over every point, then triple-checked.	10834.406941401618
Being picked up for questioning by a cop on the way out seemed to be the only possible remaining danger, and we weren't picked up by a cop.	14309.777514162874
In fact, nobody saw us, cop or citizen.	1102.7234645771205
Winsett is a quiet street with no taverns and was completely deserted at that hour.	75844.05793276192
Which, if it matters, was one AM.	6828.769403048213
Less than three hours ago we'd decided, in Maxine Wells's pad on Cosmo, to commit a trial murder.	24015.734046353387
It had gone like clockwork.	1207.9376572645992
Almost too smoothly, I found myself thinking, and then told myself that was ridiculous.	10753.099554089296
How safe is too safe?	13104.030953563302
Thinking like that can get you into a padded pad.	28928.504466134073
An hour later we were back in my unpadded pad, killing what had been left of the second pint.	26187.41150307502
We decided to leave the third one intact for tomorrow.	3768.2068254647866
Also our plans for me to commit Charlie's murder and for him to commit mine.	17427.942982544148
But we were really going to do it.	63.45718181305557
We shook hands on it.	599.9809327143071
We planned ahead only one step, a rendezvous for tomorrow when we could swap notes.	27980.04196403459
I'd tell him everything I'd learned about Seaton's habits and habitat, and he'd tell me the score on Radic.	30789.166033260633
We made the date for two o'clock in the afternoon at Maxine Wells's pad.	5544.0827109247675
Charlie would get there early because he had the key.	12529.906977099121
From here on in, the less Charlie and I were seen together in public, or visited one another's rooms, the better.	8766.28442219363
I was dead tired and slept soundly, as far as I know dreamlessly.	4791.811141096724
We met at Maxine's and decided we were set to stay as long as it took, into or even through the evening, to talk things out.	25250.802084310915
Charlie had brought food and we'd decided on no drinks.	22867.164341227002
I'd brought along the virgin pint from last night, but we were going to kill that only when we were through talking.	9320.973458061497
I talked first, telling him everything I knew about Seaton and his house and domestic arrangements.	34840.902642971276
I drew diagrams and floor plans; he memorized them thoroughly and then we tore them into tiny pieces and flushed them down.	95134.8150997531
He gave me equivalent and even more detailed dope on Radic, including diagrams- one of the apartment building Radic lived in and one of the apartment itself.	17336.435401524202
He'd been there several times, back when, while he and Radic had been friends, or at least not enemies.	3943.7751501047655
It didn't take us as long as we'd thought it might; it was not quite six o'clock when we finished and Charlie said, "Well, I guess that's it.	19064.533984925583
Shall we flip a coin to see which of us goes first?	14331.318490606316
Or would you rather deal a hand of show-down poker or play a game of gin rummy, or what"?	69224.52656904112
"Wait a minute, Charlie", I said.	1002.1755411882515
"One thing we haven't discussed, expense money.	1908.657721961793
We'll need some at least, if only bus fare to the scene of the crime.	1667.102502567759
And if you're as flat broke as I am, I think we'll have to take the added risk of knocking over a filling station or something before we split for one of us to set up an alibi while the other does his dirty work".	12434.32107257803
He sighed.	218.20637747281057
"All right, I'll come clean.	186.99787895094087
I've got a little stashed for a rainy day, and I guess this is rainy enough.	1719.5567054651597
A couple of hundred.	18.5142125673162
If you draw the short straw I'll lend you some bread, like fifty bucks, before I take off to visit my sister in Frisco.	151984.71421343152
Then, after I'm back, another fifty so you can put some mileage on yourself and have a solid alibi somewhere while I take care of your seat cover boy".	36729.92869470925
"Solid", I said.	47.85529608998246
I took a deep breath, and the plunge.	8095.295667040324
"In that case, let's not draw.	3049.4207182807872
I'll go to bat first.	151.9699215737945
You'd have to wait till Seaton's back from Mexico City and also while I set it up with Doris to have her have an alibi for D-night.	20835.332065853985
So it wouldn't be for days or even a week before you could do anything.	1228.1586953400897
But your friend Manny can go any time".	2225.0203033705125
He grinned and clapped me on the shoulder.	6197.823509959487
"I was hoping you'd say that, Willy.	12723.05871919848
But I wouldn't have suggested it.	729.3924299002916
Well- in that case, I take off tomorrow morning for Frisco.	3068.846363114593
And, in case, I brought the money with me".	731.8867834524983
Now that he knew himself to be self he was free to grok ever closer to his brothers, merge without let.	40217.334219984885
Self's integrity was and is and ever had been.	4278.078934917321
Mike stopped to cherish all his brother selves, the many threes-fulfilled on Mars, corporate and discorporate, the precious few on Earth- the unknown powers of three on Earth that would be his to merge with and cherish now that at last long waiting he grokked and cherished himself.	420764.0796647083
Mike remained in trance; there was much to grok, loose ends to puzzle over and fit into his growing- all that he had seen and heard and been at the Archangel Foster Tabernacle not just cusp when he and Digby had come face to face alone h why Bishop Senator Boone made him warily uneasy, how Miss Dawn Ardent tasted like a water brother when she was not, the smell of goodness he had incompletely grokked in the jumping up and down and wailing- Jubal's conversations coming and going- Jubal's words troubled him most; he studied them, compared them with what he had been taught as a nestling, struggling to bridge between languages, the one he thought with and the one he was learning to think in.	277002.194358537
The word "church" which turned up over and over again among Jubal's words gave him knotty difficulty; there was no Martian concept to match it- unless one took "church" and "worship" and "God" and "congregation" and many other words and equated them to the totality of the only world he had known during growing-waiting h then forced the concept back into English in that phrase which had been rejected by each differently by Jubal, by Mahmoud, by Digby.	318165.9972373699
"Thou art God".	603.3217463127647
He was closer to understanding it in English now, although it could never have the inevitability of the Martian concept it stood for.	17563.371345995696
In his mind he spoke simultaneously the English sentence and the Martian word and felt closer grokking.	39863.30276379131
Repeating it like a student telling himself that the jewel is in the lotus he sank into nirvana.	188978.20050398205
Before midnight he speeded his heart, resumed normal breathing, ran down his check list, uncurled and sat up.	85290.49549361282
He had been weary; now he felt light and gay and clear-headed, ready for the many actions he saw spreading out before him.	16726.603298843762
He felt a puppyish need for company as strong as his earlier necessity for quiet.	9371.787838250733
He stepped out into the hall, was delighted to encounter a water brother.	2719.727797524752
"Hi"!	3400.3071950501667
"Oh.	4.203310795054198
Hello, Mike.	2845.9170798941946
My, you look chipper".	2980.204284328591
"I feel fine!	114.12292049544679
Where is everybody"?	455.7595281715198
"Asleep.	3524.279832361616
Ben and Stinky went home an hour ago and people started going to bed".	33258.93886742309
"Oh".	4.203310795054198
Mike felt disappointed that Mahmoud had left; he wanted to explain his new grokking.	64561.80057402495
"I ought to be asleep, too, but I felt like a snack.	7501.993603743458
Are you hungry"?	260.08566928524584
"Sure, I'm hungry"!	849.9762904493261
"Come on, there's some cold chicken and we'll see what else".	6829.196390742128
They went downstairs, loaded a tray lavishly.	9448.124062440742
"Let's take it outside.	201.22807047309053
It's plenty warm".	480.34730458223913
"A fine idea", Mike agreed.	2182.089294278007
"Warm enough to swim- real Indian summer.	7860.271051705538
I'll switch on the floods".	2012.2492686330927
"Don't bother", Mike answered.	371.8111949960723
"I'll carry the tray".	260.66782464507196
He could see in almost total darkness.	681.9939191306976
Jubal said that his night-sight probably came from the conditions in which he had grown up, and Mike grokked this was true but grokked that there was more to it; his foster parents had taught him to see.	35734.74804023165
As for the night being warm, he would have been comfortable naked on Mount Everest but his water brothers had little tolerance for changes in temperature and pressure; he was considerate of their weakness, once he learned of it.	30167.034388165284
But he was looking forward to snow- seeing for himself that each tiny crystal of the water of life was a unique individual, as he had read- walking barefoot, rolling in it.	20590.81591120359
In the meantime he was pleased with the warm night and the still more pleasing company of his water brother.	11870.326200507923
"Okay, take the tray.	2246.2729734462364
I'll switch on the underwater lights.	3122.3394992894155
That'll be plenty to eat by".	691.5160338526107
"Fine".	2621.6022082965114
Mike liked having light up through the ripples; it was a goodness, beauty.	61477.48653382847
They picnicked by the pool, then lay back on the grass and looked at stars.	5246.81635804582
"Mike, there's Mars.	4005.059022483528
It is Mars, isn't it?	192.2801361813495
Or Antares"?	3644.2564610086524
"It is Mars".	129.5890652904154
"Mike?	7936.4318727286845
What are they doing on Mars"?	5307.126156896021
He hesitated; the question was too wide for the sparse English language.	15079.680565914448
"On the side toward the horizon- the southern hemisphere- it is spring; plants are being taught to grow".	35779.22110787071
"'Taught to grow'"?	5460.959510360283
He hesitated.	1083.1982448928234
"Larry teaches plants to grow.	2828.1608505122404
I have helped him.	92.16517332714258
But my people- Martians, I mean; I now grok you are my people- teach plants another way.	51576.86313031266
In the other hemisphere it is growing colder and nymphs, those who stayed alive through the summer, are being brought into nests for quickening and more growing".	54274.92155161051
He thought.	19.043076031768845
"Of the humans we left at the equator, one has discorporated and the others are sad".	28616.721232650976
Yes, I heard it in the news".	171.25499596257637
Mike had not heard it; he had not known it until asked.	11067.932857142303
"They should not be sad.	286.2592508626653
Mr Booker T W Jones Food Technician First Class is not sad; the Old Ones have cherished him".	65917.55979357114
"You knew him"?	965.1598352304593
"Yes.	3.463452173258582
He had his own face, dark and beautiful.	593.7386332360385
But he was homesick".	441.8045395660253
"Oh, dear!	449.7298433301074
Mike h do you ever get homesick?	102160.42451942246
For Mars"?	2537.5215059912325
"At first I was homesick", he answered.	728.23340649716
"I was lonely always".	1171.6241753976424
He rolled toward her and took her in his arms.	5266.653507887254
"But now I am not lonely.	275.42797183084406
I grok I shall never be lonely again".	4719.712767664436
"Mike darling"- They kissed, and went on kissing.	41997.316928767264
Presently his water brother said breathlessly.	8219.566761293278
"Oh, my!	357.59314736157853
That was almost worse than the first time".	160.899090497609
"You are all right, my brother"?	3856.5398696330362
"Yes.	3.463452173258582
Yes indeed.	24.850578521247133
Kiss me again".	2845.9155453295784
A long time later, by cosmic clock, she said, "Mike?	16482.724030684818
Is that- I mean, 'Do you know'"- "I know.	2956.7734028556138
It is for growing closer.	204.03001979501022
Now we grow closer".	255.4632119878375
"Well h I've been ready a long time- goodness, we all have, but h never mind, dear; turn just a little.	17797.91055297306
I'll help".	75.70843978041599
As they merged, grokking together, Mike said softly and triumphantly "Thou art God".	24728.001610667798
Her answer was not in words.	622.2075102099385
Then, as their grokking made them ever closer and Mike felt himself almost ready to discorporate her voice called him back "Oh!	83114.84597060895
h Oh!	932.1158140248123
Thou art God"!	603.4306114076834
"We grok God".	682.0751483986068
/25,.	624.3435326366562
On Mars humans were building pressure domes for the male and female party that would arrive by next ship.	23435.773466016195
This went faster than scheduled as the Martians were helpful.	10521.249360242966
Part of the time saved was spent on a preliminary estimate for a long-distance plan to free bound oxygen in the sands of Mars to make the planet more friendly to future human generations.	27401.093254623218
The Old Ones neither helped nor hindered this plan; time was not yet.	6146.334634423239
Their meditations were approaching a violent cusp that would shape Martian art for many millennia.	78677.12790431296
On Earth elections continued and a very advanced poet published a limited edition of verse consisting entirely of punctuation marks and spaces; Time magazine reviewed it and suggested that the Federation Assembly Daily Record should be translated into the medium.	266223.5128186635
A colossal campaign opened to sell more sexual organs of plants and Mrs Joseph "Shadow of Greatness" Douglas was quoted as saying "I would no more sit down without flowers on my table than without serviettes".	252179.2529735159
A Tibetan swami from Palermo, Sicily, announced in Beverly Hills a newly discovered, ancient yoga discipline for ripple breathing which increased both pranha and cosmic attraction between sexes.	105607.11753778046
His chelas were required to assume the matsyendra posture dressed in hand-woven diapers while he read aloud from Rig-Veda and an assistant guru examined their purses in another room- nothing was stolen; the purpose was less immediate.	240742.21839531083
The President of the United States proclaimed the first Sunday in November as "National Grandmothers' Day" and urged America to say it with flowers.	12879.053580799418
A funeral parlor chain was indicted for price-cutting.	11446.428929044981
Fosterite bishops, after secret conclave, announced the Church's second Major Miracle Supreme Bishop Digby had been translated bodily to Heaven and spot-promoted to Archangel, ranking with-but-after Archangel Foster.	489271.9333755669
The glorious news had been held up pending Heavenly confirmation of the elevation of a new Supreme Bishop, Huey Short- a candidate accepted by the Boone faction after lots had been cast repeatedly.	159806.12350389583
L'Unita and Hoy published identical denunciations of Short's elevation, l'Osservatore Romano and the Christian Science Monitor ignored it, Times of India snickered at it, and the Manchester Guardian simply reported it- the Fosterites in England were few but extremely militant.	227254.93081468658
Digby was not pleased with his promotion.	15259.52881564929
The Man from Mars had interrupted him with his work half finished- and that stupid jackass Short was certain to louse it up.	49579.055210337276
Foster listened with angelic patience until Digby ran down, then said, "Listen, junior, you're an angel now- so forget it.	77696.43856276537
Eternity is no time for recriminations.	6245.273323261349
You too were a stupid jackass until you poisoned me.	12178.947043168924
Afterwards you did well enough.	571.618151835599
Now that Short is Supreme Bishop he'll do all right, he can't help it.	9072.946246632624
Same as with the Popes.	6747.65360518229
Some of them were warts until they got promoted.	948.7141471525865
Check with one of them, go ahead- there's no professional jealousy here".	8105.926118280837
Digby calmed down, but made one request.	8130.368542565691
Foster shook his halo.	16087.836027622221
"You can't touch him.	82.64716807549276
You shouldn't have tried to.	1186.7021345257247
Oh, you can submit a requisition for a miracle if you want to make a fool of yourself.	868.20048402349
But, I'm telling you, it'll be turned down- you don't understand the System yet.	9506.573299421041
The Martians have their own setup, different from ours, and as long as they need him, we can't touch him.	2160.9122072974724
They run their show their way- the Universe has variety, something for everybody- a fact you field workers often miss".	87298.38090944027
"You mean this punk can brush me aside and I've got to hold still for it"?	9245.219298907108
"I held still for the same thing, didn't I?	4225.572614705867
I'm helping you now, am I not?	2863.029847256982
Now look, there's work to be done and lots of it.	2789.355305163892
The Boss wants performance, not gripes.	12568.638694384908
If you need a Day off to calm down, duck over to the Muslim Paradise and take it.	19292.163578385567
Otherwise, straighten your halo, square your wings, and dig in.	16506.187876119915
The sooner you act like an angel the quicker you'll feel angelic.	51110.22829973998
Get Happy, junior"!	2169.561161761753
Digby heaved a deep ethereal sigh.	35827.71117471326
"Okay, I'm Happy.	1005.3926871812312
Where do I start"?	126.46386511142796
Jubal did not hear of Digby's disappearance when it was announced, and, when he did, while he had a fleeting suspicion, he dismissed it; if Mike had had a finger in it, he had gotten away with it- and what happened to supreme bishops worried Jubal not at all as long as he wasn't bothered.	52762.67449501654
His household had gone through an upset.	11140.379680435837
Jubal deduced what had happened but did not know with whom- and didn't want to inquire.	65365.66224272657
Mike was of legal age and presumed able to defend himself in the clinches.	152168.97919952872
Anyhow, it was high time the boy was salted.	23855.969203368673
Jubal couldn't reconstruct the crime from the way the girls behaved because patterns kept shifting- ABC vs D, then BCD vs A h or AB vs CD, or AD vs CB, through all ways that four women can gang up on each other.	195078.56530565483
This continued most of the week following that ill-starred trip to church, during which period Mike stayed in his room and usually in a trance so deep that Jubal would have pronounced him dead had he not seen it before.	160525.24176162021
Jubal would not have minded it if service had not gone to pieces.	31707.462393905276
The girls seemed to spend half their time tiptoeing in "to see if Mike was all right" and they were too preoccupied to cook, much less be secretaries.	52356.283303920456
Even rock-steady Anne- Hell, Anne was the worst!	35976.57387970505
Absent-minded, subject to unexplained tears h Jubal would have bet his life that if Anne were to witness the Second Coming, she would memorize date, time, personae, events, and barometric pressure without batting her calm blue eyes.	273019.2462538884
The expense and time involved are astronomical.	2951.4861808880623
However, we sent a third vessel out, a much smaller and faster one than the first two.	5185.94314732548
We have learned much about interstellar drives since a hundred years ago; that is all I can tell you about them.	1744.917176694899
"But the third ship came back several years ago and reported h" "That it had found a planet on which human beings could live and which was already inhabited by sentient beings"!	55864.61681147677
said Hal, forgetting in his enthusiasm that he had not been asked to speak.	5019.745907817391
Macneff stopped pacing to stare at Hal with his pale blue eyes.	25947.31687648228
"How did you know"?	349.95555082651987
he said sharply.	3.4805415853651755
"Forgive me, Sandalphon", said Hal.	43540.70259279359
"But it was inevitable!	139.9847348004509
Did not the Forerunner predict in his Time and the World Line that such a planet would be found?	138468.31095441905
I believe it was on page 573"!	729.0498958419942
Macneff smiled and said, "I am glad that your scriptural lessons have left such an impression".	42221.05963273294
How could they not?	447.99865611633703
thought Hal.	3650.5786964223353
Besides, they were not the only impressions.	179.37319543998348
I still bear scars on my back where Pornsen, my gapt, whipped me because I had not learned my lessons well enough.	21357.39631150046
He was a good impresser, that Pornsen.	1819.1745683085303
Was?	403.132539867685
Is!	378.4578072749016
As I grew older and was promoted, so was he, always where I was.	15123.696738026363
He was my gapt in the creche.	3028.0732175388266
He was the dormitory gapt when I went to college and thought I was getting away from him.	4872.114337725285
He is now my block gapt.	1120.5771221193431
He is the one responsible for my getting such low M R's.	7019.791595558856
Swiftly, came the revulsion, the protest.	24328.45988117405
No, not he, for I, and I alone, am responsible for whatever happens to me.	8344.719061210291
If I get a low M R, I do so because I want it that way or my dark self does.	20466.89521326972
If I die, I die because I willed it so.	1351.0393428490765
So, forgive me, Sigmen, for the contrary-to-reality thoughts!	18833.349284193948
"Please pardon me again, Sandalphon", said Hal.	33990.2082595122
"But did the expedition find any records of the Forerunner having been on this planet?	74793.35843109555
Perhaps, even, though this is too much to wish, find the Forerunner himself"?	10111.667875208432
"No", said Macneff.	532.3188812464177
"Though that does not mean that there may not be such records there.	901.6118148192763
The expedition was under orders to make a swift survey of conditions and then to return to Earth.	36090.38904859062
I can't tell you now the distance in lightyears or what star this was, though you can see it with the naked eye at night in this hemisphere.	6240.978646342898
If you volunteer, you will be told where you're going after the ship leaves.	7487.368339537513
And it leaves very soon".	565.8964418091524
"You need a linguist"?	31.77076487987075
said Hal.	1721.8747321808687
"The ship is huge", said Macneff, "but the number of military men and specialists we are taking limits the linguists to one.	14119.147953237527
We have considered several of your professionals because they were lamechians and above suspicion.	14323.591972309887
Unfortunately h" Hal waited Macneff paced some more, frowning.	14834.135403361257
Then, he said, "Unfortunately, only one lamechian linguist exists, and he is too old for this expedition.	7408.497564493009
Therefore h" "A thousand pardons", said Hal.	19534.612540949594
"But I have just thought of one thing.	203.22722576897934
I am married".	109.49122837305272
"No problem at all", said Macneff.	6795.763987024099
"There will be no women aboard the Gabriel.	1177.1158255989087
And, if a man is married, he will automatically be given a divorce".	680.575275658417
Hal gasped, and he said, "A divorce"?	13276.753691172979
Macneff raised his hands apologetically and said, "You are horrified, of course.	9473.326134433313
But, from our reading of the Western Talmud, we Urielites believe that the Forerunner, knowing this situation would arise, made reference to and provision for divorce.	90327.69599423812
It's inevitable in this case, for the couple will be separated for, at the least, forty years.	4558.440011628932
Naturally, he couched the provision in obscure language.	2783.4384531605947
In his great and glorious wisdom, he knew that our enemies the Israelites must not be able to read therein what we planned".	10802.971950731397
"I volunteer", said Hal.	7114.638438980912
"Tell me more, Sandalphon".	6627.038184041085
Six months later, Hal Yarrow stood in the observation dome of the Gabriel and watched the ball of Earth dwindle above him.	62242.01107799432
It was night on this hemisphere, but the light blazed from the megalopolises of Australia, Japan, China, Southeast Asia, India, Siberia.	89379.2260004323
Hal, the linguist, saw the glittering discs and necklaces in terms of the languages spoken therein.	53998.78889437159
Australia, the Philippine Islands, Japan, and northern China were inhabited by those members of the Haijac Union that spoke American.	188282.79189286462
Southern China, all of southeast Asia, southern India and Ceylon, these states of the Malay Federation spoke Bazaar.	175687.3787328542
Siberia spoke Icelandic.	10670.64876580994
His mind turned the globe swiftly for him, and he visualized Africa, which used Swahili south of the Sahara Sea.	57497.272359675226
All around the Mediterranean Sea, Asia Minor, northern India, and Tibet, Hebrew was the native tongue.	41384.75184578098
In southern Europe, between the Israeli Republics and the Icelandic-speaking peoples of northern Europe, was a thin but long stretch of territory called March.	63683.76246920396
This was no man's land, disputed by the Haijac Union and the Israeli Republic, a potential source of war for the last two hundred years.	13304.485862983403
Neither nation would give up their claim on it, yet neither wished to make any move that might lead to a second Apocalyptic War.	24732.71464615116
So, for all practical purposes, it was an independent nation and by now had its own organized government unrecognized outside its own borders.	2458.914737090476
Its citizens spoke all of the world's surviving tongues, plus a new one called Lingo, a pidgin whose vocabulary was derived from the other six and whose syntax was so simple it could be contained on half a sheet of paper.	53800.237024451235
Hal saw in his mind the rest of Earth Iceland, Greenland, the Caribbean Islands, and the eastern half of South America.	23609.419549034545
Here the peoples spoke the tongue of Iceland because that island had gotten the jump on the Hawaiian-Americans who were busy resettling North America and the western half of South America after the Apocalyptic War.	149216.68744055304
Then there was North America, where American was the native speech of all except the twenty descendants of French-Canadians living on the Hudson Bay Preserve.	25843.781836020917
Hal knew that when that side of Earth rotated into the night zone, Sigmen City would blaze out into space.	112034.50845808657
And, somewhere in that enormous light, was his apartment.	6609.489762611542
But Mary would soon no longer be living there, for she would be notified in a few days that her husband had died in an accident while on a flight to Tahiti.	19773.404433855565
She would weep in private, he was sure, for she loved him in her frigid way, though in public she would be dry-eyed.	51602.47483085255
Her friends and professional associates would sympathize with her, not because she had lost a beloved husband, but because she had been married to a man who thought unrealistically.	25075.76412025256
If Hal Yarrow had been killed in a crash, he must have wanted it that way.	6475.195924720297
There was no such thing as an "accident".	28.478563974478867
Somehow, all the other passengers also supposed to have died in this web of elaborate frauds to cover up the disappearance of the personnel of the Gabriel had simultaneously "agreed" to die.	47269.75018936711
And, therefore, being in disgrace, they would not be cremated and their ashes flung to the winds in public ceremony.	26663.375389296565
No, the fish could eat their bodies for all the Sturch cared.	7477.679763667615
Hal felt sorry for Mary; he had a time keeping the tears from welling to his own eyes as he stood in the crowd in the observation dome.	17888.42095147423
Yet, he told himself, this was the best way.	268.3348562277686
He and Mary would no longer have to tear and rend at each other; their mutual torture would be over.	30747.63563018154
Mary was free to marry again, not knowing that the Sturch had secretly given her a divorce, thinking that death had dissolved her marriage.	53394.05155087598
She would have a year in which to make up her mind, to choose a mate from a list selected by her gapt.	3410.4278635350174
Perhaps, the psychological barriers that had prevented her from conceiving Hal's child would no longer be present.	7043.84831796877
Perhaps.	182.5889450724132
Hal doubted if this happy event would occur.	7799.930121773911
Mary was as frozen below the navel as he.	19369.19199980321
No matter who the candidate for marriage selected by the gapt h The gapt.	24423.15088327368
Pornsen.	3524.279832361616
He would no longer have to see that fat face, hear that whining voice h "Hal Yarrow"!	23427.953064767666
said the whining voice.	561.5954023603338
And, slowly, feeling himself icy yet burning, Hal turned.	20653.52014669883
There was the squat loose-jowled man, smiling lopsidedly up at him.	5349.6748668621985
"My beloved ward, my perennial gadfly", said the whining voice.	24133.97423491941
"I had no idea that you, too, would be on this glorious voyage.	681.2854722205927
But I might have known!	646.9110648955718
We seem to be bound by love; Sigmen himself must have foreseen it.	18764.84145785597
Love to you, my ward".	1159.117186600944
"Sigmen love you, too, my guardian", said Hal, choking.	51149.362150337205
"How wonderful to see your cherished self.	4786.433046266678
I had thought we would never again speak to each other".	947.0687501535972
5 THE Gabriel pointed towards her destination and, under one-gee acceleration, began to build up towards her ultimate velocity, 99.1 percent of the speed of light.	39895.19192961815
Meanwhile, all the personnel except those few needed to carry out the performance of the ship, went into the suspensor.	7470.6148534606355
Here they would lie in suspended animation for many years.	876.0033408260407
Some time later, after a check had been made of all automatic equipment, the crew would join the others.	2818.273310685225
They would sleep while the Gabriel's drive would increase the acceleration to a point which the unfrozen bodies of the personnel could not have endured.	56284.517428608226
Upon reaching the desired speed, the automatic equipment would cut off the drive, and the silent but not empty vessel would hurl towards the star which was its journey's end.	151254.60112043834
Many years later, the photon-counting apparatus in the nose of the ship would determine that the star was close enough to actuate deceleration.	27864.239404254004
Again, a force too strong for unfrozen bodies to endure would be applied.	5916.912649289287
Then, after slowing the vessel considerably, the drive would adjust to a one-gee deceleration.	45505.21502704622
And the crew would be automatically brought out of their suspended animation.	15981.682109052941
These members would then unthaw the rest of the personnel.	3731.8101967297207
And, in the half-year left before reaching their destination, the men would carry out whatever preparations were needed.	8014.27919476987
Hal Yarrow was among the last to go into the suspensor and among the first to come out.	9052.008428429477
He had to study the recordings of the language of the chief nation of Ozagen, Siddo.	5662.2390441078605
And, from the first, he faced a difficult task.	408.073292454328
The expedition that had discovered Ozagen had succeeded in correlating two thousand Siddo words with an equal number of American words.	33381.24524384169
The description of the Siddo syntax was very restricted.	3122.93478718761
And, as Hal found out, obviously mistaken in many cases.	1691.4589854130245
This discovery caused Hal anxiety.	746.9559302724151
His duty was to write a school text and to teach the entire personnel of the Gabriel how to speak Ozagen.	13404.631194353504
Yet, if he used all of the little means at his disposal, he would be instructing his students wrongly.	10671.956260067598
Moreover, even getting this across would be difficult.	1608.0147153302485
For one thing, the organs of speech of the Ozagen natives differed somewhat from Earthmen's; the sounds made by these organs were, therefore, dissimilar.	49829.88509892563
It was true that they could be approximated, but would the Ozagenians understand these approximations?	7189.047960466529
Another obstacle was the grammatical construction of Siddo.	18025.13865480247
Consider the tense system.	269.3781751993699
Instead of inflecting a verb or using an unattached particle to indicate the past or future, Siddo used an entirely different word.	48932.4663053904
Thus, the masculine animate infinitive dabhumaksanigalu'ahai, meaning to live, was, in the perfect tense, ksu'u'peli'afo, and, in the future, mai'teipa.	38892.9561965956
The same use of an entirely different word applied for all the other tenses.	8848.21371821748
Plus the fact that Siddo not only had the normal to Earthmen three genders of masculine, feminine, and neuter, but the two extra of inanimate and spiritual.	154665.33550431678
Fortunately, gender was inflected, though the expression of it would be difficult for anybody not born in Siddo.	18874.079011157035
The system of indicating gender varied according to tense.	2385.8087120280816
All the other parts of speech nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and conjunctions operated under the same system as the verbs.	21181.564578340003
This was not, for the Angel, just a matter of running through a logical or deductive chain, or deciding on some action from some already established premise.	46887.297085317114
No doubt the Angels could do that kind of thing as fast as any computer.	5159.592033965154
What Gabriel was being asked to do now, however, was to re-examine all his basic assumptions, make value-judgments on them, and give them new and different powers in his mind to govern his motives.	18368.727811622244
This is not wholly a reasoning process- a computer cannot do it all- and even in an Angel it takes time.	7982.431987709763
Or, perhaps, especially in an Angel, whose assumptions had mostly been fixed millions of years ago.	3284.7458230923035
Being reasonably sure of the reason for the long pause, however, did not make it seem any less long to Jack.	11645.66826826049
He had already become used to Hesperus' snapping back answers to questions almost before Jack could get them asked.	29032.642701376157
There was nothing he could do but wait.	768.0993241768773
The dice were cast.	2876.7759845940636
At last Gabriel spoke.	1582.3440142265881
"We misjudged you", he said slowly.	2702.0026355633763
"We had concluded that no race as ephemeral as yours could have had time to develop a sense of justice.	11722.253027694886
Of course we have before us the example of the great races at the galactic center; individually they are nearly as mortal as you- the difference does not seem very marked to us, where it exists.	23925.71385067686
But they have survived for long periods as races, whereas you are young.	5639.495866338167
We shall recommend to them that they shorten your trial period by half.	9986.62207590844
"For now, it is clear that we were in the wrong.	90.78442968083706
You may reclaim your property, and the penalty on Hesperus is lifted.	8078.965135483615
Hesperus, you may speak".	4785.702349062811
"I did not perceive this essential distinction either, First-Born", Hesperus said at once, "I was only practicing a concept that Jack taught me, called a deal".	46175.73369439639
"Nevertheless, you were its agent.	447.54507636942634
Jack, what is the nature of this concept"?	1163.7642579178703
"It's a kind of agreement in which each party gives something to the other", Jack said.	5850.986168727688
"We regard it as fair only when each party feels that what he has received is as valuable, or more valuable, than what he has given".	18710.16443966159
His heart, he discovered, was pounding.	1494.5857856409302
"For instance, Hesperus agreed to help me find my property, and I agreed to take him to Earth.	9275.551021355128
Between individuals, this process is called bargaining.	7949.314110085377
When it is done between races or nations, it is called making a treaty.	2774.766759763654
And the major part of my mission to your nest is to make a treaty between your race and mine.	5602.263240905123
Recovering the property was much less important".	16940.168074736852
"Strange", Gabriel said.	620.1068348034496
"And apparently impossible.	425.2409982005669
Though it might be that we would have much to give you, you have nothing to give us".	662.9763797017159
"Hesperus and Lucifer", Jack said, "show that we do".	6617.86524383532
Another pause; but this one was not nearly as long.	4077.3221655803977
"Then it is a matter of pleasure; of curiosity; of a more alive time.	1365.3263495943893
Yes, those could be commodities under this concept.	3287.025490519661
But you should understand, Jack, that Hesperus and Lucifer are not long out of the nursery.	15150.254595650233
Visiting the Earth would not be an offering of worth to those of us who are older".	12510.938039548813
This explained a great deal.	171.61197949329937
"All the more reason, then", Jack said, "why we must have a treaty.	1538.5975729119434
We will gladly entertain your young and give them proper living quarters, in return for their help in running our fusion reactors.	37361.74933718979
But we must know if this is in accordance with your customs, and must have your agreement they will not misuse the power we put in their hands, to our hurt".	10953.911905148112
"But this simply requires that they behave in accordance with the dictates of their own natures, and respect yours in turn.	24793.60479116751
To this we of course agree".	782.84839105375
Jack felt a wave of complete elation, but in a second it had vanished without a trace.	18533.70919100408
What Gabriel was asking was that mankind forego all its parochial moral judgments, and contract to let the Angels serve on Earth as it is in Heaven regardless of the applicable Earth laws.	136163.54183366956
The Angels in turn would exercise similar restraints in respect for the natural preferences and natures of the Earthmen- but they had no faintest notion of man's perverse habit of passing and enforcing laws which were contrary to his own preferences and violations of his nature.	132150.3120449009
The simple treaty principle that Gabriel was asking him to ratify, in short, was nothing less than total trust.	24449.54301791599
Nothing less would serve.	853.6338786877895
And it might be, considering the uncomfortable custom the Angels had of thinking of everything in terms of absolutes, that the proposal of anything less might well amount instead to something like a declaration of war.	15034.34741721707
Furthermore, even the highly trained law clerk who was a part of Jack's total make-up could not understand how the principle could ever be codified.	33123.54518176449
Almost the whole experience of mankind pointed toward suspicion, not trust, as the safest and sanest attitude toward all outsiders.	55235.27382788656
Yet there was some precedent for it.	370.0564803826299
The history of disarmament agreements, for instance, had been unreassuringly dismal; but the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics nevertheless did eventually agree on an atomic bomb test ban, and a sort of provisional acceptance of each other's good intentions on this limited question.	31016.46612459625
Out of that agreement, though not by any easy road, eventually emerged the present world hegemony of the United Nations; suspicion between member states still existed, but it was of about the same low order of virulence as the twentieth-century rivalry between Arizona and California over water supplies.	85796.2377729857
Besides, agreements "in principle", with the petty details to be thrashed out later, were commonplace in diplomatic history.	64057.79216075552
The trouble with them was that they almost never worked, and in fact an agreement "in principle" historically turned out to be a sure sign that neither party really wanted the quarrel settled.	12720.411760508194
Suppose that this one were to work?	2405.3380840593304
There was no question in Jack's mind of the good faith on one side, at least.	830.5746271306607
If mankind could be convinced of that h It was worth trying.	16495.895913266606
In fact, it had to be tried.	18.8967506623459
It would be at once the most tentative and most final treaty that Earth had ever signed.	6104.477554857958
Secretary Hart had taught Jack, at least partially, to be content with small beginnings in all diplomatic matters; but there was no small way to handle this one.	22557.69479973887
He turned back to the screens, the crucial, conclusive phrase on his lips.	2586.7348878708585
But he was too late.	14.85265394994464
He had lost his audience.	107.01788387003822
For a moment he could make no sense at all of what he saw.	2218.5070011860953
It seemed to be only a riot of color, light and meaningless activity.	1466.57039607484
Gradually, he realized that the pentagon of Angel elders had vanished, and that the ritual learning dance of the nursery had been broken up.	26549.968289989498
The Angels in the nursery were zigzagging wildly in all directions, seemingly at random.	11580.160262549494
"Hesperus!	3524.8082516247623
What's going on here?	1977.3993866759638
What's happened"?	4.916679015380266
"Your brothers have been found.	868.0663821002739
They are on their way here".	170.8177708775638
"Where?	36.763511553165756
I don't see them.	16.990480067783512
The instruments don't show them".	1346.5427782326747
"You can't see them yet, Jack.	2990.689219953505
They'll be in range in a short while".	264.5149892167625
Jack scanned the skies, the boards, and the skies again.	15308.026408891701
Nothing.	27.931795689186487
No- there was a tiny pip on the radar; and it was getting bigger rapidly.	8518.131243303134
If that was the skiff, it was making unprecedented speed.	11047.72744328492
Then the skiff hove into sight, just a dot of light at first against the roiling blackness and crimson streaks of the Coal Sack.	137045.88330439263
Through the telescope, Jack could see that both spacesuits were still attached to it.	5157.722034523851
The sail was still unfurled, though there were a good many holes in it, as Langer had predicted would be the case by now.	11746.55534675685
It was a startling, almost numenous sight; but even more awesome was the fact that it was trailing an enormous comet's-tail of Angels.	27780.95515518643
The skiff was not heading for the nursery, however.	5570.85605820598
It seemed unlikely that her crew, if either of them were alive, could even see the Ariadne, for they were passing her at a distance of nearly a light-year.	32637.944156184858
And there would be no chance of signaling them- without the Nernst generator Jack could not send a call powerful enough to get through all the static, and by the time he could rebuild his fusion power the skiff would be gone.	21232.598154105002
Fuming, helpless, he watched them pass him.	29580.81324640298
The sail, ragged though it was, still had enough surface to catch some of the ocean of power being poured out from the nursery stars.	29173.495392878624
He would never have believed, without seeing it, that the bizarre little vessel could go so fast.	10960.810613028687
But where was it going?	2862.3303174762464
And why was it causing so much agitation among the Angels, and being followed by so many of them?	7425.446415579697
There was only one possible answer, but Jack's horrified mind refused to believe it until he had fed the radar plots of the skiff's course into the computer.	13797.624100193883
The curve on the card the computer spat back at him couldn't be argued with, however.	12678.797668596922
The skiff was headed for the very center of the nebula- toward that place which, Jack knew now, could hold nothing less important than the very core of the Angel's life and religion.	29451.405182030514
It was clear that Langer had at last found a way to attract the Angel's attention.	10333.753512261872
It was equally clear that as of this moment, the treaty was off.	6504.430241760992
STERN CHASE 10 LANGER WOULD HAVE to be headed off, whether he knew where he was going or not.	21029.79566192957
Almost surely he did; after all, he had had the same set of facts as Jack had had to work from, and he was an almost frighteningly observant man.	9145.022327255472
But not having talked to the Angels, he had made a wrong turn in his reasoning somewhere along the line.	7007.908883667794
Had he decided, perhaps, that the center of the cloud was a center of government, instead of a center of life and faith"?	5745.606717678132
But it didn't matter now whether he meant to invade the Holy of Holies, or was simply headed in that direction by accident.	17186.865322896556
If it was intentional, it was now also unnecessary; and whether intentional or not, the outcome would be disastrous.	6880.409473104138
Jack crawled under the boards and restored the six feet of lead line he had excised from the Nernst generator switch.	89032.41916421869
When he was back on his feet again and about to reinstall the fuses, however, he hesitated.	21134.655679535477
He had to have fusion power to catch up with the skiff, and he had to have it fast.	2788.719411604937
But fusion power in the Coal Sack was what had triggered all the trouble in the first place- and he already had an Angel aboard.	37277.43709036831
"Hesperus"?	11318.63465748144
"Receiving".	261.29502691765526
"I'm going to turn my generator back on, as I promised to do.	4430.233090980396
But I can't take you to Earth yet.	986.5014886301454
First I've got to intercept my brothers before they get any deeper into trouble.	6069.237464478758
Will you obstruct this, or will you help?	3641.174171044659
I know it's not part of the bargain, and your elders might not like it".	7932.3626943593235
"Nobody else can live in your hearth while I am in it", Hesperus said promptly.	32966.04407517371
"As for my elders, they have already admitted that they were wrong.	4943.534044199825
If because of this incident they become angry with Earth, I will not be permitted to go there at all.	5848.755784264593
Therefore of course I will help".	1201.3163100694403
With a short-lived sigh of relief, Jack plugged the fuses back in and threw the switch.	10870.412836869478
Without an instant's transition, the green light that meant full fusion power winked on the board.	10066.755982867247
Always before, it had taken five minutes to- Of course.	9241.678154558407
Hesperus was in there.	1381.0429895576708
From here on out, the Ariadne was going to be hotter than any space cruiser man had ever dreamed of.	31510.475844398243
But since he had failed to anticipate it, he lost the five minutes anyhow, in plotting an intercept orbit.	13655.792336946557
"Hesperus, don't use this t-tau vector trick of yours, please.	38100.87409012631
Ryan hefted his bulk up and supported it on one elbow.	98832.47221988848
He rubbed his eyes sleepily with one huge paw.	25380.380993908384
"Ekstrohm, Nogol, you guys okay"?	106782.4793940837
"Nothing wrong with me that couldn't be cured", Nogol said.	9668.662288131189
He didn't say what would cure him; he had been explaining all during the trip what he needed to make him feel like himself.	9185.049907276521
His small black eyes darted inside the olive oval of his face.	3988.4352884822174
"Ekstrohm"?	11318.63465748144
Ryan insisted.	6670.253906581705
"Okay".	35.197251894126666
"Well, let's take a ground-level look at the country around here".	2876.819756022163
The facsiport rolled open on the landscape.	4653.808839844384
A range of bluffs hugged the horizon, the color of decaying moss.	11574.61586230206
Above them, the sky was the black of space, or the almost equal black of the winter sky above Minneapolis, seen against neon-lit snow.	40461.75888881913
That cold, empty sky was full of fire and light.	2049.4076469672204
It seemed almost a magnification of the Galaxy itself, of the Milky Way, blown up by some master photographer.	15964.983540861229
This fiery swath was actually only a belt of minor planets, almost like the asteroid belt in the original Solar System.	57847.69522062088
These planets were much bigger, nearly all capable of holding an atmosphere.	11019.988632944876
But to the infuriation of scientists, for no known reason not all of them did.	2375.199077286411
This would be the fifth mapping expedition to the planetoids of Yancy-6 in three generations.	9666.448049335715
They lay months away from the nearest Earth star by jump drive, and no one knew what they were good for, although it was felt that they would probably be good for something if it could only be discovered- much like the continent of Antarctica in ancient history.	10297.253153691283
"How can a planet with so many neighbors be so lonely"?	12058.348766345835
Ryan asked.	1377.429532519693
He was the captain, so he could ask questions like that.	854.075943607174
"Some can be lonely in a crowd", Nogol said elaborately.	28404.444345770764
"WHAT will we need outside, Ryan"?	21200.88449133751
Ekstrohm asked.	1422.1698652103182
"No helmets", the captain answered.	3818.8753602775596
"We can breathe out there, all right.	348.26621415076875
It just won't be easy.	250.17654224131178
This old world lost all of its helium and trace gases long ago.	9727.200322991897
Nitrogen and oxygen are about it".	4033.2626528249557
"Ryan, look over there", Nogol said.	15303.285436103264
"Animals.	208.8635550507535
Ringing the ship.	688.145715410087
Think they're intelligent, maybe hostile"?	29158.693399555505
"I think they're dead", Ekstrohm interjected quietly.	1754.3390737819736
"I get no readings from them at all.	772.7035274246244
Sonic, electronic, galvanic- all blank.	58759.41312651891
According to these needles, they're stone dead".	1861.3301605563581
"Ekstrohm, you and I will have a look", Ryan said.	2037.6133165350134
"You hold down the fort, Nogol.	16047.08087212397
Take it easy".	268.1838247241139
"Easy", Nogol confirmed.	739.0586482162506
"I heard a story once about a rookie who got excited when the captain stepped outside and he couldn't get an encephalographic reading on him.	41172.19167437109
Me, I know the mind of an officer works in a strange and unfathomable manner".	14080.374960884747
"I'm not worried about you mis-reading the dials, Nogol, just about a lug like you reading them at all.	14858.328529791523
Remember, when the little hand is straight up that's negative.	19647.76815935839
Positive results start when it goes towards the hand you use to make your mark".	67395.42848864703
"But I'm ambidextrous".	315.9832447188287
Ryan told him what he could do then.	1689.980885078367
Ekstrohm smiled, and followed the captain through the airlock with only a glance at the lapel gauge on his coverall.	143005.37502002373
The strong negative field his suit set up would help to repel bacteria and insects.	36646.34684425253
Actually, the types of infection that could attack a warm-blooded mammal were not infinite, and over the course of the last few hundred years adequate defenses had been found for all basic categories.	21653.9528764354
He wasn't likely to come down with hot chills and puzzling striped fever.	8803.909288052155
They ignored the ladder down to the planet surface and, with only a glance at the seismological gauge to judge surface resistance, dropped to the ground.	22297.126797691944
It was day, but in the thin atmosphere contrasts were sharp between light and shadow.	6401.46909458359
They walked from midnight to noon, noon to midnight, and came to the beast sprawled on its side.	19089.758914171256
Ekstrohm nudged it with a boot.	12241.062989469518
"Hey, this is pretty close to a wart-hog".	11684.056645023034
"Uh-huh", Ryan admitted.	7976.565835092935
"One of the best matches I've ever found.	676.1424874599741
Well, it has to happen.	27.90098628712598
Statistical average and all.	1345.3888997871557
Still, it sometimes gives you a creepy feeling to find a rabbit or a snapping turtle on some strange world.	27947.586208828816
It makes you wonder if this exploration business isn't all some big joke, and somebody has been everywhere before you even started".	56697.27268746435
THE surveyor looked sidewise at the captain.	5130.475865910728
The big man seldom gave out with such thoughts.	2851.2825296281294
Ekstrohm cleared his throat.	1381.123452946996
"What shall we do with this one?	600.5830387909889
Dissect it"?	3532.6233511039895
Ryan nudged it with his toe, following Ekstrohm's example.	36035.81741559992
"I don't know, Stormy.	326.156799578918
It sure as hell doesn't look like any dominant intelligent species to me.	12769.008362880892
No hands, for one thing.	59.90470761092405
Of course, that's not definite proof".	483.52026328615045
"No, it isn't", Ekstrohm said.	1105.7745620075596
"I think we'd better let it lay until we get a clearer picture of the ecological setup around here.	1095.633117908236
In the meantime, we might be thinking on the problem all these dead beasts represent.	2537.1643527894757
What killed them"?	934.4316809971546
"It looks like we did, when we made blastdown".	6128.631769153473
"But what about our landing was lethal to the creatures"?	19529.52746941642
"Radiation"?	341.62553332216834
Ekstrohm suggested.	1422.1700931175415
"The planet is very low in radiation from mineral deposits, and the atmosphere seems to shield out most of the solar output.	24745.418280199057
Any little dose of radiation might knock off these critters".	18726.177200913065
"I don't know about that.	49.916676957878664
Maybe it would work the other way.	520.886928228939
Maybe because they have had virtually no radioactive exposure and don't have any R's stored up, they could take a lot without harm".	28292.888796693478
"Then maybe it was the shockwave we set up.	6600.264683477459
Or maybe it's sheer xenophobia.	1977.3967401708899
They curl up and die at the sight of something strange and alien- like a spaceship".	53447.925625941636
"Maybe", the captain admitted.	3571.60563625349
"At this stage of the game anything could be possible.	264.6813732434825
But there's one possibility I particularly don't like".	2449.7640363569635
"And that is"?	30.98693006364243
"Suppose it was not us that killed these aliens.	14640.153677735456
Suppose it is something right on the planet, native to it.	5167.972359575446
I just hope it doesn't work on Earthmen too.	4280.534911927175
These critters went real sudden".	6964.331670211815
EKSTROHM lay in his bunk and thought, the camp is quiet.	51255.86191145847
The Earthmen made camp outside the spaceship.	12829.57994741975
There was no reason to leave the comfortable quarters inside the ship, except that, faced with a possibility of sleeping on solid ground, they simply had to get out.	4592.490829065487
The camp was a cluster of aluminum bubbles, ringed with a spy web to alert the Earthmen to the approach of any being.	27281.971273327643
Each man had a bubble to himself, privacy after the long period of enforced intimacy on board the ship.	11333.263869490047
Ekstrohm lay in his bunk and listened to the sounds of the night on Yancey-6 138.	60690.151761790534
There was a keening of wind, and a cracking of the frozen ground.	4509.022812325853
Insects there were on the world, but they were frozen solid during the night, only to revive and thaw in the morning sun.	10378.674025564827
The bunk he lay on was much more uncomfortable than the acceleration couches on board.	33219.35015388379
Yet he knew the others were sleeping more soundly, now that they had renewed their contact with the matter that had birthed them to send them riding high vacuum.	44985.26663687184
Ekstrohm was not asleep.	18248.6338611592
Now there could be an end to pretending.	2053.7878029301314
He threw off the light blanket and swung his feet off the bunk, to the floor.	4489.432196287245
Ekstrohm stood up.	2845.915546024266
There was no longer any need to hide.	462.3217664750562
But what was there to do?	65.53345170520664
What had changed for him?	222.98934850703455
He no longer had to lie in his bunk all night, his eyes closed, pretending to sleep.	5370.868597518227
In privacy he could walk around, leave the light on, read.	28138.29098977425
It was small comfort for insomnia.	1992.5799649689768
Ekstrohm never slept.	11770.304497228983
Some doctors had informed him he was mistaken about this.	5405.409495445706
Actually, they said, he did sleep, but so shortly and fitfully that he forgot.	3906.150414021053
Others admitted he was absolutely correct- he never slept.	15821.465330481069
His body processes only slowed down enough for him to dispell fatigue poisons.	26777.939202757807
Occasionally he fell into a waking, gritty-eyed stupor; but he never slept.	34084.62008244693
Never at all.	74.00420425689786
Naturally, he couldn't let his shipmates know this.	2095.497751588138
Insomnia would ground him from the Exploration Service, on physiological if not psychological grounds.	92497.53394183755
He had to hide it.	167.5276096569211
OVER the years, he had had buddies in space in whom he thought he could confide.	11741.66045471191
The buddies invariably took advantage of him.	1052.8817092559398
Since he couldn't sleep anyway, he might as well stand their watches for them or write their reports.	26469.120792245038
Where the hell did he get off threatening to report any laxness on their part to the captain?	28179.084146737656
A man with insomnia had better avoid bad dreams of that kind if he knew what was good for him.	16810.15872619086
Ekstrohm had to hide his secret.	4033.8648783642157
In a camp, instead of shipboard, hiding the secret was easier.	14593.182479488201
But the secret itself was just as hard.	1403.4776620270675
Ekstrohm picked up a lightweight no-back from the ship's library, a book by Bloch, the famous twentieth century expert on sex.	145585.0624611047
He scanned a few lines on the social repercussions of a celebrated nineteenth century sex murderer, but he couldn't seem to concentrate on the weighty, pontifical, ponderous style.	76589.8455922944
On impulse, he flipped up the heat control on his coverall and slid back the hatch of the bubble.	137197.2388982556
Ekstrohm walked through the alien glass and looked up at the unfamiliar constellations, smelling the frozen sterility of the thin air.	176506.6572157947
Behind him, his mates stirred without waking.	4243.661306022554
/2, EKSTROHM was startled in the morning by a banging on the hatch of his bubble.	34800.984341410156
It took him a few seconds to put his thoughts in order, and then he got up from the bunk where he had been resting, sleeplessly.	9904.641228509918
The angry burnt-red face of Ryan greeted him.	4606.518466441669
"Okay, Stormy, this isn't the place for fun and games.	8333.62401533081
What did you do with them"?	83.18385620598539
"Do with what"?	647.2488602711771
"The dead beasties.	852.1582759953619
All the dead animals laying around the ship".	849.0642975567488
"What are you talking about, Ryan?	9501.855857232278
What do you think I did with them"?	270.9574088240036
"I don't know.	2.569516451302858
All I know is that they are gone".	252.78190968359098
"Gone"?	492.8118436643931
Ekstrohm shouldered his way outside and scanned the veldt.	83237.335986869
There was no ring of animal corpses.	1771.8462804568192
Nothing.	27.931795689186487
Nothing but wispy grass whipping in the keen breeze.	7849.305940900299
"I'll be damned", Ekstrohm said.	657.7823665109837
"You are right now, buddy.	1887.881857125382
ExPe doesn't like anybody mucking up primary evidence".	22805.188546055233
"Where do you get off, Ryan"?	6905.940044901358
Ekstrohm demanded.	1422.1700206015669
"Why pick me for your patsy?	22132.113715995783
This has got to be some kind of local phenomenon.	1536.6671343542116
Why accuse a shipmate of being behind this"?	15772.167832389841
"Listen, Ekstrohm, I want to give you the benefit of every doubt.	2606.306452584417
But you aren't exactly the model of a surveyor, you know.	4056.4755827318395
You've been riding on a pink ticket for six years, you know that".	688.7651394783124
"No", Ekstrohm said, "No, I didn't know that".	447.92832095604575
"You've been hiding things from me and Nogol every jump we've made with you.	6234.552419331126
Now comes this!	1752.386020763599
It fits the pattern of secrecy and stealth you've been involved in".	10114.822599168556
"What could I do with your lousy dead bodies?	10487.176141545342
What would I want with them"?	1660.5304554046063
"All I know is that you were outside the bubbles last night, and you were the only sentient being who came in or out of our alarm web.	16404.68583473544
The tapes show that.	886.8547836338898
Now all the bodies are missing, like they got up and walked away".	2431.928385479116
It was not a new experience to Ekstrohm.	419.30528903876507
No.	3.297522726426617
Suspicion wasn't new to him at all.	1074.2168322445468
"Ryan, there are other explanations for the disappearance of the bodies.	14915.413942319721
Look for them, will you?	151.559589828733
I give you my word I'm not trying to pull some stupid kind of joke, or to deliberately foul up the expedition.	37543.61205032765
Take my word, can't you"?	3685.4972802464245
Ryan shook his head.	376.66329680623056
"I don't think I can.	16.47732919120143
There's still such a thing as mental illness.	2309.797400324584
You may not be responsible".	59.29790690213778
Ekstrohm scowled.	6886.910637010236
"Don't try anything violent, Stormy.	2737.653954504725
I outweigh you fifty pounds and I'm fast for a big man".	6754.786876938111
"I wasn't planning on jumping you.	1269.392580156389
Why do you have to jump me the first time something goes wrong?	6626.85852041319
She lived and was given a name.	1560.0766680174095
Helva.	3524.279832361616
For her first three vegetable months she waved her crabbed claws, kicked weakly with her clubbed feet and enjoyed the usual routine of the infant.	114819.53729004563
She was not alone for there were three other such children in the big city's special nursery.	9981.602023288307
Soon they all were removed to Central Laboratory School where their delicate transformation began.	9727.442773858307
One of the babies died in the initial transferral but of Helva's "class", seventeen thrived in the metal shells.	20937.165159590466
Instead of kicking feet, Helva's neural responses started her wheels; instead of grabbing with hands, she manipulated mechanical extensions.	90837.61348196148
As she matured, more and more neural synapses would be adjusted to operate other mechanisms that went into the maintenance and running of a space ship.	16832.13495439909
For Helva was destined to be the "brain" half of a scout ship, partnered with a man or a woman, whichever she chose, as the mobile half.	52014.86047768743
She would be among the elite of her kind.	1625.3291181308005
Her initial intelligence tests registered above normal and her adaptation index was unusually high.	30052.301871113912
As long as her development within her shell lived up to expectations, and there were no side-effects from the pituitary tinkering, Helva would live a rewarding, rich and unusual life, a far cry from what she would have faced as an ordinary, "normal" being.	64159.76127330516
However, no diagram of her brain patterns, no early IQ tests recorded certain essential facts about Helva that Central must eventually learn.	59213.090589696025
They would have to bide their official time and see, trusting that the massive doses of shell-psychology would suffice her, too, as the necessary bulwark against her unusual confinement and the pressures of her profession.	71589.28003124525
A ship run by a human brain could not run rogue or insane with the power and resources Central had to build into their scout ships.	77114.89815281263
Brain ships were, of course, long past the experimental stages.	9572.034266338322
Most babes survived the techniques of pituitary manipulation that kept their bodies small, eliminating the necessity of transfers from smaller to larger shells.	96360.15879669251
And very, very few were lost when the final connection was made to the control panels of ship or industrial combine.	27060.05853222471
Shell people resembled mature dwarfs in size whatever their natal deformities were, but the well-oriented brain would not have changed places with the most perfect body in the Universe.	57549.31208119897
So, for happy years, Helva scooted around in her shell with her classmates, playing such games as Stall, Power-Seek, studying her lessons in trajectory, propulsion techniques, computation, logistics, mental hygiene, basic alien psychology, philology, space history, law, traffic, codes all the et ceteras that eventually became compounded into a reasoning, logical, informed citizen.	394004.53378236404
Not so obvious to her, but of more importance to her teachers, Helva ingested the precepts of her conditioning as easily as she absorbed her nutrient fluid.	25347.270824032432
She would one day be grateful to the patient drone of the sub-conscious-level instruction.	12770.524170092265
Helva's civilization was not without busy, do-good associations, exploring possible inhumanities to terrestrial as well as extraterrestrial citizens.	171782.9827812628
One such group got all incensed over shelled "children" when Helva was just turning fourteen.	34275.4303736395
When they were forced to, Central Worlds shrugged its shoulders, arranged a tour of the Laboratory Schools and set the tour off to a big start by showing the members case histories, complete with photographs.	48431.23999674644
Very few committees ever looked past the first few photos.	7074.564424016406
Most of their original objections about "shells" were overridden by the relief that these hideous to them bodies were mercifully concealed.	69678.21261042445
Helva's class was doing Fine Arts, a selective subject in her crowded program.	49194.82139285522
She had activated one of her microscopic tools which she would later use for minute repairs to various parts of her control panel.	55896.20674056025
Her subject was large- a copy of the Last Supper- and her canvas, small- the head of a tiny screw.	34498.286332225616
She had tuned her sight to the proper degree.	3949.741011667037
As she worked she absentmindedly crooned, producing a curious sound.	6288.781253848212
Shell people used their own vocal cords and diaphragms but sound issued through microphones rather than mouths.	196243.26599348136
Helva's hum then had a curious vibrancy, a warm, dulcet quality even in its aimless chromatic wanderings.	195083.5420699022
"Why, what a lovely voice you have", said one of the female visitors.	2202.085715042309
Helva "looked" up and caught a fascinating panorama of regular, dirty craters on a flaky pink surface.	108691.45039293816
Her hum became a gurgle of surprise.	15167.640768925026
She instinctively regulated her "sight" until the skin lost its cratered look and the pores assumed normal proportions.	63176.772953437794
"Yes, we have quite a few years of voice training, madam", remarked Helva calmly.	3645.6949412916188
"Vocal peculiarities often become excessively irritating during prolonged intra-stellar distances and must be eliminated.	21612.60855183392
I enjoyed my lessons".	655.8797944337449
Although this was the first time that Helva had seen unshelled people, she took this experience calmly.	13701.75497028989
Any other reaction would have been reported instantly.	2508.5602189897595
"I meant that you have a nice singing voice h dear", the lady amended.	16909.47651438304
"Thank you.	1219.1465275765602
Would you like to see my work"?	170.43874930394293
Helva asked, politely.	5020.145524046207
She instinctively sheered away from personal discussions but she filed the comment away for further meditation.	48067.684540614006
"Work"?	344.9303972787603
asked the lady.	149.25509780165592
"I am currently reproducing the Last Supper on the head of a screw".	3412.1814638061824
"O, I say", the lady twittered.	2443.4914626089726
Helva turned her vision back to magnification and surveyed her copy critically.	115636.29994098276
"Of course, some of my color values do not match the old Master's and the perspective is faulty but I believe it to be a fair copy".	4535.984929350053
The lady's eyes, unmagnified, bugged out.	6396.371728536634
"Oh, I forget", and Helva's voice was really contrite.	12260.415577143212
If she could have blushed, she would have.	863.0174912508925
"You people don't have adjustable vision".	3347.9521996194644
The monitor of this discourse grinned with pride and amusement as Helva's tone indicated pity for the unfortunate.	59096.08840313275
"Here, this will help", suggested Helva, substituting a magnifying device in one extension and holding it over the picture.	7894.620779278444
In a kind of shock, the ladies and gentlemen of the committee bent to observe the incredibly copied and brilliantly executed Last Supper on the head of a screw.	32322.8690419343
"Well", remarked one gentleman who had been forced to accompany his wife, "the good Lord can eat where angels fear to tread".	24054.124183303687
"Are you referring, sir", asked Helva politely, "to the Dark Age discussions of the number of angels who could stand on the head of a pin"?	13017.800762896504
"I had that in mind".	112.95305313522101
"If you substitute 'atom' for 'angel', the problem is not insoluble, given the metallic content of the pin in question".	13753.261756562317
"Which you are programed to compute"?	14976.653007227811
"Of course".	21.69692350546533
"Did they remember to program a sense of humor, as well, young lady"?	11274.44747970547
"We are directed to develop a sense of proportion, sir, which contributes the same effect".	5545.727611021872
The good man chortled appreciatively and decided the trip was worth his time.	5315.171429936426
If the investigation committee spent months digesting the thoughtful food served them at the Laboratory School, they left Helva with a morsel as well.	45017.81507389979
"Singing" as applicable to herself required research.	11288.938331097348
She had, of course, been exposed to and enjoyed a music appreciation course which had included the better known classical works such as "Tristan und Isolde", "Candide", "Oklahoma", "Nozze de Figaro", the atomic age singers, Eileen Farrell, Elvis Presley and Geraldine Todd, as well as the curious rhythmic progressions of the Venusians, Capellan visual chromatics and the sonic concerti of the Altairians.	145744.33937070702
But "singing" for any shell person posed considerable technical difficulties to be overcome.	53441.51202163836
Shell people were schooled to examine every aspect of a problem or situation before making a prognosis.	109379.93836485752
Balanced properly between optimism and practicality, the nondefeatist attitude of the shell people led them to extricate themselves, their ships and personnel, from bizarre situations.	244432.8347867308
Therefore to Helva, the problem that she couldn't open her mouth to sing, among other restrictions, did not bother her.	28528.70276530174
She would work out a method, by-passing her limitations, whereby she could sing.	13158.801577326843
She approached the problem by investigating the methods of sound reproduction through the centuries, human and instrumental.	69132.91499852852
Her own sound production equipment was essentially more instrumental than vocal.	30540.89697287937
Breath control and the proper enunciation of vowel sounds within the oral cavity appeared to require the most development and practice.	67315.64749041974
Shell people did not, strictly speaking, breathe.	7549.035153667181
For their purposes, oxygen and other gases were not drawn from the surrounding atmosphere through the medium of lungs but sustained artificially by solution in their shells.	36247.86352842196
After experimentation, Helva discovered that she could manipulate her diaphragmic unit to sustain tone.	40049.768775520264
By relaxing the throat muscles and expanding the oral cavity well into the frontal sinuses, she could direct the vowel sounds into the most felicitous position for proper reproduction through her throat microphone.	306543.18776369945
She compared the results with tape recordings of modern singers and was not unpleased although her own tapes had a peculiar quality about them, not at all unharmonious, merely unique.	121613.92509200065
Acquiring a repertoire from the Laboratory library was no problem to one trained to perfect recall.	62271.326001737485
She found herself able to sing any role and any song which struck her fancy.	35742.31500700069
It would not have occurred to her that it was curious for a female to sing bass, baritone, tenor, alto, mezzo, soprano and coloratura as she pleased.	23901.814741222533
It was, to Helva, only a matter of the correct reproduction and diaphragmic control required by the music attempted.	5568.032166883951
If the authorities remarked on her curious avocation, they did so among themselves.	3626.5878980375014
Shell people were encouraged to develop a hobby so long as they maintained proficiency in their technical work.	14719.654864078577
On the anniversary of her sixteenth year in her shell, Helva was unconditionally graduated and installed in her ship, the XH-834.	43498.39638749485
Her permanent titanium shell was recessed behind an even more indestructible barrier in the central shaft of the scout ship.	75376.19043911812
The neural, audio, visual and sensory connections were made and sealed.	44201.72289049438
Her extendibles were diverted, connected or augmented and the final, delicate-beyond-description brain taps were completed while Helva remained anesthetically unaware of the proceedings.	51184.39316091406
When she awoke, she was the ship.	458.66773696656116
Her brain and intelligence controlled every function from navigation to such loading as a scout ship of her class needed.	73713.85279425536
She could take care of herself and her ambulatory half, in any situation already recorded in the annals of Central Worlds and any situation its most fertile minds could imagine.	56986.03697720616
Her first actual flight, for she and her kind had made mock flights on dummy panels since she was eight, showed her complete mastery of the techniques of her profession.	21736.96324378512
She was ready for her great adventures and the arrival of her mobile partner.	3191.157700006579
There were nine qualified scouts sitting around collecting base pay the day Helva was commissioned.	37727.700866209976
There were several missions which demanded instant attention but Helva had been of interest to several department heads in Central for some time and each man was determined to have her assigned to his section.	55836.60119807754
Consequently no one had remembered to introduce Helva to the prospective partners.	19522.98873579595
The ship always chose its own partner.	1732.0027223294467
Had there been another "brain" ship at the Base at the moment, Helva would have been guided to make the first move.	20594.06500759616
As it was, while Central wrangled among itself, Robert Tanner sneaked out of the pilots' barracks, out to the field and over to Helva's slim metal hull.	32162.590826051746
"Hello, anyone at home"?	5339.126776809408
Tanner wisecracked.	6886.910637010236
"Of course", replied Helva logically, activating her outside scanners.	7080.37186354608
"Are you my partner"?	1288.9275112761215
she asked hopefully, as she recognized the Scout Service uniform.	10329.469550826236
"All you have to do is ask", he retorted hopefully.	1220.4276346246484
"No one has come.	58.54304800355273
I thought perhaps there were no partners available and I've had no directives from Central".	7233.480807909266
Even to herself Helva sounded a little self-pitying but the truth was she was lonely, sitting on the darkened field.	56228.47887689703
Always she had had the company of other shells and more recently, technicians by the score.	8131.249373352218
The sudden solitude had lost its momentary charm and become oppressive.	6407.679009666269
"No directives from Central is scarcely a cause for regret, but there happen to be eight other guys biting their fingernails to the quick just waiting for an invitation to board you, you beautiful thing".	167401.4027974027
It would have killed you in the cabin.	137.98324425463727
Do you have anything for me"?	707.1411914095754
Mercer stammered, not knowing what B'dikkat meant, and the two-nosed man answered for him, "I think he has a nice baby head, but it isn't big enough for you to take yet".	24293.167863132858
Mercer never noticed the needle touch his arm.	2729.1147931444602
B'dikkat had turned to the next knot of people when the super-condamine hit Mercer.	41302.96372155181
He tried to run after B'dikkat, to hug the lead spacesuit, to tell B'dikkat that he loved him.	24239.89271781766
He stumbled and fell, but it did not hurt.	2196.2307667922314
The many-bodied girl lay near him.	2013.4388186623507
Mercer spoke to her.	339.3300532456064
"Isn't it wonderful?	1714.7511122076496
You're beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.	1151.0913861545464
I'm so happy to be here".	72.61242906021793
The woman covered with growing hands came and sat beside them.	3030.87337036163
She radiated warmth and good fellowship.	1201.6061023175728
Mercer thought that she looked very distinguished and charming.	24702.497508674518
He struggled out of his clothes.	891.7430579636409
It was foolish and snobbish to wear clothing when none of these nice people did.	8563.92208680587
The two women babbled and crooned at him.	868.179025275446
With one corner of his mind he knew that they were saying nothing, just expressing the euphoria of a drug so powerful that the known universe had forbidden it.	34660.89719404245
With most of his mind he was happy.	1019.1992492104437
He wondered how anyone could have the good luck to visit a planet as nice as this.	3390.537228012403
He tried to tell the Lady Da, but the words weren't quite straight.	5283.306717870114
A painful stab hit him in the abdomen.	259.40634852764634
The drug went after the pain and swallowed it.	3401.3984816674565
It was like the cap in the hospital, only a thousand times better.	1482.709071831326
The pain was gone, though it had been crippling the first time.	583.4207288191503
He forced himself to be deliberate.	8122.208703843415
He rammed his mind into focus and said to the two ladies who lay pinkly nude beside him in the desert, "That was a good bite.	48284.421637227555
Maybe I will grow another head.	1949.195528023701
That would make B'dikkat happy"!	3269.4799290677456
The Lady Da forced the foremost of her bodies in an upright position.	21929.009274895543
Said she, "I'm strong, too.	649.9924853797713
I can talk.	124.3658697625522
Remember, man, remember.	999.7412851770699
People never live forever.	839.8871831517789
We can die, too, we can die like real people.	6460.453178128723
I do so believe in death"!	1997.8190768698867
Mercer smiled at her through his happiness.	17114.708506153038
"Of course you can.	77.24694378360574
But isn't this nice h" With this he felt his lips thicken and his mind go slack.	37468.45382541491
He was wide awake, but he did not feel like doing anything.	1358.447998540954
In that beautiful place, among all those companionable and attractive people, he sat and smiled.	16106.173051084155
B'dikkat was sterilizing his knives.	3814.648427872391
Mercer wondered how long the super-condamine had lasted him.	20926.847693369742
He endured the ministrations of the dromozoa without screams or movement.	7972.9501587190625
The agonies of nerves and itching of skin were phenomena which happened somewhere near him, but meant nothing.	24299.949984962455
He watched his own body with remote, casual interest.	8326.797560837866
The Lady Da and the hand-covered woman stayed near him.	17578.6464493405
After a long time the half-man dragged himself over to the group with his powerful arms.	4445.521778619316
Having arrived he blinked sleepily and friendlily at them, and lapsed back into the restful stupor from which he had emerged.	43947.97004372164
Mercer saw the sun rise on occasion, closed his eyes briefly, and opened them to see stars shining.	109993.76560841192
Time had no meaning.	728.2335647704725
The dromozoa fed him in their mysterious way; the drug canceled out his needs for cycles of the body.	23235.958132921467
At last he noticed a return of the inwardness of pain.	1757.6638670670723
The pains themselves had not changed; he had.	2203.0746549783953
He knew all the events which could take place on Shayol.	867.4975168115703
He remembered them well from his happy period.	2535.8945743880154
Formerly he had noticed them- now he felt them.	11132.764420002852
He tried to ask the Lady Da how long they had had the drug, and how much longer they would have to wait before they had it again.	10725.867420530312
She smiled at him with benign, remote happiness; apparently her many torsos, stretched out along the ground, had a greater capacity for retaining the drug than did his body.	99671.78236398746
She meant him well, but was in no condition for articulate speech.	9527.725387260969
The half-man lay on the ground, arteries pulsating prettily behind the half-transparent film which protected his abdominal cavity.	26360.968704928368
Mercer squeezed the man's shoulder.	2539.682739796896
The half-man woke, recognized Mercer and gave him a healthily sleepy grin.	11520.271349537397
"'A good morrow to you, my boy'.	4751.039933030343
That's out of a play.	293.31879920589444
Did you ever see a play"?	2065.672380329046
"You mean a game with cards"?	14278.883851986542
"No", said the half-man, "a sort of eye-machine with real people doing the figures".	3423.0137435935308
"I never saw that", said Mercer, "but I"- "But you want to ask me when B'dikkat is going to come back with the needle".	5498.311546281643
"Yes", said Mercer, a little ashamed of his obviousness.	15425.955615531291
"Soon", said the half-man.	1369.4201125745565
That's why I think of plays.	807.0851464821845
We all know what is going to happen.	45.35478524540235
We all know when it is going to happen.	115.57009635085514
We all know what the dummies will do"- he gestured at the hummocks in which the decorticated men were cradled- "and we all know what the new people will ask.	17191.155405782138
But we never know how long a scene is going to take".	1965.827284080504
"What's a 'scene'"?	2349.9052053045716
asked Mercer.	242.48027388689601
"Is that the name for the needle"?	3066.9942177233024
The half-man laughed with something close to real humor.	3329.0028605443567
"No, no, no.	64.85274897857487
You've got the lovelies on the brain.	207.32957853398042
A scene is just a part of a play.	742.7311611543545
I mean we know the order in which things happen, but we have no clocks and nobody cares enough to count days or to make calendars and there's not much climate here, so none of us know how long anything takes.	93504.06869962458
The pain seems short and the pleasure seems long.	3956.478121823347
I'm inclined to think that they are about two Earth-weeks each".	2917.8034102704564
Mercer did not know what an "Earth-week" was, since he had not been a well-read man before his conviction, but he got nothing more from the half-man at that time.	12669.400283051771
The half-man received a dromozootic implant, turned red in the face, shouted senselessly at Mercer, "Take it out, you fool!	45733.695755370405
Take it out of me"!	831.8963115706421
When Mercer looked on helplessly, the half-man twisted over on his side, his pink dusty back turned to Mercer, and wept hoarsely and quietly to himself.	49697.81349327703
Mercer himself could not tell how long it was before B'dikkat came back.	28558.406987805254
It might have been several days.	53.39215176185121
It might have been several months.	159.13182329551034
Once again B'dikkat moved among them like a father; once again they clustered like children.	29816.239041136465
This time B'dikkat smiled pleasantly at the little head which had grown out of Mercer's thigh- a sleeping child's head, covered with light hair on top and with dainty eyebrows over the resting eyes.	144866.3379438903
Mercer got the blissful needle.	1984.2079682728406
When B'dikkat cut the head from Mercer's thigh, he felt the knife grinding against the cartilage which held the head to his own body.	58700.62487726803
He saw the child-face grimace as the head was cut; he felt the far, cool flash of unimportant pain, as B'dikkat dabbed the wound with a corrosive antiseptic which stopped all bleeding immediately.	97872.63905762407
The next time it was two legs growing from his chest.	1036.8647215850506
Then there had been another head beside his own.	319.1039713635766
Or was that after the torso and legs, waist to toe-tips, of the little girl which had grown from his side?	99407.88109502257
He forgot the order.	1065.2433905772136
He did not count time.	127.36581338212082
Lady Da smiled at him often, but there was no love in this place.	5044.646403223129
She had lost the extra torsos.	1657.0357120388633
In between teratologies, she was a pretty and shapely woman; but the nicest thing about their relationship was her whisper to him, repeated some thousands of time, repeated with smiles and hope, "People never live forever".	110398.41929305576
She found this immensely comforting, even though Mercer did not make much sense out of it.	3718.3877516209845
Thus events occurred, and victims changed in appearance, and new ones arrived.	7082.891041680963
Sometimes B'dikkat took the new ones, resting in the everlasting sleep of their burned-out brains, in a ground-truck to be added to other herds.	106312.4467675659
The bodies in the truck threshed and bawled without human speech when the dromozoa struck them.	37011.850336989395
Finally, Mercer did manage to follow B'dikkat to the door of the cabin.	2685.7414756891044
He had to fight the bliss of super-condamine to do it.	728.9859544522151
Only the memory of previous hurt, bewilderment and perplexity made him sure that if he did not ask B'dikkat when he, Mercer, was happy, the answer would no longer be available when he needed it.	27224.63093121838
Fighting pleasure itself, he begged B'dikkat to check the records and to tell him how long he had been there.	21973.541630547585
B'dikkat grudgingly agreed, but he did not come out of the doorway.	758.447504209117
He spoke through the public address box built into the cabin, and his gigantic voice roared out over the empty plain, so that the pink herd of talking people stirred gently in their happiness and wondered what their friend B'dikkat might be wanting to tell them.	158055.7182572491
When he said it, they thought it exceedingly profound, though none of them understood it, since it was simply the amount of time that Mercer had been on Shayol "Standard years- eighty-four years, seven months, three days, two hours, eleven and one half minutes.	48524.31246964735
Good luck, fellow".	1106.4089568637128
Mercer turned away.	348.09995127817837
The secret little corner of his mind, which stayed sane through happiness and pain, made him wonder about B'dikkat.	63815.467357908885
What persuaded the cow-man to remain on Shayol?	46167.60262129708
What kept him happy without super-condamine?	32878.985769516046
Was B'dikkat a crazy slave to his own duty or was he a man who had hopes of going back to his own planet some day, surrounded by a family of little cow-people resembling himself?	106827.686398316
Mercer, despite his happiness, wept a little at the strange fate of B'dikkat.	36804.728231095185
His own fate he accepted.	473.18567902773526
He remembered the last time he had eaten- actual eggs from an actual pan.	11122.34274554506
The dromozoa kept him alive, but he did not know how they did it.	456.21567331384995
He staggered back to the group.	248.31380313019076
The Lady Da, naked in the dusty plain, waved a hospitable hand and showed that there was a place for him to sit beside her.	38472.44847925403
There were unclaimed square miles of seating space around them, but he appreciated the kindliness of her gesture none the less.	49281.17631014782
/4, The years, if they were years, went by.	1602.9033251032042
The land of Shayol did not change.	518.5306731757745
Sometimes the bubbling sound of geysers came faintly across the plain to the herd of men; those who could talk declared it to be the breathing of Captain Alvarez.	62279.74815327427
There was night and day, but no setting of crops, no change of season, no generations of men.	10133.995303719454
Time stood still for these people, and their load of pleasure was so commingled with the shocks and pains of the dromozoa that the words of the Lady Da took on very remote meaning.	91714.64166804346
"People never live forever".	839.8871831517789
Her statement was a hope, not a truth in which they could believe.	3364.1734362377983
They did not have the wit to follow the stars in their courses, to exchange names with each other, to harvest the experience of each for the wisdom of all.	4321.6738772045355
There was no dream of escape for these people.	435.87645080159047
Though they saw the old-style chemical rockets lift up from the field beyond B'dikkat's cabin, they did not make plans to hide among the frozen crop of transmuted flesh.	33802.84203957871
Far long ago, some other prisoner than one of these had tried to write a letter.	4328.289289689591
His handwriting was on a rock.	246.90838585263074
Mercer read it, and so had a few of the others, but they could not tell which man had done it.	1002.8350546651478
Nor did they care.	185.1923752811132
The letter, scraped on stone, had been a message home.	3105.6324382288785
They could still read the opening "Once, I was like you, stepping out of my window at the end of day, and letting the winds blow me gently toward the place I lived in.	49126.12334844324
Once, like you, I had one head, two hands, ten fingers on my hands.	5391.903367803426
The front part of my head was called a face, and I could talk with it.	1301.2422841302146
Now I can only write, and that only when I get out of pain.	724.622822538
DAN MORGAN TOLD HIMSELF HE WOULD FORGET Ann Turner.	71839.56078117325
He was well rid of her.	186.53748255095516
He certainly didn't want a wife who was fickle as Ann.	37963.44074077615
If he had married her, he'd have been asking for trouble.	1393.9865654604591
But all of this was rationalization.	960.8088255270197
Sometimes he woke up in the middle of the night thinking of Ann, and then could not get back to sleep.	7578.849683617841
His plans and dreams had revolved around her so much and for so long that now he felt as if he had nothing.	13194.765166899202
The easiest thing would be to sell out to Al Budd and leave the country, but there was a stubborn streak in him that wouldn't allow it.	4482.823020185808
The best antidote for the bitterness and disappointment that poisoned him was hard work.	19396.60154405427
He found that if he was tired enough at night, he went to sleep simply because he was too exhausted to stay awake.	4645.2980388305805
Each day he found himself thinking less often of Ann; each day the hurt was a little duller, a little less poignant.	97771.60150980583
He had plenty of work to do.	144.1457277077263
Because the summer was unusually dry and hot, the spring produced a smaller stream than in ordinary years.	34664.442518309275
The grass in the meadows came fast, now that the warm weather was here.	2669.8758630150414
He could not afford to lose a drop of the precious water, so he spent most of his waking hours along the ditches in his meadows.	44479.092025041806
He had no idea how much time Budd would give him.	150.8327864477739
In any case, he had no intention of being caught asleep, so he carried his revolver in its holster on his hip and he took his Winchester with him and leaned it against the fence.	9532.233633794618
He stopped every few minutes and leaned on his shovel as he studied the horizon, but nothing happened, each day dragging out with monotonous calm.	47000.00864772983
When, in late afternoon on the last day in June, he saw two people top the ridge to the south and walk toward the house, he quit work immediately and strode to his rifle.	22813.781200916386
It could be some kind of trick Budd had thought up.	2987.999949978251
No one walked in this country, least of all Ed Dow or Dutch Renfro or any of the rest of the Bar B crew.	10947.856310714094
Morgan watched the two figures for a time, puzzled.	6908.11760562902
When they were closer and he saw that one was a woman, he was more puzzled than ever.	2581.491029717086
He cleaned his shovel, left it against the fence, picked up his Winchester, and started downstream.	28482.59199613853
His visitors had crawled through the south fence and were crossing the meadow, angling toward the house.	25003.81457086042
Now he saw that both the man and woman were moving slowly and irregularly, staggering, as if they found it a struggle to remain on their feet.	5186.8244682229215
Reaching the house ahead of them, he waited with his Winchester in his hands.	8240.295518531959
They crawled through the north fence and came on toward him, and now he saw that both were young, not more than nineteen or twenty.	37037.49806941333
They were dirty, their clothes were torn, and the girl was so exhausted that she fell when she was still twenty feet from the front door.	12076.924129996612
She lay there, making no effort to get back on her feet.	2556.1335623213363
The boy came on to the porch and sat down, his gaze on Morgan as if half expecting him to shoot and not really caring.	44726.643286197825
Morgan hesitated, thinking that if this was a trick, it was a good one.	2273.3450456490027
He didn't think it was possible for this couple to be pretending.	7150.101476124711
The boy licked his dry lips.	1598.0323272056962
He asked, "Could we have a drink"?	2051.516088311901
Morgan jerked his head toward the front door.	1573.0795753323446
"In the kitchen", he said.	12.645177758307042
Leaning his Winchester against the front of the house, he walked to the girl.	2826.013224576499
"Get up.	161.88703713630966
There's water in the house".	105.83217120968446
She didn't move or say anything.	1077.6987135712611
Her eyes were glazed as if she didn't hear or even see him.	16321.09025717847
She had reached a point at which she didn't even care how she looked.	12136.238713606223
Her face was very thin, and burned by the sun until much of the skin was dead and peeling, the new skin under it red and angry.	65409.15847312981
Her blond hair was frowzy, her dress torn in several places, and her shoes were so completely worn out that they were practically no protection.	31876.910516657605
It must have hurt her even to walk, for the sole was completely off her left foot and Morgan saw that it was bruised and bleeding.	60832.50824116116
He picked her up, sliding one hand under her shoulders, the other under her knees, and carried her into the house.	16261.493764684814
She was amazingly light, and so relaxed in his arms that he wasn't even sure she was conscious.	22068.123983728638
Any lingering suspicion that this was a trick Al Budd had thought up was dispelled.	12912.893271141957
No girl would go this far to fool a man so she could kill him.	18623.650043453155
Besides, she had a sweet face that attracted him.	2341.791445388902
He put her down on the couch, and going into the kitchen, saw that the boy had dropped into a chair beside the table.	2116.8022337921466
They looked a good deal alike, Morgan thought.	3814.9340653439904
Both had blonde hair and blue eyes, and there was even a faint similarity of features.	2781.4047738715367
Morgan filled the dipper from the water bucket on the shelf, went back into the front room, lifted the girl's head, and held the edge of the dipper to her mouth.	60788.088203575404
She drank greedily, and murmured, "Thank you", as he lowered her head.	13639.888853432434
He stood looking down at her for a moment, wondering what could have reduced her to this condition.	2138.897418456581
He had seen a few nester wagons go through the country, the families almost starving to death, but he had never seen any of them on foot and as bad off as these two.	5120.947441832994
The girl dropped off to sleep.	1382.2992753381152
Morgan returned to the kitchen, built a fire, and carried in several buckets of water from the spring which he poured into the copper boiler that he had placed on the stove.	7615.458738542527
He brought his Winchester in from the front of the house, then faced the boy.	788.4538058474527
"Who are you and what happened to you"?	365.94412643975994
he asked.	2.83163735220959
"I'm Billy Jones", the boy answered.	274.6503821868189
"That's my wife Sharon.	745.795406385017
We ran out of money and we haven't eaten for two days".	2985.360767530845
"What are you doing here"?	839.0414155825953
"Are we in Wyoming"?	1297.9408959783707
Morgan nodded.	269.95815017158685
"About five miles north of the line".	46.37529827587641
Jones sighed as if relieved.	7723.37012167834
"We've been looking for work, but all the ranchers have turned us down".	913.7832607060498
"You mean you dragged your wife all over hell's half-acre looking for work"?	54032.21719723711
Morgan demanded.	232.35691849680586
"The town of Buckhorn's only about six miles from here.	4206.086208821245
Why didn't you go there"?	939.2818382081065
"We didn't want town work", Jones said.	1049.2773975522155
"This is a mighty empty country", Morgan said.	1421.7726927003566
"There's only one more ranch three miles north of here.	4032.6564497943496
You'd have starved to death if you'd missed both places".	1129.912846953469
"Then we're lucky we got here.	633.8211632671125
Could you give us a job, Mr h" "Morgan.	3519.0453059203655
Dan Morgan".	1441.0877237169702
He was silent a moment, thinking he could use a man this time of year, and if the girl could cook, it would give him more time in the meadows, but he knew nothing about the couple.	9454.852718683745
They might kill him in his sleep, thinking there was money in the house.	2894.678069280968
He dismissed the possibility at once.	1044.4913683712725
The girl's thin face haunted him.	2628.713118410132
It wasn't the face of a killer.	425.5939568728061
He wasn't so sure about the boy.	473.97896590960386
He hadn't shaved for several weeks, his sparse beard giving his face a pathetic, woebegone expression.	24883.182073332133
There was more to this than Jones had told him.	930.5079038098162
They were running from something.	152.74143606157392
He'd be an idiot to let them stay he thought, but he couldn't send them on, either.	3025.3423337964714
"I could use some help", Morgan said finally, "but I can't afford to pay you anything.	4442.411599420946
I guess you'd better go on in the morning".	397.95690897726143
"We'll work for our keep", the boy said eagerly.	2271.782766121193
"I've been mucking in a mine in the San Juan, but I used to work on a ranch.	4569.77001132816
Sharon, she's cooked in a restaurant.	7288.248991860945
We'll work hard, Mr Morgan".	171.80232914888032
"I'll see", Morgan said.	209.17845555308594
"Right now you need a meal and a bath.	9437.996367147054
Your wife's in terrible shape".	2006.9389141684173
"I know", Jones said dejectedly.	1163.965292221771
Morgan filled the fire box with wood again, then started supper and set the table.	18779.508727379092
When the meal was ready, he told Jones to wash up, and going into the front room, woke the girl.	29725.32235346319
He said, "I've got some supper ready".	133.0046973241722
She rubbed her eyes and stretched, then sat up, her hands going to her hair.	30310.529988384846
"I'm a mess", she said, and suddenly she was alarmed.	798.7121349521352
"Who are you?	166.67344766551932
How did we get here"?	877.5237744730103
"I'm Dan Morgan.	691.8783626308991
This is the Rafter M. You fell down in front of the house, and I carried you in.	2087.691210583405
I gave you a drink and then you went to sleep".	8596.062622710326
"Oh".	4.203310795054198
She stared at him, her eyes wide as she thought about what he had said; then she murmured "You're very kind, Mr Morgan.	70206.33470636082
Do you take in all the strays who come by"?	18011.938726504635
"I don't have many strays coming to my front door", he said.	1036.1892302251956
"Think you can walk to the table"?	2353.315472951689
"Of course".	21.69692350546533
She got to her feet, staggered, and almost fell.	6380.509566532402
He caught her by an arm and helped her into the kitchen.	1487.7761908550965
She sat down at the table, shaking her head.	783.1008248999773
"I'm sorry, Mr Morgan.	190.79685698908256
I'm usually a very strong woman, but I'm awfully tired".	838.4305899043827
"And hungry", he said.	204.42934816249078
"Start in.	126.34251741264505
It's not much of a meal, but it's what I eat".	170.37633842344525
"Not much of a meal"?	2273.057187732874
the girl cried.	383.49191799940974
"Mr Morgan, it's the best-looking food I ever saw".	5524.554127047613
He told himself he had never seen two people eat so much.	4228.693133217094
When they were finally satisfied, Jones said, "I think he's going to give us work".	3206.3514606316994
The grateful way she looked at Morgan made him ashamed of himself.	8584.82251791472
When he saw the expression in her eyes, he knew he couldn't send them on.	1296.4406840290405
She said, "I guess the Lord looks out for fools, drunkards, and innocents".	7761.160235658229
Morgan laughed.	265.98227395909703
"Which are you"?	594.5457644436597
"We're not drunkards", she said.	112.44800129572619
"That's all I'm sure of".	645.4643651123482
She helped him with the dishes, then he brought more water in from the spring before it got dark.	22697.7329113172
He carried the tub from the back of the house where it hung from a nail in the wall.	1132.5056729309085
He said "You'll feel a lot better after you have a bath.	22220.68572937114
Your feet are in bad shape, Mrs Jones.	8601.379452504812
You'll have to go to town to see the doc".	1033.412841546455
"No, she'll be all right", Jones said quickly.	1130.3493869813856
"I mean, we don't have any way to get there and we can't expect you to quit work just to take us to town".	19259.9592528614
"We'll see", Morgan said.	208.9213642068928
"Could you find me a needle and thread"?	12192.750251106541
the girl asked.	383.49172189926486
"My dress needs some work on it".	1585.1788911318959
He nodded and, going into the bedroom, brought a needle, thread, and scissors.	68281.15128396024
He said "I'm going to bed".	567.5167141221889
He nodded at the door in front of him.	304.8371871725644
"That's my spare bedroom.	417.7128700589628
The bed isn't made, but you'll find plenty of blankets there".	8351.28233277186
"You're awfully kind", the girl said.	971.2762926201028
"We'll pay you back if you'll let us.	928.9172095896078
Some way".	125.68083462864142
"It's all right", he said.	17.880734673741053
"I get up early.	256.17314686252433
You'd better sleep".	97.96687298817801
Jones followed him into the front room, closing the door behind him.	2000.3890179927055
He said "If it's all right with you, Mr Morgan, I'll sleep out here on the couch.	9037.530229656231
We haven't slept together since we started.	5113.258973674566
I just can't take any chances on getting her pregnant, and if we were sleeping together h" He stopped, embarrassed, and Morgan said, "I understand that, but I don't savvy why you'd go off and leave your jobs in the first place".	19974.96914019162
"We got fired", Jones said.	152.68575077641052
"We had to do something".	15.975776945781424
They were a pair of lost, whipped kids, Morgan thought as he went to bed.	3422.6459733111346
Gavin paused wearily.	10670.64876580994
"You can't stay here with me.	376.66274381556826
It's late and you said they'd be here by dawn".	15565.296200597
"You can't make me go".	154.77934337468142
Gavin sank down again into his chair and began to rock.	28664.28576069547
He was thinking of Rittenhouse and how he had left him there, to rock to death on the porch of the Splendide.	10169.55535791601
It was the only thing in his life for which he felt guilt.	420.27380955641905
Beneath his black shirt his frail shoulders shook and croaks of pain broke from his throat, the stored pain shattering free in slow gasps, terrible to see.	52776.243258955794
Clayton tried to call back the face of the man he had known.	2853.562266707047
Against that other man he could rally his anger; against this bent man in the chair he was powerless.	91053.81548944033
Gavin's lips moved so that Clayton had to stoop to catch the words.	22965.736279416196
"Do you remember Big Charlie"?	3784.5998355149186
he whispered.	797.7250102004189
"He stuck with me all these years.	2269.8668248812623
Just a half-breed 'pache, never said much, never meant anythin to me, but he stuck with me.	17780.596966275076
He got into a fight with Tom English, your brother's son.	4747.867415781633
It was a fair fight, the boy provoked it- Big Charlie told me so.	10383.574893021521
I believed him.	463.91724623148514
They killed Big Charlie, dumped his body in my rose garden two nights ago.	19846.050722341857
My men, they all left me.	2241.5587662057874
Just cleared out.	613.5365647417523
I didn't understand why, Clay.	3499.766828239257
They just all cleared out.	1353.5525467733887
I treated them fair h" He wiped his lips with a sleeve, then stared at Clayton in a childish kind of wonder.	61810.68168088102
"Do you mean"- he asked almost shyly- "you want me to go with you, wherever you're goin"?	35320.46622996303
"Yes".	3.463452173258582
"You don't hate me any more"?	7306.016907251332
Clayton choked, shook his head, murmuring, "No".	8331.194557693547
"Come here".	239.779354510409
The old man beckoned with one finger and Clayton went forward to him.	4109.145178833019
Gavin slipped his arms around his chest and hugged him fiercely.	95098.96062915509
"All my life", he said, "I tried.	136.46082572867405
I tried.	26.15718209810029
I saw you driftin away- but I tried.	2393.4416440529803
And you wanted no part of me when I had so much to give.	1024.9741173346367
Now there's nothin left of me.	1057.4380764689738
Laurel is gone, my men are gone, Ed is dead- and you come to me, to help me.	24716.99054545518
Oh!	385.5874943031218
God in Heaven, I can't refuse you now.	3118.5794276437687
That would mock me too much!	488.12161028005784
Can't let you go way from me again h" He closed his eyes, ashamed of his tears.	22646.121931736394
"I'll go, Clay".	247.46404255596022
Clayton freed himself from the embrace and stepped back.	25512.81149428257
The eyes followed him fearfully.	2355.8406954428033
"The horses.	17.72751871914792
There isn't much time.	196.70682155824738
I'll saddle the horses and bring them round.	3057.7635866928126
You get ready".	441.76260226287764
He burst from the hot confinement of the room into the cold night air.	12713.793852664048
Gavin's stallion was in the barn and he tightened the cinches over the saddle blanket, working by touch in the darkness, comforting the animal with easy words.	182710.73703223906
When he had finished he led him and the mare to the porch.	1918.418739880311
The stallion had smelled the mare coming into heat and began to paw the turf, shaking his head.	33035.983562076326
Clayton looped the reins in a knot over the veranda post and patted the warm flesh of his neck.	96703.08744964133
The mare had backed away.	1523.4956423654155
"You take it easy, boy", Clayton whispered.	7278.3086756530565
"She doesn't want you now.	1661.9195700633395
You take it easy, your time will come".	3314.437846734621
Gavin stood on the porch, a thin figure.	7994.329167825127
He had taken a carbine down from the wall and it trailed from his hand, the stock bumping on the wood floor.	7240.297051502015
Clayton called to him and he came slowly down the steps.	3691.402883815011
"Clay", he said, "where are we goin"?	5482.407779320504
"To a ranch in the valley.	531.7963363804276
There's someone there I have to see.	455.3741420222476
We may take her with us- to California.	2945.9605262868963
I don't know yet, it's crazy; I have to think about it.	316.59422587956004
But California is where we're goin".	10555.981417707873
"California".	37.01768903939687
Gavin began to nod.	16691.905888201265
"That's a new land.	45.84504296742481
A man could make a mark there.	524.9749125729146
two men, together like us, we could do somethin fine out there, maybe find a place where no one's ever been.	45521.566667890365
Start out fresh, the two of us, like nothin had ever happened".	13445.051750852994
"Yes, like a father and son".	136.9349692613293
"I made you what you are", Gavin whispered.	9174.404082333294
"I made you so you could stand up.	4787.887472584216
I made you a man".	350.7210551107393
"Yes, Gavin, you did".	1479.1941745165564
He approached the horse and laid a hand on the stallion's quivering neck.	10657.639989252018
"Help me up, Clay.	6748.358356210228
Help me up, I feel kind of stiff".	11372.311880780937
Clayton lifted him gently into the saddle, like a child.	7887.585158018518
"I hate to leave my garden", Gavin said.	1348.2717143700356
"They'll trample it down.	171.0833595098777
I loved my garden".	757.806344375
"It will grow again- in California".	485.081007204594
"I loved this valley", he whispered huskily.	11266.00109626188
"Lived alone here for three years, before any man came.	33292.07751504993
Lived alone by the river.	2467.8882856779474
It was nice then, so peaceful and quiet.	701.9864717402637
There was no one but me.	67.12258075121609
I don't want to leave it".	49.94221972635251
Clayton swung into the saddle and whacked the stallion's rump.	74629.1753264223
The two horses broke from the yard, from the circle of light cast by the lamp still burning in the house, into the darkness.	11752.976470899077
THIRTY-FIVE THEY RODE at a measured pace through the valley.	13624.505312982563
Dawn would come soon and the night was at its coldest.	57055.425148438495
The moon had sunk below the black crest of the mountains and the land, seen through eyes that had grown accustomed to the absence of light, looked primeval, as if no man had ever trespassed before.	64527.793043394304
It looked as Gavin had first seen it years ago, on those nights when he slept alone by his campfire and waked suddenly to the hoot of an owl or the rustle of a blade of grass in the moon's wind- a savage land, untenanted and brooding, too strong to be broken by the will of men.	122677.2372160263
Gavin sighed bitterly.	10670.64876580994
In that inert landscape the caravan of his desires passed before his mind.	5129.631137824982
He saw them ambushed, strewn in the postures of the broken and the dying.	9926.128511222387
In vain his mind groped to reassemble the bones of the relationships he had sought so desperately, but they would not come to life.	18161.85706536246
The silence oppressed him, made him bend low over the horse's neck as if to hide from a wind that had begun to blow far away and was twisting slowly through the darkness in its slow search.	184897.29054574578
They passed ranches that were framed dark gray against the black hills.	15408.623059164818
Then at last the darkness began to dissolve.	13430.786363707277
A bold line of violet broke loose from the high ridge of the mountains, followed by feathers of red that swept the last stars from the sky.	32836.22447681939
The wan light spread over the ground and the valley revealed in the first glimmer the contours of trees and fences and palely shadowed gullies.	52273.01843375893
THEY HAD been seen as soon as they left the ranch, picked out of the darkness by the weary though watchful eyes of two men posted a few hundred yards away in the windless shelter of the trees.	128409.68574160515
The two men whipped their horses into town and flung themselves up the steps of the saloon, crying their intelligence.	37209.43372838343
The men in Pettigrew's were tired from a night's drinking, their faces red and baggy.	30350.605249296535
But the liquor had flushed their courage.	1395.8640626617537
They greeted the news angrily, as though they had been cheated of purpose.	2906.6604856815516
Lester heard their muttering, saw their eyes reveal their desire.	40012.11587995439
He worked his tongue round and round in the hollow of his cheek and his voice came out of his throat, dry and cracked.	42205.0909187537
"He's leavin.	1515.252545810456
That's what you wanted, isn't it?	264.7010392153404
Clayton is with him, takin him out of the valley.	10284.89031832254
You can't"- "Keep out of this", Purvis snarled.	6707.081606757245
"He's not your brother, he's Gavin's son.	5235.013930184891
You see, he lied to us when he said he was leavin alone".	2740.0105923470996
Joe Purvis was thinking back many years.	3019.322694107977
First he thought of the time he had ridden to Gavin and told him how his cattle were being rustled at the far end of the valley.	6184.94932085547
He remembered Gavin's smirk, his own cringing feeling, his impotence.	31435.60980744071
Then he thought of a time when Clayton's horse had fallen lame in the Gap.	6867.050991401176
His wife had said to him "Nellie is in love with Clayton Roy.	24816.546949846666
He wouldn't even dance with her at Gavin's party.	9394.462056226148
He treats her like she was dirt.	1563.1943664525804
And you stand by like a fool and let him do it h" He remembered Clayton's mocking smile in the saloon when he had asked him what he would do if they brought their cattle to water.	21681.839952174276
It was the night Clayton had tricked them in the poker game.	3635.4090322548323
"You're Gavin's son", Joe Purvis had said.	1493.8318186307386
He turned to Lester.	95.20971243161239
"You brought him back to this valley thinkin he would help you find your boy.	12240.318331544482
He meant to help Gavin all the time.	1151.7722355399558
He made a fool of you, Lester".	662.5983120142724
He swung round to the other men- "We can catch him easy!	21336.458585609962
There are plenty of fresh horses halfway at my place.	2234.557293752221
If we let them go, they won't stay away, they'll find men to ride with them and they'll be back.	6912.536170555115
There's only one way they can get out now and that's through the Gap- if we ride hard we can take them".	52184.74172253883
Lester's hand fluttered to Cabot's shoulder.	12020.924028771009
The boy jerked away.	502.5779634988141
"He killed Tom- do you understand that"?	4609.543631543884
Cabot turned back to the men and he was drunk with the thing they would do, wild to break from the cloying warmth of the saloon into the cold of the ebbing night.	33978.51310253197
He fled through the door and down the steps, running, and the men grunted and followed, pushing Lester to one side where he backed against the wall with the sleeve of his jacket raised before his eyes to shut out the light.	32322.496947572352
Purvis and Silas Pettigrew were the last to leave.	4176.7624857662295
They mounted up and rode slowly behind the others at a safe distance.	14845.218683893441
THIRTY-SIX IN THE cold dawn the mist swirled low to the ground, then rose with a gust of sudden wind to leave the valley clear.	56254.92390216854
The clouds parted and hard gashes of sunlight swooped down to stain the earth with streaks of white and gold light so that the shadows of the running horses flowed like dark streams over the dazzling snow.	195707.14301515682
When they turned in the saddle they could see the men behind them, strung out on the prairie in a flat black line.	14703.235581562474
The wind of their running was cold and wild, the horses were lathered and their manes streamed like stiff black pennants in the wind.	27447.018047463065
The mare began to tire and Clayton felt the spray of snow from the hoofs of Gavin's stallion.	95616.24280199659
He looked over his shoulder at the thin dotting of pursuers.	899.8706217593868
They neither gained nor fell back.	2654.3607809826253
He rode low on the mare's neck.	2034.5914711433472
Ahead of him Gavin turned slightly off the trail and pointed for the Gap, no more than a mile away.	5003.753571940408
Gavin's face was bloodless with excitement.	11757.830101155396
He did not look back; he could feel more than hear the staccato beat of hoofs that fanned out across the prairie to the north.	18691.31114658652
He knew who was riding after him- the men he had known all his life, the men who had worked for him, sworn their loyalty to him.	2710.754988552366
Now they were riding to kill him.	84.01022297326038
And he was fleeing, running- fleeing his death and his life at the same time.	2663.7761897400283
The land over which he sped was the land he had created and lived in his valley.	11879.212339369076
With every leaping stride of the horse beneath him he crossed one more patch of earth that had been his, that he would never see again.	26815.684255293498
The Gap looming before him- the place where had confronted Jack English on that day so many years ago- was his exit from all that had meaning to him.	57339.39541495585
California is too far, he thought.	240.71603177027427
He would never reach California.	338.38551312433395
He was too old- when he passed up and through the corridor of pines that lined the trail he could see ahead, he was passing from life.	45324.25899385537
The sentry was not dead.	1552.0905569373767
He was, in fact, showing signs of reviving.	517.0055940156686
He had been carrying an Enfield rifle and a holstered navy cap-and-ball pistol.	26331.432848178505
A bayonet hung in a belt scabbard.	4886.964555447724
He was partially uniformed in a cavalry tunic and hat.	9814.685582172606
Mike stripped these from him and donned them.	22069.65762394859
He and Dean tied and gagged the man, using his belt and shirt for the purpose.	10362.928977802034
They dragged him inside the building.	1174.5930949024946
Fiske joined them, unsteady on his feet.	8851.0039634162
Julia, seeing the bandage, rushed to him.	11963.24691476211
"You are hurt"!	635.2309411412176
she breathed.	1517.080325932688
"I never felt better in my life", Fiske blustered.	5780.761130030667
He turned to Susan and kissed her on the cheek.	7303.790774122642
"Thank you, My dear", he said.	707.3313425599721
"You are very brave".	174.06819948286775
Mike silenced them.	2219.7490533399755
"We'll talk later.	186.0377669719085
First, we've got to get out of here".	14.72327284358859
"We'll grab horses", Dean said.	1315.8580388089354
"The main bunch is outside, but there are some over there inside the wall".	3193.1573137064
Mike debated it, trying to decide whether Fiske was strong enough to ride.	86831.60531580624
But it at least offered him a chance for living.	1275.6639016156987
He had none here.	182.75089152799362
And, for the sake of Julia and Susan, it had to be tried.	412.02973607350685
The guerrilla bivouac remained silent.	1426.6127028237718
Light showed in the orderly room across the parade ground.	3129.8739012109436
Someone evidently was on duty there.	3446.146433698639
No doubt there would be men guarding the horses.	977.1315492467004
About a dozen animals were held inside the stockade, as best Mike could make out in the moonlight.	35698.42778574174
Evidently this was a precaution so that mounts would be available in an emergency.	3550.7373715522085
He handed the guard's rifle to Fiske.	3461.715157211747
"Dean and myself will try to cut out horses to ride", he said.	5738.870170199065
"We'll stampede the rest.	176.08733509409382
You stay with the ladies.	191.6769980621996
All of you be ready to ride hell for leather".	3670.425375390003
He added, "If this doesn't work out, the three of you barricade yourself in the house and talk terms with them".	7071.383805806265
He handed the bayonet to Dean and kept the pistol.	9926.296036283771
Susan halted Dean and kissed him.	4868.276165245678
She clung to him, talking to him, and dabbing at her eyes.	5213.189650888864
Mike turned away.	2219.749083633366
He was thinking that the way she had responded to his own kiss hadn't meant what he had believed it had.	21696.094540682905
He felt unutterably weary.	1478.5405924472607
Dean turned from Susan and took Julia Fortune in his arms.	10680.37730285781
He kissed her also, and with deep tenderness.	4495.220324209245
She too began to weep.	130.53262244644202
He released her and joined Mike.	2951.405135886437
"All right", he said.	12.917574411558256
Mike only said, "Later".	21379.66044220554
"Be careful, McLish"!	595.914297736641
Susan said fiercely.	2117.012272427967
"The way you were careful"?	1575.7345566179029
he snorted.	1931.338253054294
"Running around in the moonlight almost naked and slugging a man with a rock"?	14192.46595783547
He kept going.	122.70891793363646
He wanted no more sentimental scenes with her.	889.3285352045006
He might say or do something foolish.	3495.1839971931286
Something all of them would regret.	4262.387728381929
He might tell her how sorry a spectacle she was making of herself, pretending to be blind to the way Julia Fortune had taken Dean's affections from her.	48086.81140548115
And using him, Mike McLish, as a sop to her pride.	28199.92883318114
He handed the bayonet to Dean and kept the pistol.	9926.296036283771
"Stay well back of me", he said.	695.928008192636
"I'm going to walk up to the horses, bold as brass, pretending I'm one of the guerrillas.	16538.76295532637
There's bound to be someone on guard, but the hat might fool them long enough for me to get close".	38208.4408269911
Holding the pistol concealed, he walked to the rear wall of the stockade.	23901.086581867883
It was pierced by a wagon gate built of two wings.	6735.969085282748
One wing stood open.	1019.5772708266595
Mike passed through it and moved toward the dark mass of horses.	12774.277386602458
They were tethered, army style, on stable lines.	6696.842558455572
A voice spoke near-at-hand.	306.16919750054365
"Who's thet"?	18387.84415455408
Just me", Mike said.	1637.1199467059737
"Is that you, Bill"?	531.47453741102
He located his man.	865.3729546100421
The guard stood in the shadow of the stockade wall just out of reach of the moonlight.	22922.41139070082
Mike kept walking and got within arm's reach before the man became suspicious and straightened from his lax slouch.	208176.18111205183
Mike struck with the muzzle of the pistol.	21865.97352752232
But the luck that had been running their way left him.	5068.586926778591
The guard instinctively parried the blow with his rifle.	7755.185935365369
He tried to veer the rifle around to fire into Mike's body.	7265.243423050676
Mike, off balance, managed to bat the muzzle away a moment before it exploded.	103404.03228419242
The bullet went wide.	773.5165010881952
Mike swung the pistol in a savage backlash.	49788.84287625444
This time it connected solidly on the man's temple, felling him.	7699.040330405369
The explosion of the rifle had crashed against the walls of the stockade and the deep echoes were still rolling in the hills.	35455.55827118779
The startled horses began rearing on their tethers.	16041.245014402946
Dean came rushing up.	1170.0296044971817
"Are you hit"?	209.85096406076147
he demanded.	2.9551516125786947
"No, but the fat's in the fire"!	1137.4053869218192
Mike said.	1079.052133260133
"There's no chance now of all of us getting away.	2412.801405264513
You'll have to try it alone".	41.5237679636788
The sentry's saddled horse stood picketed nearby, having been kept handy in case of need.	27794.350868642963
Mike took the bayonet from Dean's hand and slashed the picket line.	26316.611307138654
"Up you go"!	1924.4950599685742
he said.	3.376936803385834
"Ride"!	2963.9986232479714
Dean resisted Mike's attempt to push him toward the horse.	8186.894822501484
"Why not you"?	165.06290501844992
he protested.	952.701771541157
"Dammit"!	3524.8082516247623
Mike said frantically.	9180.568461092036
"You're lighter than me.	460.4235237369447
It's our only chance now.	184.3084815816266
Try to find these Feds.	1309.5104926683455
The rest of us can fort up in the house and hang on until you get back.	2643.8845713925225
You're the one that's taking the big chance".	1095.5948870746847
Dean still hesitated, but Mike lifted him almost bodily into the saddle and thrust the reins in his hand.	28283.01889566805
"No telling how good this horse is", Mike panted.	29605.113492505618
"Favor him and save something in case you hit trouble.	37213.04659515761
Watch out for Apaches when it comes daylight.	17973.04171067409
Take the pistol.	751.909016805262
You might need it.	78.81415297039078
We'll still have the rifle, and I might be able to round up some more.	2240.8990890411856
I'll stampede the rest of these horses so they can't chase you".	8139.130047520118
Dean leaned from the saddle and gave him a mighty whack on the back.	3581.6672947722054
"McLish", he said as he kicked the horse into motion, "I'd be a mighty sad man if we never met again".	37609.56932079322
Then he was on his way at a gallop.	377.75529276917536
Mike ran down the line, slashing picket ropes with the bayonet.	36426.06550101891
He lifted a screeching war whoop.	9092.875169937644
That touched off a total stampede.	3051.0642824327806
He darted inside the stockade and freed the horses there.	15423.205491667608
These poured through the gate and joined the flight.	5373.9184310145
The animals thundered away into the moonlight, heading for the ridges.	33927.34655902923
The guerrillas were swarming from their bivouac at the west end of the enclosure.	51469.4064513179
"'Paches"!	1565.205131439076
Mike yelled.	5225.3504219728675
"They're stealin' the stock"!	2404.990078957732
He scuttled in shadow along the east wall of the stockade and then followed the south wall until he was at the rear of the two frame buildings.	35055.836702922876
He crouched there.	509.2527140211075
His shout had been taken up and repeated.	1020.2161873403955
The guerrillas were running across the parade ground and through the rear gate in the wake of the departing horses.	9818.017612689528
All were carrying guns they had seized up, but they were half-clad or hardly clad at all.	10247.140934710322
Durkin and Calhoun came running from the post.	8851.604045858043
They had pistols in their hands.	178.14742857207935
They bawled questions that were not answered in the uproar.	16783.294200300672
They followed the others toward the east gate.	5971.87336101666
Beyond the stockade rifles began to explode as some of the guerrillas fired at shadows that they imagined were Apaches.	54962.60594407719
Mike made a dash to the rear of the frame buildings.	6949.941333772787
He crawled beneath the two supply wagons which stood between the buildings and peered around a corner.	17277.58147265507
The area was deserted.	676.0724961904647
A man was standing in the open door of the lighted orderly room a few yards to Mike's left, but he, too, suddenly made up his mind and went racing to join the confused activity at the east end of the stockade.	46136.857234552954
Mike crawled to the door and peered in.	7621.156208062907
The orderly room seemed to be deserted.	11897.540167500736
A lantern hung from a peg, giving light.	8753.326809406513
Ducking inside, he found that three rifles were stacked in a corner.	6256.012470226775
A brace of pistols, holstered on belts, hung from a peg, along with ammunition pouches.	56418.65877610519
An ammunition case stood open, containing canisters which contained powder cartridges.	20748.485883319227
Mike seized a blanket from a pallet in a corner, spread it on the floor and used it to form a bag in which he placed his booty.	60319.025437878176
Shouldering the load he peered from the door.	3783.171831356087
His looting of the orderly room had taken only a minute or two and the vicinity was still clear of guerrillas.	140349.74130985164
He looked at the looming hoods of the supply wagons, struck by a new inspiration.	5925.717886418754
He set his bundle down.	431.7536232495099
Snatching the lantern from its peg, he shattered its globe with a blow against a post.	108615.64968128256
He picked up the powder canister and ran out.	7568.1988996247865
Bursting paper cartridges, he scattered powder beneath the nearest wagon and dumped the contents of the canister upon it.	59244.89957049604
He shouldered the blanket again, backed off, and tossed the lantern with its open wick beneath the wagon.	44098.30305800729
He turned and raced across the parade ground toward the rock house.	5337.383953903326
Powder flame gushed beneath the wagon.	4034.468815512513
The stockade was brilliantly lighted and the guerrillas sighted him.	12121.271934308304
They realized the truth.	245.88747424053793
Bullets began to snap past him.	3607.4045797191948
One struck the muzzle of one of the rifles that projected from the shoulder pack.	14447.062321947033
Its force spun him around, but he recovered and got into stride again.	29989.930733232286
A bullet tore the earth from beneath his foot when he was a stride or two from safety.	18943.997123625057
Another struck him heavily in the thigh and he went down.	2139.022650648379
Guerrillas were racing toward him.	2468.063581365272
Susan and Julia came from the door and dragged him with them.	3660.505770088039
The three of them floundered through the door into the interior and fell in a heap.	7126.787595934496
Susan bounced to her feet and slammed the door.	2253.1036818903453
She crouched aside as bullets beat at the portal, chewing into the planks.	65556.90674745524
Some tore entirely through the whipsawed post oak.	18672.280577719543
The iron hinges held, but the planks were in danger of being torn from the crossbars.	48708.58907899425
mike rolled to Susan, grasped her around the knees, dragging her off her feet.	85921.86854263979
He hovered over her to shield her, for spent bullets were thudding against the rear walls.	58202.32710260902
He peered from a loophole.	1694.1683710250634
Guerrillas were only a dozen yards away, charging the house.	14878.31795531222
Mike snatched a pistol from the heap of scattered booty and fired.	22770.236221864183
He dropped a man with the first bullet.	477.26585618463315
At the same moment Wheeler Fiske fired the rifle Mike had given him and another guerrilla was hit.	12572.38164814153
That halted the rush.	4094.5502848708516
The guerrillas scattered for cover.	487.0573343151314
The wagons were burning fiercely.	4782.290546012861
The mudwagon had caught fire also.	2989.9655526293914
The blaze was spreading to the frame buildings.	5502.016650142031
The guerrillas realized they faced a new problem.	979.7739350219576
"Gawdamighty"!	3524.8082516247623
one screeched.	2297.723106375679
"There goes our grub an' ammunition"!	15653.286527031561
"Get a bucket line going"!	4107.05830288263
Calhoun shouted.	1728.0107273646502
"Hurry!	3524.8082516247623
Hurry"!	3524.8082516247623
The guerrillas began a frantic search for pails in which to bring water from the spring.	7095.790107520998
But what few containers they found were inadequate.	2480.0407472505326
Many of them, in increasing panic, came running with water in their hats in a ludicrous effort.	9844.70892511737
Both buildings were in flames.	1657.5147471498929
The heat drove the guerrillas back.	1277.440486567545
The roof of the command post began to buckle.	1638.2737371363885
"Drag the wagons to the spring"!	35831.01685946034
Lew Durkin yelled.	10246.645210229595
"Run 'em right into the spring!	3845.9283573474127
Hustle"!	3524.8082516247623
One of the wagons erupted a massive pillar of flame.	4769.935528854592
A sizable supply of powder had been touched off.	8491.70318626838
The wagons and the coach were beyond saving and so were the buildings.	11274.48660801407
The glow of the fire reached through the openings in the windows, giving light enough to examine Mike's wound.	16592.384913716753
The bullet had torn through the flesh just above the knee, inflicting an ugly gash that was forming a pool of blood on the floor.	33559.92810057234
But it had missed the bone and had passed on through.	2593.255926005227
Susan and Julia ripped strips from their clothing and bound the injury.	18773.88058164857
Mike tested the leg and found that he was able to hobble around on it.	4253.804321739834
"So it wasn't the earthquake that made him return to his village"!	18063.56674325662
"No.	3.297522726426617
Now dammit, I don't want to go into any more explanations.	3366.445149181183
Here comes Jason.	2161.415186158894
Keep this to yourself".	814.1668598484488
Reverend Jason, looking worried, hurried toward us.	13604.089440934998
"Anything wrong, cap'n?	25147.71948262328
The men seem to think so".	709.7692742601512
"Dirion found a large war party south of us.	9654.537463751401
They'll probably attack at dawn", Montero said.	1643.3856373945823
He brushed past the clergyman and walked into the center of the camp.	1099.097867004162
Using his hands as a trumpet he shouted, "Fort up!	7487.761885409784
Fort up!	228.17934544468463
There's a large war party on their way"!	846.1280588669251
For a second, engages, cooks, voyageurs appeared struck dumb.	4487.28658231583
Then Little Billy began shouting orders to round up the ponies and fill the water buckets and for the cooks to hurry up with the meal.	41490.37175015956
They all flew into action.	222.92627689946406
"That was a terrible thing to do", I said to Oso.	1287.8424384938148
The Aricaras treated us like friends.	2989.9655155138753
And here all the time you knew the Sioux would be using our rifles on them!	17646.731484434513
God, what a world you people live in".	3619.969912507241
Oso gave me an unruffled look.	12020.922755735279
"Old Knife's got the largest war party ever seen on the river", he said calmly.	37116.76567097648
"What would you have done in Montero's moccasins?	11183.70979867672
Let Old Knife come up and kill you and your people, or would you steer him on someone else"?	19151.577512042837
He shook his head.	3.010496436153818
"Mr Manuel did that in the war.	470.95081697548545
That's why the British never got the tribes to fight for the King.	1248.765865907154
Mr Manuel whispered in the ears of the Sioux that the Cheyennes were comin' to raid 'em for their horses.	63599.14459696367
Then he went on to the Cheyennes and told them that the Sioux was goin' to move up.	4835.521081768438
He did that with all the Nations.	1261.757075685984
Hell, they were fightin' each other so hard they had no time for anyone else.	17712.557356249996
The War Department wrote Mr Manuel a letter and said he was a hero.	6304.887909289139
I saw that letter.	106.33306518733464
He carried it in a little wallet made of fish skin".	3731.321186563258
"But that was war", I said.	47.8606845376373
"There's no war on now".	545.0473106409381
"You're wrong, Matt.	265.7896977046552
In this country there's a war on every time the grass turns green.	2259.011510885791
First it was the Nations against themselves, then it was them against the whites.	17049.392259270815
And it's goin' to go on like this year after year until the white people take over this land".	26558.400830408835
I remember being told it would happen so fast people would think it took place overnight.	23013.1928326373
"That's why this company's important.	431.391264363736
Once we get over the mountains others will come along.	1439.3914926154596
That's why the Trust don't want us to make it.	988.2061463575286
That bastard Chambers!- Old Knife's not the only chief he'll get to do his dirty work!	12788.97280309467
Before we get through he'll have the Blackfeet hankerin' for our hair and our goods.	13095.82396780381
Well, talkin' ain't goin' to help- let's fort up"!	16643.8523876308
As I dug in behind one of the bales we were using as protection, I grudgingly found myself agreeing with Oso's logic, especially when I imagined what would have happened to Missy if Old Knife's large party of screeching warriors had overrun our company.	226405.23962205206
For, unlike the Sioux and the Crows, the Aricaras are not great horsemen, nor are they aggressive like the savage Blackfeet.	64099.96904162744
More of an agricultural nation, they have relied on their warriors only for defense and for survival in the endless wars of the plains.	112291.21366941984
Still, I was disgusted with myself for agreeing with Montero's methods.	3984.59178402881
Surprisingly, he had told the others what he had done.	1309.931737494184
In the brief moment I had to talk to them before I took my post on the ring of defenses, I indicated I was sickened by the methods men employed to live and trade on the river.	30854.03742984331
"I think Montero did right", Amy said firmly.	14121.825432207346
"Let the savages kill each other What do we care"?	11502.598897373178
Reverend Jason was understandably bitter.	9335.660761208597
"It was a terrible thing to do.	33.7047252810283
Those little children h".	805.7151323468337
But Oso replied calmly, "Trouble ain't easy to dodge out in this country, rev'rend".	52590.28638688524
28.	380.059195195575
ATTACK GRAY EYES ATTACKED OUR camp just as the first pink threads stitched together the hills and the sky.	29800.242182768518
Our camp was in the center of a wide valley.	990.4744066541436
Montero had set up a strong position, using every bale and box we had in addition to barricades of logs and brush.	157109.46329071303
He had ordered the ponies brought inside the fortified circle and had assigned Pierre and a band of picked engages the job of trying to keep them steady under fire.	47252.02579221298
The pony herd was the one flaw in our defense; the Rees undoubtedly would try to cut down as many of the animals as possible.	17544.761131934174
Wildly bucking horses would make the position difficult to defend against charging warriors.	96911.43479478915
The cooks had prepared one of the best meals we'd had in a long time, and on Montero's orders had baked enough bread to last the day.	15352.439859473658
Buckets were filled, the herd fed and watered.	71839.56078117325
The worst part had been the waiting; although we didn't expect the attack before dawn, the long cloudy night, filled with the sounds of the industrious insects, seemed endless.	81645.35164226014
Coyotes and hunting wolves sounded like signaling Indian scouts, the whinny of a restless pony made one's skin crawl.	245346.26488094838
Oso slept unconcernedly, his rifle cradled in his arms; I didn't catch a wink.	120633.41777348648
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Gray Eyes rushing at me with a knife.	1439.2986349925998
It was a relief when they finally came.	959.6685040917541
They poured through the opening in the valley, then spread out in a long line to come at us, brandishing their lances and filling the morning with their spine-chilling scalp cry.	50665.58312317394
"Oso", Montero called "I'll get Gray Eyes".	43562.35190965377
"That'll be a pleasure to see", the big black murmured as he stared down the barrel of his rifle.	4821.495089225466
"Hold your fire", Montero was shouting.	1352.477206157986
"Wait until my shot.	1245.0846136762555
I'll shoot the first man who doesn't".	957.9397880516703
I could see them in my sights.	532.6643033748917
They were about a mile off; under me the ground quivered slightly.	5944.861461868927
At first they were only feathers and dark indistinguishable faces and bodies, hunched over their horses' heads.	35754.90969231425
Gradually they emerged as men.	1495.7098647304126
Gray Eyes was in the lead.	843.9458131858316
His face was split by a vermilion streak, his eyes were pools of white; jagged red and black medicine symbols covered his chest.	18065.322672516628
He was naked except for a clout.	5787.016560331643
Next to him was a young boy I was sure had sat near me at one of the trading sessions.	12103.572904771827
His mouth was open, his neck corded with the strain of his screams.	55969.95486827579
I found his chest in my sights.	1332.8405563510871
It had a red circle.	141.63586075485193
The circle came nearer and nearer.	6645.546973531043
My God, how long is he going to wait, I thought h. Montero's rifle cracked.	11864.720388718284
At first I thought he had missed.	162.16898202119953
Gray Eyes remained erect.	14558.712559935191
The feathered lance was still above his head.	2482.508551902633
As he started to slump over, another warrior swung him onto his horse.	13814.949256322961
I squeezed the trigger.	428.40585018033227
At the last second I dropped my sights from the bare chest and bright red circle to the chest of his pony.	61779.45338718557
I saw the pony fall like a stone and the young warrior flew over its head, bouncing like a rubber ball.	46101.993461001686
He started to run but Oso's shot caught him on the wing.	5394.400700298811
He jerked once in the grass and lay still.	2404.432849870456
"If you're goin' to kill 'em- kill 'em"!	6085.594150506166
Oso growled.	6886.910637010236
What else he said was lost in the rattle of gunfire on all sides.	1483.4797240478665
The Aricaras broke under the devastating fire, wheeled and retreated.	36763.96378151791
"Lead up!	1377.705665095294
Lead up!	1377.705665095294
They'll be back"!	173.70516926081575
Montero was shouting.	11770.304497228983
Far up the valley I could see the Rees circling and reorganizing.	16666.30648349344
Out in front of our walls the grass was covered with dead and dying men, war shields, lances, blankets and wounded and dead horses.	84319.96251019018
The morning air was filled with the sweetish odor of new-spilled blood, the acrid stench of frightened horses, and the bitterness of burned powder.	40935.074956234705
A horse screamed as it twisted from side to side in a frenzy.	7472.620402863181
A rifle cracked; the square head fell over.	5834.436742940296
One of the warriors suddenly leaped to his feet and began running across the valley to the trees that lined the small creek.	11546.707252399743
His legs pumped furiously, his long black hair streamed out behind him.	8652.683147986128
There was a ragged volley.	231.60991523029523
He was dead before he hit the ground.	88.7511003423412
"For Christ's sake, don't waste your powder on one of 'em"!	8529.082836874808
Montero shouted furiously.	11770.304497228983
"Wait for the charge!	3396.6635133836994
The charge, I tell you"!	343.6794509980634
The sharp cries at the end of the valley were faint.	1167.0393525479549
They grew louder as the Indians charged again.	6421.997002642705
I could see their faces glistening with sweat and bear grease, their mouths open, shouting their spine-chilling cries.	47626.30944217601
"Gray Eyes is back", Montero said.	14185.130295391264
The war captain had been badly wounded and was fighting to hold his seat.	7211.154993418882
I could see the blood running down his chest.	311.92666936158224
He was riding between two warriors, who held him erect when he started to slump.	18408.23977321772
I forgot to aim.	1186.1012651545545
In my sights I watched him looming bigger and bigger.	6504.575057058116
Montero's shot had caught him high in the chest; there was no doubt he was dying.	29133.167538657555
Again we waited for Montero.	5180.724613347306
This time he delayed so long that some of the engages shouted frantically, but they held their fire.	8529.388129125502
The horses were only several lengths away when he fired.	2119.845050677293
The bullet flung Gray Eyes from his horse.	5786.103655130221
Our rolling volley swept most of the other riders from their mounts.	12529.95825135403
But a few reached our wall.	438.27832279363355
I heard the whir of an ax and a Canadian's face burst apart in a bloody spray.	14430.310973189135
I saw Little Billy rise and fire almost point blank and an Indian's face became shattered flesh and bone.	41770.98974524556
A second leaped from his horse to the top of the bale, firing four arrows in such rapid succession it didn't seem possible they were in flight.	20420.35228517625
Men screamed.	264.5373693298283
Oso reached up, jerked the buck from the bale and snapped his neck.	74902.70631596596
Other Indians were running at the ponies, shrilling and waving blankets.	40765.24595833373
Reverend Jason got one, the Canadians the others.	6558.159308087341
I saw the clergyman kneel for a moment by the twitching body of the man he had shot, then run back to his position.	3207.1959762243787
The ponies were almost uncontrollable.	5687.133943328745
The pall of dust they raised made it difficult to see when the Aricaras charged again.	12064.436979504679
This time more of them hurdled the barrier.	7599.379551677838
A small Indian dived at Montero, who caught him with a swift upward stroke of his rifle butt.	59710.6731435852
It sounded like a man kicking a melon.	979.3760845728194
Above me a dark rider was whipping his pony with a quirt in an attempt to hurdle the bales.	73770.90381137269
Although my shot killed his horse, he rolled off the bale on top of me.	12715.135902932469
I could smell woodsmoke, grease, and oil.	3665.6334735299056
His eyes were dark, fluid, fearful, and he gave a sigh as my knife went in.	20158.56062553004
Coming over the wall he had seemed like a hideous devil.	12930.898162684145
Now under me I could see him for what he really was, a boy dressed up in streaks of paint h. The Aricaras made one last desperate charge.	66532.44839637057
It was pitiful to see the thin ranks of warriors, old and young, wheeling and twisting their ponies frantically from side to side only to be tumbled bleeding from their saddles by the relentless slam, slam of the cruelly efficient Hawkinses.	190800.6938851154
Others, badly wounded, gripped hands in manes, knees in bellies, held on as long as possible and then, weak from ghastly wounds, slipped sideways, slowly, almost thoughtfully, to be broken under the slashing hoofs.	123648.26117327981
Some gracefully soared from the backs of their wounded, screaming mounts to make one last defiant charge before the lead split their hearts or tore their guts h. None of them reached our walls again.	200354.32675572095
The few survivors grudgingly turned away.	1400.3945696030103
In the distance we could hear the drums and the wail of the death song.	13582.028241600388
She was carrying a quirt, and she started to raise it, then let it fall again and dangle from her wrist.	23243.892285660815
"I saw your fire", she said, speaking slowly, making an effort to control her anger.	6123.536435806837
"You could burn down this whole mountainside with a fire that size.	10000.618231004473
It wouldn't matter to a fool like you.	2963.1839534948595
It would to me".	49.36721835359815
"All right", Wilson said quickly.	709.5699323883337
"The fire's too big.	266.8186577831412
And I appreciate the advice".	93.50004175905468
He was losing patience again.	554.239960196882
An hour before, with the children asleep and nothing but the strange darkness, he would have appreciated company.	12655.506669121125
She had helped him change his mind.	198.4985072544342
"I'm not advising you", she said.	80.05361891278129
"I'm telling you.	182.54883727637338
That fire's too big.	360.92917725808394
Let it burn down.	510.81175627243243
And make sure it's out when you leave in the morning".	2380.430160547739
He was taken aback.	552.8850444899903
It took him a long time to compose himself.	986.6800136989523
"There's some mistake", he said finally.	9693.126869044818
"You're right about the fire.	224.1042554624605
It's bigger than it has to be, though I don't see where it's doing any harm.	1298.0565380202722
But you're wrong about the rest of it.	242.12232281048873
I'm not leaving in the morning.	80.36398670778257
Why should I?	29.03682979285039
I own the place".	781.9308894915671
She showed her surprise by tightening the reins and moving the gelding around so that she could get a better look at his face.	6490.1123947546685
It didn't seem to tell her anything.	613.7291497647783
She glanced around the clearing, taking in the wagon and the load of supplies and trappings scattered over the ground, the two kids, the whiteface bull that was chewing its cud just within the far reaches of the firelight.	147729.13073876366
She studied it for a long time.	116.09052874904062
Then she turned back to Wilson and smiled, and he wasn't quite sure what she meant by it.	7618.102399682922
"You own this place"?	1821.5760060862297
she said, and her tone had softened until it was almost friendly.	1820.8756714236704
"You bought it"?	1123.5265873489577
"From a man in St Louis", Wilson said.	763.6511604141615
"Jake Carwood.	5718.035025519367
Maybe you know him".	178.79027991148044
The girl laughed.	203.28150691519306
"I know him.	83.77265338613644
I ought to.	138.093067483424
My father ran him off here six years ago".	797.0837398914503
Wilson didn't say anything.	993.0458152156493
He stood watching the girl, wondering what was coming next.	2300.1669538923074
She had picked up the quirt and was twirling it around her wrist and smiling at him.	8921.258189951355
"Carwood didn't tell you that", she said.	1922.5216937023847
"No", Wilson said.	259.75878403825516
"But it's understandable.	170.1152135343143
It's not the kind of thing that a man would be proud of.	1692.3653093328717
And it doesn't make any difference.	836.9001451788534
He sold me a clear title.	2809.2221928526023
I have it with me, right here.	224.78343958651675
If you want to see"- "Never mind", she said sternly.	483.88727987630983
"It wouldn't matter to my father, and not to me.	910.7864143318969
I meant what I said about that fire.	1686.1853496746423
Be sure it's out when you leave.	1345.4770546894383
That's all.	102.53771025077855
I'll let you go back to doing the dishes now".	1977.8121707038256
It was meant to insult him, and didn't quite succeed.	5161.458807020626
He took the reins just below the bit and held them firmly, and it was his turn to smile now.	15234.494047670705
"I don't mind washing dishes now and then", he said pleasantly.	3321.2876496180816
"It doesn't hurt.	202.3304101520636
It might hurt you, though.	514.953959105652
Somebody might mistake you for a woman".	1686.6380603511561
He meant to say more, but he never got the chance.	1432.2674917272236
She was quick.	113.47454179310655
She brought the quirt down, slashing it across his cheek, and he tried to step back.	18267.66585612427
She swung the quirt again, and this time he caught her wrist and pulled her out of the saddle.	35041.14438373839
She came down against him, and he tried to break her fall.	645.602363295793
He grabbed her by the shoulders and went down on one knee, taking her weight so that some of the wind was driven out of him.	9014.176762781059
It made him a little sick, and he let go of her.	441.8763725393687
He got up slowly, and she was already on her feet, and he stood facing her.	2041.0662919468014
He wiped the blood from his cheek.	13662.939966528831
"I ought to"- he said.	396.44883597118934
He was shaking with anger, his breath coming in long, painful gasps.	35225.62739887565
"That quirt- I ought to use it on you, where it would do the most good.	13264.665232973672
If you were a man"- "She isn't, mister".	1049.4140916408985
The voice came from behind him, and Wilson turned.	4888.2040877662375
The fire had gone down, and the man was only a shadow against the trees.	3311.2492997607396
But a moment later he brought his horse forward into the light, and Wilson had a good look at him.	11482.290783098713
He was tall and dark-skinned, a half-breed, Wilson thought.	19376.309017886368
And he was handsome, despite the long thin scar that slanted across his cheek.	18858.901879535497
"She's not a man, mister", he said.	623.2786537965435
"I am.	3.445453711274
If you've got any ideas".	103.81630384192734
He raised the Winchester and pointed it at Wilson's chest.	11831.251505528931
"Put the rifle down, Joseph", the girl said.	3181.7171516342323
She seemed irritated.	198.74681555061088
"I thought I told you to stay home".	875.180238580696
The half-breed eased the Winchester down and rested it across his lap.	5381.152820818263
The scar looked pure white in the half-darkness; his eyes were black and deep-set, and expressionless.	21205.88315123758
"You shouldn't be riding up here after dark, Judith", he said quietly.	41693.23558384692
"I can take care of this.	113.91640497049097
It's no job for you".	210.57590038087469
The girl tapped the quirt impatiently against her knee and glared at him.	8607.190759764671
He took it without flinching.	1279.846244422486
"I said go home, Joseph.	708.7674958427025
You've got no business up here".	133.67972697252844
The half-breed didn't answer this time.	571.1330540989768
But the scar seemed to pull hard at the corner of his mouth, and his eyes were hurt and angry.	7332.386703659657
It made Wilson wonder.	354.67627096065473
He watched the half-breed as he turned silently.	7221.288755753138
They could hear the pony's feet on the dry leaves for a while, then the sound faded out.	11297.398228560185
Wilson brushed the dust from his coat.	5641.556235143694
"Who was that"?	525.1074428515631
he asked.	2.83163735220959
"Your personal guard?	3710.4123312490233
You're pretty hard on him".	256.4426114138859
"He works for my father", the girl said, and then seemed to change her mind.	1495.9652062275666
"He's a friend.	101.54957671898208
His name's Joseph Sanchez.	4092.3717051541157
Is there anything else you want to know"?	856.3934391774619
"Not now", Wilson said.	884.1530172322908
"I guess I'll find out soon enough.	418.53480988123584
You've got blood on your cheek.	1291.643712651843
Not yours.	237.46167395802385
Mine.	267.31868340758365
It must have got there when you fell against me".	2652.4780305197887
She wiped it off with the sleeve of her coat.	13693.421426125979
"I'll bet that's as close as you've been to a man since you were a baby", Wilson said.	5164.29375491721
He saw her hand start to work down the leather thong toward the handle of the quirt, and he grabbed her wrist.	36923.27790947245
"Oh, no", he said, and he was without humor now.	232.22272728525218
"I've had enough of that.	39.4669197992737
I've had enough of you.	45.412038987357995
I don't know what goes on around here, and I don't care.	849.2387529623165
I don't know what makes you think you can get away with this kind of business, and I don't care about that, either.	1803.3309134671176
You took me by surprise.	5798.584433493925
But I'll know how to handle you next time".	142.84963203958472
She brought up her free hand to hit him, but this time he was quicker.	11414.961214417915
He side-stepped her blow and she fell, stumbling against the gelding.	41575.79441080979
She finally regained her balance and got up in the saddle.	6823.455106179562
Her hat had come off and fallen behind her shoulders, held by the string, and he could see her face more clearly than he had at any time before.	30061.585282348777
He had forgotten that she was so pretty.	1067.1325735124155
But her prettiness was what he had noticed first, and all the other things had come afterward cruelty, meanness, self-will.	8834.524626492583
He had known women like that, one woman in particular.	1452.5758677577678
And one had been too many.	76.2781498771614
He watched the girl until she had gone into the trees, and waited until he couldn't hear the sound of her horse any longer, then went up to where the children were sleeping.	16770.644203358523
They weren't sleeping, of course, but they thought they were doing him a favor by pretending.	7528.348995262373
He hadn't shown up too well in their eyes, letting himself be browbeaten by a woman.	15898.152231720334
They expected greater things from him, regardless of how trying the circumstances, and they were disappointed.	11670.125965199702
And determined not to show it.	1557.8720804591926
They lay a little too stiffly, with their eyes straining to stay closed.	8681.378941577566
"Go to sleep", he said.	60.881433840300865
"Both of you.	23.52637437439772
There's better things to do than listen to something like that.	1633.4564076949512
I'll be down at the creek finishing the dishes, if you want me".	3828.0309406619053
He found the pan where he had dropped it and carried it back down to the stream.	2715.842082222679
The coyote was calling again, and he hoped that this time there would be no other sounds to interrupt it.	15511.279054505567
Not tonight, at any rate.	663.1578470537047
He had a feeling that the girl meant trouble.	465.0117542250799
If she did, he could stand it better in the light.	475.41198977618893
He scrubbed absent-mindedly at the pans and reflected on how things had turned out.	24310.85955761856
That afternoon when they had pulled up in front of the broken-down ranch house, his hopes had been high.	17598.425013063123
Already some of the pain had gone from Amelia's death.	5715.820986970199
Not all of it.	4.619820881440831
There would still be plenty of moments of regret and sadness and guilty relief.	13050.566799225642
But they were starting a new life.	758.3638101938085
And they had almost everything they needed land, a house, two whiteface bulls, three horses.	24966.54708345767
The land wasn't all Wilson had expected of it.	1955.9007817210563
Six hundred and forty acres, the old man back in St Louis had said; good grass, good water.	32665.765619636226
Well, the grass was there, though in some places the ground was too steep for a cow to get to it.	3547.6248036835846
The water was there, so much of it that it spread all through the dead orchard.	2859.673300952561
And there was a house; livable perhaps, but badly in need of repairs.	4997.065999668445
In the last analysis, though, Wilson had little cause to complain.	1539.5086857248518
The place had been cheap- just the little he had left after Amelia's burial- and it would serve its purpose.	3250.168876886531
There was only one place where Jake Carwood's description had gone badly awry the peace and quiet.	1919.7504924059858
It hadn't started out that way.	1163.9117528323482
And he had a feeling- thanks to the girl- that things would get worse before they got better.	11864.384630002936
2 They had the house cleaned up by noon, and Wilson sent the boy out to the meadow to bring in the horses.	36332.176955144496
He stood on the porch and watched him struggling with the heavy harness, and finally went over to help him.	8047.086632012936
Kathy was already in the wagon.	781.1961037935012
They were going to town, and they were both excited.	383.399654139124
Wilson backed the team into the traces, and wished they weren't going to town at all.	31361.69250622645
He had an uneasy feeling about it.	217.64536383577604
That girl last night, what was her name?	6747.13073772275
Judith Pierce.	6670.253906581705
It was the only thing about her that was the least bit hard to remember.	985.6106140040147
He finished with the team and filled his pipe and stood looking about him.	4434.285435906966
He had spent two hours riding around the ranch that morning, and in broad daylight it was even less inviting than Judith Pierce had made it seem.	44256.31378999891
There was brush, and stands of pine that no grass could grow under, and places so steep that cattle wouldn't stop to graze.	98099.80084672692
But there was water.	81.76912385198976
There was an artificial lake just out of sight in the first stand of trees, fed by a half dozen springs that popped out of the ground above the hillside orchard.	67344.43621937242
Yes, there was plenty of water, too much, and that was probably the trouble.	610.5581833505375
There were tracks of cattle all over his six hundred and forty acres.	14225.563406622525
The first part of the road was steep, but it leveled off after the second bend and curled gradually into the valley.	7587.081324783833
It was hotter once they reached the flat, and drier, but the grass was better.	11533.09467087533
A warm breeze played across it, moving it like waves.	14243.509950760274
A red-tailed hawk flew in behind them and stayed there, watching for any snakes or rabbits that they might stir up from the side of the road.	17246.34479051058
It took them an hour before they came to the first houses of Kelseyville.	5205.904327720083
The town was about what Wilson expected one main street with its rows of false-fronted buildings, a water tower, a few warehouses, a single hotel; all dusty and sunbaked.	185816.82675326572
The place was quiet.	225.32735650280458
Such was my state of mind that I did not question the possibility of this; under the circumstances I was only too willing to confess all.	5051.8180978073
I was nearly thirty at the time.	191.69187212885703
I went to the hall in the afternoons only, on these preliminary matters.	3039.649416971452
It was dark and, I sensed, very large; only the counter at one end was lighted by a long fluorescent tube suspended directly above it.	23241.38931953027
Sometimes I was aware of people moving about in the darkness.	753.8739087019673
I would turn away from my writing in the hope of getting a good look at them but I never quite succeeded.	12074.143286523662
A glimpse of three of four vague figures, at the most.	6133.200601243458
Drifting here and there.	98.9611561028145
Squatting, as if waiting.	1220.3398147118091
The pulsing glow of a cigarette.	981.3843561997425
Since they could see me but I not them, their presence in the hall disturbed me.	12403.67887327491
The clerk paid them no attention.	2400.8639894022563
This impressed me, until I realized how limited was his sphere of influence.	10622.018266072946
His job simply consisted in registering new men.	5303.329799868617
When the phone rang he answered it.	1418.2049016706078
His authority extended to the far edge of the counter, no further.	14044.895801116636
None of the men hanging around the hall bothered to speak to him.	806.2087330230294
Baldness was attacking his pate.	26298.596627531337
He spoke to me in a gruff voice, an affectation which quite belied his personality.	10987.539486624255
He wore his white shirt open at the neck, revealing a bit of scrawny pale chest underneath.	14020.99598762474
It was obvious that he wished himself different from the sort of person he thought he was.	394.5790699388213
But it was not easy for him and he often slipped.	229.42844127743967
When one of the men in the hall behind us spat on the floor and scraped his boot over the gob of spittle I noticed how the clerk winced.	29889.910660663652
I felt certain he was really a spineless little man.	1229.1172722691495
His hat the cause of his baldness?	3323.82716547497
hung on a hook on the wall, and underneath it I could see his tie, knotted, ready to be slipped over his head, a black badge of frayed respectability that ought never to have left his neck.	78854.78525234913
The morning's tabloids were on the counter, and a stack of dog-eared men's magazines.	38192.06298167875
On a shelf in the office behind the counter was a small radio dialed permanently on a station which broadcast only vulgar commercials and cheap popular music.	73891.42116571535
Everything about the clerk was trivial.	2480.517355004549
Once, pressing him, I learned that his job was only part-time, in the afternoons when nothing went on in the hall.	4400.635805027892
Noticing my disappointment he attempted to salvage what scraps and shreds of authority he felt might still be clinging to his person.	101285.32421727688
With distaste I saw him assume a pompous air.	10980.556725201615
When he saw me coming he turned his radio off.	4106.859100189042
He made a show of rearranging my forms on the shelf.	8331.439960698728
He would pick up the ringing phone with studied negligence, then bark into it with gruff importance.	29153.617104908015
What limited knowledge he possessed he forced upon me.	3725.103599232936
In the mornings, I was informed, fluorescent tubes, similar to the one above the counter, illuminated the entire hall.	19400.90691067926
They, and the two large fans which I could dimly see as daylight filtered through their vents, down at the far end of the hall, could be turned on by a master switch situated inside the office.	13463.229002922411
He pointed out the switch to me and for a moment I foolishly believed that he would let deed follow words.	6248.661254808706
I was shown, instead, a batch of white tickets of the sort handed out, he told me, every morning.	4666.366147786649
Now, here was something of obvious importance to me, yet when I reached for the tickets he snatched them away from my hand.	23111.482648650515
He couldn't afford to have anyone mess around with them, he said.	1101.436319588713
Each of those tickets was of great value to its rightful recipient.	11062.865830705701
I withdrew my hand.	326.3016237538242
Later I would remember what this pompous little man had told me about the worth of a ticket.	17764.660956817035
Having nothing else to do except wait for my forms to be processed, I gave myself over to speculations concerning the hall itself.	44552.58358692676
When suitably lighted, what would it look like?	21235.662089891353
The presence of the two exhaust fans seemed to indicate that the hall could become crowded for air.	2682.394698628037
One afternoon, upon receiving permission and the necessary instructions from the clerk, I had visited the toilet adjoining the hall.	22301.89236566806
By counting the number of stalls and urinals I attempted to form a loose estimate of how many men the hall would hold at one time.	29669.686833106352
For although I had crossed a corner of the hall on my way to the toilet I still could not tell for sure how far to the rear the darkness extended.	35393.95521394644
I could observe the two fans down at the end, but their size in themselves meant nothing to me as long as I had no measure of comparison.	8100.270040242199
I had for some time been hoping, in vain, for one of the dim figures to pass between the fan vents and myself.	8403.49841367384
I knew that three or four of them were almost always present in the hall, but what they were doing, and exactly where, I could not tell.	1931.5290860527323
It was, I felt, possible that they were men who, having received no tickets for that day, had remained in the hall, to sleep perhaps, in the corners farthest removed from the counter with its overhead light.	16797.72025006399
This light did not penetrate very far back into the hall, and my eyes were hindered rather than aided by the dim daylight entering through the fan vents when I tried to pick out whatever might be lying, or squatting, on the floor below.	106408.73149825992
Also the clerk appeared to disapprove of my frequent curious glances back over my shoulder.	26098.713367763292
No sooner would I turn my head away from the counter before he would address me, at times quite sharply, in order to bring back my attention.	28873.73395644646
And I had hardly finished my business in the toilet on the aforementioned occasion when the lights in that place, like the hall lights controlled from the switch in the office, flicked off and on impatiently.	102939.6902102766
This sort of petty vigilance annoyed me.	1067.4512261715133
I felt certain it was self-appointed.	557.1522147857162
It sprang from a type of mentality I'd encountered often enough but certainly had not expected to find here.	70019.5296324618
I decided to see no more of the clerk until the processing of my papers was completed.	9280.960321771674
I felt strongly attached to the hall, however, and hardly a day passed when I did not go to look at it from a distance.	2298.242033454013
I lived in a state of suspense because of it.	629.370763377699
I could not cling to my past nor did I wish to.	4478.23692397297
I had signed it off on the forms.	942.9821212185562
My future lay solely with the hall, yet what did I know about the hall at this point?	29244.08373816679
Although I had been inside it I had not yet seen it functioning.	3825.467078937395
I wished to prepare myself but did not even know what sort of clothes I ought to be wearing.	17134.941264077064
I did not despair, however; far from it!	1135.5590090398084
I was constantly searching for clues around the neighborhood of the hall.	1277.3041646258034
Though only a relatively short walk separated it from my own part of town, its character was wholly foreign to me.	33844.18561312929
Large warehouses flanked the street on which the hall fronted.	16386.206970800704
The river was only a few blocks away but an unbroken line of piers prevented me from seeing it.	26691.269036127473
Sometimes I noticed the tops of ships' masts and funnels reaching above the pier roofs.	20144.388362233225
The sounds issuing from beyond- winches whirring, men shouting- indicated great activity and excited me.	50809.69614923541
The hall, on the other hand, appeared lifeless and deserted on these long waterfront afternoons.	5925.572935422821
It resembled nothing I'd ever seen before.	9420.322954826828
Its front was windowless, but irregularities in the masonry might be an indication that windows, now blinded, had once looked out upon the street.	78672.67137181363
I kept circling the block hoping to see, from the street behind it, the rear of the hall.	7364.192245760778
But it was not a tall structure and other buildings concealed it.	1353.0400315331
For weeks I wandered about this neighborhood of warehouses and garages, truck terminals and taxi repair shops, gasoline pumps and longshoremen's lunch counters, yet never did I cease to feel myself a stranger there.	148846.53847396717
I returned to the hall, despite my dislike for the clerk.	4619.557658590487
As I had expected, he insisted that my visits to the hall would do nothing to further the process of my application.	10107.707329193372
Meanwhile spring had passed well into summer.	5693.689019132438
At last, when I put it to him directly, the clerk was forced to admit that the delay in my case was unusual.	5830.9170220185415
When I asked him what, if anything, I could do about it, he surprised me by referring me to the director of the hall.	479.13971625343305
I could consult this personage on any weekday morning, though not before ten o'clock.	4929.3937498247105
The clerk impressed this upon me that I should not arrive in the hall before ten o'clock.	4212.637091838979
When I went for my interview with the director I saw why.	7260.916535283556
Although it was dark as usual I could see that the hall had only recently contained a great many people.	2353.078372684064
Cigarette butts littered the floor.	2467.8812673662137
The big fans were going, drawing from the large room the remnants of stale smoke which drifted about in pale strata underneath the ceiling.	51719.205961109496
I had felt the draft they were making while mounting the stairs.	2559.092712677459
The staircase itself seemed still to be echoing the heavy footfalls of many men.	17484.71697124364
I stopped by the counter.	1548.7697031105324
No one was behind it, but in the rear wall of the office I noticed, for the first time, a door which had been left partially open.	4457.330571212666
Past it I could see part of a desk, a flag in a corner, a rug on the floor.	5770.912833375104
The director's office.	466.30379860704693
I rapped my knuckles on the counter.	17083.61799196874
The director came to the door.	71.65555603780533
I was at once disappointed, although just what I had expected him to look like I could not have explained.	4198.74388772517
He was a man in his late forties, with graying hair, of medium height; he looked dapper in a lightweight summer suit, brown silk tie and green-tinted soft collar.	51337.41934881289
He wore perforated, white-topped shoes; they somehow made me expect to see him launch into a vaudeville tapdance routine any moment.	36097.86312210409
But he came toward me sedately enough, showed me around the counter, offered me a seat inside his office, then walked to a file cabinet and got out my application.	100289.29456705465
I had the impression that he had read my forms, perhaps several times.	1058.498413985472
He did not look at them now.	116.46748452057042
As he lowered himself on the chair behind his desk I wondered what this dapper, slightly ridiculous man could possibly have to do with the workings of the hall.	18185.588833986996
He spoke, in a voice as immaculate as his appearance.	1811.5358215421436
Why had I registered?	2072.6798234637913
Begging my pardon, he must express his astonishment over seeing a person of my background applying at the hall.	38383.69533603396
He had looked over my forms and was impressed by what he had seen there; indeed, my scholastic qualifications were such that he, a college graduate himself, must envy me them.	39371.93524597396
Was I sure, he asked, that I knew what I was applying for?	8589.673299894912
What sort of men I would come into contact with, at the hall?	6798.191965717444
These questions did not surprise me; I felt certain that the director, like the afternoon clerk, seldom moved beyond the counter, that the hall, to them, was a jungle, a dark and unwelcome place.	62770.7516708027
Though I doubted that he would understand me, I told the director my motives for applying.	28266.467951481325
I had always, I said, hankered after working hard with my hands.	2156.5900854761217
This desire, I went on, growing voluble as my conviction was aroused, had mounted at such a rate recently that I now found its realization necessary not only to my physical but also to my spiritual wellbeing.	72478.85622632224
To this effect I had already severed all connections which bound me to my former existence.	23599.0056605729
The flat, hard cap was small, but he thrust it to the back of his head.	1159.7474160167155
"Tie him up".	688.1188909230515
"Hell with it".	599.03254789796
Before they could guess his intention Rankin stepped forward and swung the guard's own gun against the uncovered head, hard.	72059.48430304177
The man went over without sound, falling to the bare floor.	9885.670842670928
Barton said harshly, "Why did you do that"?	32180.473631730714
Rankin sneered at him.	1345.4886529514984
"What did you want me to do, kiss him?	1745.0486902567009
He dumped me in solitary twice".	1109.464103692402
Barton caught the lighter man's shoulder and swung him around.	37213.046652560304
"Let's get one thing straight, you and me.	2456.674980390621
The only reason we brought you was to get Miller out.	6716.511223316587
If you ever try anything without my orders I'll kill you".	4919.409901812749
Fred Rankin looked at him.	354.42593538862553
It seemed to Barton that the green eyes mocked him, the thin-lipped smile held insolence, but he had no time to waste now.	10790.15913872053
"Come on.	180.1599224993543
Let's move".	202.87562032485212
They filed out through the guard-room door, into the paved square.	30454.829316949956
There were three other men within this prison whom Barton would have liked to liberate, but they were in other cell blocks.	6995.945165625923
There was no chance.	46.72936058946542
They moved slowly, toward the main gate, following the wall.	2565.002294305643
There was no moon.	77.12030124571591
They had chosen this night purposely.	2179.6723686456025
They reached the guard house without alerting the men on the walls above, and Powers slipped through the door.	6187.0435131435715
Two men were on duty inside, playing pinochle, relaxed.	5460.581836914022
They looked up in surprise as Powers came in.	1295.237245284726
"What are you doing out of the block"?	3714.3183737068034
"It's Curtiss", he said, naming the man Rankin had hit.	12256.280111307926
"I've got to have help".	64.40095922120838
They stared at him.	269.2719562517039
The sergeant in charge climbed to his feet.	1045.1324804151855
"What's wrong with him"?	909.8171209346609
"He's having some kind of a fit".	1440.1353027632558
The sergeant turned to the door.	174.77795232436554
As he passed through it Barton shoved his gun against the man's side.	10828.747543412706
"One sound and you're dead".	1409.364251542675
The sergeant froze.	1678.91470258953
Powers had not followed.	5020.1433698596165
Powers was covering the remaining guard.	12020.922755735279
The man half-reached for the cord of the alarm bell.	9790.862525500423
Powers knocked his arm aside.	8056.157115555677
Deliberately, with none of Rankin's viciousness, he laid the barrel of his gun alongside the guard's head.	132677.5246027138
They were free.	68.64722831146803
Even Barton could not quite believe it.	6495.335778580353
It had gone without a hitch.	2085.669435581665
They slid through the wicket in the big gate, ghosted across the dark ground.	37014.93969842691
Five minutes later they reached the horses.	3716.239678403518
Barton was relieved to see that Carl Dill and Emmett Foster had brought extra mounts.	75259.93011711298
He had been worried that with Miller and Rankin added to the escape party they would be short.	15994.533640573924
No one hurried.	583.0820419261842
They walked the horses, heading along the river, Barton and Emmett Foster in the lead, seven men riding quietly through the night.	39442.718604196234
The only thing which would have attracted attention was that two wore the uniform of prison guards, three the striped suits of convicts.	72922.27415176842
Five miles.	198.09080414407276
In a small grove against the river they halted, turning deep into the protection of the trees.	3610.727699398052
Foster had brought extra clothing also.	10805.017325515566
A good man, Emmett.	1392.714646775452
He had been one of the original Night Riders, one who had escaped the trial.	528.1899618469145
It was to him that Barton had sent Carl Dill on Dill's release from the prison.	4130.306359975153
Clyde Miller was crying softly to himself, shedding his striped suit and fumbling into the nondescript butternut pants, the worn brown shirt.	343805.36389651854
Kid Boyd was unusually silent, Rankin watchful, a few paces apart.	37931.33623470698
Barton finished his dressing and extended his hand to Powers.	99814.1585575792
"I won't even try to thank you".	380.3898657405748
The ex-prison guard was embarrassed.	10016.170868151376
He said in a studied voice, "I didn't do it for you.	628.5634388192207
I did it for the valley.	209.80141375628335
You're the only man the Night Riders will follow.	476.807751002628
We've been starving and I don't like to starve".	3309.4089621408293
Barton turned away, his eyes falling upon Rankin beside his horse.	34698.408811948684
"Good luck".	223.97279412527848
The murderer lifted his head.	157.51395843338108
"Meaning you want me to ride out"?	33567.02280796402
"You aren't one of us.	233.52582918748485
There's nothing for you here".	464.15926713501636
"I got no place to go".	155.61221439209837
Barton hesitated.	6886.910637010236
He did not trust Rankin, his violent temper, his killer instinct.	5933.9088837330955
But ten years in prison had taught him realities.	14527.327974033915
They were in a fight, outweighed in both numbers and money.	1291.953076025926
It was all right to put a bunch of ranchers onto horses, to call them Night Riders, to set out to attack the largest mining combination the country had ever seen if all they wanted was adventure.	43289.625973890994
But if they really hoped to succeed they needed professionals, men who knew how to use a gun against men, who would match the killers on the other side.	6426.708587057416
"Your choice", he said briefly, and turned to Kid Boyd.	9899.471767742185
"Bury those uniforms so they won't be found".	4758.133290978541
Then Barton touched Carl Dill's arm and moved off, up the river bank.	13816.642206475026
He wanted a careful, uninterrupted report from Dill on the conditions in the valley.	4140.110786221343
They squatted on their heels in the deep mud and Dill found a cigar in his breast pocket, passing it over silently.	15468.932491569436
He too knew the agony of going for weeks, sometimes months without the solace of tobacco.	44352.60622329366
Mitchell Barton drew in the fragrance deeply, letting the smoke lie warm and soothing in his throat for a moment before he exhaled.	78173.03603518952
Through the gloom he could not see the man beside him clearly but he knew him thoroughly.	5934.553411062897
For his first five years in prison, they had shared a cell.	1024.0485121347576
Carl Dill was neither a rancher nor a valley man.	13347.5650085672
He had been the auditor for the mining syndicate, and he had stolen fifty thousand dollars of the syndicate's money.	10186.638360493671
He had done time for the theft.	2284.1973312076993
The one thing they had in common was their hatred.	2751.5467820305225
Both hated Donald Kruger.	3777.6911695074987
It had drawn them together, and since his release from prison Dill had worked tirelessly to effect this night's escape.	16868.919623657515
He said now, "I've got the perfect headquarters set up.	1170.9803411787586
The old Haskell mine".	404.005184754084
Mitch Barton knew the place.	8056.155355067242
Twenty years before a group of Easterners had bought out the Haskell claims in the rocky hills south of Grass Valley.	33271.51211255447
They had spent a million dollars, carving in a road, putting up buildings, drilling their haulage tunnel.	42155.34023500491
Then the vein had petered out and the whole project had been abandoned.	7571.0103950022285
"The road's washed badly", said Dill, "but there's a trail you can get over with a horse.	16549.5532411943
A company of cavalry couldn't come in there if two men were guarding that trail".	30328.45496550127
Barton nodded.	1422.1706732466657
"How do the valley people feel"?	1140.7336744966015
"As mad as ever.	300.7695076573409
But Kruger's men keep them off balance, and they don't trust me.	5502.7565911945885
I'm an outsider.	399.7544080312858
When they learn you're in the hills though, they'll rally, don't worry about that".	18248.920130962386
Barton waited for a long moment, then asked the question which lay always uppermost in his mind.	39026.0997353521
"My boy.	152.39537287064982
Did you find him"?	367.29223076062846
Dill was silent as if he hated to answer, and Barton had a cold, sick feeling of apprehension.	129901.56583893773
"He's in Morgan's Ferry".	587.1634231636518
Barton half-straightened in surprise.	35827.71117471326
"What's he doing there"?	1491.8761047325781
Again Dill hesitated.	3617.6962238161086
"Dealing faro".	6886.910637010236
"Dealing faro?	20786.28634948607
How come"?	36.38612299022018
"Your sister-in-law has the faro bank in Cap Ayres' saloon".	18476.354497546716
Barton cursed under his breath.	8056.158964073927
After another long pause he asked, "How many people know who they are"?	2899.2794228313296
"Everyone.	183.80301562074501
Your cousin Finley saw to that.	1143.159801193645
He's quite a rat, you know.	2114.445365796452
He sold out to Kruger's men.	2809.222021564251
He's informed them of everything you've ever written him.	4207.045442570146
He wants your ranch".	255.57479008788394
Barton stood up.	2845.915546024266
He said tensely, "All right.	523.6826242189279
Let's go get the boy".	197.27615890612086
Dill had come up also.	8056.155551429161
"I was afraid of this.	16.10333322019012
I almost didn't tell you".	1554.698646570164
"If you hadn't I'd have killed you".	1661.8995889466876
Dill's voice tightened.	11770.304497228983
"But you can't ride into the Ferry.	1210.5287873433638
That's what they'll expect you to do.	249.92427583747573
They'll be there waiting for you.	66.714914587587
I understand how you feel about the child h".	2818.2171067923027
"The hell you do".	193.2313673913865
Barton's voice was rougher than Dill had ever heard it.	16143.96104540846
"I never saw him.	3.3873602565528094
My wife died in childbirth after I was sent away.	3390.8654094015196
"I can't leave him there.	580.7107459241905
Donald Kruger would like nothing better than to hold him as hostage, and I wouldn't entrust a snake to his tender care.	73535.4470371228
I've got to get the boy.	11.122139794804342
Let's ride".	1185.1164333164534
CHAPTER TWO BARTON'S MEN CUT the telegraph wires in half a dozen places, carrying away whole sections to make repairs more difficult.	77397.19946811603
It was over an hour before their escape was discovered, but still the news that Barton was free flashed across the central portion of the state.	5689.1983591989065
It reached Donald Kruger in his massive home in Burlingame.	18428.613173130252
It reached the mines at North San Juan and Bloomfield.	9502.502815293483
It brought men out of bed and sent them into hurried conferences.	4956.743808472747
For everyone involved knew that the whole valley was a powder keg, and Mitchell Barton the fuse which could send it into explosive violence.	81180.17633557972
Creighton Hague sat in his office above the Ione pit.	30058.587866465627
The office was of logs, four rooms, each heated by an iron stove.	29873.247339605427
The building was dwarfed by the scene outside.	2389.5460694462963
There a dozen giant monitors played their seventy-five-foot jets of water against the huge seam of tertiary gravel which was the mountainside.	93235.4655381359
The gravel was the bed of an ancient river, buckled in some prehistoric upheaval of earth.	22829.66552842979
It was partially cemented by ages and pressure, yet it crumpled before the onslaught of the powerful streams, the force of a thousand fire hoses, and with the gold it held washed down through the long sluices.	90348.48039096622
A million dollars' of gold a month.	1950.474173122917
A million tons of rock and soil and brush.	5689.526942121397
The monitors ran twenty-four hours each day.	2652.703670231846
Their roar, like the swelling volume of a hundred tornadoes could be heard for miles.	21193.2143463456
Hague, like all who worked near the pits, was partly deafened from the constant assault against his eardrums.	179716.50095124447
He was a big man, wearing a neat flannel shirt against the cold foothill air.	2602.550150867935
Fat showed in loose rolls beneath the shirt.	21645.946723794335
Ten years older than Mitch Barton, he had clawed his way up from mucker in the pits to manager of the operation.	28517.99877825449
He was proud of his accomplishments, proud of his job, proud that Donald Kruger and his associates trusted him.	15072.345426134285
He lived and breathed for the mining company.	2154.557851259136
No man could have reached his spot nor held it without being ruthless, and Hague had made a virtue of ruthlessness all of his life.	35365.56042923124
There came a ghost of noise at the office door and Hague swung to see Kodyke in the entrance from the outer room.	87444.63534554276
Hague had never accustomed himself to Kodyke.	46700.52584867062
The man was tall, thin, with a narrow face and a too-large nose.	11199.875321897267
The eyes always held Hague, eyes of a dead man, lidless as a lizard's, with the fixed intensity of a cobra.	62623.2341053692
Even Hague was repelled by the machinelike deadliness that was Kodyke.	47647.409273069235
He knew nothing about the man's history.	319.6440371230552
Kodyke had appeared at the mine one day bearing a letter from Kruger.	127081.98456862256
Kodyke was to head the dread company police.	23513.894395487132
He ran the change rooms.	325.05148123293947
He threw out the hi-graders.	1227.0346086171267
He supervised the cleanups and handled the shipments of raw gold which each week went out to San Francisco.	22481.9357882652
Hague squeezed down his uneasy dislike.	12020.926574848147
He pulled open the top drawer of his desk and drew out a tintype.	25738.788328773186
"This is Mitchell Barton.	903.4766398944068
He broke out of Folsom last night.	439.6809730229328
Apparently he bribed one of the guards.	2785.4580561875646
We want him back there or we want him dead".	4582.751754002792
Kodyke took the picture in a lean hand, studying it thoughtfully.	115636.29994098276
"Dangerous"?	11318.63465748144
"Dangerous, yes.	688.2858169685782
You know how the ranchers in the valley are.	1577.4564564683935
They blame us for all their troubles.	3287.77085122393
Ten years ago they blew up some of our ditches.	19495.091886670278
It cost us a hundred thousand dollars and thirty days lost time to fix them.	12523.795624375962
We don't want Barton's Night Riders loose again".	1753.9170137115907
The gunman nodded, slipping the picture into his breast pocket, saying nothing.	31223.034404899412
Normally Hague wasted no words, but now he found himself unable to stop their flow although he knew Kodyke was aware of all he said.	22551.101234993832
If she sensed any unusual preoccupation on the part of her mother, she did not comment upon it.	1970.2757155166862
After they had finished eating, Melissa took Sprite the kitten under her arm- "so that Auntie Grace can teach it about the whistle"- and climbed into the station wagon beside her mother.	61806.345686569424
She had offered to walk, but Pamela knew she would not feel comfortable about her child until she had personally confided her to the care of the little pink woman who chose to be called "Auntie".	118430.2296532945
When they reached their neighbor's house, Pamela said a few polite words to Grace and kissed Melissa lightly on the forehead, the impulse prompted by a stray thought- of the type to which she was frequently subject these days- that they might never see one another again.	94033.52151756415
Then she turned the station wagon around and headed it back down the hill, with the village as her ostensible destination.	12106.760391518459
As she drove, she thought about her plan.	3647.9117175802685
It was really quite simple.	344.55139305930226
So simple, in fact, that it might even work- although Pamela, now, in her new frame of mind, was careful not to pretend too much assurance.	11253.909113268592
That mistake, she thought, had cost her dearly these past few days, and she wanted to avoid falling into any more of the traps that the mountain might set for her.	45213.742837650534
She must be cautious so as not to alert the scheming forest.	13894.752964357722
When the station wagon drew abreast of the dusty dirt road that led up to the porch of the Culver house, Pamela turned the wheel, guiding the car to its familiar parking spot close to the house, and stopped.	52316.082527891675
All of her movements were careful and methodical, partaking of the stealth of a criminal who has plotted his felony for months in advance and knows exactly which step to take next in the course of the final execution of his crime.	86077.87324536649
She locked the ignition, removed the keys, stepped out of the car and went into the house.	9712.186834946371
Here, she dropped the keys on a small table beside the door and went upstairs to her bedroom.	22671.797145823886
On her bureau lay a small, brass ornament of simple design and faded engraving- an object which, Pamela believed now, had been the property of her great-grandfather, Major Hiram Munroe Culver.	78097.23132613904
He had belonged to this land and, perhaps, had desecrated it- and this was the only material symbol that remained of him.	3857.076431721763
If she, Pamela, were being held responsible for his crimes, then hers must be the final act of expiation.	11708.073074324879
She would return this symbol to the mountain, as one pours seed back into the soil every Spring h or as ancient fertility cults demand annual human sacrifice.	55424.43866947018
Slowly and thoughtfully, she slipped the ornament into the pocket of her slacks, moved down the stairs and out of the house.	3793.3123330121384
There was only one place where the mountain might receive her- that unnamed, unnameable pool harbored in its secret bosom.	19103.938263941
Atonement, if atonement were possible, could only be made at that sacred, sacrificial basin.	53539.792240582065
It was there that she would have to enact her renunciation, beg forgiveness.	1739.5744463198273
Perhaps it was insane, Pamela thought.	1017.8020571659982
Perhaps it was all a vividly conceived dream.	524.6447454410903
But she was caught in it, and she faced the terrible possibility that, if it were a dream, it was one from which she might never awaken.	8319.674548382802
Facing the forest now, she who had not dared to enter it before, walked between two trees at random and headed in what she believed was the direction of the pool.	25187.887388349933
She remembered little of her previous journey there with Grace, and she could but hope that her dedication to her mission would enable her to accomplish it.	110701.05116190575
The forest was open and freely welcoming, extending an enchanted hand.	17507.586901888415
The ground was covered with soft pine needles and the slope was gentle.	20344.96747815354
Birds chirped and chattered in the trees and the sun, all dewy-eyed and soft, caressed her shoulders warmly from time to time.	24796.887579470324
It was not, thought Pamela, such an evil place after all.	1280.601153434378
No wonder Melissa responded so completely to its beckoning.	13963.143674990577
Perhaps she had no reason to fear these trees that whispered their secrets above her head as she passed.	9612.19032543405
Was it not possible, after all, that the forest was in league with her and her child h that its sympathy lay with the Culvers h that she had erred in failing to understand this?	25545.56493213718
Pamela felt calm and peaceful as she walked along.	29053.700585571645
The slight flutter that had disturbed the motion of her heart when she entered the forest was gone now, and even the dim groves of trees through which she occasionally passed did not reawaken her fear.	94174.99261299257
She regarded them as signs that she was nearing the glen she sought, and she was glad to at last be doing something positive in her unenunciated, undefined struggle with the mountain and its darkling inhabitants.	129787.96967099675
Having persisted too long in deliberate ignorance and denial of the forces that threatened her, Pamela was relieved now to admit their potency and to be taking definite steps toward grappling with them.	66119.98813842764
A few days ago, she would have thought such an expedition as this utterly ridiculous; today, on the contrary, it seemed utterly reasonable.	11154.72597489382
She did not pause to consider what she would do if her plan should fail; she directed all of her mental and physical energy toward achieving this one goal.	70605.50987922703
If, as she walked, her steps fumbled from time to time, she chose to ignore that omen.	9926.315432111758
If the slope grew steeper and the groves more dim, she tried not to heed.	40391.067405994974
Success depended upon maintaining her equanimity; she must be poised and proud and unafraid in order to prove to the mountain that she was in earnest.	34892.38014960391
The forest took on an impersonal aspect.	2869.5655413673217
It did not care what sort of person prowled its woods, plucked at its bark or stripped the berries from its bushes.	38970.16083117038
Unconcerned, indifferent, unmotivated, the forest was simply there- fighting man's depredations with more abundant growth and man's follies with its own musical evening laughter.	122660.60828992314
Red man or white man, pacifist or killer, the forest would accept them all- knowing that it could thrive equally well on slaughter and beneficence; knowing that its ageless mass would always dwarf the short span of time allotted to any man.	334599.838009094
Pamela shook her head.	1345.4158043950306
She must not think about time.	795.3276304261778
That was another one of those traps.	3588.7349742130746
In her grim pursuit of tranquillity, Pamela focused her thoughts on her husband.	9898.507056087863
If, when this was all over, she found the words to tell him about it, she wondered if he would ever understand.	6298.74990860734
How could he comprehend her need when he himself was innocent?	25076.643872986322
Indian ghosts would not impinge upon his nights, nor would his days be haunted by the dimly-outlined, ill-conceived figure of her benighted ancestor.	150910.92894442184
His bright, daylight mind would whistle away such images; they would not dare to face his scoffing.	93280.25540451678
Pamela was glad Jim was nowhere near.	45750.68230100334
His presence would have interfered with her duty.	4601.838611123524
The mountainside grew steeper and she slipped once or twice on the smooth pine needles.	23674.687470406094
The trees huddled more closely together, their limbs and leaves intertwined in a coarse curtain against the sun.	28540.848729646954
Bushes and vines abetted the rocks in forming thorny detours for the struggling stranger, and without the direct light of the sun to act as compass, Pamela could no longer be positive of her direction.	104309.33165269933
Nevertheless, she continued to move upward.	117.30870846900643
She was sure she would reach the pool by climbing, and she clung to that belief despite the increasing number of obstacles.	9475.71278673859
The forest had become an alien world where she strove, alone, unprotected, unguided, to deal with whatever hindrances were offered.	56517.28302687706
It was a bold, dark castle of pine boughs that stood like a medieval fortress, eclipsing the sun and human time.	21861.747094952258
At one and the same time, she was within it but still searching for the drawbridge that would give her entry.	7718.815264666939
Silence came into the forest- a solid being that clapped its hand over the murmuring mouths of the birds and the whispered comfort of the trees.	143829.71662202844
Silence walked at Pamela's side, its presence numbingly close, yet too far for her to hear.	54600.63040357023
Silence stood in front of her, waiting, and in back of her, blocking her retreat.	30029.67266059064
She stumbled over the root of a tree that protruded maliciously above the earth.	10494.616217257388
In spite of her attempt to preserve her balance, she fell, bruising her arm on a naked stone.	22843.666444407794
For a moment, she could not catch her breath and then, her breath returning in short, frightened spasms, she lifted herself to her feet laboriously.	39468.576124762236
She started to brush the dirt and bits of leaves off her clothes.	17969.624840791243
Her arm bled slightly, and the offended skin cried out in pain.	27503.71398181973
She looked around.	21.594477331062198
She was bewildered.	678.6875663737709
She seemed to have come such a long distance- too far for her destination which had wilfully been swallowed up in the greedy gloom of the trees.	24090.75567122424
She stood quite still, trying to focus upon a direction in which to turn, a path to follow, a clue to guide her.	31358.076435611052
She was standing in a thick grove.	889.5260394797668
The trees were crowded so closely together that their branches overlapped, virtually shutting out the sun completely.	30978.710738856713
The earth smelled moist and pungent as it might in a cave deprived of the cleansing effect of the sun's rays.	80457.1075378858
She had the feeling that, under the mouldering leaves, there would be the bodies of dead animals, quietly decaying and giving their soil back to the mountain.	12858.584544204226
The thought made Pamela shudder.	2020.508193960416
A terrible chill swept through the grove.	12951.767974386197
Not a breeze exactly, but a pocket of icy air that settled with a loathsome familiarity upon the deep confines of the grove, catching Pamela in a leering embrace.	142448.02731846977
There was a peculiar density about it, a thick substance that could be sensed but never identified, never actually perceived.	19819.07720705753
Where before had she felt or dreamt or imagined such a scene?	38931.3466755439
She already knew this unwholesome, chilling atmosphere that was somehow grotesquely alive.	23430.417995586176
It enclosed her clammy hands and twined around her ankles.	6525.66241597877
It crept into the open neck of her blouse and slid down her body, seeping into her flesh through all the quivering pores of her skin.	153635.38125354613
It crawled across her breasts, suffocating the life in her nipples.	52695.37354570348
It circled her thighs, exploring with its icy tentacles.	36724.31072968315
It entered her body with the ghastly intimacy of an incubus, and its particles, spreading, creeping, crawling, joined themselves into steel bands that constricted her knees so tightly that they ached; stifled her lungs so that her breath came in harsh gasps; clutched her throat and sucked up the moisture in her mouth so that her tongue was dry and hard and stuck to the roof of her mouth and her teeth were clenched together in the rigid fixture of her jaws.	441450.50241807644
She had to get away from here before this demoniac possession swallowed up the liquid of her eyes and sank into the fibers of her brain, depriving her of reason and sight.	43017.68727218739
But she did not know which way to go.	181.09558927470442
The shadows of the trees engulfed her, foreclosing every possible exit from the grove.	34568.343462617195
She had been snared here by a vile sensuality that writhed around her throat in ever-tightening circles.	25675.79242904902
She could not scream, for even if a sound could take shape within her parched mouth, who would hear, who would listen?	52287.002986402935
Does the mountain listen?	1975.4287520256532
Pamela groped blindly.	11436.518175240752
She had to escape.	19.5434184886655
She had to move in some direction- any direction that would take her away from this evil place.	15324.200211678393
She thrust forward through the shadows and the trees that resisted her and tried to fling her back.	54098.35091100713
Her own body protested, aching painfully where the blood in her veins had congealed, where cold demon wisps still clung and caressed.	120151.4040536563
Every movement she made seemed unnecessarily noisy.	11571.442581889809
Twigs cracked loudly under her feet; bushes swished and scratched at her slacks; tree branches snapped as she pushed them ruthlessly away from her.	85110.86784934872
Miraculously, she found exactly the right statement.	19351.83143227548
She began it deliberately, so that none of her words would be lost on him.	9978.120656027852
"I want to tell you something Thomas DeMontez Lord.	1127.2640427232823
I'm well aware that you've got a pedigree as long as my leg, and that I don't amount to anything.	5189.4274615114155
But"- "But it don't matter a-tall", Lord supplied fondly.	40428.85297328854
"To me you'll always be the girl o' my dreams, an' the sweetest flower that grows".	35350.177658739085
Beaming idiotically, he pooched out his lips and attempted to kiss her.	34741.83304925248
She yanked away from him furiously.	7691.891230410707
"You shut up!	615.2020000643521
shu-tt up-pp!	35831.01685946034
I've got something to say to you, and by God you're going to listen.	339.7746374121515
Do you hear me?	302.2782888054371
You're going to listen"!	143.241655601262
Lord nodded agreeably.	7718.569284676436
He said he wanted very much to listen.	164.7991312458631
He knew that anything a brainy little lady like her had to say would be plumb important, as well as pleasin' to the ear, and he didn't want to miss a word of it.	2949.1175618321
So would she mind speaking a little louder?	7072.351327610894
"I think you stink, Tom Lord!	2648.1570901088
I think you're mean and hateful and stupid, and- louder"?	8857.485995850542
said Joyce.	376.3385307758659
"Uh-huh.	1669.7969158219107
So I can hear you while I'm checkin' the car.	3989.9290369141045
Looks like we might be in for a speck of trouble".	3748.072294597522
He opened the door and got out.	438.97646683123105
He waited at the car side for a moment, looking down at her expectantly.	10853.643108760089
"Well?	488.3238106138061
Wasn't you goin' to say somethin'"?	13849.10439478693
Then, helpfully, as she merely stared at him in weary silence, "Maybe you could write it down for me, huh?	48532.98597773591
Print it in real big letters, an' I can cipher it out later".	85740.60160794167
"Aah, go on", she said.	1375.2421060511099
"Just go the hell on".	1694.5601882306755
He grinned, nodded, and walked around to the front of the car.	1117.7629854876282
Lips pursed mournfully, he stared down at its crazily sagging left side.	64556.42650549251
Then he hunkered down on the heels of his handmade boots, peered into the orderly chaos of axle, shock absorber, and spring.	57493.70360078194
He went prone on his stomach, the better to pursue his examination.	2620.7511319963905
After a time, he straightened again, brushing the red Permian dust from his hands, slapping it from his six-dollar levis and his tailored, twenty-five-dollar shirt.	76290.15829987738
He wore no gun- a strange ommission for a peace officer in this country.	5548.06986121048
Never, he'd once told Joyce, had he encountered any man or situation that called for a gun.	10887.104619909007
And he really feels that way, she thought.	1954.4332830344883
That's really all he's got, all he is.	1978.0775116940072
Just a big pile of self-confidence in an almost teensy package.	4062.433752043956
If I could make myself feel the same way h She studied him hopefully, yearningly; against the limitless background of sky and wasteland it was easy to confirm her analysis.	32737.09253163864
Here in the God-forsaken place, the westerly end of nowhere, Tom Lord looked almost insignificant, almost contemptible.	62569.890301090534
He was handsome, with his coal-black hair and eyes, his fine-chiseled features.	16266.528110229892
But she'd known plenty of handsomer guys, and, conceding his good looks, what was there left?	25613.504205296413
He wasn't a big man; rather on the medium side.	3099.9461710696078
Neither was he very powerful of build.	1426.828242926052
He could move very quickly, she knew although he seldom found occasion to do so, but he was more wiry than truly strong.	9605.07789328497
And his relatively small hands and feet gave him an almost delicate appearance.	11679.290443281692
Just nothing, she told herself.	1234.2822463743873
Just so darned sure of himself that he puts the Indian sign on everyone.	28783.44652268129
But, by gosh, I want him and I'm going to have him!	3364.6992430597948
He caught her eye, came back around the car with the boot-wearer's teetering, half-mincing walk.	45510.034966448635
Why did these yokels still wear boots, anyway, when most had scarcely sat a horse in years?	52133.10121815333
He slid in at her side, tucked a cigar into his mouth, and politely proffered one to her.	30645.995783851835
"Oh, cut it out, Tom"!	648.960219254343
she snapped.	1517.080325932688
"Can't you stop that stupid clowning for even a minute"?	30653.726895020558
"This ain't your brand, maybe", Lord suggested.	8192.432525251805
"Or maybe you just don't feel like a cigar"?	18490.937110682222
"I feel like getting back to town, that's what I feel like!	5480.986040439215
Now, are you going to take me or am I supposed to walk"?	2627.3180799219977
"Might get there faster walkin'", Lord drawled, "seein' as how I got a busted front spring.	155428.4303568028
On the other hand, howsomever, maybe you wouldn't either.	898.8824751994007
I figger it's probl'y a sixty-five-mile walk, and I c'n maybe get this spring patched up in a couple of hours".	41512.97489716874
"How- with what?	1085.3469541954125
There's nothing out here but rattlesnakes".	3311.2362062746797
"Now, ain't it the truth"?	8139.611777776102
Lord laughed with secret amusement.	18502.205394487206
"Not a danged thing but rattlesnakes, so I reckon I'll get the boss rattler to help me".	22182.97877538121
"Tom!	332.12862543079865
For God's sake"!	105.82868466897784
"Looky".	3524.279832361616
He pointed, cutting her off.	822.5086333931572
"See that wildcat"?	2466.5419897236566
She saw it then, the distant derrick of the wildcat- a test well in unexplored country.	44294.371280711624
And even with her limited knowledge of such things, she knew that the car could be repaired there; sufficiently, at least, to get them back into town.	10807.101951094668
A wildcatter had to be prepared for almost any emergency.	2875.4795136596176
He had to depend on himself, since he was invariably miles and hours away from others.	4047.10000597913
"Well, let's get going", she said impatiently.	6035.7999635947035
"I"- She broke off, frowning.	3054.5171831405282
"What did you mean by that rattlesnake gag?	5112.033803686603
Getting the boss rattlesnake to help you"?	2955.9166893010965
"Why, I meant what I said", Lord declared.	1246.6081172118004
"What else would I mean, anyways"?	11426.338982654874
She looked at him, lips compressed.	166.38663810616572
Then, with a shrug of pretended indifference, she took a compact from her purse and went through the motions of fixing her make-up.	8447.324066899535
In his mood, it was the best way to handle him; that is, to show no curiosity whatsoever.	1055.8799801027496
Otherwise, she would be baited into a tantrum- teased and provoked until she lost control of herself, and thus lost still another battle in the maddening struggle of Tom Lord Vs Joyce Lakewood.	131815.01280166671
The car lurched along at a snail's crawl, the left-front mudguard banging and scraping against the tire, occasionally scraping against the road itself.	93091.03055198649
Lord whistled tunelessly as he fought the steering wheel.	20626.7649807617
He seemed very pleased with himself, as though some intricate scheme was working out exactly as he had planned.	12836.446882943163
Along with this self-satisfaction, however, Joyce sensed a growing tension.	4628.699152456301
It poured out of him like an electric current, a feeling that the muscles and nerves of his fine-drawn body were coiling for action, and that that action would be all that he anticipated.	29673.783241214453
Joyce had seen him like this once before- more than once, actually, but on one particularly memorable occasion.	29881.64425563064
That was the day that he had practically mopped up the main street of Big Sands with Aaron McBride, field boss for the Highlands Oil Gas Company.	24407.355449049148
Tom had been laying for Aaron McBride for a long time, just waiting to catch him out of line.	2747.516140258615
McBride gave him his opportunity when he showed up in town with a pistol on his hip.	59425.4300754871
He had a legitimate reason for wearing it.	1200.9957574409173
It was payday for Highlands, and he was packing a lot of money back into the oil fields.	12220.26357836523
Moreover, as long as the weapon was carried openly, the sheriff's office had made no previous issue of it.	5022.391161944236
"So what's this all about"?	4087.102871994789
he demanded, when Lord confronted him.	1246.609721827123
I'm not the only man in town with a gun, or the only one without a permit".	1301.4357232113541
It was the wrong thing to say.	14.023124917416553
By failing to do as he was told instantly- to take out a permit or return the gun to his car- he had played into Lord's hands.	34681.43629960363
The trouble was that he had virtually had to protest.	314.68638951033194
The deputy had forced him to by his manner of accosting him.	13829.057401078955
So, "How about it"?	248.08042216685462
he said.	3.376936803385834
"Why single me out on this permit deal"?	35157.31236871294
"Well, I'll tell you about that", Lord told him.	280.00691931495237
"We aim t' be see-lective, y'know?	82066.37851389797
Don't like to bother no one unless we have to, which I figger we do, in your case.	30445.815274512603
Figger we got to be plumb careful with any of you Highlands big shots".	134127.18821082282
McBride reddened.	6886.910637010236
He himself had heard that there was gangster money in the company, but that had nothing to do with him.	1424.715893858674
He was an honest man doing a hard job, and the implication that he was anything else was unbearable.	12623.835661802761
"Look, Lord", he said hoarsely.	8859.552623746697
"I know you've got a grudge against me, and maybe I can't blame you.	2354.012254417787
You think that Highlands swindled you and I helped 'em do it.	10472.78887493741
But you're all wrong, man!	248.48360171964944
I'm no lawyer.	61.063092022199704
I just do what I'm told, and"- "Uh-huh.	5930.28458000772
An' that could mean trouble with a fella that's workin' for crooks.	48574.02112707189
So you get rid of that pistol right now, Mis-ter McBride.	19796.262022821862
You do that or take you out a permit right now".	3020.421778108255
McBride couldn't do either, of course.	2782.653032855447
Not immediately, as the deputy demanded.	3685.0798729140442
Not without a face-saving respite of at least a few minutes.	616.2326281736562
To do so would make his job well-nigh impossible.	1589.1307224661825
Oil-field workers were a rough-tough lot.	32928.52674589857
How could he exert authority over them- make them toe the line, as he had to- if he knuckled under to this small-town clown?	50276.8865161061
"I'll get around to it a little later", he mumbled desperately.	816.8444031560197
"Just as soon as I go to the bank, and"- "Huh-uh.	4268.360791567257
Now, Mis-ter McBride", said Lord, and he laid a firmly restraining hand on the field boss's arm.	73916.66783798886
It was strictly the deputy's game, but McBride had gone too far to throw in.	11540.858153619054
Now, he could only play the last card in what was probably the world's coldest deck.	12448.34763992656
He flung off Lord's hand and attempted to push past him, inadvertently shoving him into a storefront.	119169.18746574149
It was practically the last move that McBride made of his own volition.	27113.15866543034
Lord slugged him in the stomach, so hard that the organ almost pressed against his spine.	19573.61708204276
Then, as he doubled, gasping, vomiting the breakfast he had so lately eaten, Lord straightened him with an uppercut.	79354.88424275866
A rabbit punch redoubled him.	1573.074005169121
And then there was a numbing blow to the heart, and another gut-flattening blow to the stomach h But he couldn't keep up with them.	5674.505531231849
No more could he defend himself against them.	981.7151195767694
He seemed to be fighting not one man but a dozen.	821.5048942957503
And he could no longer think of face-saving, of honor, but only of escape.	1585.670925130194
Why, he's going to kill me, he thought wildly.	1452.0471934350971
I meant him no harm.	1782.0231961639317
I've given willful hurt to no man.	1613.3011675384769
I was just doing my job, just following orders, and for that he's going to kill me.	12136.074250101457
Beat me to death in front of a hundred people.	2227.2805352769687
Somehow more terrible than the certainty that he was about to die was the knowledge that Lord would probably not suffer for it the murder would go unpunished.	100459.6037055901
He, McBride, would be cited as in the wrong, and he, Lord, would go scot-free, an officer who had only done his duty, though perhaps too energetically.	39723.8629713494
McBride staggered into the street, flopped sprawling in the stinging dust.	63179.852680767384
Fear-maddened, fleeing the lengthening shadow of death, he scrambled to his feet again.	26691.238838629168
He couldn't see; he was long past the point of coherent thinking.	11223.655482554257
Dimly, he heard laughter, hoots of derision, but he could not read the racket properly.	20375.533900664723
He could not grasp that Lord had withdrawn from the fight minutes ago, and that his leaden arms were flailing at nothing but the air.	11285.647716001893
He hated them too much to understand- the people of this isolated law-unto-itself world that was Lord's world.	38367.09868237433
This, he was sure, was the way they would act; laughing at a dying man, laughing as a man was beaten to death.	3486.1778860600793
And nothing would be done about it.	123.61496037176664
Nothing unless h Donna!	3603.051499381005
Donna, his young wife, the girl who was both daughter and wife to him.	39772.59765178364
Donna was like he was.	2468.8047172328834
She lived by the rules, never compromising, never blinded or diverted by circumstance.	21580.566203148763
And Donna would- When he regained consciousness he was in Lord's house, in the office of Doctor Lord, the deputy's deceased father.	69424.92042615348
The Brannon outfit- known as the Slash-B because of its brand- reached Hondo Creek before sundown.	132287.85824207158
The herd was watered and then thrown onto a broad grass flat which was to be the first night's bedground.	30068.097050805693
Two of the new hands, a Mexican named Jose Amado and a kid known only as Laredo, were picked for the first trick of riding night herd.	44075.23053633302
The rest of the crew offsaddled their mounts and turned them into the remuda.	9270.8703625757
They got tin cups of coffee from the big pot on the coosie's fire, rolled and lighted brown-paper cigarettes, lounged about.	93283.4457783614
There was some idle talk, a listless discussion of this or that small happening during the day's drive.	16797.366875139487
But they deliberately avoided the one subject that had them all curious the failure of the boss's wife and son to join the outfit.	85014.17678191046
It especially bothered the older hands.	2949.6000338917675
The cook, Mateo Garcia, had arrived there long before the herd.	4915.0696382398455
He'd started a fire and put coffee on, and now was busy at the work board of his chuck wagon.	25326.93730124752
He was readying a batch of sourdough biscuits for the Dutch oven.	13736.585575696334
Supper would be ready within the hour.	4532.6335702815295
The Maguire family was setting up a separate camp nearby.	8843.048080545403
Billie had unhitched the mules from both Tom Brannon's and his father's wagon.	25951.60425222736
Hank had gathered wood for a cookfire, and his wife was busy at it now.	10890.995793095817
Conchita kept an eye on the twins and little Elena, trying to keep them from falling into the creek by which they persisted in playing.	38807.408273735375
Conchita nagged at the younger children, attempting without success to keep her thoughts off Tom Brannon.	196243.26599348136
Tom Brannon had caught up with the outfit shortly after the Maguires joined it, which had been at midday.	55974.7282023353
He'd come alone, without his wife and child.	700.7134443273607
He'd been in an angry mood Conchita had thought his face almost ugly with the anger in him.	5958.509763898172
She wondered what had taken place in town, between him and his wife.	1397.9904466385772
She wished that she could talk to her mother about it.	2381.0540359708784
Not that her mother knew what had happened, but they could speculate upon it.	3524.540541772383
But her mother would rebuke her if she mentioned it, and say that it was none of her concern.	3023.2267719962
"Pat, get out of that creek!	25355.149069504816
You too, Sean!	3247.8813469642623
Elena, you'll get mud all over your dress"!	22866.49122089289
Even as she called to the children, Conchita let her gaze seek Tom Brannon.	51802.97619937276
Tomas, she called him- as the Mexican hands did.	36445.91231875147
He was in earnest conversation with her father and the old vaquero, Luis Hernandez.	7163.071410575484
Whatever they are talking about?	1172.6438963766325
Conchita wondered.	6886.910637010236
It bothered her that she probably would never know.	4651.505961871818
Certainly, she wouldn't dare ask her father afterward.	3024.221604173798
He would tell her not to pry into grownups' affairs- as though she were a little kid like Elena!	8656.968319366555
At the moment, the three men were not saying much of anything.	289.55445719324206
They were sitting on their heels, rider-fashion, over by the still empty calf wagon.	10957.898156074329
Brannon was hunkered down with his broad back to the left rear wheel, with the other two facing him.	18966.567910628106
He held a cigarette in his right hand.	1017.5155207679028
It was burning away, forgotten.	842.7752092879243
His face was clouded with unhappiness.	1527.4930435037763
He'd told Hank Maguire and Luis Hernandez about his wife's refusal to come with him and about what he now intended to do.	12061.586297377531
They were considering it gravely, neither seeming to like what he planned.	12596.91522636353
Finally Hernandez said, "I could offer you advice, Tomas, but you wouldn't heed it".	41890.29149693047
"Let's hear it, anyway".	594.0769945407068
"Wait a little while.	345.1969976060552
Let Senora Brannon live in her father's house for a time.	3268.4012319710573
Give her time to miss you.	924.4047238195305
Maybe she will then come to you.	598.6376135954457
After all, you want the senora as much as you want the boy.	944.3565086991196
You need her even more than you need him".	718.5695960579228
"She won't change her mind", Brannon said.	3548.4311661487263
"John Clayton will see to that".	622.5520406879901
"But after a time away from you h".	285.4335086044105
"A year, Luis?	961.6009748991746
Five?	348.03076874606836
Ten?	328.78091787286615
How long should I wait"?	3216.6070689913595
"Maybe in a year, Tomas h".	1698.310753799738
"In a year she'll like living in Clayton's house too much to come back to me", Brannon said flatly.	25971.550102617744
"And the boy will be too much under his influence by then.	860.0793185400595
I've got to take Danny away from Clayton before I lose him altogether.	2539.5664318833087
Hell, in a year or five or ten, the boy will have forgotten me- his own father"!	24610.872266491617
"But to take him and leave his mother behind is not good".	2615.2508531057247
"In my place, you'd follow such advice as you give me"?	7244.060538527001
Hernandez looked suddenly uncertain.	5020.144267436018
"That I can't answer, for I can't imagine something like this happening to me.	6443.158994596196
Maybe I should withdraw my advice- no"?	23772.649635452613
Brannon looked at Hank Maguire.	26298.596627531337
"And you?	31.959790021717136
What would you do in my place"?	2673.958381870458
Hank shook his head.	123.6648680795445
"I don't know, Tom.	180.8097935164769
Like Luis, I can't see something like this happening to me.	5508.42153121847
With Maria and me, there's never any problem.	10603.139592773012
Where I go, she goes- and the kids with us.	6654.672175304836
You're going to need your woman.	69.61308536864573
And the boy will need his mother.	250.92466416442383
If you take the one, you'd better take both".	1751.6632366544
Brannon shook his head.	386.6440847211236
"I won't force Beth to come against her will.	4583.611014884246
But I'm going to have my son".	623.4372320220324
They were silent for a little while, each looking glum.	6263.822611218128
Finally Luis Hernandez said, "What must be, must be.	4808.936855599133
I am with you, of course, Tomas".	2139.6890673156795
And Hank Maguire added, "So am I, Tom".	33212.05026128812
"All right", Brannon said, rising.	3374.122077332505
"We'll ride out as soon as we've had chuck".	3297.405248088875
Brannon timed it so that they rode in an hour after nightfall.	18268.48647156659
They had for cover both darkness and a summer storm.	4072.549083574631
During much of the fifteen-mile ride they had watched a lurid display of lightning in the sky to the east.	7102.636534731655
Later, they'd heard the rumble of thunder and then, just outside Rockfork, they ran into rain.	10807.122857730883
Those who had slickers donned them.	538.2158963268351
The others put on old coats or ducking jackets, whichever they carried behind their saddle cantles.	47511.98475451696
There were seven of them, enough for a show of strength- to run a bluff.	14664.837962913149
It was to be nothing more than that.	5.3484536802083475
There was to be no gunplay.	1083.7931983568023
If the bluff failed and they ran into trouble, Brannon had told the others, they would withdraw- and he would come after his son another time.	36139.493402724256
He didn't want to put himself outside the law.	267.9285903012665
With him were Hank Maguire, Luis Hernandez, and Luis's son Pedro.	44642.87870049634
The Ramirez brothers were also along.	2989.965613522055
The seventh man was Red Hogan, a wiry little puncher with a wild streak and a liking for hell-raising.	94120.45238721397
They were all good men.	309.32641941767935
It was dark early, because of the storm.	639.233066158888
Also because of the storm, the streets of Rockfork were deserted.	14729.078386417284
Lighted windows glowed jewel-bright through the downpour.	71839.56078117325
They reined in before the town marshal's office, a box-sized building on Main Street.	10476.705723614248
A lamp burned inside, but Brannon, peering through the window, saw that the office was empty.	8371.804065971799
He'd hoped to catch Jesse Macklin there.	2001.917593342843
"Probably just stepped out", he said.	278.94957559297563
"Maybe to have supper.	611.918750709362
Red, come along.	186.74985410888743
The rest of you wait here".	341.94256453757265
With Red Hogan, he rode to the Welcome Cafe.	31105.66613049537
Hogan got down from the saddle and had a look inside.	13670.30997716397
"Not there", he said, getting back onto his horse.	2905.655747009568
"Maybe he's at the hotel".	231.5019941186462
They rode to the Rockfork House, a little farther along the opposite side of the street.	494.2068756775607
They reined in there, Brannon remaining in the saddle while Hogan went to look for Jesse Macklin in the hotel dining room.	50725.392252220896
Brannon had no slicker.	18248.6338611592
He'd put on his old brown corduroy coat and it was already soaked.	14548.914746411607
But he felt no physical discomfort.	540.9931816705342
He was only vaguely aware of the sluicing rain.	2846.0263356558007
He hardly noticed the blue-green flashes of lightning and the hard claps of thunder.	74100.45194921104
Hogan reappeared, stopped on the hotel porch, lifted a hand in signal.	68177.05731780779
Brannon dismounted and climbed the steps.	8479.440300148011
"He's finished eating", Hogan said.	3070.457136572252
"Sitting with a cup of coffee now.	1385.481584594079
It shouldn't be long".	1252.7836207879418
It seemed long, at least to Tom Brannon.	4172.373665233227
He and Hogan waited by the door, one to either side.	6333.186833751169
Macklin was the third man to come out, and he came unhurriedly.	6524.484887376814
He was puffing on a cigar, and he was turning up his coat collar against the rain.	12661.842216651481
It was not until he moved across the porch that he became aware of them, and then it was too late.	2531.3304819565037
They closed in fast, kept him from reaching inside his coat for his gun.	27832.64968326148
"Just come along", Brannon told him.	1976.7293728999257
"Don't start anything you can't finish".	2932.2812453817855
"Now, listen"- Macklin began.	1213.5147444124707
"We'll talk over at your office".	1118.9541409665944
"Brannon, I warn you"!	8057.163608601008
"Let's go, Marsh al", Brannon said, and took him by the arm.	2908.746755997135
Hogan gripped the lawman's other arm.	10805.01849912404
They escorted him down from the porch and through the rain to his office.	6480.542515055625
The other five Slash-B men followed them inside, crowding the small room.	10594.10261793211
His face was stiff with anger when they let go of his arms.	5273.838953099384
He looked at each of them in turn, Brannon last of all.	632.4656025896192
"I'll remember you", he said.	81.56638908677947
"Every last one of you.	292.91411695420595
As for you, Brannon"- "Put your gun on the desk, Marshal".	29588.062320697463
"Now, hold on, damn it; I won't"- Red Hogan's patience ran out.	19758.304309645424
He lifted the skirt of Macklin's coat, took his gun from its holster, tossed it onto the desk.	64262.47979957418
"Too much fooling around", he said.	161.1468364173212
"Don't press your luck, badge-toter".	17503.123409647604
Brannon said, "Now the key to the lockup, Marshal".	54640.50644913782
"Key"?	8911.218260358675
Macklin said.	1422.169809547823
"What for"?	203.60227099103872
"Can't you guess"?	2796.9564857522932
Brannon said.	1422.169809547823
"We're putting you where you won't come to harm.	2784.353733942375
Come on- the key.	1288.199988572388
Get it out"!	1442.0278313545248
"Damned if I will.	195.04261430468327
Brannon, you've assaulted a law officer and"- They moved in on him, crowded him from all sides.	45996.22406798975
No man laid a hand on him, but the threat of violence was there.	1093.5957400800928
His face took on a sudden pallor, became beaded with sweat, and he seemed to have trouble with his breathing.	26860.0866216287
He held out a moment longer, then his nerve gave under the pressure.	7106.612291984549
He swore, and said, "All right.	138.17511899290764
It's here in my pocket".	1329.8675319448348
"Get it out", Brannon ordered.	3233.894398726494
Then, as Macklin obeyed "Now let's go out back".	3712.517854036393
Resignedly, Macklin turned to the back door.	2461.939189026871
They followed him into the rain and across to the squat stone building fifty feet to the rear.	9299.845655916373
The door of the lockup was of oak planks and banded with strap iron.	14459.744065207547
It was secured by an oversized padlock.	4998.653156978718
Macklin balked again, not wanting to unlock and open the door.	4567.999284048002
They crowded him in that threatening way once more, forced him to give in.	3708.105246676058
Once the door was open, they crowded him inside the dark building.	8916.006694748125
He was uttering threats in a low but savage voice when they closed and padlocked the door.	10394.180841230269
They returned to the street, mounted their horses, rode through the rain to the big house on Houston Street.	34833.91698288403
Its windows glowed with lamplight.	5301.312885311103
Deputy Marshal Luke Harper still stood guard on the veranda, a forlorn, scarecrowish figure in the murky dark.	100976.0283367885
He came to the edge of the veranda, peered down at them with his hand on his gun.	832.1077700778299
"Don't try it", Brannon told him, dismounting and starting up the steps with his men following.	12107.84065583124
"Don't get yourself killed for something that doesn't concern you".	11819.313359443244
He strode past the now frightened man, entered the house.	2493.24233844967
Miguel and Arturo Ramirez remained on the veranda to keep Harper from interfering.	149554.9871053925
The others followed Brannon inside.	640.8036685868254
They trailed him across the wide hallway to the parlor, four roughly garbed and tough-looking men who probably had never before ventured into such a house.	85172.34647277032
They brought to it all the odors that clung to men like themselves, that of their own sweat, of campfire smoke, of horses and cattle.	15524.519784957922
They tracked mud on the oaken floor, on the carpet.	42589.80895134685
Their presence fouled the elegance of that room.	4622.208714758772
And their arrival caught John Clayton and Charles Ansley off guard.	7857.7609531419985
The author of the anonymous notes seemed to be all-knowing.	2984.0269628926508
For men who had left cattle alone after getting their first notices had received no second.	28243.969733029153
But the day of the deadline came and passed, and the men who had scoffed at the warnings laughed with satisfaction.	9964.704407554538
For, with a single exception, nothing had happened to them.	672.463586750385
The exception was an Iron Mountain settler named William Lewis.	5411.696795027846
After walking out to his corral that morning, he'd been amazed to see the dust puff up in front of his feet.	7487.794566309378
A split second later, the distant crack of a rifle had sounded.	16078.410193862755
He'd mounted up immediately and raced with a revolver ready toward the spot from which he'd estimated the shot had come.	18965.909038076257
But he had found all of the thickets and points of cover deserted.	8480.009480570343
There had been no sign of a rifleman and no track or trace to show that anyone had been near.	27510.783912737515
Lewis was a man who had made a full-time job of cow stealing.	455.3379171808322
He hadn't even pretended to be farming his spread.	2693.6155179030857
His land had never been plowed.	7595.472119363964
He had done his rustling openly and boasted about it.	1819.1217933073813
He had received both first and second anonymous notices, and each time he had accused his neighbors of writing them.	18652.57698562025
He had cursed at them and threatened them.	3247.2517417894855
He was a man, those neighbors testified later, who didn't have a friend in the world.	1107.609410898321
William Lewis made the rounds of all who lived near him again, that August morning after a bullet landed at his feet, and once more he accused and threatened everyone.	34083.06610315635
"I'll be ready next time"!	126.50691703890217
he raged.	1655.628096284761
"I'll be shootin' right back".	260.24203767548426
He had his chance the very next morning, for exactly the same thing happened again.	5459.205701190201
This time Lewis had his own rifle in his hands, and he threw some answering fire back at the mysterious far-off shot, then spent most of the day searching out the area.	42020.41752919946
He found nothing, but he still refused to give up and move out.	1470.8234800117234
"Just let me meet up with that damned bushwhackin' coward face-to-face"!	4516.860356222343
he exploded.	1603.5433533495195
"That's all I ask"!	2122.5531236500883
He never got that chance.	372.99972615290574
For the unseen, ghostlike rifleman aimed a little higher the third time.	3237.1011558164723
A .30-30 bullet smashed directly into the center of William Lewis' chest.	10920.861528268377
He slumped against a log fence rail, then tried to lift himself.	12468.158274077066
Two more shots followed in quick succession, dropping him limp and huddled on the ground.	6847.120663457951
An inquest was held, and after a good deal of testimony about the anonymous notes, the county coroner estimated that the shooting had been done from a distance of 300 yards.	27468.37279225645
Rumors of the offer Tom Horn had made at the Stockgrowers' Association meeting had leaked out by then, and as a grand jury investigation of the murder got underway, the prosecuting attorney, a Colonel Baird, ordered that the tall stock detective be summoned for questioning.	200761.88133632147
It took some time to locate Horn.	1037.6984573018735
He was finally found in the Bates Hole region of Natrona County, two counties away.	20489.168909911987
Prosecutor Baird immediately assumed he was hiding out there after the shooting and began preparing an indictment.	100360.53292673118
But that indictment was never made.	592.869814502364
For Tom Horn, it turned out, had a number of rancher and cowboy witnesses ready and willing to swear with straight faces that he had been in Bates Hole the day of the killing.	24631.02591276641
The former scout's alibi couldn't be shaken.	2344.6496188070246
The authorities had to release him.	2234.84153841842
He immediately rode on to Cheyenne, threw a ten-day drinking spree and dropped some very strong hints among friends.	64619.75566314669
"Dead center at three hundred yards, that coroner said"!	20335.818443299373
he'd grin.	2390.6196920289017
"Three shots in that fella 'fore he hit the ground!	31021.038523548672
You reckon there's two men in this state can shoot like that"?	16361.257994895177
Publicly, he denied everything.	8056.1557291706085
Privately, he created and magnified an image of himself as a hired assassin.	13188.956060536699
For a blood-chilling ring of terror to the very sound of his name was the tool he needed for the job he'd promised to do.	23218.73313773308
Tom Horn was soon back at work, giving his secret employers their money's worth.	42716.117167372955
A good many beef-hungry settlers were accepting the death of William Lewis as proof that the warning notes were not idle threats.	64421.48437563733
The company herds were being raided less often, and cabins and soddies all over the range were standing deserted.	52187.28157830633
But there were other homesteaders who passed the Lewis murder off as a personal grudge killing, the work of one of his neighbors.	6527.4317691082915
The rustling problem was by no means solved.	2553.259665475498
Even in the very area where the shooting had been done, cattle were still disappearing.	9004.281996961116
For less than a dozen miles from the unplowed land of the dead man lived another settler who had ignored the warnings that his existence might be foreclosed on- a blatant and defiant rustler named Fred Powell.	169276.3163761112
"Fred was mighty crude about the way he took in cattle" his own hired man, Andy Ross, mentioned later.	56282.91732883585
"Everyone knew it, but he sort of acted like he didn't care who knew it- even after them notes came, even after he'd heard about Lewis, even after he'd been shot at a couple o' times hisself"!	141596.46248771274
On the morning of September 10, 1895, Powell and Ross rose at dawn and began their day's work.	8927.906589655906
Haying time was close at hand, and they needed some strong branches to repair a hay rack.	66207.58418799686
Harnessing a team to a buckboard, they drove out to a willow-lined creek about a half-mile off, then climbed down and began chopping.	186212.9353606235
Andy Ross had just started swinging an ax at his second willow when the distant blast of a rifle sounded.	143481.0392929593
He looked around in surprise, then noticed that Fred Powell was clutching his chest.	8805.115688158476
The hired man ran over to help his boss.	7517.6679671839265
"My God, I'm shot"!	1235.6246788047242
Powell gasped.	5294.184034101392
And he collapsed and died instantly.	341.47121417940303
Ross had no intention of searching for the assassin.	14105.082107340775
He heaved the dead man onto the buckboard, yelled and lashed at the team and got out of there fast.	66308.58001460736
But he brought back the sheriff and several deputies, and to the lawmen the entire affair seemed a repetition of the Lewis killing.	19275.2193101374
A detailed scouring of the entire area revealed nothing beyond a ledge of rocks that might have been the rifleman's hiding place.	22308.763234799946
There were no tracks of either hoofs or boots.	4792.0113792935235
Not even an empty cartridge case could be found.	708.3038034702375
Once again, Tom Horn was the first and most likely suspect, and he was brought in for questioning immediately.	7021.437834453061
Once again, he shook his head, kept his face expressionless and his voice very calm, and had a strongly supported alibi ready.	7565.35010886375
Later, riding in for some lusty enjoyment of the liquor and professional ladies of Cheyenne, he laid claim to the killing with the vague insinuations he made.	65678.9670661205
"Exterminatin' cow thieves is just a business proposition with me", he'd blandly announce.	41751.03618992008
"And I sort o' got a corner on the market".	1810.3793661957586
"Tom", a friend asked him once, "how come you bushwhacked them rustlers?	49889.184876339765
They wouldn't o' stood no chance with you in a plain, straight-out shoot-down".	19998.926241935606
He had lots of friends, then as always.	4071.146032000607
Even as he became widely known as a professional killer, nearly every cowboy and rancher in Wyoming seemed proud to call him a friend.	56439.69604189396
No man's name brought more cheers when it was announced in a rodeo.	11155.369548192622
"Well", he explained, "s'posin' you was a nester swingin' the long rope?	38506.42906860155
Which would you be most scairt of- a dry-gulchin' or a shoot-down"?	63055.673422111155
"Yeah, I can see that", the friend was forced to agree.	1194.7252955456688
"But h well, it just don't seem sportin' somehow"!	20764.059785973965
"Sportin'"!	1422.4071475077374
The tall sunburnt rustler-hunter stared in amazement.	1452.906193517706
"Sportin'"!	1422.4071475077374
he echoed again in soft wonder.	4622.768920331923
"I seen a lot o' things in my time.	9950.622200507027
I found a trooper once the Apache had spread-eagled on an ant hill, and another time we ran across some teamsters they'd caught, tied upside down on their own wagon wheels over little fires until their brains was exploded right out o' their skulls.	279472.8064489163
I heard o' Texas cattlemen wrappin' a cow thief up in green hides and lettin' the sun shrink 'em and squeeze him to death.	43477.675575876725
But there's one thing I never seen or heard of, one thing I just don't think there is, and that's a sportin' way o' killin' a man"!	23645.629129391913
After the first two murders, the warning notes were rarely ignored.	2868.4943477613833
The lesson had been learned.	4321.287319221645
The examples were plain.	666.897633866802
When Fred Powell's brother-in-law, Charlie Keane, moved into the dead man's home, the anonymous letter writer took no chances on Charlie taking up where Fred had left off and wasted no time on a first notice IF YOU DON'T LEAVE THIS COUNTRY WITHIN 3 DAYS, YOUR LIFE WILL BE TAKEN THE SAME AS POWELL'S WAS.	249461.99519536522
This was the message found tacked to the cabin door.	2148.2272026661085
Keane left, within three days.	4033.2779653256002
All through Albany and Laramie counties, other men were doing the same.	2501.5591043030113
Houses of settlers who'd treated the company herds as a natural resource, free for the taking, were sitting empty, with weeds growing high in their yards.	118134.4966155485
The small half-heartedly tended fields of men who'd spent more time rustling cattle than farming were lying fallow.	81377.78073818317
No cow thief could count on a jury of his sympathetic peers to free him any longer.	9827.699576327317
Jury, judge and executioner were riding the range in the form of a single unknown figure that could materialize anywhere, at any time, to dispense an ancient brand of justice the men of the new West had believed long outdated.	45907.60182197948
For three straight years, Tom Horn patrolled the southern Wyoming pastures, and how many men he killed after Lewis and Powell if he killed Lewis and Powell will never be known.	67501.37966923018
It is possible, although highly doubtful, that he killed none at all but merely let his reputation work for him by privately claiming every unsolved murder in the state.	12357.312909765125
It is also possible, but equally doubtful, that he actually shot down the hundreds of men with which his legend credits him.	7707.079451412086
For that legend was growing explosively, Rumor was insisting he received a price of $600 a man.	14776.668370631023
The best evidence is that he received a monthly wage of about $125, very good money in an era when top hands worked for $30 and found.	65858.9205340932
Rumor had it he slipped two small rocks under each victim's head as a sort of trademark.	10209.578616796261
A detailed search of old coroner's reports fails to substantiate this in the slightest.	30110.86763528208
One thing was certain- his method was effective, so effective that after a time even the warning notices were often unnecessary.	33402.36451260607
The mere fact that the tall figure with the rifle and field glasses had been seen riding that way was enough to frighten three rustling homesteaders out of the Upper Laramie country in a single week.	71597.97046061617
"My reputation's my stock in trade", Tom mentioned more than once.	3450.539714518552
He evidently couldn't foresee that it might be his downfall in the end.	1397.7369471618997
He had made himself the personification of the Devil to the homesteaders.	2503.3976140552413
But to the cattlemen who had been facing bankruptcy from rustling losses and to the cowboys who had been faced with lay-offs a few years earlier, he was becoming a vastly different type of legendary figure.	78641.10430814422
Such ranchers as Coble and Clay and the Bosler brothers carried him on their books as a cowhand even while he was receiving a much larger salary from parties unknown.	95883.60072518252
He made their spreads his headquarters, and he helped out in their roundups.	24774.412720652384
In the cow camps, Tom Horn was regarded as a hero, as the same kind of champion he was when he entered and invariably won the local rodeos.	25158.517951534053
The hands and their bosses saw him as a lone knight of the range, waging a dedicated crusade against a lawless new society that was threatening a beloved way of life.	63392.740192366786
The wailing, guitar-strumming minstrels of the cattle kingdom made up songs about him.	20855.764938110042
By 1898, rustling losses had been driven down to the lowest level ever seen in Wyoming.	24942.08459098152
When several minutes had passed and Curt hadn't emerged from the livery stable, Brenner reentered the hotel and faced Summers across the counter.	178739.8490753174
"I have a little job for you, Charlie.	1961.4971618723578
I'm sure you won't mind doing me a small favor".	551.7142126002908
Brenner's voice was oily, but Summers wasn't fooled.	71839.56078117325
He moistened his lips uneasily.	7551.4165276810845
"What is it you want me to do, Mr Brenner"?	4403.663707630672
Brenner shrugged carelessly.	2845.916296285592
"It's very simple.	86.17996446996881
I just want you to take a message to Diane Molinari.	3240.827971858309
Tell her to come here to the hotel".	496.47899482865597
Vastly relieved, Summers nodded and started toward the door.	7308.057550159582
"One thing, Summers", Brenner said.	1115.02031913235
"You're not to mention my name.	222.34536145125006
Tell her Curt Adams wants to see her".	2106.492619800255
Summers pulled up short, and turned around.	16995.7078734642
"I don't know, Mr Brenner", he said haltingly, beginning to get an inkling of Brenner's plans.	11211.591302273378
"It doesn't seem quite right, telling her a thing like that.	3933.962873448328
Couldn't I just"- His voice trailed off into silence.	16145.783927127113
Brenner continued to smile, but his eyes were cold.	19025.21073585688
He turned and looked around at the lobby as though seeing things he hadn't before noticed.	15683.120117080602
"You know, Summers", he said thoughtfully.	5487.965272737935
"Eagle's Nest ought to have a fire company.	6957.72238439512
If someone were to drop a match in here, this place would go up like a haystack".	58131.06377999074
He started toward the stairway, then turned to add, "Tell her to come to Adams's room, that Adams is in trouble.	23454.514760357262
Tell her to hurry".	3780.629660154065
"Yes sir".	26.382510799715124
His face pale, Summers headed for the street.	1570.4255231304248
Curt's visit to the livery stable had been merely a precaution in case anyone should be watching.	72025.41862251644
He paused only long enough to ascertain that Jess's buckskin was still missing and that his own gray was all right, then climbed through a back window and dropped to the ground outside.	73523.28848984442
The fact that Jess's horse had not been returned to its stall could indicate that Diane's information had been wrong, but Curt didn't interpret it this way.	18431.64249840654
A man like Jess would want to have a ready means of escape in case it was needed.	6806.63158747685
Probably his horse would be close to where he was hiding.	26763.307968009023
From the back of the barn it was a simple matter to reach Black's house without using the street.	3568.738828557563
Curt approached the place cautiously, and watched it several minutes from the protection of a grove of trees.	55032.95926980127
There was a light in Black's front room, but drawn curtains prevented any view of the interior.	4597.013059552093
Curt circled the house and located a barn out back.	32273.788530545404
He could hear horses moving around inside, and nothing else.	1018.9261189060201
There was no lock on the door, only an iron hook which he unfastened.	15786.444781178256
He opened the door and went in, pulling it shut behind him.	4399.581630639752
Again he stood in the darkness listening, but there was only the scrape of a shod hoof on a plank floor.	17210.844746256073
He moved ahead carefully, his left hand in front of him, and came to a wooden partition.	2799.9618457296647
Horse smell was very strong, and he could hear the crunch of grain being ground between strong jaws.	24868.711677982854
He found a match in his pocket and lit it.	996.8000755115044
There were two horses in the barn, a sway-backed dun and Jess Crouch's buckskin.	10426.120363563468
Curt snuffed out the match.	26298.596627531337
It was certain now that Jess was in the house, but also, presumably, was Stacey Black.	6202.373464275309
Curt wanted to get Jess alone, without interference from anyone, even as spineless a person as the store owner.	169888.37126293735
He studied the problem for a few seconds and thought of a means by which it might be solved.	5956.061029746138
Reaching across the side of the stall, he slapped the buckskin on the rump.	92831.14848110522
The startled animal let out a terrified squeal and thrashed around in the stall.	54866.42628749344
As Curt had hoped, the house door banged open.	14736.596126486183
He slapped the buckskin again and it kicked wildly, its hoofs rattling the side of the stall.	70200.1064265995
Curt moved over beside the door and waited.	43554.630099270995
Presently he heard footsteps crossing the yard, and Jess's smothered curses.	23228.584587161455
The door swung open, and Jess said sourly, "What the hell's the matter with you? "	26404.006229498937
The horse continued to snort.	1924.178168397945
Curt doubted that any animal belonging to Jess would find much reassurance in its owner's voice.	97000.10506487107
Jess cursed again, and entered the barn.	18996.20276799689
A match flared, and he reached above his head to light a lantern which hung from a wire loop.	72039.62501384143
As he crossed to the side of the stall, Curt drew his gun and clicked back the hammer.	27222.326730137327
"Before you try anything", he said.	203.74699816290098
"Remember what happened to Gruller".	1877.9837872824523
Jess caught his breath in surprise.	35827.71117471326
He started to reach for his gun, but apparently thought better of it.	5230.495599364815
"That's the stuff", Curt said.	1072.8241842650227
"Just hold it that way".	197.4959728554559
He reached out to pull the door shut and fasten it with a sliding bolt.	9741.77767092762
"You and I have a little talking to do, Jess.	2111.6624739867234
You won't be needing this".	2050.999418153934
He moved up and lifted Jess's pistol out of its holster.	13374.921986921912
"Damn you, Adams"- Jess was beginning to recover from his initial shock.	15492.572316532276
"We ain't got nothing to talk about.	2855.8619182254424
If I don't come back in the house, Breed's going to"- "Your trigger-happy brother isn't in the house.	8911.546278039988
About now he's probably having supper.	2348.7579152743456
That long ride the four of you took must've given him a good appetite.	42913.813524117926
Now turn around so I can see your face".	1002.8229432349207
Jess turned.	6886.910637010236
There was raw fury in his eyes, and the veins of his neck were swollen.	9103.780228206679
"You're about as dumb as they come, Adams.	1866.2675687015392
I don't know what you're up to, but when Brenner"- "You can forget about Brenner, too", Curt said.	9277.84918512165
"It's Ben Arbuckle we're going to talk about".	476.2842864575498
"Arbuckle"?	11318.63465748144
Jess stiffened.	6886.910637010236
"I don't know nothin' about him".	360.3538706923017
"No?	4.685819497891435
I suppose you don't know anything about a piece of two-by-four, either; one with blood all over it, Arbuckle's blood".	14255.002313914589
Curt's fingers put a little more pressure on the trigger of his gun.	19036.71365010855
"So help me, Crouch, I'd like to kill you where you stand, but, before I do, I'm going to hear you admit killing him.	24805.678512580726
Now start talking.	426.23109361468056
Who told you to do it?	1197.8834599241652
Was it Dutch Brenner"?	3081.2297611416634
Curt was holding Jess's gun in his left hand.	3745.445975440494
He drew back his arm to slash the gunbarrel across Jess's face, but didn't finish the motion.	52146.27632992062
Pistol-whipping an unarmed man might come easy to someone like Jess, but Curt couldn't bring himself to do it.	64608.712391241024
Apparently sensing this, and realizing that it gave him an advantage, Jess became bold.	95435.99808506123
"Having all the guns makes you a big man, don't it, Adams?	36800.173565430254
If we was both armed, you wouldn't talk so tough".	6079.739234651296
"No"?	4.685819497891435
Curt reached out and dropped Jess's pistol back into the holster.	99214.5102126661
He retreated a step and holstered his own.	3055.4164481298494
"All right, Crouch; we're on even terms.	1824.3070893943861
Now draw"!	956.8693687376426
Sweat bubbled out on Jess's swarthy face.	16940.16788849312
The fingers of his right hand twisted into a claw, but he didn't reach for the gun.	15968.520978780027
Curt, angry enough to be a little reckless, raised his hands shoulder high.	32233.892208646186
"Does this make it any easier, coward"?	12709.18341146181
"I ain't drawin' against you", Jess said thickly.	35127.33063061211
"I heard how you outdrew Chico.	2925.9877172200136
I ain't a gunslinger".	4592.00493811793
"No.	3.297522726426617
You're the kind of bastard who sneaks up on a man from behind and hits him with a club.	4937.081060685175
I just wanted to hear you say so".	521.8106408634266
Jess stared at him without answering and let his hands fall to his sides.	74902.6989502422
He had found Curt's weakness, or what to Jess was a weakness, and was smart enough to take advantage of it.	10964.458401069407
Somewhere in the distance, a woman screamed.	193.14887617824832
Curt was too involved in his own problems to pay much attention.	44224.15384314907
He had to make Jess talk, and he had to do it before Stacey Black got curious and came to investigate.	1978.5818683112254
Once more he lifted Jess's gun from its holster, only this time he tossed it into the stall with the frightened buckskin.	54731.93028418244
He dropped his own beside it.	90.5584618041245
"We'll do it another way, then", he said harshly.	1118.0957780335768
Jess's coarse features twisted in a surprised grin which was smashed out of shape by Curt's fist.	133215.99790277053
With a roar of pain and fury Jess made his attack.	8859.470605108074
Curt managed to duck beneath the man's flailing fist, and drove home a solid left to Jess's mid-section.	157502.45940110067
It was like hitting a sack of salt.	1518.118610025953
Pain shout up Curt's arm clear to the shoulder, but Jess seemed hardly aware that he had been hit.	32817.75002179745
He slammed into the wall, bounced back, and caught Curt with a roundhouse right which sent him spinning.	55883.19758184177
An inch lower and it would have knocked him out.	1209.392315054345
As it was, his vision blurred and for a moment he was unable to move.	303.1712720874469
When his eyes began to focus, he saw Jess charging at him with a pitchfork.	44217.91449649803
Curt twisted to one side, and the tines of the fork bit into the floor.	12147.883093737517
Jess wasted a few seconds trying to yank them loose.	30168.269624612283
It gave Curt time to stagger to his feet.	1289.8828965724292
The tines broke off under Jess's twisting, and he swung the handle in an attempt to knock Curt's brains out.	37004.882910470515
His aim was hurried; so the pitchfork whistled over Curt's head.	15030.949600074187
By now Curt was seeing clearly again.	2756.8289817485825
He stepped inside Jess's guard and landed two blows to the big man's belly, putting everything he had behind them.	27818.636960921856
They made Jess double over.	1044.2432878770367
When his head came down, Curt grabbed him by the hair and catapulted him head first into the wall.	38034.005562535924
The building shook, setting the lantern to swaying, and the buckskin to pitching again.	34129.882514834084
Even Black's old crowbait began to snort, and from the house Black yelled, "Jess!	37890.613162964735
What's going on out there"?	3717.4763364086566
Jess didn't seem too sure himself.	12020.92158454407
He lurched drunkenly to his feet, lowered his head, and took one step away from the wall.	2393.826030100444
Curt caught him flush on the nose with a blow which started at the floor.	13153.21761206702
Jess had had enough.	452.6996622556079
Blood gushed from his nose, and he backed off as rapidly as he could, stumbling over his own feet in his frantic haste to get away from Curt's fists.	49763.943221728165
Curt was in almost as bad shape, but he wouldn't quit.	86937.18245541079
He backed Jess into a corner, grabbed a handful of the man's shirtfront, and drew back his right fist.	64285.12349019243
"Tell me about Arbuckle!	4057.3758320979714
You killed him, didn't you"?	6711.648706896106
"It was Brenner's idea", Jess mumbled, dabbing at his nose.	5699.33281248354
"He found out about you and Arbuckle talking.	1944.6235430789934
He wanted to show the town what happened to anyone who tried to start trouble".	1112.2435984237559
"You mean anyone who stood up for his rights", Curt said.	12896.006027811702
He let go of the shirt, and Jess slumped to the floor.	6704.871051159182
Turning his back, Curt crossed to the stall, reached over to untie the buckskin's halter rope, and waved his hand in the animal's face.	94608.09895315883
The buckskin bolted out of the stall.	14178.323181780974
Curt moved in and picked up his gun.	8947.360876664061
He shook loose straw out of the action, and placed the gun in his holster.	7830.500286471946
Leaving Jess's where it lay, he left the stall.	21818.598458029734
"Get up, Crouch.	3083.7556096573453
We're going someplace".	119.78241116558316
Jess painfully got to his feet as someone rattled the door.	7306.226388394792
"Who's in there"?	6506.90190320103
Black called fearfully.	2476.657698580617
Curt opened the door, grabbed Black by the shoulder, and pulled him into the barn.	39525.74445817643
"You're staying right here for a while.	191.88739638520795
This dirty coward just admitted killing Arbuckle.	12303.295505028209
I'm going to let him tell it to somebody else".	965.4005243943062
He shoved Black toward the stall, and pointed his pistol at Jess.	59126.394938798105
"Get out of here.	231.29523784748721
You're coming along peacefully, or I'll put a bullet in your leg".	4414.208910293471
Jess stumbled through the door.	823.1484652010981
Curt followed, reaching behind him to shut the door and hook it.	19323.3457944193
Black would have little trouble getting out, but it might delay him a few minutes.	4093.4699796433933
"Where're you takin' me"?	6593.413643360047
Jess asked worriedly.	11770.304497228983
"We're going to Marshal Woods's house.	251.87365533247868
Maybe if the marshal hears this himself, it'll make a difference.	5179.131398079352
Somebody in this town must still have some backbone".	11686.458204090035
Over his shoulder he could see Max's loose grin and the Burnsides' glowering faces.	2719.412822906438
"Honey", he whispered.	7588.9507635689315
"Soon as we send them on their way and make camp, let's you and me go for a walk down by the Snake- all by ourselves".	45481.275092612064
"Sally", admonished her mother, "you've got all evening to visit with Dan.	31870.91054582873
His wounds need dressing now".	1720.7574428321182
Mrs Jackson's words recalled Dan to his lack of fitness for courting.	47598.2196226443
What a spectacle he was, caked with dirt and sweat and blood, filthy as a pig and naked as an Indian, kissing the finest, the sweetest, the bravest, and absolutely the prettiest girl in this whole wonderful world.	224458.40146953173
He released her reluctantly for her enthusiastic reunion with Old Hap.	36420.9091875149
"Got a lot to tend to, but I'll get back quick as I can", he assured her.	2313.3504976656386
Dan could hear Clayton Burnside and Eben Jackson summing up their final reckoning for rental on the oxen.	60590.88460681327
Jackson was doing most of the talking.	1450.5028300515635
So long as Sally's pa was coming out best on the haggle, Dan didn't feel the need of putting in his two-bits' worth.	91443.88020894845
Soon as the Burnsides moved on, he'd lead Rex down by the river; there he could shave and scrub himself up for the evening.	18727.845098453847
Damn it, he thought bitterly, picking up his shirt and staring at the fresh bullet hole in the sleeve.	70500.26555440667
If I hadn't got Nate stopped when I did, my duds'd all be shot plumb to hell!	23824.735955986984
He stooped, picked up his ruined hat, and pursed his lips thoughtfully.	41476.139948460375
From the way the wound in his head was itching, Dan knew that it would heal.	18059.02492261667
But his only hat was something else again.	870.4741046272559
"Nate!	3524.8082516247623
Nate"!	3524.8082516247623
he shouted.	140.30564209519096
The Burnsides, now ready to roll, were purposefully deaf to his cry.	31653.71425348917
"Nate"!	3524.8082516247623
he bellowed to the retreating back directly in front of him.	1225.4848405611917
"I ain't going to fight you no more".	3217.7891071169697
Nate turned his head, attempting to speak in a soothing voice.	18604.382026295254
"I know you ain't"!	310.51046578903123
Dan affirmed, feeling ten feet tall.	19855.437265853318
He moved in close, jerked the handsome, broad-brimmed beaver hat from Nate's head and clamped it on his own.	8145.774811874547
"Here's a present for you", he said, shoving his bullet-riddled hat down over Nate's purpling forehead.	16385.804245203126
"Me and you's trading hats so's you'll have something permanent to remember me by"!	70175.51917796602
Sally left her choring to stand beside Dan.	53572.278361930235
Slipping her hand in his, they silently watched the Burnsides make the bend in the road and disappear from sight.	61854.21044201354
Much as they had to look forward to, they didn't begrudge a moment of the time they spent seeing them go.	2829.6213296271026
40.	340.79002325435897
AT FIRST Matilda could not believe her own eyes.	9360.601171971004
She had spent too many hours looking ahead, hoping and longing to catch even a glimpse of Dan and finding nothing but emptiness.	97800.52431280482
And now she could see him, looking uncommon handsome, standing there beside Sally Jackson and her folks in front of their trail-worn wagon.	50866.33800168697
Seeing them waiting there at the foot of Emigrant Rock was so overwhelming that, for a good minute after they rounded the bend and started down the grade leading toward them, Matilda could not speak at all.	40887.44384157166
Then, with a glory that almost wiped out the deep, downward sags in her careworn face, Matilda leaned over the wheel and shouted to Hez, who was stumbling along in the heat and the dust on the opposite side of the wagon "Pa!	69114.22700073117
Pa!	2519.6723416786886
I can see Dan.	486.97239820807823
And he's with the Jacksons"!	5906.668932949251
"What about Burnsides"?	2626.084538587092
Hez asked, who still believed they'd have them to lick.	37024.66587587788
"They ain't even in sight"!	6681.133466262966
she replied.	127.33067254357273
By then Hez could see for himself, and so could the others.	1309.9385434108447
Soon they were all shouting greetings, exchanging smiles, and rejoicing to think that they were all back together again.	11275.866747367972
But even a reunion as joyous as this one did not make a break in the routines of the day.	1802.3788889089303
Nor could they stop and find out about all that had happened until they made circle, tended the cattle, tethered the horses, gathered fuel, carried water, and started their cooking fires.	65019.721417947076
Then, and only then, with the Jacksons and Dan as their true guests of honor, did the Harrows take time to catch up on the news.	12203.528170108031
No sooner did they hear of Dan's injury than both Gran and Matilda went into immediate action.	29825.2150428328
The wound in his scalp was examined, pronounced healing, and well doctored with simples, before they dished up the victuals.	153639.459740427
From then on, in keeping with the traditions they had followed since childhood, the whole group settled down to relish their food.	14541.071058197516
Even Sally, in spite of her gaiety and obvious welcome, followed the old taboo of "quitting the gab when wearing the nosebag".	77103.81006453314
After their supper, the evening turned into a regular "Hoe-Down".	24645.011708994756
Only, they carefully substituted old country folk dances for the Virginia Reels and square dances that were so popular among more worldly trains in the great westward migration.	101746.9585910876
But with Bill O'Connor on the fiddle, and Gran Harrow exuberantly shouting "Glory Be" and "Hallelujah" above their united chant of the lilting old ballads, they played their quaint folk games with all the fervor and abandon of a real celebration.	292478.55060704215
"Golly", Rod exclaimed to Harmony as he dutifully stood by her side among the ringed spectators, "don't that fiddle make you wish the Bible didn't say us Baptists can't dance"?	597901.4050926307
"Nor Methodists, neither", she replied.	3156.7278822140456
"Not that it matters to me, being this far along".	3475.2736200528066
Rod gave her a warm pat on the shoulder before he replied.	19557.323624559645
"Come spring, you'll be kicking up your heels and feeling coltish again too, gal".	14578.99109940572
At these words of sympathy and understanding, Harmony said generously, "I don't mind setting here along with Gran while you go out and join in the games".	69081.7301858813
Rod shifted his eager eyes from the milling group out in the circle long enough to reply, "I ain't much of a hand for Dare-Base and Farmer-in-the-Dell, but I'd sure like to get in on the handhold and wrestles".	154389.1127332722
He looked down at his big hands and slowly flexed his long fingers.	4225.060325269816
"Don't reckon there's nobody out there, 'cept maybe Dan, who can outgrip me, Harmony".	102985.58393617367
With Rod on his way and Matilda visiting with Mrs Jackson while they searched out familiar names on the face of the cliff, Harmony settled on the edge of the grub box, to ease the pressure of her swollen body on her bone-weary legs, and worried about all that might have happened to Sally.	123195.36193520128
And she was deeply thankful that she could see her now, out there in the midst of a gay, youthful circle, skipping and singing, "Farmer in the dell, Farmer in the dell, Heigh-ho the dairy-oh, the farmer in the dell".	118545.74813595504
At the sight of Sally's happy face and carefree expression, Harmony's dark, brooding eyes quickly brightened with unshed tears.	51660.03019655847
She was glad, completely and unselfishly glad, to see that things were working out the right way for both Sally and Dan.	33728.68587057165
h And she really tried to go a step further and say she hoped they'd be just as right as they now were for her and for Rod.	13466.362654403947
But she couldn't, not yet.	296.3261189083094
Not with the memory of her folks and the lost Conestoga still holding her close h. Out in the center of the circle the farmer, who was Dan, wasted no time when they came to the line, "The farmer choose his wife".	38146.77805554462
With a swift swoop of his big arms, he grabbed Sally out of the circle surrounding him, and then kissed her soundly before setting her down so she could stand by his side while they jointly chose the rest of their "outfit".	204293.7720741623
Soon the child, the dog, the cat h and even the cheese, all joined them out there in the circle.	11515.581375029758
By now Harmony could see that most of the adults in the train were winded and resting, or else siphoned off from the games by the challenging lure of the great cliff towering above them.	80959.53375202583
No matter how many registry rocks they came to on this journey, each one exerted its own appeal.	13020.035717510844
Even strange names seemed to make them feel closer to some kind of civilization when stumbled across out here in this wilderness.	72237.0610216105
Already a few hardy folk from their own train were zealously chipping away at the register rocks, leaving their own records along with those made by the earlier trains.	65701.3105888979
Soon she saw Rod and Hez moving over to join them.	8011.308101236741
No sooner were they through and the guards posted, than the whole camp turned in for a night of sound sleep.	20574.670840984585
For Matilda, it was the first she had known in many a night.	5447.991607064128
Even the knowledge that she was losing another boy, as a mother always does when a marriage is made, did not prevent her from having the first carefree, dreamless sleep that she had known since they dropped down the canyon and into Bear Valley, way, way back there when they were crossing those other mountains.	114683.55898180958
Next morning, they moved on again.	1143.5420574542518
"My souls' a-gracious"!	8838.723627019795
Gran Harrow exclaimed, watching their rippling muscles as Rod and Dan swung her up into the load.	68309.1973688228
"A body would swear I floated right up here on a cloud"!	20087.587759993814
Rod and Dan released their holds on the arms of her hickory rocker and exchanged embarrassed grins.	196243.26599348136
"Shucks, Gran", they said almost in unison.	62253.56240438926
"That wasn't nothing at all"!	251.35457032901795
Leaning forward in her chair, Gran nearsightedly scrutinized Dan's face.	24831.562761657293
"How's Sally like rubbin' agin that thar little ticklebrush ye're a-raising"?	73420.81201773221
"Quit ragging him, Gran", Rod protested.	58759.41312651891
"I ain't ragging him"!	1263.3957521424134
Gran peered again at the week-old blond mustache shadowing Dan's upper lip.	90557.91009102653
"But honest-to-Betsy, I've seed more hair than that on a piece o' bacon".	93272.82956460767
The two tall brothers waited silently while their mother handed Gran her cold snack and water jug, placed the chamber pot beside her feet, and returned to her place at the front of the wagon with Alice.	34264.1360206661
"Rheumatics worse, Pa"?	48680.26290899099
Dan asked Hez, who had limped back from his team to hold the notched-stick chair braces in place while his boys swung up the tailgate and tied it tight at the ends.	143379.52212894327
"My right leg's stiff as a board this morning", he replied.	1094.661805724446
"But the sun'll fry it out'n me onct we git to rolling".	35568.285339620794
The three men stepped out to the side to wait for Captain Clemens' signal.	7266.391694311933
Hez looked up at the high face of Emigrant Rock, official signboard for the Raft River turnoff, and gloated, "Seems funny that them Burnsides never took time to leave their John-Henry up thar".	438218.21337972005
"Wonder what made them hurry so", Rod drawled, giving Dan a sly wink.	74715.30148515625
Dan grinned, and changed the subject.	2240.345884405949
"From now on, Sally and me and her folks aim to give you our turn when it comes up and fall in behind you and Rod's outfit".	149327.56497865223
"Ain't no sense you eating our dust", Rod protested.	30631.583855037577
"Sally and her ma want to trade off on account of Harmony being so far along", Dan explained.	121568.56065473502
"Jackson recruited his critters, and him and me fixed up his wagon while we was waiting for you to catch up.	41225.89291776158
He's got the tightest running gear in the train now.	3889.7629818697733
Besides, 'tain't no more'n right for me to follow with my black oxen, so's I can unhook and pull up fast if either of you get in a pinch".	148406.6491724808
Captain Clemens' signal shot sent the men hurrying to their waiting teams.	34123.09556443889
"Reckon ye're right, Dan", Hez called back over his shoulder.	11016.05329923157
"I'll shore be needing ye both on the pull out o' the canyon".	26232.500841386904
Rod looked apprehensively ahead at the narrowing, precipice-walled gorge.	115636.29994098276
"We'll double teams zigzagging up the mountain, Harmony", he spoke reassuringly, concerned by the pinched look around her mouth.	47170.29093732448
"Like enough we'll all be up on top by sundown".	8200.774010058087
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his father's wheels beginning to turn.	4874.194464871349
Before Harmony had a chance to reply, Rod cracked his long whip over his thin oxen's backs h. While no larger than Dutch Springs, this mining supply town had the appearance of being far busier and more prosperous.	162767.42512857454
Men crowded the streets and freight rigs and teams were moving about.	21832.154185288124
Although they were forced to maintain a sharper watch, this activity enabled them to ride in and rack their broncs without any particular attention being paid them.	68400.80491210165
"Gyp'll be holdin' forth in some bar if he's here at all", Cobb declared, glancing along the street as they stretched their legs.	238340.5508549792
There were no less than six or seven saloons in Ganado, not counting the lower class dives, all vying for the trade of celebrating miners and teamsters.	38700.2313092177
Pat only nodded.	2407.2565070021064
"Take one side of the street, and I'll take the other", he proposed.	251.5997844503071
"If you spot Carmer give a yell before you move in".	8116.48665294475
Cobb's assent was tight.	5020.144267436018
"You do the same.	17.767328642760347
It's all I ask, Stevens".	982.9084122348283
Separating, they took different sides of the main drag and systematically combed the bars.	26620.70358037529
Russ visited two places without result and his blood pressure was down to zero.	37579.77794110425
Suddenly it seemed to him insane that they might hope to locate Gyp Carmer so casually, even were he to prove the thief.	67828.10086449176
He tramped out of the Miners Rest with his hopes plummeting, and headed doggedly for the Palace Saloon, the last place of any consequence on this side of the street.	24325.473258543683
The Palace was an elaborate establishment, built practically on stilts in front, with long flights of wooden steps running up to the porch.	73410.55571514131
Behind its ornate facade the notorious dive clung like a bird's nest to the rocky ribs of the canyonside.	107697.966469317
Russ ran up the steps quickly to the plank porch.	36588.61923560751
The front windows of the place were long and narrow, reaching nearly to the floor and affording an unusually good view of the interior.	23259.744978547275
Heading for the batwings, Cobb glanced perfunctorily through the nearest window, and suddenly dodged aside.	89190.05672797529
Nerves tight as a bowstring, he paused to gather his wits.	9877.077306709758
Against all expectation, Carmer was inside, clearly enjoying himself to the hilt and already so tipsy that it seemed unlikely he was bothering to note anything or anyone about him.	83817.93540739821
Fierce anger surged through Russ.	26298.596627531337
He fought down the impulse to rush in and collar the vicious puncher on the spot.	7285.1038797286155
Reaching the porch rail beyond view of the bar windows, he feverishly scanned the busy street below.	90115.75000183239
Stevens was nowhere in sight.	1988.8327940145527
Muffling an exclamation, Russ sprang to the nearest steps and ran down.	64556.42662979475
As luck had it, he had not gone twenty feet in the street before Pat appeared.	7192.272354422982
"What luck, Cobb"?	8866.087129714697
he said swiftly.	932.774334216987
Russ pointed upward.	2765.210447569958
"He's there", he got out tersely, curbing his rising excitement.	13043.306395813426
Hitching his cartridge belt around, Pat glanced upward briefly at the Palace and started that way with Cobb at his side.	82581.57687663155
Climbing the steps steadily, they reached the top and headed for the door.	9137.649111907449
Pat pushed through first.	4311.469367680901
Forced behind him momentarily, Russ followed at once and halted two steps inside.	77352.49164865554
His eyes widened.	742.2344540294429
While five minutes ago the place had presented a scene of easy revelry, with Gyp Carmer a prominent figure, it was now as somnolent and dull as the day before payday.	173930.5227533399
Carmer himself was nowhere to be seen.	2748.762650273016
A man knocked the roulette ball about idly in its track, and another dozed at one of the card tables.	34736.52255472321
Two men murmured with their heads together at the end of the bar, while the sleek-headed bartender absently polished a glass.	8778.927277449018
Looking the setup over, Stevens started coolly for the rear of the place.	9538.370175258753
"Where yuh goin'"?	2797.6850332390954
It was the barkeep.	411.58347767170795
Halting, Pat turned to survey him deliberately.	22805.19615731095
He did not reply, going on toward the back.	775.5849618053156
Less assured than the tall, wide-shouldered man in the lead, Cobb followed alertly, a hand on his gun butt.	62599.15695521678
The bartender measured this situation with heavy eyes and decided he wanted no part of it.	4655.6763208582515
He said no more.	14.15477029683571
A hall opened in back of the bar, running toward an ell.	7680.831024509642
Pat moved into it.	1186.0722840113608
Small rooms, probably for cards, opened off on either side.	15018.219977459408
All the doors were open at this hour except one, and it was toward this that Stevens made his way with Russ close at his shoulder.	13385.884458616336
The door was locked.	83.21549937864171
A single kick made it spring open, shuddering.	11293.926607631953
Pat saw Gyp Carmer staggering forward, a half-filled bottle upraised as if to strike.	34200.951082657986
Russ sprang through to bat it nimbly aside.	22371.983137748764
With a bellow Carmer lunged at him.	276.3200667718898
But he was more than half-drunk, and his faculties were dulled.	2879.9853001373635
Cobb unleashed a single powerful jab that sent Gyp reeling wildly and crashing down with a whining groan.	158627.71908917848
He started to struggle up, heaving desperately.	4506.4682114693
Russ gave him a brutal thrust that tumbled him over flat on his stomach.	43427.199498873284
Kneeling, Cobb planted a sturdy knee in the small of his back, holding him pinned.	87261.02883662611
"Okay, Stevens.	245.87143246196578
I've drawn his fangs", he snapped.	4370.672298958307
"Go through his pockets, will you?	2028.9132626197409
If we have to we'll take him apart and see what he's made of"!	3073.994146687768
Complying methodically, Pat pulled pocket after pocket inside out without finding a thing.	74902.69758622104
Cobb watched this with hunted eyes, his desperate hope waning by the moment.	37579.12955465803
Stevens was grunting over the last empty pocket when Russ abruptly rose and lunged toward Carmer's hat, which had tumbled half-a-dozen feet away when he first fell.	231837.44529329168
Cobb got it.	668.5954725638387
Straightening up, his eyes ablaze, he held out the battered Stetson.	17751.18123994112
"Look at this"!	293.65119669476695
Inside the crown, stuffed behind the stained sweatband, could be seen thin, crumpled wads of currency.	34115.6694906372
Carmer's ingenious cache for his loot had been found.	29580.8141256813
14 "By golly, Stevens!	7786.884051903211
You were right", Russ exclaimed, tearing the loose bills out of Carmer's hat.	74601.6677503306
"That is, if we can be sure this is Colcord's money"- Pat grunted.	1145.469643493584
"Where else would he get it?	5304.276066618236
Count what you've got there, Cobb.	20721.312743648094
We can soon tell".	263.1727852872748
Russ ran through the bills and named an amount it was highly unlikely any cowpuncher would come by honestly.	210110.94385819367
Pat nodded.	1180.7938494496261
"It's within a hundred of what Crip had", he declared.	2127.864435743759
"We know Penny spent some- and Carmer must have dropped a few dollars getting that load on".	40590.63917055701
Handing the money over, Russ wiped his hands on his pants-legs as if ridding himself of something unclean.	184453.59835283534
His glance at Gyp Carmer was disdainful.	11767.956137487778
"Shall we get out of here"?	1031.5156472548347
Leaving the card room, they moved back through the Palace the way they had come.	5499.619357022778
Glowering looks met them in the bar, but there was no attempt to halt them.	9811.359886111471
Pausing in the outside door to glance behind him, Pat looked his unspoken warning and stepped out.	103466.87163379724
He and Cobb clattered down the high steps to the street.	2418.5637835332022
Neither spoke till they reached their horses.	4924.401162774172
Pat paused there, looking across at the young fellow.	23423.988469075884
It'll be a pleasure for you to return this money to Colcord and tell him about it, Russ".	18386.303717591905
He started to return it.	325.1444957519707
To his faint surprise Russ held up his hand.	2329.325008282604
"Not me", he ruled decidedly.	1459.1410064557408
I've had enough.	13.452513590215743
It was you that tracked it down anyway, Stevens", he pursued strictly.	22956.30779017334
"I'll shove along home".	537.253262520768
"Whatever you say".	90.93773940398783
Pat swung into the saddle, yet still he delayed, his brows puckered.	99264.24172073271
"You owe it to Penny to give her a chance to explain that she was defending you, really", he observed mildly.	26431.993109711155
"Old Crip wasn't", retorted Cobb tartly.	18459.472275584507
"He'll know when you tell him.	39.17150326238268
But I want this to sink in awhile.	4653.068196669391
Then maybe next time he won't be so quick on the trigger".	22873.892051882045
"Pat had never pretended to give advice in such affairs.	33723.34149404017
"You're the doctor", he returned with a smile.	107.0610658609709
"But I still think Penny's an awful nice girl, Russ"- "You don't have to tell me", flashed Cobb.	13284.420295954485
Giving the other a dark look, he hauled his bronc around and trotted down off the street.	16975.73848092192
Pat let him go, following more leisurely.	15353.082532500992
At the first restaurant he sensibly pulled up to go in for his dinner, and as a consequence did not see Cobb strike the open range at the mouth of the canyon and head straight across the swells for Antler.	64948.743127809474
The truth was, the puncher was both bewildered and dismayed by his own mixed luck.	21973.58608201936
"Penny's always glad to see me over there", he mused bleakly.	31219.346672857595
Yet had he not visited the girl at Saw Buck he would never have been involved in this latest tangle.	19158.973000430935
Over and above that, however, was his growing suspicion of Chuck Stober's part in recent events.	12830.648138320346
"Gyp Carmer couldn't have known about Colcord's money unless he was told- and who else would have told him"?	190801.07496023484
he asked himself.	120.46284386239165
"It's the second time War Ax hands made a play for that money.	9351.486329238442
How much of an accident could that be"?	2747.6042239671
Nearing home, he jerked to attention at the distant crack of a gun.	31049.23603696819
In town no one paid much attention to an occasional shot; but on the range gunfire had a meaning.	23848.00486063341
Hauling up, Russ listened carefully.	12020.922501128358
Two minutes later it came again- a double explosion, followed by a third, sounding more distant.	50006.18844023719
As near as Cobb could determine the shots came from the direction of the Antler ranch house.	13200.510654740267
He tightened up in a twinkling.	13756.384289170688
So far as he knew, only his father could be there.	1572.3357848669916
What did it mean?	69.73617254946055
Clapping spurs to the bronc he set off at a sharp canter, with growing alarm.	43376.309318983236
His first glimpse of the ranch house across the brushy swells told him nothing.	16119.93784411273
Still a quarter-mile away, the fresh clap of guns only served to increase his speed.	8720.714157977063
Setting a course straight for the house, he was covering ground fast when an angry bee buzzed past close to his face.	46225.84773403311
When it was followed by a second, whining even closer, Cobb swerved sharply aside into a depression.	10134.664200377012
He knew now what he was up against.	351.43365478121916
Whoever was out there hiding in the brushy cover was besieging the Antler house and, having spotted his approach, was determined to drive him off before he could get into the fight.	37870.29447269918
Cursing himself for having ridden out the last few days without a rifle in his saddle boot, Russ drew his Colt and examined it briefly.	192737.01575066597
If he wondered whether the attackers would allow him to pull away unmolested, he had his answer a moment later.	24949.610780388917
"Over this way!	341.5206922332116
He ain't gone far"!	1277.231231432877
a harsh cry floated to him across the brush.	3866.4555321000425
A carbine cracked more loudly, and a slug clipped fragments from the brush off at one side.	11647.850358944173
The would-be assassin had his position figured pretty close.	2480.3201637317434
Dismounting, Russ looked about hastily.	35827.71117471326
Toward the west this depression led toward a draw.	10411.702043617024
Leading his pony, he hurried that way, not remounting till he was well below the level of the surrounding range.	9759.316256047192
Swinging up then, and bending forward over the horn, he urged his mount down the meandering draw.	188594.3201956217
He had not covered a hundred yards before a gun crashed from somewhere behind.	5808.1762612659595
He had been sighted, and his attacker pumping shot after shot.	5559.533287967412
A shot or two went wild before Cobb felt something tug at his foot.	26625.008492988127
A slug had torn half of his stirrup-guard away.	17381.63465797047
A second twitched his shirtsleeve, and he felt a brief burn on his upper arm.	8331.004285328087
Another snarled close overhead.	1018.8212813966499
"Jumping Jerusalem!	6887.8284972648125
Let's get out of here"!	1280.0127999810013
At the first shot Russ had hurled his mount to the left toward the side of the winding draw.	26740.133932695764
The long minute before he reached effective cover seemed endless.	6291.322492718408
Sweeping a look around, he saw that he was safe for the moment.	5114.041146783381
He heard cries from behind him, but he could make out no words.	2959.5622951180767
He dashed madly for the next elbow turn in the draw, and made it.	10882.810845780963
Recklessly hurling the bronc sidewise into an intersecting draw, he plunged forward with undiminished speed.	97000.10990335072
Gradually the wash climbed upward, forcing him toward open range.	12442.72984111944
Yet he must chance it.	385.07405448731
He clambered out of the dwindling wash, the loose dirt flying behind him, and flashed a look about.	52562.99124914408
Early in November the clouds lifted enough to carry out the assigned missions.	5255.330190550446
And Sweeney Squadron put its first marks on the combat record.	19140.600720501952
Every plane that could fly was sent into the air.	1419.2539972106104
Cricket took eight ships and went south across the Straits and along the north coast of Mindanao to Cagayan.	185203.97657322066
Anything the enemy flew or floated was his target.	3238.819286136274
Fleischman with eight was to patrol the Leyte Gulf area, with his main task to get any kamikaze before they got to the ships.	132391.12120469005
Greg himself took two flights, with Todman leading the second, to patrol and look for targets of opportunities around Ormoc on the east coast of Leyte.	127782.52288329821
Each plane carried two five-hundred pound bombs.	7773.942652705676
A weapons carrier took Greg, Todman, Belton, Banjo Ferguson, and Walters and the others the two miles from the bivouac area to the strip.	69738.79183074163
It was a rough long ride through the mud and pot holes.	2534.497217489075
No one had much to say.	116.40415321440719
The sky glowered down at them.	267.27317671535667
There was a feeling that this mission would be canceled like all the others and that this muddy wet dark world of combat would go on forever.	18595.370035916523
The truck dropped them off at the various revetments spread through the jungle.	12749.365547897973
Donovan snatched Greg's chute from him with a belligerent motion and almost ran to the plane with it.	25571.054154664405
His face was dark as the sky above it as he stood on the wing and waited for his pilot.	7445.058661521893
Greg climbed into the cockpit feeling as if he had never been in one before.	10211.169938555748
But his hands and those of Donovan moved automatically adjusting and arranging in the check-out procedure.	22609.177005583308
"I've got her as neat as I can", Donovan said, as he dropped the straps of the Seton harness over Greg's shoulders.	12714.159765919063
"But this goddamn climate.	367.6979830813649
It's for carabao not airplanes".	3779.567516671664
"We'll make out.	58.34469204574434
Don't you worry, chief", Greg replied, wondering if he himself believed it.	8776.357499511892
"Yeah.	35.197251894126666
See you", Donovan said as he jumped off the wing.	26814.097053546593
The expression was his trade-mark, his open sesame to good luck, and his prayer that pilot and plane would always return.	60635.13210045047
At the prearranged time, Greg started the engine and taxied out.	14155.478080062658
From the time the chocks were pulled until the plane was out of sight, he knew Donovan would keep his back to the strip.	20918.086223677023
He wondered where the superstition had originated that it was bad luck for a crew chief to watch his plane take off on a combat mission.	46501.62985463184
Yet long before the scheduled time for return, Donovan would be watching for every speck in the sky.	12661.721432718987
Greg rumbled down the rough metal taxi strip, and one by one the seven members of his flight fell in behind him.	36451.71111457442
The dark brown bombs hanging under each wing looked large and powerful.	23171.965385697295
The pilots' heads looked ridiculously small.	4064.0394577027414
The control tower gave him immediate take-off permission, and the clean roar of the engine that took him off the rough strip spoke well of the skill of Donovan.	116453.40363089879
Greg's mission was the last to leave, and as he circled the ships off Tacloban he saw the clouds were dropping down again.	32052.73748094831
To the west, the dark green hills of Leyte were lost in the clouds about halfway up their slopes.	9555.58835601431
Underneath him the sea was a dark and muddied gray.	6106.880222754123
Water splashed against his windshield as he led the flight in and out of showers.	56821.672154999105
The metal strip they had taken off from was coal black against the green jungle around it.	18103.291717886575
He possessed the fighter pilot's horror of bad weather and instrument flying, and he wondered, if the ceiling did drop, whether he and the other flights would be able to find their way back in this unfamiliar territory.	67976.01437629735
He shivered in the warm cockpit.	3716.2755831319364
The overcast was solid above him.	901.7855310975124
As far as he could see there was no hole to climb through it.	799.7136955693148
They would have to go west through the narrow river valley that separated Leyte from Samar and hope that it didn't close in before they returned.	35817.761807717805
Greg pushed the radio button on his throttle.	58759.41312651891
"Todman, let's try to go under this stuff.	12889.80546344011
Stay in close and we'll go up the valley".	3986.8908331331877
"Roger, Sweeney", Todman called back, and pulled his four in and slightly above Greg.	56609.29013510571
Greg took the formation wide around three A-26 attack bombers that were headed north over the Gulf.	70243.3136410918
He dropped down to five hundred feet, swinging a little north of the city of Tacloban, and punched into the opening that showed against the mountain.	62052.399008564586
The valley was only a few hundred yards wide with just about room enough for a properly performed hundred-and-eighty-degree turn.	33455.60034935338
It was only a fifteen-minute flight, but before it was through Greg felt himself developing a case of claustrophobia.	20071.38284653272
The ceiling stayed solid above them at about eight hundred feet, and at times the sheer cliffs seemed about to close in.	19289.560045316488
If the other pilots were worried, they did not show it.	1434.5670512846507
The formation remained perfect.	689.2664297443846
When the sea was visible ahead of them, the relief was as great as if the sun had come out.	9318.874861945715
He spread the flight out and led them across a point of land and then down the coast.	28450.569198828452
Although they drew light ground fire they saw no signs of activity.	11864.82906466952
Once Todman thought he had spotted a tank and went down to investigate while Greg covered him.	15794.819082552161
"Somebody beat us to it"!	2171.2211471071764
Todman said over the radio as he came back up in formation.	54775.454426320925
Visibility continued to be limited, and Greg was never able to get above a thousand feet.	50674.704236483994
It was frustrating.	642.0305217207624
His earphones were constantly full of the sounds of enemy contacts made by other flights.	17908.52438265739
He thought once that he identified the somewhat hysterical voice of Fleischman claiming a kill.	20379.386714000055
But Greg's area remained as placid as a Florida dawn.	37415.3414696971
Finally, as time began to run out, he headed into Ormoc and glide-bombed a group of houses that Intelligence had thought might contain Japanese supplies.	52234.67201285319
The low clouds made bombing difficult.	1244.9949314756086
There was not enough room to make the usual vertical bomb run.	2259.226504499517
The accuracy was deplorable.	681.6188953505384
One of Greg's bombs hung up, and he was miles from the target before he could get rid of it.	4896.898867199596
Only one of the flight scored a direct hit and the rest blew up jungle.	16387.176070550646
With their load of bombs gone, the planes moved swiftly and easily.	6113.153856025893
Greg went up tight against the ceiling and led them back to their pass to home.	52518.13155334022
Mercifully, it was still open.	4272.262438762792
Like a man making a deep dive, Greg took full breath and plunged back into the valley.	14408.969736920028
He was about to make a gas check on his flight when Todman's voice broke in "Sweeneys!	11760.722551749717
Three bogies.	1418.8403474457132
Twelve o'clock level".	1629.650997735349
Greg's eyes flicked up from his instrument panel.	6750.153033947004
He saw them, specks against the gray, but closing fast.	7472.105526417803
They were headed straight for each other on a collision course.	4564.92982469447
Friend or enemy?	4337.159722959528
The same old question.	213.32187393624534
And only a few seconds to answer it.	1560.0308101310743
"Zeros"!	3524.8082516247623
Todman said excitedly, and hopefully.	35827.71117471326
And then he thought Todman might be right.	1762.6779173833086
His mind flicked through the mental pictures he had from the hours of Aircraft Identification.	56845.53370320316
He narrowed the shape down to two either a Zero or a U S Navy type aircraft.	53778.762181447244
If it were the enemy, tactically his position was correct.	1941.8644873508413
Japanese aircraft were strong on maneuverability, American on speed and firepower.	54502.04789346644
His present maximum altitude, up against the overcast, gave him the opportunity to exploit his advantages.	8639.272459669208
But it also made him conspicuous to the enemy, if it was the enemy, and he hadn't been spotted already.	2166.244911454836
But the closing aircraft showed no sign of deviating from their original course.	10732.044748809452
In seconds, Greg made his decision.	1785.7780462956773
He pushed the radio button.	419.39868089004096
"Sweeney Blue, hit the deck.	12020.924028771009
Lots of throttle.	1273.7517292399384
Todman, you take the one on the left.	2751.9733459848203
I'll take the middle.	14.001289737750405
Belton, the one on the right.	644.2583372042052
If h if they're Japs.	2052.4032325643775
Let's make sure first".	884.6586268557453
Greg had the stick forward and the throttle up before he heard the two "Rogers".	113362.15327570557
The planes, light with most of the gas burned out, responded beautifully.	10261.327634666235
Greg's airspeed indicator was over 350 when he leveled off just above the trees.	74902.69930099057
The opposing aircraft continued to come on.	2086.048892575142
They appeared to be the enemy.	236.3059815713507
Greg wished the Air Corps had continued to camouflage planes.	37213.05181881071
There was, of course, no way for the other planes to get by them.	122.84460934369592
It was a box.	56.7413846133402
But they could turn and escape to the east.	530.0211181321166
Greg pushed the radio button again.	12020.92158878749
"Todman, drop your second element back.	16940.16788849312
If any of us miss, they can pick up the pieces.	2181.9385333960945
Now let's make sure they're Japs".	14508.849999260356
Even as he said it, Greg knew they had found the enemy.	2937.6118380103635
The shapes were unmistakable and the Rising Suns were showing up, slightly brighter pinpoints in the gray gloom.	37577.471101316485
Greg slapped his hand across the switches that turned on the guns and gun camera and gun sight.	31185.68714489804
The circle with the dot in the center showed up yellow on the reflector glass in front of him.	11006.721945023983
His hands shook.	686.6360325671619
"Arm your guns, Sweeneys".	22874.380788937302
"They're Japs.	418.4513141268239
They're Japs", came a high-pitched voice.	706.6566647701525
"Greg to Sweeney Blue.	18248.6338611592
One pass only.	424.0091290981288
No turns.	891.177085299202
You'll bust your ass in this canyon.	4994.415955399273
That's an order".	327.5415614058912
He moved the flights over against one wall.	1812.4279967273544
It gave them all a chance to make a high-speed climbing turn attack and a break-away that would not take them into the overcast or force a tight-turn recovery.	35037.71942363407
If the turn was too tight, a barrel roll would bring them out.	4426.621807319388
A hell of an altitude for a barrel roll, but it could be done.	2154.7666188838552
Greg slammed his throttle to the fire wall and rammed up the RPM, and the engine responded as if it had been waiting.	26637.73445278632
The clearly identifiable enemy continued on as if no one else were around.	15254.809129644047
"They haven't seen us", Greg yelled to himself over the engine noise.	26853.935671979936
"They haven't seen us".	1018.8570435502199
He hit the radio button.	353.7843365830702
"Now, Sweeneys, now.	262.6447485691325
Let's take 'em home".	591.570109189006
He hauled back on the stick and felt his cheeks sag.	38842.338592679946
Out of the corner of his eye, he watched his wingman move out a bit and shoot up with him.	8652.430624224764
Perfect, he thought.	19.95054416386669
With the rapid rate of closure, the approach from below, the side, and ahead, there would be only a moment when damage could be done.	9293.903446990267
Just like shooting at a duck while performing a half-gainer from a diving board.	46773.11688923093
He tightened his turn.	354.0560218262386
His nose up.	385.5227283246998
It was going to be dangerous.	42.26034326345514
Eight aircraft in this small box.	2825.9047437029803
Please, dear God, make my pilots good, he prayed.	19508.19266735675
He took a lead on the enemy, using a distance of five of the radii in his circular sight and then added another.	16261.77573347379
The enemy did not veer.	3664.508571558278
It did not seem possible that they hadn't been spotted.	3400.0942824378853
Blind fools.	6886.910637010236
Now!	3.4124380554543743
Greg's fingers closed on the stick trigger.	16666.9142085814
The plane rumbled and slowed.	885.6440528568629
Six red lines etched their way into the gray and vanished.	14507.879916331922
As if drawn by a wire the enemy flew into them.	7231.577281083129
Greg tightened his turn until the plane shuddered.	39045.19841975478
Luck was with him.	395.7613865663879
His burst held for a second on the engine section of the plane.	2047.8120347430831
The Jap's propeller flew off in pieces.	4653.807161819583
A large piece of engine cowling vanished.	4914.305717388811
It was all Greg had time to see.	202.85659774296838
His maneuvering for the shot had placed him near the overcast, almost inverted and heading up into the clouds.	29338.53208750997
His speed was dropping rapidly.	1407.3195758331356
If he spun out now, he would join his opponent on the ground.	1348.0752930332624
Wingman, stay clear, he prayed.	46700.52584867062
He pushed stick and rudder and entered the overcast on his back.	12904.744294280108
He fought the panic of vertigo.	1958.5192049345058
He had no idea which was up and which was down.	788.7410460890652
He held the controls where they had been.	185.18217611148629
Sweat popped out over him and he felt the slick between his palm and the stick grip.	60362.22271342267
His air speed dropped until he thought he would spin out.	7931.973554480096
Over the rattling of fenders, humming of tires and chattering of gears there was a charming melody of whispers and tiny giggles.	117142.78155686936
Cool air moving slowly through the open or smashed-out side windows hinted of blooming roadside vegetation, and occasionally a faint fragrance of perfume swirled from the back seat.	93046.2271737972
"Moriarty", my driver suddenly exclaimed with something so definite, so final in his tone I once more repeated the absurdity, mustering all my latent powers of hypocrisy to sound convinced.	296993.38406253955
We were coming to an intersection, turning right, chuffing to a stop.	4806.598807977817
Forced to realize that this was the end of a very short line I scanned a road marker and discovered what the end of a slightly longer line would be for the old Mexican Moriarty, New Mexico.	13808.366170572828
"Gracias.	3524.279832361616
Adios", I said, exhausting my Spanish vocabulary on my host and exchanging one of a scarcely-tapped store of smiles with my host's daughters.	213141.71641945688
I waved with discretion and moderation to the vague golden faces fading through rising dust and the distortions of the back window glass.	104273.66471608689
Then I saw the father's head slightly turn; gauche rainbow shapes replaced the poignant ovals of gold.	20563.05621441748
Autos whizzed past.	2845.9155910398827
White-shirted and conservatively-cravated drivers stared conspicuously toward the eastern horizon and past my supplicating and accusing gaze.	74749.69835468451
Suddenly a treble auto horn tootley-toot-tootled, and, thumbing hopefully, I saw emergent in windshield flash red lips, streaming silk of blonde hair and- ah, trembling confusion of hope, apprehension, despair- the leering face of old Herry.	471956.2338015273
"Mor-ee-air-teeeee", he shrieked, his white teeth grossly counterpointing those of the glittering blonde.	283811.32372691005
Over the rapidly-diminishing outline of a jump seat piled high with luggage Herry's black brushcut was just discernible, near, or enviably near that spot where- hidden- more delicately-textured, most beautifully tinted hair must still be streaming back in cool, oh cool wind sweetly perfumed with sagebrush and yucca flowers and engine fumes.	458966.5044125724
Damn his luck.	440.68226152472954
I would have foregone my romantic chances rather than leave a friend sweltering and dusty and- Well, at least I wouldn't have shouted back a taunt.	79977.15854291656
Still nursing anger I listlessly thumbed a car that was slowly approaching, its pre-war chrome nearly blinding me.	102249.10809009874
It was stopping.	21.905435844503668
Just as I straightened up with my duffel bag, I heard "Sahjunt Yoorick, meet Mrs Major J A Roebuck".	67595.02504946028
The voice was that of Johnson, tail gunner off another crew.	8420.483727258217
Squeezing a look between Johnson's fat jowls and the car frame a handsome and still darkhaired lady inquired "Y'all drahve"?	435682.34201710275
I nodded.	239.70418574392565
"Onleh one thiihng", Mrs Roebuck continued.	16940.168931458436
"Ahm goin nawth t'jawn mah husbun in Sante Fe, an y'all maht prefuh the suhthuhn rewt.	261510.63875341477
But Corporal Johnson has alreadeh said it didn make no diffrunce t'hi-im".	52534.007741954454
I said that it didn't make any difference to me either, as far as I knew.	1100.3765629348543
How far I knew will shortly become apparent.	2427.096291836932
Let me pass over the trip to Sante Fe with something of the same speed which made Mrs Roebuck "wonduh if the wahtahm speed limit" 35 mph "is still in ee-faket".	169247.4137146911
I let up on the accelerator, only to gradually reach again the 60 mph which would, I hoped, overhaul Herry and the blonde, and as there were cars whose drivers apparently had something more important to catch than had I, Mrs Major Roebuck settled down to practicing on Corporal Johnson the kittenish wiles she would need when making her duty call on Colonel and Mrs Somebody in Sante Fe.	540772.8131336141
When Johnson ejaculated "Howsabout my buying us all a nice cold Co-cola, Ma'am"?	170809.4185227585
Mrs Roebuck smilingly declined and began suddenly to go on about her son, who was "onleh a little younguh than you bawhs".	58641.17888393738
Johnson never would have believed she had a son that age.	13126.468034582156
Mrs Roebuck thought Johnson was a "sweet bawh t'lah lahk thet", but her Herman was getting to be a man, there was no getting around it.	13384.90719647546
"Just befoh he left foh his academeh we wuh hevin dack-rihs on the vuhranduh, Major Roebuck an Ah, an Huhmun says 'May Ah hev one too'?	295421.71284717147
just as p'lite an- an cohnfidunt, an Ah says 'Uh coahse you cain't', but he says 'Whah nawt, you ah hevin one'?	164379.57401761482
an Ah coudn ansuh him an so Ah said 'Aw right, Ah gay-ess, an his fathuh didn uttuh one wohd an aftuh Huhmun was gone, the majuh laughed an tole me thet he an the bawh had been hevin an occasional drink t'gethuh f'ovuh a yeah, onleh an occasional one, but just the same it was behahn mah back, an Ah doan think thet's nahce at all, d'you"?	557870.80070646
"No, I don't", Johnson said.	221.97281353997258
"I'm a good Baptist, and drinking h" Mrs Roebuck very kindly let me drive through Sante Fe to a road which would, she said, lead us to Taos and then Raton and "eventshahleh" out of New Mexico.	52306.776067916726
How lightly her "eventshah-leh" passed into the crannies where I was storing dialect material for some vaguely dreamed opus, and how the word would echo.	119542.60958466529
And re-echo.	857.9104419968975
Hardly had Mrs Roebuck driven off when a rusty pick-up truck, father or grandfather of Senor "Moriarty's" Ford sedan, came screeching to a dust-swirling stop, and a brown face appeared, its nose threatened by shards of what had once been the side window.	240605.0482693855
"Get in, buddies.	2413.623730812244
Get in".	119.99273165312569
The straight, black hair flopped in a vigorous nod, the slender nose plunged toward glass teeth and drew safely back.	46893.35404276394
Johnson unwired the right hand door, whose window was, like the left one, merely loosely-taped fragments of glass, and Johnson wadded himself into a narrow seat made still more narrow by three cases of beer.	328378.925650527
"In back, buddy", the driver said to me.	1577.9742625918955
Quickly but carefully lowering my duffel bag over the low side-rack, I stepped on the running board; it flopped down, sprang back up and gouged my shin.	393654.45651536743
The truck was hurtling forward.	493.41860943609805
I seized the rack and made a western-style flying-mount just in time, one of my knees mercifully landing on my duffel bag- and merely wrecking my camera, I was to discover later- my other knee landing on the slivery truck floor boards and- but this is no medical report.	142500.75291669535
I was again in motion and at a speed which belied the truck's similarity to Senor X's Ford turtle.	32909.25341110583
Maybe I would beat old Herry to Siberia after all.	4016.3314597051412
Whatever satisfaction that might offer.	2083.4466748469813
Something pulled my leg.	1124.9003206840198
I drew back, drawing back my foot for a kick.	38172.875177308946
But it was only Johnson reaching around the wire chicken fencing, which half covered the truck cab's glassless rear window.	23707.774758849017
The way his red rubber lips were stretched across his pearly little teeth I though he was only having a little joke, but, no, he wanted me to bend down from the roar of wind so he could roar something into my ear.	151985.56647183877
"Wanna beer"?	20786.28634948607
"Hell, yes", I roared back between dusty lips.	20118.851916686937
Did I want a beer?	1968.1044261208463
Did an anteater want ants?	9944.001851268864
"Bueno, amigo.	11770.304497228983
Gracias", I hollered, my first long swallow filling me with confidence and immediately doubling the size of my Spanish vocabulary.	71012.92652446726
At once my ears were drowned by a flow of what I took to be Spanish, but- the driver's white teeth flashing at me, the road wildly veering beyond his glistening hair, beyond his gesticulating bottle- it could have been the purest Oxford English I was half hearing; I wouldn't have known the difference.	98490.313647829
Johnson was trying to grab the wheel, though the swerve of the truck was throwing him away from it.	18042.88308023773
White teeth suddenly vanishing, the driver slammed the side of his bottle against Johnson's ear.	55516.21789652683
We were off the road, gleaming barbed wire pulling taut.	6376.911072196859
I ducked just as the first strand broke somewhere down the line and came whipping over the sideboards.	43359.93227247939
We were in a field, in a tight, screeching turn.	1154.9610397886215
Prairie dogs were popping up and popping down.	19066.818472099723
When I fell on my back, I saw a vulture hovering.	6368.538269500537
Just as I got to my knees, there was again the sound of the fence stretching, and I had time only to start taking my kneeling posture seriously.	21989.695806085965
This time no wire came whipping into the truck.	3705.485320195282
We were back on the road.	47.6334228042802
I regained my squatting position behind the truck cab's rear window.	20874.49921356238
Johnson's left hand was pressed against the side of his head, red cheeks whitening beneath his fingers.	7518.286252275559
"Tee-wah", the driver cackled, his black eyes glittering behind dull silver chicken fencing.	202882.3382916987
"That was Tee-wah I was talking.	2031.6252485388438
You thought I was a Mexican, didn't you, buddy"?	8611.990723436398
I nodded.	239.70418574392565
"Hell, that's all right, buddy", the Indian I now guessed said.	31507.44807940075
"Drink your beer".	11770.304497228983
Miraculously, the bottle was still in my hand, foam still geysering over my luckily waterproof watch.	40713.47258464736
No sooner had I started drinking than the driver started zigzagging the truck.	6783.955390721788
The beer foamed furiously.	2627.137549135742
I drank furiously.	2686.866024773284
A long time.	15.445631855371792
Emptied the bottle.	11770.304497228983
Teeth again flashing back at me, the driver released a deluge of Spanish in which "amigo" appeared every so often like an island in the stormy waves of surrounding sound.	158864.6419686245
I bobbed my head each time it appeared.	4708.918796383341
Suddenly the Spanish became an English in which only one word emerged with clarity and precision, "son of a bitch", sometimes hyphenated by vicious jabs of a beer bottle into Johnson's quivering ribs.	129118.52270812598
A big car was approaching, its chrome teeth grinning.	4462.247516256886
Beyond it the gray road stretched a long, long way.	2259.205146983719
The car was just about to us, its driver's fat, solemn face intent on the road ahead, on business, on a family in Sante Fe- on anything but an old pick-up truck in which two human beings desperately needed rescue.	97177.49147412005
I tossed the bottle.	4048.2713963433107
High, so it would only bounce harmlessly but loudly off the car's steel roof.	11646.870227056499
Too high.	210.49005759270153
On unoccupied roadway the bottle shattered into a small amber flash.	52863.1412957886
"Aye-yah-ah-ah"!	46704.52693595541
The Indian was again raising his bottle, but to my astonished relief- probably only a fraction of Johnson's- the bottle this time went to the Indian's lips.	150012.94098985588
Another car was coming, a tiny, dark shape on a far hill.	7992.475371161174
I started looking on the splintery truck bed for a piece of board, a dirt clod- anything I could throw and with better aim than I had thrown the beer bottle.	87773.46727267579
We were slowing.	606.4478208808331
In the ditch sand was white and soft-looking, only an occasional pebble discernible, faintly gleaming.	50445.0680582765
But Johnson couldn't quickly unwire the truck door, and if I escaped, he might suffer.	24003.116420907027
The car was approaching fast.	210.10675695621055
On the truck bed there was nothing smaller than a piece of rusty machinery; with more time I could have loosened a small burr or cotter pin- Suddenly and not a second too soon I thought of the coins in my pocket.	171749.69995523448
There was no time to pick out a penny; I got a coin between my thumb and forefinger, leaned my elbows in a very natural and casual manner on top of the truck cab and flipped my little missile.	54177.78288651104
There was a blur just under my focus of vision, a crash; the car's far windshield panel turned into a silver web with a dark hole in the center.	27171.520211306502
I heard the screech of brakes behind me, an insane burst of laughter beneath me.	13037.736759227859
Looking back I saw a gray-haired man getting out of his halted car and trying to read our license number.	10966.158058159841
"S-s-sahjunt".	16476.87539396534
Johnson's fat hand, another bottle were protruding from the truck cab, and that self-proclaimed Baptist teetotaler, had a bottle at his own lips.	197166.58389662724
Two cars came over a crest, their chrome and glass flashing.	42481.54720186978
The Indian's arm whipped sidewise- there was a flash of amber and froth, the crash of the bottle shattering against the side of the first car.	34583.58488955967
Brakes shrieked behind us.	5020.143070667911
I saw Johnson's bottle snatched from his hand, saw it go in a swirl of foam just behind the second car.	44472.583828534545
This time there was no sound of brakes but the shrieking of women.	4110.08381885203
I looked back at pale ovals framed in the elongated oval of the car's rear window.	20003.881290999816
"Drink, you son of a bitch"!	55592.979199206246
I quickly turned around and began to drink.	1556.8445587710278
But the Indian was jabbing another bottle toward Johnson.	2983.592403636007
I guided her to the divan, turned off the TV, faced her.	15881.313782502019
She sat quietly, staring at me from the wide eyes.	16208.05338767725
And what eyes they were.	183.39192773267035
Big and dark, a melting, golden brown.	1652.945508186783
Eyes like hot honey, eyes that sizzled.	22805.19615731095
Plus flawless skin, smooth brow and cheeks, lips that looked as if you could get a shock from them.	58118.764891867315
It was a disturbingly familiar face, too, but I couldn't remember where we had met.	3713.914209839093
I said, "Do we know each other, Miss"?	1892.3382835028242
"No, I remembered reading about you in the papers and that you lived here, and when it happened all I could think of was"- This time she stopped the rush of words herself.	24749.674232067984
"I'm sorry.	2.9032465133105947
Shall I go on"?	491.6448864905508
She smiled.	204.65247328395418
It was her first smile.	137.73803836247842
But worth waiting for.	252.07180396655264
"Sure".	219.72205145867906
I said.	3.6880945733023127
"But one word at a time, OK"?	1816.226629080068
She was still hugging the stained coat around her, so I said, "Relax, let me take your things.	11957.838072439801
Would you like a drink, or coffee"?	1617.760938524621
"No, thanks".	111.2758389500428
She stood up, pulled the coat from her shoulders and started to slide it off, then let out a high-pitched scream and I let out a low-pitched, wobbling sound like a muffler blowing out.	60946.85581769335
She was wearing nothing beneath the coat.	1287.242442458301
She jerked the coat back on and squeezed it around her again, but not soon enough.	32715.95518160998
There had been a good second or two during which my muffler had been blowing out, and now I was certain I'd seen her somewhere before.	16226.732186051247
"I forgot"!	1180.9860185989783
she yelped.	1827.200530817976
"Oh, do forgive me.	430.2163580036146
I'm sorry"!	79.67336074576595
"I forgive"- "That's what started all the trouble in the first place.	1903.9915162885795
Oh, dear, I'm all unstrung".	2807.388769964761
"You and me both, dear.	3411.2387283824482
Haven't we h haven't I seen you h. I mean, surely we've"- "You may have seen me on TV", she said.	35760.950449258125
"I've done several filmed commercials for"- Then it hit me.	6414.815085404528
"ZING"!	3524.8082516247623
I cried.	227.9633873840247
"Why, yes.	24.11570827378699
And you recognized me"?	598.0203584696441
"Yes, indeed.	20.53218923609414
In fact, I was watching you on that little seventeen-inch screen when you rang my bell.	10348.42416545634
Man, you rang- it was in color, too, Miss, and h Miss?	7456.030981980108
What's your name, anyway?	3185.9587700245247
Ah, you were splendid".	1352.3334831579189
I sat by her on the divan.	5338.844448749885
"Splendid.	261.29502691765526
In a waterfall h and all that".	130.79912274737617
"That's the last one we did.	141.3023740866794
That was a fun one".	222.56619495549631
"I'll bet.	13.366786679577576
It was fun for me, all right.	135.8506127074483
I don't mean to pry, but do they hide the swimsuit with the bubbles?	25448.116515525253
I mean Is advertising honest?	4338.261645041151
"It depends on who does it.	54.238547390201475
I never wear anything at all.	142.4100811247202
It wouldn't- wouldn't seem fair, somehow".	7634.77332977507
"I couldn't agree with you more".	859.239722088092
"I really do have something important to tell you, Mr Scott.	6136.71708532626
About the murder".	103.6978124996298
"Murder?	10862.896734973487
Oh, yeah", I said.	122.98236163767108
"Tell me about the murder".	2030.0875452581265
She told me.	72.06320455853394
ZING was the creation of two men, Louis Thor and Bill Blake, partners in ZING!, Inc.	62104.79573471104
They'd peddled the soap virtually alone, and without much success, until about a year ago, when- with the addition of "SX-21" to their secret formula and the inauguration of a high-powered advertising campaign- sales had soared practically into orbit.	29489.917108671827
Their product had been endorsed by Good Housekeeping, the AMA, and the Veterinary Journal, among other repositories of higher wisdom, and before much longer if you didn't have a cake of their soap in the john, even your best friends would think you didn't bathe.	183520.4917599604
My lovely caller- Joyce Holland was her name- had previously done three filmed commercials for ZING, and this evening, the fourth, a super production, had been filmed at the home of Louis Thor.	115841.21009767143
The water in Thor's big swimming pool had been covered with a blanket of thick, foamy soapsuds- fashioned, of course, from ZING- Joyce had dived from the board into the pool, then swirled and cavorted in her luxurious "bath" while cameras rolled.	138681.13494687184
The finished- and drastically cut- product would begin with a hazy longshot of Joyce entering the suds, then bursting above the pool's surface clad in layers of lavender lather, and I had a hunch this item was going to sell tons and tons of soap; even to clean men and boys.	146633.25013507536
Joyce went on, "When we'd finished, Lou- Mr Thor- asked me to stay a little longer.	46006.48690667398
He wanted a few stills for magazine ads, he said.	1340.951880378498
Everybody left and I stayed in the pool, then Lou came back alone and leaped into the pool too.	27953.914329827796
And he didn't have any clothes on".	467.96961328671233
"He didn't"!	179.62677310330332
"Yes, he didn't.	23.8326742065114
Did, I mean".	52.96897370291719
She paused.	1081.7749079957528
"Did leap into the pool, and didn't have anything on.	6142.7972489455815
Anyway, it was evident what he had in mind".	209.38571107908044
"You got away, didn't you"?	5925.233873945727
"Yes.	3.463452173258582
He caught up with me once and grabbed me, but I was all covered with ZING- it's very slippery, you know".	15889.175195484124
"I didn't know.	21.2076068611187
I wouldn't have the stuff in the house.	374.8795602214305
But I'm pleased to hear"- "So I just scooted out of his clutches.	16479.495571145384
I swam like mad, got out of the pool, grabbed my robe, and ran to the car.	8314.217083716558
The keys were still in it, and I was miles away before I remembered that my clothes and purse and everything were still in the little cabana where I'd changed".	33014.360452870904
She'd driven around for a while, Joyce said, then, thinking Louis Thor would have calmed down by that time, she'd gone back to his home on Bryn Mawr Drive, parked in front, and walked toward the pool.	27423.319043932835
While several yards from it, still concealed by the shrubbery, she'd seen two men on her left at the pool's edge.	59705.62693114561
She went on "A man was holding onto Lou, holding him up.	6485.219016329164
Maybe Lou was only unconscious, but right then I thought he must be dead.	26682.3750728818
The man shoved him into the water, then ran past the cabana.	6260.889207052596
There's a walk there that goes out to Quebec Drive.	4997.237567696364
I was so scared h well, I just ran to my car and came here".	16397.711982558856
"You know who the other man was"?	1080.0065157770462
"No, I never did see his face.	63.191089375942056
I didn't get a good look at him at all, his back was to me, and I was so scared h It was just somebody in a man's suit.	8904.36812450973
But I'm sure the other one was Lou".	910.4358807556275
What Joyce wanted me to do was go to Thor's house and "do whatever detectives do", and get her clothes- and handbag containing her identification.	46849.68159846277
She realized I'd have to notify the police, but fervently hoped I could avoid mentioning her name.	8974.070666661868
Her impact in the ZING commercials had led to her being considered for an excellent part in an upcoming TV series, Underwater Western Eye, a documentary-type show to be sponsored by Oatnut Grits.	242972.0695022547
But if Joyce got involved in murder or salacious scandal, the role would probably go to the sponsor's wife, Mrs Oatnut Grits.	136724.53765312297
Or at least not to Joyce.	128.10345597936092
"And I so want the part", she said.	649.848628746202
"The commercials have just been for money, there hasn't been any real incentive for me to do them, but in Underwater Western Eye I'd have a chance to act.	22123.409612225154
I could show what I can do".	122.99120571496957
As far as I was concerned, she had already and had dandily shown what she could do.	933.2728877725598
But I promised Joyce I would mention her name, if at all, only as a last resort.	8561.907709597615
Seeming much relieved, she smiled one of those worth-waiting-for smiles, and I smiled all the way into the bedroom.	67218.09641189559
There I got my Colt Special and shoulder harness, slipped my coat on, and went back into the front room.	18461.964702518613
Joyce squirmed a little on the divan.	17665.870351461686
"I'm starting to itch", she said.	292.1924480846363
"Itch"?	11318.63465748144
"Yes, I'm still all covered with that soap.	302.1786012837904
I was loaded with suds when I ran away, and I haven't had a chance to wash it off.	8449.790923833621
Mmmm, it sure itches".	26298.596627531337
"You might as well wait here while I'm gone, so you can use my shower if you'd like".	4252.840530165123
"Oh, I'd love to".	49.83615739436563
I showed her the shower and tub, and she said, smiling, "If you really don't mind, I think I'll get clean in the shower, then soak for a few minutes in your tub.	19524.79605946905
That always relaxes me.	759.1387884144513
Doesn't it you"?	259.71930359022946
"Only when I do it".	36.56271996723938
I shook my head.	1122.5112036185185
One of my virtues or vices is a sort of three-dimensional imagination complete with sound effects and glorious living color.	12134.314617639953
"Soak h as long as you want, Joyce.	3092.538277192848
It'll probably be at least an hour or two before I can check back with you.	1430.9008633675235
So you'll have everything all to yourself, doggone h" I looked at my watch.	4587.5069724291
Ten after nine.	399.7787323690483
Time to go, I supposed.	442.41491381232413
"Well, goodbye", I said.	175.557648903843
"Goodbye.	3399.79744027935
You'd better hurry".	357.8816402962582
"Oh, you can count on that".	144.9178574774352
She smiled slightly.	497.14265224696476
Softly.	3524.279832361616
Warmly.	3524.279832361616
"Don't hurry too much.	335.3757546709712
I'll be soaking for h at least half an hour".	449.6752772773437
That was all she said.	47.69796948152324
But suddenly those hot-honey eyes seemed to have everything but swarms of bees in them.	24231.709616713677
However, when there's a job to be done, I'm a monstrosity of grim determination, I like to think.	1911.4345660541055
I spun about and clattered through the front room to the door.	3662.298331216006
As I went out, I could hear water pouring in the shower.	11416.044954605239
Hot water.	207.24249000733553
She wouldn't be taking a cold shower.	12781.329044908709
Hell, she couldn't.	4425.716392806553
Bryn Mawr Drive is only two or three miles from the Spartan, and it took me less than five minutes to get there.	45753.67259834582
But the scene was not the quiet, calm scene I'd expected.	8499.111860567738
Four cars were parked at the curb, and two of them were police radio cars.	9383.857856088245
Lights blazed in the big house and surrounding grounds.	22650.200419141456
I followed a shrubbery-lined gravel path alongside the house to the pool.	1666.5654617130697
Two uniformed officers, a couple of plain-clothesmen I knew, and two other men stood on a gray cement area next to the pool on my left.	12615.40828292657
At the pool's far end was the little cabana Joyce had mentioned, and on the water's surface floated scattered lavender patches of limp-looking lather.	66653.92695298689
A few yards beyond the group of men, a man's nude body lay face down on a patch of thick green dichondra.	16512.942756345154
Lieutenant Rawlins, one of the plain-clothesmen, spotted me and said, "Hi, Shell", and walked toward me.	68093.54049541563
"How'd you hear about this one"?	10160.38030153261
I grinned, but ignored the question.	2003.7727298187472
He didn't push it; Rawlins worked out of Central Homicide and we'd been friends for years.	7061.775868977255
He filled me in.	396.8459586436477
A call to the police had been placed from here a couple of minutes after nine pm, and the first police car had arrived two or three minutes after that- 10 minutes ago now.	85962.21777626422
Present at the scene- in addition to the dead man, who was indeed Louis Thor- had been Thor's partner Bill Blake, and Antony Rose, an advertising agency executive who handled the ZING account.	78283.33199444083
Neither of them, I understood, had been present at the filming session earlier.	1199.0794859642644
"What were they doing here"?	425.51594255800785
I asked Rawlins.	866.0485857313332
"They were supposed to meet Thor at nine pm for a conference concerning the ad campaign for their soap, a new angle based on this SX-21 stuff".	83005.57340865009
"Yeah, I've heard more about SX-21 than space exploration lately.	9453.772587201398
What is the gunk"?	847.6080926666391
"How would I know?	2041.6356893938014
It's a secret.	20.63960960788848
That was the new advertising angle- something about a Lloyd's of London policy to insure the secrecy of the secret ingredient.	51466.413801462826
Actually, only two men know what the formula is, Blake and"- He stopped and looked at Thor's body.	14172.506722129025
I said, "OK, so now only Blake knows.	2736.017110936859
How's it strike you, foul or fair"?	29965.84741564743
"Can't say yet.	578.3495097539997
Deputy coroner says it looks like he sucked in a big pile of those thick suds and strangled on 'em.	71660.19013347983
The PM might show he drowned instead, but that's what the once-over-lightly gives us.	53785.726596309265
Accident, murder, suicide- take your pick".	40796.233835946536
"I'll pick murder.	207.4830920966224
Anything else"?	558.1932445208632
"According to Rose, he arrived here a couple minutes before nine and spotted Thor in the water, got a hooked pole from the pool-equipment locker and started hauling him out.	55765.09566303547
Too many people think that the primary purpose of a higher education is to help you make a living; this is not so, for education offers all kinds of dividends, including how to pull the wool over a husband's eyes while you are having an affair with his wife.	16352.03434130934
If it were not for an old professor who made me read the classics I would have been stymied on what to do, and now I understand why they are classics; those who wrote them knew people and what made people tick.	27870.398653742795
I worked for my Uncle an Uncle by marriage so you will not think this has a mild undercurrent of incest who ran one of those antique shops in New Orleans' Vieux Carre, the old French Quarter.	143954.42254844384
The arrangement I had with him was to work four hours a day.	668.6990995006806
The rest of the time I devoted to painting or to those other activities a young and healthy man just out of college finds interesting.	16639.060917024995
I had a one-room studio which overlooked an ancient courtyard filled with flowers and plants, blooming everlastingly in the southern sun.	19972.617132034313
I had come to New Orleans two years earlier after graduating college, partly because I loved the city and partly because there was quite a noted art colony there.	19880.145511388007
When my Uncle offered me a part-time job which would take care of my normal expenses and give me time to paint I accepted.	23129.7535049069
The arrangement turned out to be excellent.	1194.6802638783167
I loved the city and I particularly loved the gaiety and spirit of Mardi Gras.	44086.92600625423
I had seen two of them and we would soon be in another city-wide, joyous celebration with romance in the air; and, when you took a walk you never knew what adventure or pair of sparkling eyes were waiting around the next corner.	49332.72815896741
The very faces of the people bore this expectation of fun and pleasure.	9230.363692613506
It was as if they could hardly wait to get into their costumes, cover their faces with masks and go adventuring.	10086.172373224366
My Uncle and I were not too close socially because of the difference in our ages.	9234.914987111692
Sometimes I wondered vaguely what he did about women for my Aunt, by blood, had died some years ago, but neither of us said anything.	25787.078810975334
One Monday morning I saw him approach the store with a woman and introduce me to her as my new Aunt.	64730.52722820187
They were married over the week-end, though he was easily sixty and she could not have been even thirty.	7246.357224084919
She looked more like twenty-five or six.	327.74722111459585
It was really a May and December combination.	1832.0385839708292
My new Aunt was perhaps three or four years older than I and it had been a long time since I had seen as gorgeous a woman who oozed sex.	9605.744433008838
There was something about the contour of her face, her smile that was like New Orleans sunshine, the way she held her head, the way she walked- there was scarcely anything she did which did not fascinate me.	51655.07102006674
Her legs were the full, sexy kind, full bodied like a rare wine and just as tantalizing to the appetite; the calf was magnificent, the ankle perfect.	175475.374509866
You must forgive me if I seem to dwell too much on her physical aspects but I am an artist, accustomed to studying the physical body.	37648.32466700062
The true artist is like one of those scientists who, from a single bone can reconstruct an animal's entire body.	9101.090973368853
The artist looks at an ankle, a calf, a bosom and, in his mind's eye, the clothes drop away and he sees her as she really is.	30207.898760014028
And that is the way I first saw her when my Uncle brought her into his antique store.	3909.365454609356
That she impressed me instantly was obvious; I was aware that when our eyes met we both quickly averted them.	24411.770213152344
I thought I saw a faint surge of color rise to her neck and quickly suffuse her cheeks.	24524.35238289299
True, she was my Aunt, married to an Uncle related to me only by marriage, but why she had married a man twice her age, and more, perhaps, I did not know or much care.	32371.275042368077
She was standing with her back to the glass door.	1754.751113661612
Her form was silhouetted and with the strong light I could see the outlines of her body, a body that an artist or anyone else would have admired.	70164.5302481901
As it is in so many affairs of the heart, a man and a woman meet and something clicks.	2426.309210874682
Something clicked in this instance, but I treated her circumspectly and I felt that she knew it, for we both kept our distance.	22736.127716599778
When she appeared at the store to help out for a few hours even my looking at her was surreptitious lest my Uncle notice it.	21512.15823181523
And then I became aware that she, too, glanced at me surreptitiously.	7526.026860311824
I felt that her eyes were undressing me as if she were a painter and I a nude model.	5106.227751623279
I dismissed these feelings as wishful thinking but I could not get it out of my head that we had a strong physical attraction for one another and we both feared to dwell on it because of our relationship.	23110.438794537953
When our eyes met the air was filled with an unuttered message of "Me, too".	13395.529015743316
You have probably experienced this.	534.0111778451836
It is nothing you can put your fingers on but the air suddenly fills with a high charge of electricity.	8754.39808682238
Why she married him I do not know.	232.3287582014921
I myself was fond of him but what a young woman half his age saw in him was a mystery to me.	10976.191866416508
He already had that slow pace that comes over the elderly, while she herself had all the signs of one who appreciates the joys of living.	27038.69267798552
Perhaps, with my Uncle, she found a measure of economic security that she needed; or maybe she liked men old enough to be her father; some women with father fixations do.	40546.18735131372
For several weeks we eyed one another almost like sparring partners, and then one day Uncle was slightly indisposed and stayed home; his bride opened the store.	46120.4948309477
I was waiting in front of it when she showed up and told me of my Uncle's indisposition.	18743.806290024022
Even as she was telling me about it I became aware of a give-away flush that suffused her neck and moved upwards to her cheeks, and subconsciously I realized that when she entered the store she did not switch on the lights.	248507.44406661193
The cavernous depth, cluttered with antiques, echoed to her hard heels as she walked directly to the office in the rear and took the seat at his desk.	66896.06964738837
She placed her palms, fingers outspread, on the desk in an odd gesture as if to say, "Now, what next"?	63838.478616622655
I was aware of a humid look in her eyes that told me the time was opportune.	8393.667987994637
There was little likelihood of any customers walking in at that hour.	2638.337611280659
I was standing beside her, watching the outspread palms and wondering about the old horsehair sofa against the wall on which he sometimes napped.	53246.97093378078
I bent and kissed the still pink neck and suddenly she jumped up, and her two arms encircled me in a bear-like crush.	79955.1361117192
Her mouth, which had been so much in my thoughts, was warm and moist and tender.	11890.446836963132
I heard her murmur, "We'd better lock the door".	2312.604803881597
It did not take me long to slip the bolt securely and return to the rear and its couch.	8110.8756729454935
When we opened the door again for business and switched on the lights she said "He will not always be indisposed".	41192.676160567105
"I know.	18.29685342835352
I was thinking about that.	419.01330097026295
How will we work it out"?	4307.39812099578
"I don't know", she said.	11.468749710257375
"You're the man.	17.173002745892603
You figure it out.	281.62830057983166
I've noticed the way you've been looking at me ever since we met".	1393.2034516475053
"I guess we both felt it".	280.9919047700266
I said.	3.6880945733023127
"I guess so", she said.	128.17743510858216
"But now what"?	4.454417917323899
Even as I said it I realized that an education can be invaluable.	14057.552389890005
"I know what we can do", I said.	14.482004662093697
"Tell him I made a pass at you".	7116.505834475789
She raised a protesting hand with a startled air.	9401.455723542993
"What are you trying to do?	71.51412173133777
Get thrown out?	1195.3995468578144
If I even hint at it do you think it will matter that you are his nephew- and not even a blood nephew"?	37197.495450179376
"I don't want to be thrown out and I don't think I will.	869.0580516399945
I think I have a way so we can carry on without his suspecting us".	1297.4471321189917
"By telling him you are making passes at me"?	17019.00494515901
she said incredulously.	1274.3788658826968
"When I was in college", I grinned, "I remember a poem I had to read in my lit class.	6720.753413946673
I don't even remember who wrote it but it was one of those 15th or 16th century poets.	14455.19621170063
In those days poems often told a story in verse and those boys had some corkers to tell; and now I think we can use the knowledge they passed on to us.	24196.759275229215
Tomorrow Mardi Gras opens officially.	26298.596627531337
A lot of people will roam the streets in costumes and masks, and having a ball.	3082.879655737353
There will be romance and flirtation.	1424.440622722211
If you tell him I made a pass at you he might think you misunderstood something I said or did, so instead of just telling him I made a pass, say I tried to date you and that you agreed so you could prove to him what a louse I really am.	214448.45656649352
We made a rendezvous tomorrow evening at nine on some street near Lake Ponchartrain.	26199.248607255853
And to prove what you tell him about me you suggest that he keep the date instead.	6330.597253886635
You are both the same size.	735.3036762960179
He could use your clothes for a costume and a heavy veil for a mask.	29302.738342771976
When I show up he will know you are a good wife to have told him about it".	6594.992763473645
"But you"- she began.	420.2466162934076
"Don't worry about me.	18.583096856868757
It will turn out all right".	133.52601001918077
"I don't understand", she insisted.	712.364566239528
"Are you trying to cut your throat"?	6889.37727836531
"No", I chuckled, "I'm just beginning to collect dividends on my investment in education".	3235.9687623681007
As we expected, on the following day my Uncle was completely recovered and opened the store as usual at 10 in the morning.	14334.89659682282
I felt that he looked at me coldly and appraisingly and seemed to be uncertain what his attitude towards me should be, but he did not say one word which might indicate that he had been told of advances to his wife.	7139.498693596259
I quit work at my usual hour as if this day was no different from other days.	23156.911431977387
I heard subsequently that my Uncle and Aunt had dinner in a nearby restaurant in the French Quarter after which he went home to get into his costume to keep the date.	57821.75785025097
Shortly before nine I drove my jalopy to the street facing the Lake and parked the car in shadows far enough away from the rendezvous corner but near enough to keep the corner in clear view.	48945.29618144402
A few minutes later I saw my Uncle's car drive up and a woman's figure emerge and walk to the corner.	9322.263837448829
I must say the figure was well made up.	785.4173824534447
If it were not that I knew who it was I could have mistaken it for my Aunt so well did her clothes fit him.	15245.863423970723
In one hand he gripped firmly a parasol though there had been no indication of rain.	9001.19604012301
I suspected why he brought it along.	2536.4790190074254
In the half darkness I approached cautiously, making sure he did not see me.	1404.3001582359568
He was looking out on the dark waters of the Lake when I came upon him and without wasting words I smacked him hard across the face.	15317.46727437051
"You cheap bitch"!	2508.0856709676373
I exclaimed.	248.8353437837741
"You cheap, no good, two-timing bitch!	29806.875629511644
You get a good, loyal husband- smack!- and you fall for a pass by his own nephew!	64300.77303005841
You should- smack!- be ashamed of yourself.	2003.1335737712418
He had better write a postcard to Walter.	4265.679267718453
He opened the myth book again and there along the margin next to Robert Graves' imaginative interpretation of the creation of the Dactyls from Rhea's fingertips were the names of four Munich bars and Meredith Wilder's address.	156937.6753600936
The bars were marked as Walter had marked them in a small black book kept in a nearly secret drawer.	56090.21524953154
The code, which had probably something to do with sex or some other interest, Nicolas was determined to find out and put to use.	25180.311389668637
A card to Walter would get him an introduction to this Meredith, and that might be good for something.	22112.866403174565
Nicolas called on his muse, a line came back "Squaresville, man, and all the palazzos are crummy Palasts".	87060.27441992736
That ought to draw a laugh, Nicolas reasoned, as he stored the line away on the wax tape that was his mind.	65844.64934266459
And indeed, his postcard did draw from Walter a letter recommending his friend, the poet Nicolas Manas, to his friend Meredith Wilder.	83134.46761591305
Five days later, on receiving it, Meredith sat drumming his dactyls on his writing table.	28621.28990353805
Dammit!	3524.8082516247623
he inwardly cried.	880.6003904589169
His hand was large and square and heavily tanned.	17847.244329751862
The voice crying in him was the voice of guilt.	772.2185089778844
His four weeks in Italy had turned into nearer three months.	13092.781054932278
He had returned to the pension a week ago.	505.2952085129616
Now, he was just in the late poems of Holderlin and therefore had most of the nineteenth century before him- plus next semester's class preparation.	10997.355350047379
He was determined to spend an industrious summer.	1189.157025204908
Well, maybe Manas wouldn't call.	891.4922688141136
Meredith's fingers slowed and stopped over a line before him Sie lacheln, die Schwarzen Hexen.	139663.81030823314
The menace of Manas gradually faded as Meredith asked himself should he translate it, 'How the dark fates laughed'?	127550.55225192821
or, more rhythmically, 'The swarthy witches are laughing'?	34391.200294643895
And he missed the point that the swarthy witches might be laughing at him for hoping to escape Nicolas Manas.	31378.955773568163
But Nicolas, too, was being interrupted, that morning.	7346.6877440815315
Not by the 1100 sun which had spread a warmth around his spot of grass in the English Gardens and sent him off to sleep; but by a blond girl in a sweater and skirt who stood a few yards off and tenderly regarded him.	205194.52136567075
Should she wake him?	839.9292670072749
She didn't have the heart.	61.114028481215165
Her heart, her maternal feeling, in fact her h her being was too busy expressing itself, as quietly thrilled by this sight of her Nicolas curled asleep under a blanket, in a park like a scene from Poussin.	280643.1645979218
She was just not able to break the spell.	896.5665441126174
Would she have been able to had she known that the blanket belonged to a young ballet dancer Nicolas had found his first night in one of Walter's marked bars?	193022.36140119983
Nicolas "Look, Nicolas doesn't go to bed with boys- no sex, see?	154900.0432696501
So if all these beers was to get me in bed, man, you just spent a lot of money".	3009.442783323748
Ballet dancer Protests, tears, and "take what you want, Nicolas, I am a dancer, you are a poet, it is all beautiful".	28781.598742209746
To this meek conjugation Nicolas had replied, "OK I can use this blanket.	21332.032374750837
And when you get off this job tonight, well, you can gimme something to eat".	9602.299046782859
And, as a matter of fact, Nicolas had slept in the park only part of one night, when he discovered that Munich's early mornings even in summer are laden with dew.	11445.720083582133
He had always known how to find a bed, and on his own terms.	1720.5131072786944
He used the blanket for late morning naps when hosts of the night had gone off to jobs and proved reluctant to leave him in their small rooms with their few possessions.	92108.55830302833
Mary Jane Lerner knew none of this.	657.5145031119272
Her Nicolas lay curled in the sun like a fawn, black hair falling over his eyes.	7116.04834229791
She was telling herself that this might just be her reward at the end of a long meaningful search for truth.	7168.844890166247
This was surely a reunion in art, it was all that poetry promised.	4366.995106973127
That long night with Nicolas and marijuana in Venice had opened her eyes.	10885.911609309327
His advice, his voice saying his poems, the fact that he had not so much as touched her- on the contrary, he had put his head back and she had stroked his hair- this was all new.	11609.821851151764
Her eyes had opened, she had caught a glimpse of a new faith.	5979.201007852481
The next day he was gone.	14.935379232530448
Mary Jane might not be the most intelligent woman, but she was one of the most determined.	913.7636821742091
Even so, it took her several days to force Walter to tell her Nicolas's whereabouts.	6443.217192322297
Packing a small suitcase, informing her husband whom she found in Harry's Bar that she was taking a train to Germany to get away for a while, patting his arm, refusing a drink, getting on the train- all this had only taken her two hours.	190824.2460799779
She had arrived this morning and come straight to the English Gardens.	4525.655320542773
"Dear girl", Walter had finally said, "he writes me that he is sleeping in the English Gardens".	37832.48086543212
"How like him"!	357.97095295852176
Mary Jane had smilingly said.	1332.8181115299094
"His address", Walter added, "is that great foundling home, the American Express.	37340.55316167602
And I will greatly appreciate it if you will not tell your husband h".	5424.8450181163125
For the last half hour Mary Jane had criss-crossed half the length of the Gardens and, at last, come upon her knight.	23832.69126010614
His presence there, asleep in the grass, confirmed all that Mary Jane believed it was in his power to teach her freedom from the tedium of needs such as hotels, the meaning of nature, how to live, simply, with the angels.	82579.80689781625
She set down her suitcase.	4635.027679223797
Should she wake him?	839.9292670072749
No.	3.297522726426617
Smiling, she sat down on the suitcase and waited and watched.	5393.165921553781
The sun grew hotter as it approached the midday.	11226.774382736216
Nicolas was dreaming he had his head pressed against the dashboard of a speeding car.	53814.63618263553
He began sweating.	926.2045572875087
In his dream he cried, "Slow down, for Chrissake"!	13855.083848688648
He half woke and rolled over with his face in the cooler grass.	9583.439520096292
His nose was tickled.	2964.715784298865
He sneezed.	1304.6246623971326
He blew his nose expertly between his fingers.	3200.0170776945765
He spit.	204.41073269581761
He half sat up and scratched at the hair on his forehead and then, more vigorously, between his legs.	44494.38788215193
He belched, he stretched.	2313.2569700410163
Mary Jane got up, quietly, and walked away.	6433.406608160908
Twenty minutes later she was at the desk of the Grafin's pension, her tears dried, signing a hotel form and asking for a bath.	63613.54674259372
Mary Jane belonged to a world acquainted with small attractive hotels and pensions in all the major and minor cities.	35113.21097289602
She had retreated to this world.	457.6177200216297
The Grafin, who was charmed by her, told her, "Your sister who was here two years ago has quite dark hair.	82083.68066661121
Families are very interesting.	840.8268345519574
Nevertheless, there is no bath.	232.7195716868086
But a young American has a bath next to his room and I shall ask him if you might use it this once.	33541.33991094163
And then we shall see h".	186.38095780559215
The Grafin was partial to the word 'shall'.	12671.607283516281
Meredith was irritated when the Grafin knocked at his door and told him, "She is a great beauty!	49101.32329989971
Shall we allow her not to have a bath?	9893.581929723005
Actually, she is a sad beauty, I believe.	820.3132152915966
You shall see her at dinner".	2292.544732843889
Rather erotically he listened to the bath water running; when it stopped he began busily typing, sitting up in a virtuous way.	103997.94920108015
Before dinner, he shaved for the second time that day.	2348.64709019426
A thing he did not like doing, generally.	3250.6077339831727
Singing into the mirror and his interested eyes, he was pleased to note, when he stripped for his own bath, that he still had the best part of his Italian sun tan.	26451.79237364094
He flexed his muscles for several minutes, got into the tub, and then grew self-conscious of splashing as he washed.	109113.71600337626
In the small gallery used as the guests' dining room, Meredith sat down at his place and, as always, began teasing the young waitress.	28495.256654472494
He was asking had it been she who left the love note in his sheets she also served as maid when he saw the Grafin followed by a stately blond girl approaching his table.	80645.07346476031
It would be literary license calculated to glamorize life to say that he, oh, dropped his napkin, so startled was he by Mary Jane's beauty.	32291.79904860136
Yet he did drop his badinage with the ordinary country girl as much in deference to the Grafin as acknowledgement that here, indeed, was something special.	51240.87268726858
Mary Jane had made very little effort.	3623.9583287778173
Above a dark green skirt she wore a pale green cashmere sweater with, as he soon perceived, no brassiere beneath.	108048.40958004455
Her white blond hair was clean and brushed long straight down to her shoulders.	28587.976420408824
Perhaps her eyes were larger and more of a summer blue for all they had seen and wept that day.	4296.459689518427
She had touched her face, truly a noble and pure face, only with a lip salve which made her lips glisten but no redder than usual.	45332.84390129099
The result was grace and modesty.	1220.3967128060951
As she was rather tired this evening, her simple "Thank you for the use of your bath"- when she sat down opposite him- spoken in a low voice, came across with coolnesses of intelligence and control.	37189.185329151784
Meredith began falling in love.	6687.925931826339
Soup "Only this morning"; veal cutlets "Oh, I couldn't possibly eat all this"!	63353.51230861737
; wine "Then you were typing poems this afternoon"?	94608.62447783281
; fruit compote "If you think I would understand it"; a smile.	6577.828706324678
"What a beautiful room.	207.7765156706903
Like h as if it were built of books".	2253.120280606311
Having opened the windows onto the terrace, lit the fire, translated the motto, Meredith grinned and took down a little triplet of books bound together in old calfskin.	222481.94793884747
Opening these he brought out a schnapps bottle and small gold thimble-sized glasses hidden inside it.	120526.61868077378
"I think the maids tipple in the afternoon".	189.68628619306202
"Those sweet girls?	4618.463433824824
Oh h you're joking.	10409.884937374956
It tastes a little like poppyseed.	10956.270242900964
What's its name?	764.8805698882585
Steinhager h" She whispered Steinhager to herself, several times, memorizing it.	30326.300891843475
"Would you first read the poem aloud to me and then let me read it to myself"?	30171.388596854067
Meredith's voice was always deep, with rough bass notes in it; in reading, on platforms, even in the large auditorium of the YMHA, Poetry Center nights, his voice was intimate, thoughtful, and a trifle shy.	167500.92425174892
His new poem, a love poem, told of a young husband leading his wife upstairs to the bedroom when the lights in the house have failed.	43619.81824939404
The husband points the steps out with his flashlight "Its white stare filling her pale eyes To the blind brim with appetite, Bleaching her hands that grazed my thighs And sent us from the table in surprise To let the dishes soak all night," Mary Jane asked herself if Meredith was blushing at this line, or was it the fire?	345142.0327166439
But he read on.	192.0231532052183
In the bedroom before the husband and wife find their way to the bed, the lights go on "In dull domestic radiance I watch her staring face, still blind, Start wincing in obedience To dirty waters, counters, pots and pans, Waiting below stairs, in her mind".	68008.80537929566
Mary Jane took the page from him and began reading it, moving her lips with the words.	5119.580279641526
"Oh, it's that myth, about Orpheus and h What is her name?	14412.735962198383
I can never pronounce it".	353.4318640225381
She repeated "Eurydice".	1811.6714829080668
The third time rather urgently.	588.2095020675725
But with her hand poem again.	777.2334009810185
She raised her face and nodded, "It's sweet, and very sad".	18482.606554583203
They discussed the way people never tell each other the things on their minds.	15172.412906875395
They finished the small bottle of Steinhager.	11872.046417883994
She confessed she was unhappy, he asked was it her husband?	60367.934639798856
She began to explain, "There was this poet, in Italy h" He interrupted, "Please don't judge all poets".	64692.5014058097
They smiled.	198.04029670730776
At her door, two or three hours later, Mary Jane whispered, "Everyone is asleep".	27284.070354528056
Kissing her he whispered, several times, "Eurydice".	28446.071126370367
The third time rather urgently.	588.2095020675725
But with her hand softly on his cheek for a last moment, she closed the door and he went back down the hall and into his bed excited, expectant, and finally faintly grinning with the feel of her hand against his mouth.	54931.2151701937
They were west of the Sabine, but only God knew where.	8782.439931562445
For three days, their stolid oxen had plodded up a blazing valley as flat and featureless as a dead sea.	20476.420523372097
Molten glare singed their eyelids an angry crimson; suffocating air sapped their strength and strained their nerves to snapping; dust choked their throats and lay like acid in their lungs.	270917.29330642405
And the valley stretched endlessly out ahead, scorched and baked and writhing in its heat, until it vanished into the throbbing wall of fiery orange brown haze.	100572.33310272143
Ben Prime extended his high-stepped stride until he could lay his goad across the noses of the oxen.	109433.2710975847
"Hoa-whup"!	11771.71631755548
he commanded from his raw throat, and felt the pain of movement in his cracked, black burned lips.	27248.518024201807
He removed his hat to let the trapped sweat cut rivulets through the dust film upon his gaunt face.	65433.45740622883
He spat.	1304.6246623971326
The dust-thick saliva came from his mouth like balled cotton.	17126.869391262473
He moved back to the wheel and stood there blowing, grasping the top of a spoke to still the trembling of his played-out limbs.	56485.340077714674
The burning air dried his sweat-soaked clothes in salt-edged patches.	26687.93539959642
He cleared his throat and wet his lips.	2727.339704506226
As cheerfully as possible, he said, "Well, I guess we could all do with a little drink".	1717.5069195217566
He unlashed the dipper and drew water from a barrel.	6692.498456086999
They could no longer afford the luxury of the canvas sweat bag that cooled it by evaporation.	4724.294587637507
The water was warm and stale and had a brackish taste.	4477.597866086623
But it was water.	80.90069791384342
Thank the Lord, they still had water!	24764.214873802284
He cleansed his mouth with a small quantity.	2598.3917740541597
He took a long but carefully controlled draught.	2323.5136588556047
He replenished the dipper and handed it to his young wife riding the hurricane deck.	16207.720805144236
She took it grudgingly, her dark eyes baleful as they met his.	10775.147286303825
She drank and pushed back her gingham bonnet to wet a kerchief and wipe her face.	26390.060592461814
She set the dipper on the edge of the deck, leaving it for him to stretch after it while she looked on scornfully.	33634.632930819374
"What happens when there's no more water"?	20094.790638938564
she asked smolderingly.	1153.5510571664909
She was like charcoal, he thought- dark, opaque, explosive.	13988.979383685364
Her thick hair was the color and texture of charcoal.	12455.484654580578
Her temper sparked like charcoal when it first lights up.	13585.17023557875
And all the time, she had the heat of hatred in her, like charcoal that is burning on its under side, but not visibly.	62337.53446229374
A ripple ran through the muscles of his jaws, but he kept control upon his voice.	23344.404511444976
"There must be some water under there".	337.02664129802764
He tilted his homely face toward the dry bed of the river.	3597.465567192385
"We can get it if we dig", he said patiently.	10245.61192520944
"And add fever to our troubles"?	17862.486007493982
she scoffed.	1769.7182555700813
"Or do you want to see if I can stand fever, too"?	3008.5337918401447
"We can boil it", he said.	115.95074465743537
Her chin sharpened.	2038.0148400145836
"We're lost and burning up already", she bit out tensely.	13506.69944882057
"The tires are rattling on the wheels now.	5944.640736055875
They'll roll off in another day.	1264.4636470655516
There was no valley like this on your map.	1101.8927279224881
You don't even know where we're headed".	6912.826653047002
"Hettie", he said as gently as he could, "we're still headed west.	13180.253883785525
Somewhere, we'll hit a trail".	874.7036941963852
"Somewhere!"	408.12985486894104
she repeated.	243.2463018593638
"Maybe in time to make a cross and dig our graves".	6052.669185625117
His wide mouth compressed.	705.567247577221
In a way, he couldn't blame her.	181.1856730902642
He had picked out this pathless trail, instead of the common one, in a moment of romantic fancy, to give them privacy on their honeymoon.	5045.836412776073
It had been a mistake, but anything would have been a mistake, as it turned out.	711.8318898690131
It wasn't the roughness and crudity and discomfort of the trip that had frightened her.	11054.455903879907
She had hated the whole idea before they started.	3710.65730834705
Actually, she had hated him before she ever saw him.	1396.448004173778
It had been five days too late before he learned that she'd gone through the wedding ceremony in a semitrance of laudanum, administered by her mother.	16814.08199159354
The bitterness of their wedding night still ripped within him like an open wound.	16072.924865123585
She had jumped away from his shy touch like a cat confronted by a sidewinder.	36868.55830407158
He had left her inviolate, thinking familiarity would gentle her in time.	3063.115309101924
But each mile westward, she had hated him the deeper.	9511.147477222054
He stared at the dipper, turning it over and over in his wide, calloused hands.	9083.059481726352
"I suppose", he muttered, "I can sell the outfit for enough to send you home to your folks, once we find a settlement".	39117.26915566778
"Don't try to be noble"!	162.83389223975274
Her laugh was hard.	1085.7672266298987
"They wouldn't have sold me in the first place if there'd been food enough to go around".	12651.86097753896
He winced.	1263.5822082853588
"Hettie, they didn't sell you", he said miserably.	51211.8075533085
"They knew I was a good sharecrop farmer back in Carolina, but out West was a chance to build a real farm of our own.	12058.40786487195
They thought it would be a chance for you to make a life out where nobody will be thought any better than the next except for just what's inside of them.	9221.290913077502
Without money or property, what would you have had at Baton Rouge"?	97539.26645352069
"I might have starved, but at least I wouldn't be fried to a crisp and soaked with dirt"!	18585.065166402084
He darkened under his heavy burn.	3523.318511457254
His blue eyes sought the shimmering sea of haze ahead.	10909.496880775132
To his puzzlement, there suddenly was no haze.	6504.44033632665
The valley lay clear, and open to the eye, right up to the sharp-limbed line of gaunt, scoured hills that formed the horizon twenty miles ahead.	29270.071681004494
Then he noticed the clouds racing upon them- heavy, ominous, leaden clouds that formed even as they sliced over the crests of the surrounding hills.	94739.24270904991
He had never seen clouds like them before, but he had the primitive feel of danger that gripped a man before a hurricane in Carolina.	14188.855264066617
He hollered hoarsely, "Hang on"!	3799.869841000284
and goaded the oxen as he yelled.	17677.065115444366
He wanted to turn them, putting the wagon against the storm.	2364.8135429613058
Too late, he realized that in turning, he had wheeled them onto a patch of sandy ground, instead of atop a grade or ridge.	155171.8054314472
He swung up over the wheel.	690.5115370220201
"You had better get inside", he warned her.	3383.805517179936
But she sat on in stubborn silence.	1499.240731087561
The clouds bulged downward and burst suddenly into a great black funnel.	37650.14562940478
Frozen, they stared at it whirling down the valley, gouging and spitting out boulders and chunks of earth like a starving hound dog cracking marrowbones.	389284.71492725506
The six-ton Conestoga began to whip and shake.	5415.053144406119
Their world turned black.	359.73124737336207
It was filled with dust and wind and sound and violence.	4204.537380432726
The heavens opened, pelting them with hail the size of walnuts.	28766.56716323621
And then came the water- not rain, but solid sheets that sluiced down like water slopping from a bucket.	60391.97987656666
Walls of water rushed down the slopes and filled the hollows like the crests of flash floods.	216486.639434778
Through the splash of the rising waters, they could hear the roar of the river as it raged through its canyon, gnashing big chunks out of the banks.	52107.72390517111
The jetting, frothing surface of the river reached the level of the runoff.	25031.039363124557
The dangerous current upon the prairie ceased, but the water stood and kept on rising.	52155.01646742635
They cringed under sodden covers, listening to the waves slop against the bottom.	20972.069830184602
The cloudburst cut off abruptly.	5367.939641888148
They were engulfed by the weird silence, broken only by the low, angry murmur of the river.	7650.910798992635
Then the darkness thinned, and there was light again, and then bright sunlight.	5470.224541621477
Beaten with fear and sound and wet and chill, they crawled to the hurricane deck and looked out haggardly at a world of water that reached clear to the surrounding hills.	63465.953820931056
The water level was higher than their hubs.	5019.054943228038
Only the heavy bones of the oxen kept them anchored.	10783.432099981703
There was no real sign of the river now, just a roiling, oily ribbon of liquid movement through muddy waters that reached everywhere.	25789.468043546727
Clumps of brush rode down the ribbon.	973.3087392570211
Now and then, the glistening side of a half-swamped object showed as it swept past.	7276.14301541858
The girl crawled out into the renewing warmth of the sunshine, hugging her shoulders and still trembling.	90531.3846586171
Her face was pale but set and her dark eyes smoldered with blame for Ben.	65235.096796820304
Out of compulsion to say something cheery, Ben Prime blurted, "Well, we were lucky to be on soft ground when the first floodheads hit.	58591.77809294396
At least, the wheels dug in.	324.02926431297027
The soaking will put life back in the wagon, too".	6019.242583915003
His wife didn't give a sign she'd heard.	5175.839584697491
She was watching a tree ride wildly down that roiling current.	7787.2704359716145
Somebody was riding the tree.	901.0094609063805
It raced closer and they could see a woman with white hair, sitting astride an upright branch.	15875.417099743274
She did not call out.	213.79546625144167
But as the tree passed, she lifted an arm in gesture of better luck and farewell.	27872.2293094359
They watched the tree until it twisted sharply on a bend.	35651.40674877158
It speared up into the air, then sinking back, the up-jutting branch turned slowly.	26340.86742094511
The pale blob of the woman disappeared.	3263.6485992416483
"There's the one who's lucky"!	1671.0132061313295
the girl murmured harshly.	2950.5135019924724
Ben's eyes strained with the bitter hurt, his homely face slashed with gray and crimson.	179822.5835895476
Then he took off his wet boots and dropped down into the water to talk with the beasts, needing their comfort more than they needed his.	28169.106303757955
It was nearly sundown and he went to the back of the wagon, half-swimming his way, for he was not a tall man.	1076.6792581290586
He let down the tailgate and was knocked over by the sluice of water.	15546.678582583503
He sputtered back to his feet and scrambled madly to pull his bags of seed grain forward.	23063.176303395223
They were already swollen to bursting.	1950.523978216451
Of all their worldly belongings, next to the oxen and his gun, the seed grain had been the most treasured.	34186.05873092902
It was spoiled now for seed, and it would sour and mold in three days if they failed to find a place and fuel to dry it.	19755.94042339541
The oxen might as well enjoy it.	1724.8885449231775
He examined the water marks on the iron tires when the animals were finished.	8233.976532465902
The waters lay muddy but placid, without a ripple of movement against the wheels; there was not a match-width of damp mark to show they were receding.	129567.2759840066
He doubted if a man could wade as far as the desolate, dry hills that rimmed the valley.	35356.42324358993
A terrible, numbing sense of futility swept over him.	4835.587384989559
He gripped the wheel hard to fight the despondency of defeat.	20629.77225543568
Then he noticed that the dry wood of the wheels had swollen.	8453.36535156553
The spokes were tight again, the iron tires gripped onto the wheels as if of one piece.	50061.86384401279
Hope surged within him.	420.8158410146781
He swung toward the front to give the news to Hettie, then stopped, barred from her by the vehemence of her blame and hate.	58188.03007710176
Still, he felt better.	97.49129000324209
A tight wagon meant so much.	2661.5013252015187
He got a small fire started and put on bacon and coffee.	4496.481732086622
He poured the water off the sourdough and off the flour, salvaging the chunky, watery messes for biscuits of a sort.	74225.2450475883
Their jams and jellies had not suffered.	14799.38493854311
He found a jar of preserved tomatoes and one of eggs that they had meant to save.	19547.475232715373
Now he broke them open, hoping a good meal might lessen this depression crushing Hettie.	40435.13195716475
His long nose wiggled at the smells of frizzling bacon and heating java, but the fire was low, and he wanted to waste no time.	29537.999589459872
He furled the slashed sides of the canvas tarpaulins, leaving the ribs and wagon open.	44334.061582392256
He looked thoughtfully at his wife's trunk, holding her meager treasures.	12962.222163571903
He said hesitantly, "Hettie, I don't figure your things got wet too much.	12003.589464363718
That's a good trunk.	562.937852036989
If you want to get them aired h" She said without turning her head, "After that rain beating in atop the dust, there isn't a thing that won't be streaked".	50450.9854301358
He drew a long breath and opened the trunk and hung out her clothes and spoilables upon the wagon ribs.	123227.42023657523
Sulphur, oil, and copra make the kind of tinder any firebug dreams of.	107095.00979742418
I suppose a Lascar sailor had sneaked a cigarette in the hold and touched off the blaze.	8754.95858532993
Now, roaring up in great oily clouds of smoke and flames, the fierce heat quickly drove us to the stern where we huddled like suffocating sheep, not knowing what to do h. The lifeboats were stuck fast.	87985.49908825396
We couldn't budge them.	976.7624927400911
I heard a cry from a stoker as a pillar of flame leaped from a hatch and tongued the man's bare back.	32825.6662390872
He sprinted to the rail and leaped overboard into the shark-infested waters.	35493.210389554355
One especially bad detonation shook Lifeboat No 3 which trembled violently in the davits.	66598.65214266772
Brassnose yelled "Come on, Sommers, Max h step on it, we got a chance now.	49941.21219757165
Heave on those ropes; the boat's come unstuck".	58759.41312651891
We pulled and swore and yanked and wept, scraping our hands until they bled profusely.	82688.32948290954
The Bonaventure was quivering and lurching like an old spavined mare.	18084.00188530973
Her stern was down and a sharp list helped us to cut loose the lifeboat which dropped heavily into the water.	32858.14869160744
Brassnose, Max and I leaped into the sea and swam to the boat.	12509.867301340166
"Let's get away fast", said Brassnose, shaking water from his mop of bleached hair.	43166.43688288724
"That tub is going to explode all at once".	1644.1340530373627
Then the Bonaventure seemed to disintegrate with a roar of live steam, geysers of sparks and flames, and a dense cloud of black-and-orange smoke.	130349.3623613318
Dimly, we heard the voices of men in mortal agony but we couldn't go back into that inferno.	158782.21187485947
Already our leaky lifeboat was filled with five inches of water.	5032.057340116953
"Sommers, you bale while we row", Brassnose commanded.	37213.05784611904
As best as I could determine, we were some 700 miles west of New Guinea, in the Bismark Archipelago.	72529.66442804437
Three days previously, we had steamed past barren Rennell Island in the distance.	6239.940944357729
Now we peered anxiously for any speck of land in the Pacific, for this interminable bailing would have to stop soon.	11317.828909207374
There were gigantic blisters and rope burns on our hands; our muscles were hot wires of pain.	17468.223085763442
Brassnose was strangely silent.	5020.144267436018
The big man with the whitened hair murmured something his words sounded as if they were in the Manu tongue, which I recognized, having studied the dialect in my Anthropology /6, class at the University of Chicago.	29141.451560649515
He then said something which struck a chord in my memory.	3585.182220683876
"God help us if we're near the island of Eromonga.	43124.32321272136
We'd be in real trouble then.	338.60731666776917
I'd rather keep bailing- or sink".	874.318110225969
I was puzzled by the remark, then I recalled the voice of mild Professor Howard Griggs three years ago in a university lecture on primitive societies.	24237.88589685106
He had been speaking of this archipelago "Even when the islands were under German mandate before World War /1,, Europeans gave Eromonga a wide berth.	21730.044911032353
The place is inhabited by several hundred warlike women who are anachronisms of the Twentieth Century- stone age amazons who live in an all-female, matriarchal society which is self-sufficient".	21779.39766505624
I remembered, too, the jesting voice of a classmate, Bobby Pauson "But how do they reproduce, Dr Griggs?	147470.58981486753
I'm sure that males have something to do with that process"!	1588.6289241543761
There had been classroom guffaws which quickly subsided as Professor Griggs said dryly "I see your point, Pauson.	43265.894466237245
Of course, males play a role there, but believe me when I say you wouldn't enjoy yourself one bit on Eromonga.	40594.10738904016
Indeed, you wouldn't live long, for the females either drive the men they've seized from neighboring islands back to their boats after exploiting them for amatory purposes, or they destroy them by revolting but ingenious methods.	162303.02128286732
In fact, one important aspect of their very religion is the annihilation of men".	1774.0909945479957
"I think I know what you mean, Brassnose", I said.	360.92532705867416
"I know something about Eromonga.	1437.927272402903
Let's hope we come to a safer place".	1215.026934898642
But we didn't.	93.46355600943433
Three hours later, while we were bailing desperately, a dot of land came into view.	9868.579936241957
Foster Lukuklu Frayne made a sign over his heart with his two linked thumbs I recognized it as an ancient Manu gesture intended to propitiate the Devil.	281112.83045263286
A half-hour passed; we had drifted closer.	975.1638513075767
In a voice so frightened as to seem not his own, the big bo'sun's mate quavered "Tchalo!	29910.33949037911
It is Eromonga- look hard, you can see with your naked eye the wooden scaffolding on the cliff".	26030.536789694135
I squinted at the looming shoreline.	4161.128860181162
There was a wooden tower or derrick there, something like a ski jump; it was perhaps 80 feet high and had been artfully constructed of logs.	38085.407105046106
A fine example of engineering in a primitive society.	5566.488384776376
"What is the scaffolding for, Brassnose"?	4631.1730047007595
He made a sound of despair deep in his throat.	226.7536316436887
It was embarrassing to see strapping, blonde Brassnose comport himself like a child who talks about bogeymen.	61462.825261821956
"Aaa-ee!	11771.71631755548
It is their tultul, the 'jumping platform' of death.	3713.6588620117827
It is the last of the three tests of manhood which the women impose, to discover if a male in worthy of survival there.	7675.9630198415825
Often, I heard my uncles and cousins speak of it when I was a small boy growing up in Rabaul.	14061.819426652624
They had never seen a tultul but they had heard about it from their fathers".	3457.7623837871784
Our lifeboat was filling rapidly and despite what I had heard of the inhabitants of Eromonga, I was glad to see a long and graceful outrigger manned by three bronzed girls glide out of a lagoon into the open sea and toward our craft.	50331.3025591005
I expected Brassnose- as a man with a strain of Melanesian in his blood- to speak to them.	1792.1360655685814
But he had turned a sickly green and appeared tongue-tied or panicked.	2331.000916875363
So, I mustered my few words of the Manu dialect and said, "We greet you in peace.	23513.7838183538
In ngandlu.	1343.2092990411436
My friends and I come from a ship which was destroyed by fire.	3359.9175930682864
We are thirsty and hungry; our sore and burned hands and arms need attention".	19284.0730543545
The girl in the prow of the outrigger turned a smile like a beacon on me.	12278.825111471637
I noted that her full breasts were bare and that she wore a garland of red pandanus fruit in her blue-black hair.	84167.32344262968
She said, "My name is Songau and these girls are Ponkob and Piwen.	9058.923860219813
You are welcome to Eromonga.	1730.0064642073546
My people await you on the shore.	535.1329110464316
You shall have food, water and rest".	4381.146268428255
Thirty minutes later, the outrigger grated on sand and other girls, waiting on shore, rushed forward to pull it up on the beach and make it fast with vine ropes to a large boulder.	85864.72011965542
I saw a dozen or so other outriggers moored there.	533.2146728808834
I looked.	133.2171295820373
All my rosy visions of rest and even pleasure on this island vanished at the sight.	24024.291171255874
There was a mound of bleached human bones and skulls at the base of the big wooden derrick.	8509.648953162092
Some had been there for years; others still had whitened shreds of decayed flesh sticking to them.	16550.021705678875
There was one object which sickened yet fascinated me.	1943.0985530403707
This was also a corpse- a male, judging from the coral arm bands, the tribal scars still discernible on the maggoty face, the painted bone of the warrior caste which still pierced the septum of the rotting nose.	115791.52884748903
The body may have been two or three weeks' dead.	1547.1988951132462
I looked with revulsion at the legs.	520.7969249641793
They were shattered.	123.76426338140998
Many small bones protruded crazily from the shreds of flesh.	11221.633437183491
The man must have leaped to his death from the topmost rung of the tultul.	14318.49029991464
As if divining my thoughts, the girl Songau smiled warmly and said in the casual tone an American woman might use in describing her rose garden "This is our tultul, a jumping platform, maku.	287541.880533166
Later, you shall know it better.	430.5780472359231
Is it not well-made?	325.80788167371526
Our old one blew down in a storm at the time of the pokeneu festival fifteen moons ago.	11751.751578418978
It took thirty of our women almost six moons to build this one, which is higher and stronger than the old one.	20685.045614220428
We are very proud of it".	75.42456782844096
"You have every right to be", I replied gravely in the Manu dialect, but my attention was fixed on Brassnose, the biggest and strongest of us.	28546.28442513685
He looked as if he was going to keel over.	257.037342390743
I felt a queasiness in my own stomach but it wouldn't do to show these girls that we were afraid.	25727.27035959804
Not so soon, anyway.	153.48937737531477
I clapped the big man with the bleached hair on his shoulder and said heartily, hoping it would make an impression on the women "This one is the maku Frayne.	182690.05053562584
He speaks your language too, for he is the grandson of a chieftain on Taui who made much magic and was strong and cunning.	23427.695140499887
The maku Frayne has inherited this strength from his grandfather".	12841.191386712544
This was the worst thing I could have said.	433.43458172964563
Brassnose turned a stricken face toward me and said brokenly, "Sommers, you meddling Yank, you're a fool!	108648.92779927852
They despise males who brag of their strength; they destroy such men with their damned tests.	46045.10955483631
You've ruined me, blast you"!	1360.998262672809
At first, I thought he was out of his head, talking wildly like this.	400.9512058413977
But a glance at Songau and the other women confirmed what Brassnose had blurted out.	19215.51481104532
The women's faces had hardened after my statement.	3378.6796677189777
At a nod from Songau, four lithe and muscular girls darted to Frayne's side and seized him by the arms.	15610.963594388662
The man was an ox and he put up a creditable struggle; but four Eromonga women are more than a match for the strongest male that ever lived.	21389.961120660177
Besides, terror had sapped some of Frayne's vitality and will.	8953.584088092635
My last impression as they led him off to a stockade was of his pale face In the Manu tongue, "eromonga" means manhood- a quality which the women derisively toasted in weekly feasts at which great quantities of a brew like kava were imbibed.	213115.1606616317
In the hut to which I was assigned- Max had his own quarters- my food was brought to me by a wrinkled crone with bare drooping breasts who seemed to enjoy conversing with me in rudimentary phrases.	76212.64658582133
Her name was L'Turu and she told me many things.	5497.043410381663
For an anthropologist, loquacious old L'Turu was a mine of information.	10794.782910910648
Though I had a great dread of the island and felt I would never leave it alive, I eagerly wrote down everything she told me about its women.	46978.75018882286
Her account was later confirmed by the Scobee-Frazier Expedition from the University of Manitoba in 1951.	12301.854968389069
From L'Turu, I heard that until about 1850 the people of this island- which was about the size of Guam or smaller- had been of both sexes, and that the normal family life of Melanesian tribes was observed here with minor variations.	85141.20460429238
But in the middle of the last century an island woman named "Karipo" seized a spear in the heat of an inter-tribal battle and rallied the women after their men had fled.	10748.9495224014
Miraculously, Karipo and her women had succeeded in driving a hundred invaders from the isle of Pamasu back to their war canoes, after considerable loss of life on both sides.	70765.91038991306
Karipo was something of a politician as well as a militarist.	11112.808487561048
She quickly exploited the exalted position she now occupied, by harassing the disorganized males and even putting many of them to death.	13567.072663944964
Within a decade or less, few men were left and a feminist society had sprung up.	7107.869206523186
"Karipo was great goddess, told our mothers that men were not necessary except to father children", the crone told me.	187396.57431220062
"All men went away from here.	1958.228959767868
Those who stayed had to pass tests.	1471.9986529136131
Few passed".	173.38498558255046
She cackled with mirth, showing the stumps of betel-stained teeth.	28598.201757157007
"Karipo's women then named this place 'Eromonga'- manhood- for just the strongest men could stay here.	107167.95250780217
Come, I show you".	1218.9979938260367
The old woman arose stiffly and led me to a clearing where a small hut stood.	29377.97536486993
In the shade of a palm tree in front of the squalid dwelling I saw four figures in a semi-circle on the ground.	14918.092147126303
"I guess he spent the morning getting himself all organized, then headed for home.	10270.188877288412
Maybe to beat up on his squaw".	8936.371181785946
Benson looked up and saw Ramey's long head tilt forward to rub his chin on the stiff edge of the overall bib.	168539.6270368553
Ramey reached out with the tire iron and dislodged a chunk of mud that was caked on the spare tire rack.	249121.465767963
"I'd like to know just which it is that those guys don't understand, the liquor or automobiles".	3300.5521563284774
Somehow the thought of a simple man bewildered by things no one had ever really helped him understand moved the driver.	20222.961003265136
For a moment his hatred toward drunken or careless drivers softened.	6931.726880291795
Maybe the Indian wasn't too much at fault, Ramey thought.	9999.078164650904
Maybe he was only doing the best he knew how, like any of us.	1208.1428877621324
Anyway, he doesn't deserve to lie there in the sun and be stared at.	5269.527213688992
"Ever see yourself spread out on the pavement, Benny"?	69081.8171971715
he said to his partner.	8.643217669690682
16778.791735467417