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rocket of spring sweet to hear in the gnarled fall woods. It slowed, saddened, her silver hair
drooped across the violin. We applauded; after we'd stopped there went on sounding a
mysterious extra pair of hands. Riley stepped from behind a bank of fem, and when she saw
him Maude's cheeks pinked. I don't think she would have played so well if she'd known he was
listening.
Riley sent the girls home; they seemed reluctant to go, but Elizabeth was not used to
disobeying her brother. "Lock the doors," he told her, "and Maude, I'd appreciate it if you'd
spend the night at our place: anybody comes by asking for me, say you don't know where I am."
I had to help him into the tree, for he'd brought back his gun and a knapsack heavy with
provisions-a bottle of rose and raisin wine, oranges, sardines, wieners, rolls from the Katydid
Bakery, a jumbo box of animal crackers: each item appearing stepped up our spirits, and Dolly,
overcome by the animal crackers, said Riley ought to have a kiss.
But it was with grave face that we listened to his report.
When we'd separated in the woods it was toward the sound of Catherine that he'd run. This
had brought him to the grass: he'd been watching when I had my encounter with Big Eddie
Stover. I said well why didn't you help me? "You were doing all right; I don't figure Big Eddie's
liable to forget you too soon: poor fellow limped along doubled over." Besides, it occurred to
him that no one knew he was one of us, that he'd Joined us in the tree: he was right to have
stayed hidden, it made it possible for him to follow Catherine and the deputies into town.
They'd stuffed her into the rumble-seat of Big Eddie's old coupe and driven straight to jail:
Riley trailed them in his car. "By the time we reached the jail she seemed to have got quieted
down; there was a little crowd hanging around, lads, some old farmers-you would have been
proud of Catherine, she walked through them holding her dress together and her head like this."
He tilted his head at a royal angle. How often I'd seen Catherine do that, especially when
anyone criticized her (for hiding puzzle pieces, spreading misinformation, not having her teeth
fixed); and Dolly, recognizing it too, had to blow her nose. "But," said Riley, "as soon as she
was inside the jail she kicked up another fuss." In the jail there are only four cells, two for
colored and two for white. Catherine had objected to being put in a colored people's cell.
The Judge stroked his chin, waved his head. "You didn't get a chance to speak to her? She
ought to have had the comfort of knowing one of us was there."
'I stood around hoping she'd come to the window. But then I heard the other news."
Thinking back, I don't see how Riley could have waited so bug to tell us. Because, my God:
our friend from Chicago, that hateful Dr. Morris Ritz, had skipped town after rifling Verena's
safe of twelve thousand dollars in negotiable bonds and more than seven hundred dollars in
cash: that, as we later learned, was not half his loot. But wouldn't you know? I realized this was
what baby-voiced Will Harris had been recounting to the Sheriff: no wonder Verena had sent a
hurry call: her troubles with us must have become quite a side issue. Riley had a few details: he
knew that Verena, upon discovering the safe door swung open (this happened in the office she
kept above her drygoods store) had whirled around the comer to the Lola Hotel, there to find
that Morris Ritz had checked out the previous evening: she fainted: when they-revived her she
fainted all over again.
Dolly's soft face hollowed; an urge to go to Verena was rising, at the same moment some
sense of self, a deeper will, held her. Regretfully she gazed at me. "It's better you know it now,
Collin; you shouldn't have to wait until you're as old as I am: the world is a bad place."
 A change, like a shift of wind, overcame the Judge: he looked at once his age, autumnal, bare,
as though he believed that Dolly, by accepting wickedness, had forsaken him. But I knew she
had not: he'd called her a spirit, she was really a woman. Uncorking the rose and raisin wine,
Riley spilled its topaz color into four glasses; after a moment he filled a fifth, Catherine's. The
Judge, raising the wine to his lips, proposed a toast: "To Catherine, give her trust." We lifted our
glasses, and "Oh Collin," said Dolly, a sudden stark thought widening her eyes, "you and I,
we're the only ones that can understand a word she says!"
Five
The following day, which was the first of October, a Wednesday, is one day I won't forget.
First off, Riley woke me by stepping on my fingers. Dolly, already awake, insisted I apologize
for cursing him. Courtesy, she said, is more important in the morning than at any other time:
particularly when one is living in such close quarters. The Judge's watch, still bending the twig
like a heavy gold apple, gave the time as six after six. I don't know whose idea it was, but we
breakfasted on oranges and animal crackers and cold hotdogs. The Judge grouched that a body
didn't feel human till he'd had a pot of hot coffee. We agreed that coffee was what we all most
missed. Riley volunteered to drive into town and get some; also, he would have a chance to
scout around, find out what was going on. He suggested I come with him: "Nobody's going to
see him, not if he stays down in the seat." Although the Judge objected, saying he thought it
foolhardy. Dolly could tell I wanted to go: I'd yearned so much for a ride in Riley's car that now [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]