'Please.'
'Very well, I will do what I can.'
'Thank you. You are a gentleman.'
Chapter 14
Jake was taking the morning off from work, without permission. Dragging with him a numb and resigned Camilla who wore her hat and sunglasses, he had sought a place well away from the house and cave, where he felt they had a chance of being able to talk safely, at least in broad daylight. They had gone down the little canyon, Jake leading the way and looking about him earnestly, until Camilla had asked him what he was looking for.
'The place where you used to sit drawing. Where we first met.'
She shook her head slowly. 'I don't know if we can get there, lover. If we can, it won't do us any good. Why d'you want that place?'
'I just did.' He sighed. 'I want a place where we can talk.'
Camilla repeated what she had already told Jake several times: that during the hours of daylight they could talk freely anywhere, that Edgar was sure to be in his daytime refuge at this hour. But Jake still had a hard time freeing himself from the idea that the old man was likely to be in hiding, listening to them, anytime and anyplace.
At last, reaching an area that looked familiar, Camilla and Jake sat down side by side on a rock, right on the edge of the creek, whose voices today were only noise for Jake.
As soon as they were seated, he said: 'I can't take it, Cam, watching him do that to you.'
'How do you think I feel?'
'I don't know.' He turned his head to gaze at her steadily. 'When I was watching the two of you last night, it looked to me like maybe you were enjoying yourself.'
'That's a rotten thing to say.'
He was silent.
'There's only one way we can get out of this, Jake.'
'I know. That's what I came out here to talk about.'
'I guess I know what that one way is. I guess you've already told me. And you're right, but I'm still afraid.'
Jake didn't want to speak. He couldn't shake the feeling that the old man was just waiting behind a rock somewhere, listening to them, ready to pounce.
'You know as well as I do, Jake. The only way to get ourselves out of here is—'
'Is.'
'—is to kill him.'
The words had been said again. Nobody pounced.
'Kill him. Then we'll have time to think, to look around, to find our way.'
Camilla unpacked her sketch pad and some pencils. It was as if she had to do something with her hands. Now, at the same spot where Jake had first met Camilla, he once more watched her draw. They had a lot of planning to do, but neither of them said anything for a time.
She was wearing her hat and sunglasses, but still, after a little while, she had to move closer to the cliffs, seeking the shade. It seemed to Jake that she was growing ever more sensitive to the sun.
'Cam.'
'What is it?'
She had turned her head toward him, and he stared at her mouth, her slightly parted lips. 'Nothing, I guess. Just now I thought there was something funny about your teeth.'
Slowly, somehow, the real planning started between them.
In all her months of living with Tyrrell, listening to him talk and observing him, Camilla had come, or believed that she had come, to understand not only the horror of the man but something of his weaknesses.
Jake with a conscious effort was building up his nerve. 'All right, I'm ready to kill the son of a bitch. Truth to tell, I've been ready for some time. Now tell me how. How're we going to kill him?'
Camilla needed only a few seconds to think—as if she had already asked herself this question. 'There's only one time—maybe two times—I've ever seen him hurt.'
'Tell me.'
'First time was only a little while after I moved in, when he got a wooden splinter in his hand, from the handle of one of his tools.'
'That hurt him, huh?'
'More than a shotgun charge could do. He started to suck the blood out himself, after he pulled the splinter out—then he saw me watching him—then he got me to—
Jake could all too readily visualize her, sucking blood. He made an effort to blot the picture out.
Camilla shivered. From the look on her face now, Jake guessed that she'd found the act exciting also. She smiled sheepishly at Jake.
'What was the other time?' he asked.
'What…?'
'You said that twice you've seen him hurt.'
'Oh. Well, he wasn't really hurt the other time… but he looked mighty uncomfortable. He was up late one morning, when the day dawned really cloudy. Then a hole opened up in the clouds suddenly, and the sun came through… Edgar looked sick for a moment, he looked really scared.'
'Huh.'
'And the next second he was gone. Not to the place where he always sleeps, but back into the cave. He spent that day in the cave with the lights out, making it as dark as he could. After sunset he came out, looking— tired. He'll never take a chance of getting himself caught out in bright sunlight.'
For a moment they stared at each other.
Jake said at last: 'No way we can make him do that.'
'Doesn't seem like it, does it?'
Jake squinted at her. Presently he asked: 'What about fire?'
Camilla had to think longer on this point; perhaps it was a new idea to her. At last she reported that Tyrrell was at least not indifferent to fire. 'I can't remember seeing him stick his hand in flames, anything like that.'
'Then let's figure fire is something we might try.'
Another hour of discussion brought no great enlightenment. There seemed to the two young breathers to be three possible means by which they might accomplish their oppressor's destruction: wooden weapons, fire, or sunlight.
'There's another thing I'm worried about, Jake.'
'What's that?'
'What if I got—pregnant?'
'Jesus. Are you?'
'I don't think so, but—
Jake was silent, pondering. Maybe this didn't actually make his own situation any worse, but he didn't like it.
'And he was listening to me,' Camilla said.
'Listening? What?'
'Listening. Putting his ear against my belly.'
'Can he tell that way?'
'Said he couldn't be sure. If I was, it was too early to be sure.'
'Anyway, what does the old man care if you're pregnant or not?'
'I don't know! I—don't—know!'
Jake took her in his arms. What began with the giving of mutual comfort and reassurance soon turned into passion.
