'Couldn't help but hear'em, less I was stone deef.'
'And I understand Shad gave you two of those bills?'
'Yeah, last night he did. You want I should show'em to you, Mr. Ferris? I got'em still, night in my iron box in t'other room.'
Mrs. Mears suspended her knitting needles to look over the rims of her glasses at Mr. Ferris. 'You really think that Shad went and found him that Money Plane, Mn. Ferris?'
'It looks that way, yes.'
She shook her head, looking down as the needles began hopping one over the other again. 'Just don't seem possible. Such a nice boy and all. Always so polite and friendly. Just don't seem like the kind that would find other people's money and not give hit back.'
'Well,' Mr. Ferris said kindly, 'he's young, and eighty thousand dollars is a lot of money. I rather imagine his thinking is temporarily confused.'
Dorry was biting her lower lip. It wasn't until this moment that she realized what a wrench Mr. Ferris could throw in the wheel of her brightly spinning future. Mn. Ferris suddenly was no longer the suave, educated, middleaged gentleman of her dreams. He was a cold, methodical brain-machine – invulnerable to any attack.
'Will you put Shad to jail if'n you catch him with that money?' she asked abruptly.
'Dorry!' Mrs. Mears said in a fierce undertone.
But Mr. Ferris smiled. 'Not if he's willing to turn it over to me. I'm going to talk to him tonight.' He looked at Mrs. Means. 'I understand he's living on your husband's houseboat?'
Bell came back with the two tens in his hand and gave them to Mr. Ferris. 'If them bills be off'n the Money Plane, do I got to give'em up, Mr. Ferris?'
'Temporarily, I'm afraid. But I'll see to it that you receive a worthwhile remuneration.'
Bell said 'Oh,' and then 'Yeah,' and looked at his wife to see if she had the hang of the word.
Mn. Ferris brought out his sheaf of papers, spread them on the table and began checking the two bills against the list. Mrs. Means tried to keep her business to herself and her needles, but Bell couldn't. He leaned over the table and asked Mr. Ferris 'what that there was?'
'This is a list of the serial numbers of the money that was on the airplane when it disappeared four years ago. I've already found four bills that Shad passed out, and they tallied with this list – Yes, see here? Here's another.'
Dorry felt very cold. Who would ever think that city folk had such sneaky ways to catch you out? Serial numbers! Then a new thought whacked her, shattering the brittle veneer of her respectability. That ten dollar Shad give me was marked. I went and bought this dress with hit, and now they goan trace it back to me.
She caught Margy's attention and imperatively gestured toward their bedroom. Margy let out a sigh of exasperation and stood up, frowning. She left the room. A moment later – her parents and Mr. Ferris studying the list -Dorry slipped after her.
She closed the door behind her and grabbed Margy's slender wrists. 'Margy, you got to help me, honey. You got to do something fen me night now, hear?'
'Let go'n me! You took leave of what little sense Pa'n Ma gived you?'
'You got to slip out and scamper down to the shantyboat and warn Shad fer me. Margy – please. You just got to do it!'
'Dorry Mears, you lost your mother-wit? I cain't go do no such thing. Why should you want me to -' She lost the argument abruptly, staring at her sister, then at the new dress, and remembered the night before. The monitor of her mind began sorting facts into the proper slots. Shad had come to the house the night before and had given her pa two ten-dollar bills; later that night Dorry had slipped off to meet a boy; the next day she had bought a new dress in Torkville with a ten-dollar bill.
'Dorry,' she said, 'you knew last night that Shad had went and found that Money Plane, didn't you? He gived you that money fer the dress – stolen money.'
'Of course, you little fool. Margy, please honey, I ain't got time to fuss overn hit now. I got to git back in there and find out all there is to find about what Mr. Ferris is goan do.'
'But why? Why do you -'
'My goodness, Margy, cain't you understand nothing? Shad has that money hid out. When he gits it, him and me are going to run away with it. I want you should warn him that Mn. Ferris is here, that Mr. Ferris kin prove he's got his money outn that old plane, and that Mn. Ferris is coming at him tonight. Tell Shad to clear out a the shantyboat right now. Tell him to hide in the woods and to meet me by the old Colt place tomorry night at nine sharp. Margy – do you understand all that?'
'I don't want to understand it. You plain crazy to talk thisaway. Run off with Shad Hank. You fool, don't you know Mr. Ferris will git the law on you? Why, Dorry, you could end yourself in jail.'
'Cain't you never do nothing fer me 'cept argue me to death? You the only one kin help me, and you got to! Mebbe I ben mighty and foolish in my time, but what I'm telling you now is purely honest; Shad'n me is running off with that money. I ain't goan let nobody stop me from that. Now you go on, and you go quick. I'm going back in there and pester that Mn. Ferris with questions 'til Pa whales me. Margy -I'll go on my knees to you if'n you'll do hit.'
But she didn't. She opened the door and started through before her sister could get after her again. 'Go on!' she hissed furiously. She closed the door, leaned against it.
Please, Lord: let Margy do hit. Let Shad git off'n the woods. Don't let Mn. Ferris take that money from him. I'll cold die without that money, I just will. I'll never git me outn this old slough-hole without hit. I'll just grow old here and fat and hank-haired, and git married to some fool like Tom Font and breech litters and never have no fun nen pretty things – and Lord, I just beg you from the bottom of my heart to let Shad git off with that money.
'Yes,' Mr. Ferris said, 'that makes six of them. Rather conclusive, I'd say.'
13
When the knock sounded on his door, Shad already had his boots and pants off. Hayday, he thought, she timed that right close, and excitement poured through him as he started for the door. This was what he'd been waiting for all day. This would wash away the bad taste of Iris Culver.
'Let me in, Shad. It's Margy.'
He blinked. Margy? Why in hell's name was it Margy? Where was Dorry? Something's gone wrong. Something's cold gone wrong. He said 'Hold on,' and went back for his jeans. He was getting as jittery as a man with sow bugs in his shorts.
He went to the door and opened it, didn't say anything, just looked at Margy and then stepped aside. She came in barefooted and quick, and not looking at him after the first time. She stopped just inside the door and stared at the cabin as though expecting great changes.
'Dorry sent me,' she said.
She appeared subdued to him, and as he pushed the door shut he sensed that his temper was growing unhandy.
'I didn't reckon it was your ma. Has anything happened to Dorry?'
She shook her head. 'No. But Mr. Ferris is up to our place.'
Now Mr. Ferris was here to plague him. Iris – Iris must have phoned that damn Yankee after he ran out on her. No – couldn't be. Wouldn't be enough time for the insurance man to come that far. Who then?
'What's he doing at your place?'
'Come to check the money you give Pa. Got him a list of all the serial numbers of the bills that come from the Money Plane, and he's ben gathering up all of 'em that you've passed out like a drunk fool, and he knows thataway that you've gone and found hit.'
'He's coo-coo!' Shad snapped automatically.
Serial numbers. That was something he hadn't counted on. The fat was surely in the fire now.
'Why's he coo-coo?' Margy asked. 'Ever'body knows you found the Money Plane.'
'Ever'body's got him a big mouth.'
