wasted. Of course, I know he's unreasonable about her, but-'
'Think, Pat. Can't you think of a set of circumstances where it might be profitable to anyone for you to be returned to Sandstone?'
I stared at him blankly. He nodded, narrow-eyed.
'I can see that you can't,' he said. 'But you will. You'll see that and the other angle, as well. When you do, when you begin to get an inkling of their significance, we'll have a talk.'
'Thanks,' I said, and I shook hands limply.
'You'll be all right for the time being. There's this Arnholt matter. Nothing's going to happen until that's wound up.'
'I'm glad to know that,' I said.
'You can depend on it. Meanwhile, I'll see what I can do about getting Mrs. Luther off your neck. She's rather fond of me, you know.'
He winked and poked me in the ribs. I let him lead me out the hall door of his office.
'I trust our little talk will remain confidential,' he said, as he shook hands with me again.
He gave me a final smile and nod, and very gently closed the door.
14
Suddenly everything was all right again. As right as it had been in the beginning. I didn't have to avoid Lila Luther; she made a point of keeping out of my way. And on those rare occasions when we did encounter each other she was barely polite.
Almost overnight the constraint which I had seen building up in Doc disappeared. He became the old Doc, alternately slangy and grammatical, flippant and profound; generous, good-natured: a man who made the best of a shabby situation.
I got paid the week following my visit to Hardesty, on Friday, as I remember. I hadn't worked a full month, but I was paid for one.
I gave the check to Doc to cash for me, and he brought the money back to my room the next night. Smiling, he refused to take a cent of it.
'Just hang onto your money, Pat,' he said. 'You won't want to stick in one of those political jobs always, and you probably won't be able to, anyway. Hang onto it, and you'll have something to operate on when your parole runs out.'
'I wonder if I should start a bank account?' I said.
'That's a good idea,' he said. 'We'll do that some day soon when I can spare the time to go down and introduce you.'
I left the house every morning at a reasonably early hour, and never returned before five in the afternoon. Usually I spent an hour or so at Madeline's. The rest of the time I saw picture shows or read in the public library or drove around.
One morning, a few days after payday, I drove out to the place where Doc and I had stopped my first night out of Sandstone: the place where the sludge from the oil wells had widened the river into an expanse of stinking and treacherous mud. I don't think I sought the spot consciously; it was no attraction which would justify a drive of ten or twelve miles. But I found myself there suddenly, and I pulled the car off the road and walked up to the stone bench. I sat down on it, and leaned forward, carefully. I scooped up a handful of pebbles and began dropping them down into the mud.
Now and then I caught the faint, dull clatter of pipe tongs, or the muted '
I took a long, deep breath and slowly let it out again. It was good to be here, here or any place that wasn't Sandstone. Every day I realized a little more how good it was. To be able to be off guard; to smile or laugh when you wanted to; just to breathe-easily; to think instead of scheme.
I leaned forward and smiled down into the black surface below; and back came another smile, my reflection, thoughtful but reassuring.
A hand came down on my shoulder.
'Better hang on to the bench, Red. You might fall in.'
In one unthinking instant, I had lowered my shoulders, caught the arm and shifted my weight forward and upward. Luckily she yelled, and a reflex action set in against the first one. Otherwise, Myrtle Briscoe would have gone into the river instead of down on to the bench. And I, the chances are, would have gone with her with a bullet through my head.
There was a highway patrol car parked near mine, and a state trooper was bounding up the slope, tugging at his holstered.45.
He almost had it out when Myrtle Briscoe leaped up from the bench and waved her arms at him.
'Hold it, Tony!' she gasped. Then she got her breath and yelled, 'Dammit to hell, hold it!'
The trooper paused. 'You sure you're all right, Miss Briscoe?'
'Hell yes!' She let out a snort of laughter, and made brushing motions at her clothes. 'Shook up but all together.'
The trooper looked from me to her, an expression of sullen disappointment on his swarthy face. 'You sure you don't want me to-'
'I want you to go back to the car and sit there!'
He turned and went back. Myrtle sat down, shaking her head.
'Don't know why it is,' she said. 'Give a guy a gun and he can't wait to use it.'
'I've noticed that,' I said, sitting down at her side. 'I'm sorry if I startled you, Miss Briscoe.'
'Oh, well. One good startle deserves another. What are you doing so far from town, Red?'
'I didn't think it was far.'
'Aren't you working?'
'I still have my job,' I said. 'I'm caught up for a few hours.'
'Okay,' she said. 'Now let me tell you something, Red. Tony and I gave you a long tail all the way from town. About an hour ago we lost you. We go on down the road about twenty miles and then we come back, and here you are. How do you explain that?'
'You mean I was trying to shake you?' I said. 'I didn't even know you were following me.'
'How come we didn't see you or at least your car?'
'That's simple. For one thing, there were probably other cars between yours and mine. Mainly, however, you didn't want to see me. You wanted to believe I was skipping out. You were so certain I was going to that you probably wouldn't have seen me if I'd waved a red flag at you.'
'Now, look, Red. You know doggone well what I'm talking about. What about that car?'
'It belongs to the state. You know that, Miss Briscoe.'
Her mouth dropped open and her eyes flashed. She jerked a paper from the pocket of her old- fashioned skirt, and thrust it at me.
It was one of those small legal papers which list title transfers and mortgages and similar information. Myrtle Brisco put her fingers on a red-circled item under Automobile Transfer:
