'He is, eh? But you took care of him, didn't you?'
'You want to know what happened or not?' Sheriff Summers' face turned a few shades redder. 'He-'
'I'll tell you what happened,' Kendall spoke up coldly. 'Carl stepped out for a little walk, as he has my permission to do when his work is caught up. In fact, I've encouraged him to do it since his illness. He was in the vicinity of the Winroy house when this ruckus broke out, and having something better to do with his time than gawk and gape at matters which did not concern him-'
'The heck they didn't concern him! How come the note said he-'
'-he came back here,' said Kendall. 'A few minutes later, Summers came storming into the bakery with this-uh- hireling and started babbling some nonsense about Carl's having tried to murder someone and failing to stop when he was ordered to. Then he rushed in here and attacked him, beat him into unconsciousness. I've never seen such savagely inexcusable brutality in my life, Dod!'
'I see,' the doctor nodded, and turned to the sheriff. 'Well?'
Sheriff Summers' lips came together in a thin hard line. 'Never mind,' he grunted. 'You want it that way, you have it that way. I'm takin' him to jail.'
'On what charge? Taking a walk?'
'Attempted murder, that's what!'
'And what are your grounds for such a charge?'
'I already told-!' The sheriff broke off, his head lowered like a mad bull. 'Never you mind. I'm takin' him in.'
He started toward me, the deputy hanging back like he was pretty unhappy, and Kendall and the doc stepped in his way. In about another ten seconds, I think he'd have had a knockdown drag-out fight on his hands. And there wasn't any sense in that, so I got up.
I felt all right, everything considered.Just a little smaller and weaker than I had felt.
'I'll go,' I said.
'We can settle it; you don't need to go,' the doctor said, and Kendall added, 'No, he certainly does
'I'd rather go,' I said. 'Sheriff Summers and his wife have been very nice to me. I'm sure he wouldn't be doing this if he didn't think it was necessary.'
There was some more argument from Dodson and Kendall, but I went. We all went.
We got to the courthouse just as the county attorney was going up the steps, and the deputy took us into the c.a.'s office while he and the sheriff stood in the corridor talking.
The sheriff had his back to the door, but the county attorney was facing it, and he looked weary and disgusted. All the time the sheriff was talking, he just stood there with his hands shoved into his pockets, frowning and shaking his head.
Finally, they came inside, and he and the sheriff started to ask a question at the same time. They both stopped, one waiting for the other, then they started again, both at once. They did that about three times, and the doctor let out a snort and Kendall sort of half smiled. The county attorney grimaced and leaned back in his chair.
'All right, Bill,' he sighed. 'It's your headache, anyway.'
Sheriff Summers turned to me.
'What's your name? Your right name?'
'You know what it is, sheriff,' I said.
'It's Charlie Bigger, ain't it? You're Little Charlie Bigger.'
'Suppose I said, yes,' I said. 'Then what? I'd like to accommodate you, sheriff, but I don't see how that would help.'
'I asked you what your-!' He broke off as the county attorney caught his eyes. 'All right,' he grunted. 'What was you doin' sneaking along behind Jake Winroy tonight?'
'I wasn't sneaking anywhere. I was walking.'
'You always go for a walk at that time o'night?'
'Not always. Often. It's a slack time for me.'
'How come you was walkin' toward the Winroy place instead of the other way?'
'These work clothes. Naturally, I wouldn't want to walk up toward the business district.'
'I got a note about you. It had you right down to at. Said you was gonna do just what you-what you tried to do.'
'What was that?' I said.
'You know what. Kill Jake Winroy!'
'Kill him?' I said. 'Why, I didn't try to kill him, sheriff.'
'You would have! If that danged drunk-'
Dr. Dodson let out another snort. 'Anonymous notes! What next?'
'He was there, wasn't he?' The sheriff whirled on him. 'How come I got that note if-'
'I believe it has been established,' the county attorney sighed, 'that he is in that vicinity almost every night at approximately that time.'
'But Winroy ain't! It ain't been established how I-'
Kendall cleared his throat. 'Since you seem to be unwilling to accept the note as the work of some crank who has observed Mr. Bigelow's movements and who profited by an unfortunate but by no means extraordinary coincidence-'
'It's too danged extraordinary for me!'
'As I was saying, then, the note can only be explained in one way. This shrewd and crafty killer'-he smiled apologetically at me-'the most elusive, close-mouthed criminal in the country, went around town confiding his plans… Something wrong, sheriff?'
'I didn't say he done that! I-I-'
'I see. It's your theory, then, that he wrote you-or I believe it was printed, wasn't it?-he sent you the note himself. So that you'd be on hand to apprehend him.'
Doc Dodson burst out laughing. The county attorney tried not to laugh, but he couldn't quite hold it back.
'Well,' he said, bringing his hands down on the desk. 'Bill, I think the best thing we can do is-'
'Now, wait a minute! He could have had someone workin' with him! They could've given him away!'
'Oh, come now.' Kendall shook his head. 'He's a stranger here. I live with him and work with him, and I can assure you he has no intimates aside from me. But perhaps that's what you had in mind, sheriff? You think I was involved in this matter.'
'I didn't say so, did I?' The sheriff glared at him helplessly. 'I-anyway, that ain't all I got on him. I got a wire from the kin of some folks he used to live with. They said he swindled and abused these old people, and-'
'I believe you got two other wires about me, also,' I said. 'From a chief of police and a county judge. What did they say about me?'
'I-well-why'd you run away tonight?'
'I didn't do any running, sheriff.'
'Why didn't you stop when I hollered? You heard me.'
'I heard someone, but they were a couple of blocks away. I didn't know they were hollering at me.'
'Well-uh-why--?'
He paused, trying to think of something else to ask me. He wet his lips, hesitating. He slanted a glance at Kendall and Dodson and the county attorney, and in his mind's eye, I guess, he was also looking at his wife, wondering how he was going to explain and excuse himself to her.
