September 14, 2010

Girl Out Back - Charles Williams(8)

“Oh,” I said. “Something like that. It’s indefinite yet.”
“Well, you’re in, boy. With the send-off I gave you, you
can have Hoover’s job. You think that boy’s not honest, I
said, there’s been a paved street in front of his house for
two years now, and the last time I looked it was still
there. . . .”
“You’re a real pal,” I said. I put a dime on the counter
and went out, feeling uneasy for no reason I could pin
down. Ramsey didn’t have anything to work on. That’s the
reason he was poking around here asking silly questions.
He was outside in the cold; the moat was filled and the
drawbridge was up. But still I didn’t like it; he made me
nervous with that knack he had of seeming to be there at
my elbow every time I turned around, as if ubiquity were
an end in itself. What was the name of that Russian
Girl Out Back— 158
detective in Crime and Punishment? Rock. Something like
rock.

Girl Out Back - Charles Williams(7)

I looked at him quickly. He was still staring down at the
broom. Well, there was Sunday. I could tell him that was
when I’d been out there. Then I realized it was no use. Otis
knew I’d lied about Sumner Lake. But why was he trying to
tell me?
I made no reply. There appeared to be a shortage at the
moment.
“Uh, boss,” he went on hesitantly, “about that twelve
dollars a week you pay me. How much of that would you
say was for personal advice?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “You break it down.”
“Well, look. I won a prize once for minding my own
business. A whole new bedroom slipper—I think it was the
left one. You say the word and I’ll keep right on after the
other one.”
“That’s all right,” I said. “Spill it.”

Girl Out Back - Charles Williams(6)

He sprang over and knelt beside me. “Hey, Mr. Ward.
Are you okay?”
I pushed myself to my hands and knees. “I’m all right,” I
said. “I just forgot about that damned hole.”
“Here. Let me help you up.” He took hold of my arm.
I tried to stand. The moment I put my right foot on the
ground I sucked my breath in sharply and collapsed.
Drawing a sleeve across my face to wipe off the sweat and
dirt, I said shakily, “It’s my ankle. Wait a minute.”
He watched as I unlaced my shoe. I grimaced
realistically as I pulled it off and felt the ankle and foot.
“It’s hot,” I said. “But I don’t think it’s broken. Probably
just a bad sprain.”
“You think you can walk on it?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Wait till I get my breath and I’ll
try again.”
I did, and gave an even better performance. “No use,” I
said.
“Mebbe I could cut you something for a crutch.”

Girl Out Back - Charles Williams(5)

the station wagon, I ate the sandwich and drank some
coffee, and then sat smoking and thinking about it. The
first thing I had to do was get back in the cabin. Today, if
possible, for it would save a trip, and I was afire with
impatience. Maybe my luck would hold and he’d go out
fishing again in the afternoon. I returned to the point and
waited. Hours went by. Finally, a little after five in the
afternoon, I heard his motor start and he came out of the
cove. He went on up toward the bend at the far end of the
reach; maybe he’d found good fishing there this morning. I
slipped through the timber, and when I reached the
clearing I could still hear his motor fading away in the
distance.
I entered the cabin, beginning to feel at home in the
place now. The glasses he’d had on were atop the chest of
drawers, where they had been before.

Girl Out Back - Charles Williams(4)

Cliffords was going to notice those twenties had
disappeared, but it couldn’t be helped. I knew a little about
that F.B.I, outfit and how it worked; they didn’t do
anything half-way. Right now this whole countryside was
alerted and they were poised and watching. Let just one
more of those bills stick its head out and the game was
over. There really wasn’t much Cliffords could do, anyway,
except to move the tens to a new hiding place, which was
all right with me. I wasn’t after them. And if he got worried
enough to go back and reassure himself about the real
cache, so much the better. So far I hadn’t come up with
any plan at all for finding that, but having him beat a path
to it would make it a lot easier.
I drove back to the lake. The same old futile merry-goround
started again in my mind, but I shut it off with
irritation. It was utterly impossible to explain how Cliffords
had got that money, but I no longer had to. I knew he had
Girl Out Back— 71

Girl Out Back - Charles Williams(3)

Girl Out Back— 48
She wasn’t sure of anything now. Any of them over the
age of three can see through flattery the way you can
through a pane of glass—when they want to. But they can’t
cope with a change of pace. Destroy their frame of
reference just once and they never get oriented again,
especially if you keep crossing them up.
You could see her deciding things were getting out of
hand and that it was time to blow the whistle. “Well!” she
said. “I must say you’ve got a nerve.”
When retreat is indicated, attack. Toujours l’audace. It
can get you many a fat lip, but plenty of times it’ll work, if
you know precisely where to stop the offensive. I fastened
the slow stare on her, starting at her ankles and going
north across the long bare legs and the denim shorts, the
sucked-in waist, the curves at the front of her shirt, and
finally coming to rest on a white face and a blazing pair of
eyes. It was deliberate, and infuriatingly obvious. She drew
in a sharp breath.

Girl Out Back - Charles Williams(2)

He shook his head with a faint smile. “I’m afraid not. Not
at the moment, anyway.”
He asked if he could check the register for any more of
it. There was none, of course. We shook hands and he
drove off. I watched him go up the street, feeling the other
one burning a hole in my wallet. I didn’t do anything,
though, until Otis came out. That was inevitable.
Girl Out Back— 25
“What is it?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But it’s plenty hot.”
“You can say that again. You couldn’t have raised more
stink if you’d tried to deposit a live bomb.”
“Could be a kidnap pay-off,” I said. “Or bank robbery.
Something like that.”
He turned to go back to the shop. “Well, we sure got a
high class of trade around here. You think I ought to start
wearing a carnation to work?”
As soon as he was inside the shop and at work I crossed
to the office. I sat down and took the one out of my wallet,
reaching for the pad I’d written the number on. They
checked! They were not only close; they were consecutive.
One ended in—23, the other in—24.
I turned it, studying the stain along the bottom and
feeling intense excitement. As nearly as I could tell, it was
exactly the same as that on the other, same place, same
shape. Those bills had been stacked, probably in their
original binder, when this substance—whatever it was—got
on them.

Girl Out Back - Charles Williams(1)

One
“Barney.”
Maybe if I pretended to be asleep she’d stop. She didn’t.
“Barney?”
“What?” I asked.
My name is Barney Godwin. I’ve been around for thirty
years, one day at a time. I have an utterly useless
education, a happy and industrious set of endocrine
glands, good reflexes, and a wife who’s worth two hundred
thousand dollars. It’s a living.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn