“How about me?” Benoit said.
“Wait your turn,” LeBlanc said.
“I can’t find nobody. I’ll go to detention if I ain’t back with my gang.”
“That’ll break my heart.”
“Come on, Avery.”
LeBlanc and Toussaint shoved him to the top. LeBlanc followed, and Avery and Brother Samuel lay on their stomachs over the side to help Toussaint up. He dug one foot in the clay and leaped upward, grabbing some roots. He hung there and kicked his feet into the embankment. They caught him by the wrists and pulled him up. Benoit was left in the ditch
“How about me?” he said.
“Go take a bath,” Evans said.
“Be a good guy. I’ll get time in detention.”
Evans looked around him. His eyes snapped. He forgot about Benoit.
“Where’s Billy Jo and Jeffry?” he said.
“They gone fishing,” LeBlanc said.
“Shut your mouth. Who’s seen Billy Jo and Jeffry?”
No one answered.
“God damn you, where are they?”
“I ain’t seen them since it started raining,” Daddy Claxton said.
“They was down in the ditch. You ain’t blind. What happened to them?” Evans said.
“They could have got mixed up in another gang,” Daddy Claxton said.
“Somebody here saw them. I want to know where they are.”
“Go talk to a wall,” LeBlanc said.
“I’m going to send you back to the box for that.”
“You fat swine.”
Evans struck him across the mouth with the heel of his hand.
“I’ll use my pistol barrel the next time you say it,” he said.
“It don’t matter what you do. You ain’t got long.”
There was a smear of red across LeBlanc’s lips. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and spit.
“You got dirty hands,” he said.
Evans hit him again, this time across the nose.
“Get in the truck, you sonofabitch. Get moving, every one of you.”
“I know how I’m going to do it. It’s going to hurt,” LeBlanc said.
“Move! I’ll get straight with you later.”
They walked across the clearing through the mud and the rain and climbed in the back of the truck. LeBlanc got in and looked at Evans.
“You seen a hog cut before?” he said.
“You’ll pay through the ass for this,” Evans said, and slammed the doors shut and snapped the padlock.
There was no light inside the truck. The men sat on the benches in their wet clothes and listened to the rain beat on the roof. They could hear Evans speaking to the captain outside.
“I’m missing two,” Evans said.
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they got in with another gang.”
“How long have they been gone?”
“I didn’t miss them till I ordered the others out of the ditch.”
“Can’t you keep watch over seven men without losing somebody?”
“There was a dozen guys down there that didn’t belong to my gang. I couldn’t tell which ones was mine.”
“We’ll check the other gangs. You’d better hope we find them,” the captain said.
“Yes, sir.”
“Tell Rainack to phone in to the warden.”
“We ain’t sure they broke out yet.”
“The warden wants a report when anybody’s missing.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Check this end of the line and I’ll start on the other.”
Daddy Claxton had his ear pressed to the back door of the truck. His mouth was open in a half grin. The water dripped off his clothes onto the floor.
“By God, they done it. They broke out,” he said.
“Did anybody see them?” Avery said.
“They was working next to me,” Brother Samuel said. “When the sides started caving in they dropped their tools and took off down the ditch.”
“Did you hear the captain chewing out Evans?” Daddy Claxton said. “He’ll get busted if they don’t catch them.”
“We ain’t sure they got away yet,” LeBlanc said.
“They wasn’t running down the ditch for no exercise,” Toussaint said.
“They could have climbed up the other side when all that dirt fell in,” Daddy Claxton said. “The hacks was worrying about the ditch flooding and them pumps going out.”
“The dogs won’t be able to follow them in the rain. They have a good chance,” Avery said.
“Billy Jo said they had a car hid out somewhere,” Daddy Claxton said.
“They’ll be lucky if the police ain’t sitting in it waiting for them,” Toussaint said.
“They talked it around plenty,” Brother Samuel said.
“Them boys is long gone. I wish I was with them,” Daddy Claxton said.
“Why didn’t you go?” LeBlanc said.
“I asked them. They told me I was too old.”
“They couldn’t have stopped you from going.”
“I reckon they’re right. I been in prison too many years to have any business on the outside.”
“I ain’t sure I want to be with them,” Brother Samuel said.
“How come?” Claxton said.
“Jeffry’s carrying a spirit. I seen the sign this morning. There was a big wart on his finger.”
“You get warts from picking up frogs,” Claxton said.
“Not this kind,” Brother Samuel said.
“Them boys is gone. There ain’t no wart going to hold them back.”
“I told him the spirit might come back after I healed him.”
“They’ll be out of the state by tomorrow morning,” Daddy Claxton said.
“It was a devil wart. It takes a special kind of conjuring to get rid of it.”
“How long they going to keep us here?” LeBlanc said.
“We ain’t got to work as long as the hacks is out on search,” Claxton said.
Evans unlocked the back doors and threw them open. The wind blew the rain inside the truck. He and the captain climbed inside and left the doors open. Their boots and the bottoms of their trousers were covered with mud. A thin stream of water ran off the brim of the captain’s campaign hat. Their slickers were shiny from the rain.
“Somebody in here saw them get away,” the captain said. “I want you to tell me where they went.”
The rain blew in the truck and formed small pools on the floor.
“Speak up. You ain’t deaf and dumb,” Evans said.
“What about you?” the captain said to Daddy Claxton.
“I was working all the time. I didn’t see nothing.”
The captain asked each one of them.
“I didn’t know they were gone until we came out of the ditch,” Avery said.
“There was too many people around,” Toussaint said.
“I heard they went fishing,” LeBlanc said.
“I didn’t see nothing,” Brother Samuel said.
“Everybody outside,” Evans said.
“Where we going?” Daddy Claxton said.
“You’re going to stand in the rain till we find them or somebody tells us where they are.”
“The rest of the trucks is going to the barracks,” Claxton said.
“This one ain’t,” Evans said.
They climbed out and stood looking at Evans and the captain. The rain ran off their straw hats down inside their clothing. The other trucks drove past them through the mud. Several guards were moving into the trees on the other side of the clearing. They carried rifles and shotguns. One of them was examining the area where the ditch wall caved in, an eroded pile of clay that sloped down to the bottom of the canal. He bent over and looked at the ground, the rain breaking across the back of his slicker.
“Here’s where they come out,” he yelled.
The other guards came back and looked at the deep boot marks in the clay.
“This is it, captain. They headed into the woods.”