“Well, we live and we learn.”
“From the Navy, we all learn plenty.”
“But at least, you’re out from under.”
“You mean this Army? Bill, I’m not so sure.”
“But if the Navy has the cotton?”
“Listen, Bill, the handshake was passed — and the Rebs left us the cotton when they pulled out of the town. Then the Navy stole it off us. All right, so that leaves these traders holding the bag. But the Rebs don’t get paid, and it was our handshake.”
“What are you leading to, Dan?”
“How do I know? But I smell still more trouble.”
“Well, at worst we’ll have to fight.”
“Yes, Bill, but can we?”
He said what a poor army it was, a lot of the boys having enlisted as settlers in Texas, the rest of them soft from an idle winter, from laying up with colored girls, and from foraging for rum. He repeated: “And there’s no proper chain of command.” And then, turning to look at me: “Bill, you don’t seem much upset.”
“... Why should I be?”
“That twenty-five thousand dollars. Losing it must be tough.”
“I’d almost forgotten about it.”
“Then you were lying, weren’t you?”
“Well? I had to get me to Alexandria.”
“At least, you’re still an honest man — but I’ve known that all along, or I wouldn’t be down here talking with you. And she is a damned nice girl.”
“If she is, she is.”
“Meaning, Bill?”
“It’s what I’m on my way to find out.”
“In other words, whether she’s sleeping with Burke?”
I recoiled as though I’d been hit, and knew that was how he intended it. He watched my face, drilling me with his eyes, and then went on: “Bill, don’t you go shooting that Irishman, for her. I’m telling you, don’t you do it! Right now, he’s a case of smallpox, with everyone afraid to give him a kind word for fear of being mixed up in some of his schemes. But dead, so nothing more can be proved, he’ll have a thousand friends — and that town’s under martial law. We’ll try the case, and we have jurisdiction over murder. I’m trying to tell you you’ll hang.”
“I must play the hand as it’s dealt.”
“It’s what I’m asking of you.”
“Suppose she is sleeping with Burke?”
“She’s still a nice girl, damn it — she wouldn’t be the first to do just exactly that! But isn’t it enough for you to give her the big hee-haw, for getting the little end of the stick? And Burke the big hee-haw? And Landry the big hee-haw — specially him, because if he’d renounced the tin, she wouldn’t be up there now. Isn’t laughing cheaper than lead?”
“Is it better than lead is the question.”
“It’s better than rope, goddam it.”
When I argued no more about it, he studied me and then left, perhaps detecting I’d weakened, because the truth was that once the full meaning of what the Navy had done had soaked in I’d begun to have twitches of hope along the lines he’d spoken of — I would picture myself laughing, and then picture her turning to me, now the scheme had blown up, and asking my forgiveness, and pictured myself taking her in my arms and telling her our love was all that mattered. And so the long afternoon wore on. We spoke the station ship, a walking-beam boat of the kind we have back home. We ran past her, came about, then ran down into Lower Old River. After six or eight miles of that, racing with the current, we nosed into the Red. Night began settling down, and in the morning it started to rain. After miles of desolate country blighted by the war, suddenly here came the cotton, thousands of bales on a barge, under the arm of a Navy steamer. It passed so close we could almost touch it, and the traders watched it and cursed. Ahead was Alexandria, all brick, green, iron lace, and drizzle. Then we were swinging into Alexandria’s upper wharf and crashing into the Navy’s flag boat, a big three-decker called the Black Hawk. No, I didn’t make a mistake. Their flag was on the Black Hawk and our headquarters on the Black Hawk — two boats with the same name, lying side by side, spreading nothing but mux. It was that kind of invasion.
Chapter 16
“Yes, gentlemen, it is a big hotel, and one of the best, we hope. Nevertheless, appearance can be deceiving, and we don’t have any room. The first floor, as you see, has lobby, bar, lounge, dining room, and drugstore — but no place to sleep. The third floor’s a theater — no place to sleep up there. The second floor, it’s true, has twenty-four rooms, but unfortunately, when you inflicted your war on us, we had just finished building and our inventory never came. They’re big, beautiful rooms, but except for a few, already taken, they’re empty — no beds, no rugs, no basins, no anything. Just goes to show you should have thought twice before starting to shoot. However, we’re kindly disposed, and will do what we can for you. For meals, you may come and we’ll see that you’re fed. For lodging, we have houses for rent belonging to people who went upriver when they heard your invasion was coming — and I don’t blame them, do you? They’ve left their keys with me, and if you’ll kindly pay attention, I’ll call out who they are, the kind of house they have, and how many it will accommodate — terms cash. Cash in advance to the first of the month, and cash in advance for each month thereafter! May I repeat, in advance? No refunds!”
He began picking up keys and reading stuff off tickets they had tied to them, and voices would call out, from the bunch of traders, correspondents, and hangers-on standing around the lobby, which was big, with leather chairs and settees, as well as desks that had signs on them like RED RIVER DEMOCRAT AND GREAT EASTERN AND WESTERN STAGE LINES. Mostly, they bespoke by twos, threes, and fours, depending on how many wanted to share the accommodation, but pretty soon he hit a snag, offering a place with no takers: “Over-the-store flat on Front Street, clean fine place with bang-up space for four.” As he repeated his spiel I came alert when I happened to catch the name, Schmidt. I sang out: “Yo!” and he slapped the key down in front of me, saying: “That’ll be fifty dollars to the first of April.” I paid, and then was clumping down the street, my bedroll over one shoulder, my bag in my hand, past a town I knew like a book from the talk I’d heard about it that night at the Landry flat and the pictures I’d been shown of it. Sure enough, below the corner, its windows looking out at the stern of the flag boat, I came to the store, its windows lettered A. Landry & Cie., and a few steps further on to a place with vats inside, its windows lettered Friedrich Schmidt, Sugar Mill Supplies. Beside each place was a little green gate, and back of that a small alley. I went up the exterior stairway to a little platform, used my key, and went in. I stepped into a hallway, crosswise the flat, which led to another hallway at right angles to the crosshall. This was apparently the common wall between the two flats, and would have been dark except for the skylight, the one she’d talked about.