She nodded. “Put it there to dry.” She was cleaning the sink.
He propped himself against the table and watched her. As she was wringing out the dishrag he asked, “I don’t suppose you’ve come to any conclusion about me? The last two days? Did you think about me at all?”
She didn’t reply till after she had washed her hands and dried them. Then she looked up at him and said, “I thought about everything in the world. About the past and present and future, and my father and mother, and death and life and the things people have done, and things people have said, what they have said to me and where the truth was, and how hard it is to tell whether you’re doing what you really want to do. I thought of being locked up forever, and of losing my life, of being executed for murder, and of being set free and what I would do. It wasn’t all profound and it wasn’t all even thinking. I dramatized that, the being set free. You were in it. You put your arms around me and kissed me and I cried. I mean when I dramatized I cried — I didn’t actually cry once. Then when the sheriff took me into that room and they were letting me go I told you to kiss me on the cheek and you didn’t do it.”
He growled, “The room was full of people.”
“It isn’t now.”
“What—” He gulped. “What are you trying to tell me?”
“Nothing. Only you’ve accused me of faking scenes so often, you might help me act one of them out.”
“If I kiss you, you’ll know it.”
“Remember you put your arms around me, too.”
He did so. Whether in quality the kiss she got was up to the one she had imagined in her cell she alone could tell, but in duration there was surely no question about it. It lasted long enough to wipe a dozen plates if there had been more to wipe. Finally she stirred and he released her.
“Now you go home,” she said.
He took a breath, and another. “I’m not going home.”
“Yes, you are—”
“I mean I’m going somewhere else. I’m going to see old man Escott.” He made a movement. “Could I—?”
“No, Ty. Please. One was all I dramatized.”
“I’ll phone you in the morning and ask if I can come to see you. Remember you’ve fired your lawyer.”
“I don’t need a lawyer any more.”
“You need this lawyer. Good night, Del.”
“Good night, Ty.”
They went on tiptoe through the hall because a glance into the front room had shown them Clara on the couch with her eyes closed and breathing deeply. After he had gone Delia went in there quietly and turned out one of the lamps, the one close to the couch. Then she sat on the edge of a chair and gazed at her sleeping sister. It looked wonderful, that deep peaceful sleep. When she herself had slept again like that, and her head was clear and her nerves calmed a little, was she going to be angry at Ty for having thought that of her? She considered it unlikely and that was queer. The things he had said — they were a jumble in her head now — would she be able to remember all of them tomorrow and the way he had looked? What he had said about chastity and purity, now, she would never have believed—
She lifted her head. Damn. Someone on the porch. Apparently, from the sound, several someones. The doorbell clanged and Clara stirred, opened her eyes, and struggled up. “That darned doorbell,” Delia said savagely. “I’ll see who it is.”
“I guess I must have gone to sleep.” Clara was upright. “For heaven’s sake don’t let them in.”
But that, Delia found, was too large an order. Switching on the porch light, she saw through the glass that the bell ringer was one from whom no Cody threshold was barred if he displayed a desire to cross it. So she opened the door, and Mr. and Mrs. Lemuel Sammis entered.
Delia got another kiss immediately, this time on the cheek — really more of a puff than a kiss, for climbing only the five steps to the porch had been an overdraft on Evelina’s air-conditioning system.
“You look awful, girlie! But here you are! In again, out again! I remember when that fellow, Marbie or Marble I think his name was, when he was in the pen for two years for cheating the Indians, as if anyone could cheat an Indian, he came out as fat as a pig— Hello, Clara. What did I tell you? Didn’t I say Lem would have her out of there before night? I admit that was yesterday, but here she is!”
“Shut up, Eva,” her husband snapped. “I had nothing to do with it. Escott’s partner and Quin Pellett got her out. I was afraid you girls might be in bed. Probably you ought to be. We came over from Amy’s...”
In the front room Delia turned on the lamp by the couch again and they found seats.
“We won’t stay long,” said Sammis brusquely. “I was coming over from Amy’s to ask you a couple of things, and Eva had to come along to give Dellie a smack.” He reached to pat his wife on the knee with the most predatory hand between Utah and the Sierras. “First you, Clara, what do you want to do about the office?”
“Why...” Clara was a little flustered. “I was fired from the office.”
“No, you weren’t. Didn’t Dellie tell you? I had it in mind some time ago to give up grubstaking, but I’d hate to see that old office closed like the one in front. A thing I said to Dellie, I’d like to put you in charge and run the thing if I could think of something else to do with Dan. Well, somebody thought of something and did it. You’re a smart girl, but you’re a girl and it’s not like it was twenty years ago. With mining what it is, do you think there’s any chance you could make it pay?”
“Why, I think—” Clara was not at ease. “I think so.”
“Say at ninety a week and a third share?”
“I think I could.” Clara suddenly straightened, her chin up, with decision. “But I may as well tell you and get it over with. I’ve about accepted an offer from Wynne Cowles to go into partnership with her.”
An ejaculation came from Delia. Sammis glowered.
“You mean that woman with cat eyes? The one that’s been backing Paul Emery?”
“Yes. She made me an offer about two weeks ago, but I turned it down. Then I got fired. I had an appointment to see her Tuesday afternoon, but she came to the office for me because she’s the kind who does what she pleases, and Jackson saw her there and they started quarreling. I went away and left them. Later I met her and told her I would go in with her. She’ll ante up to two hundred thousand, and I’ll draw seven thousand a year and get half of the net.”
“You will.” Sammis’s eyes were narrowed. “And you’ll take my men.”
“I suppose I will, as their stakes peter out.” Clara stretched a hand in appeal. “What was I to do? I was fired, wasn’t I?”
“You should have come to Lem, girlie.” Evelina was emphatic. “Everybody should. Everybody does. Come to Lem.”
“I’d been to him enough already. Anyway, I was really glad to get away from Dan Jackson and I wasn’t sorry he had fired me.” Clara turned. “I didn’t tell you, Del, because I didn’t want anyone to know until it was settled. But if I’d told you, you wouldn’t have gone there Tuesday night with that note, and— I’m sorry. I should have told you.” She shifted to Sammis. “I was sorry to be doing anything you wouldn’t like, too, but I couldn’t help it. And the way it is now, since you wanted to get out of the grubstaking business anyway, I’m sure Mrs. Cowles will make a deal to take it over—”