the suet-headed little moron? I’d drawn him a picture; I’d sat down patiently and spelled it out for him, syllable by syllable. I’d told him how horrible it was in prison, and that he’d get ten years for what he’d done. I’d given him $3,800. I’d furnished him a car. I’d broken my goddamned ankle for him and promised him it would be at least twelve to twenty-four hours before anybody even found out he’d escaped. I wanted to scream at him. What the hell did he want—Brownell to come down here and carry him out piggy-back and furnish him with a Duncan Hines list of approved hiding places;
“Ain’t nobody escapes from the G-men,” he went on, hunkering down in front of me. “I should of knowed better in the first place. Look at how you got Dillinger, and Machine-gun Kelly, and Karpis. . . .”
He was an F.B.I, buff. And I’d opened my fat mouth and made it worse.
“. . . and when you explained how you fellers’d caught up with me . . .” He stopped and gave a sententious shake of the head.
You’re good, Godwin. You were magnificent. Tell him some more about how bright you are.
“. . . and if you can’t travel at all, Mr. Ward, I got it all figured out. I’ll go down the lake and call your office and have ‘em send out help. . . .”
If only he’d shut up. I was contemplating the ultimate madness of it. I’d arrested him, and now there was no way on earth I could escape from him. I was his hero—along with the F.B.I, in general. By God, he wasn’t going to desert me. He’d help me get back to the office if it took the rest of the week. Maybe they’d put his picture in the papers. If I took him down to Sanport and kicked him out of the car he’d be in F.B.I, headquarters inside of twenty minutes telling them all about it. If I left him here and ran, he’d do the same thing. They’d get a description from him, and it might take Ramsey as long as five minutes to recognize me.
No, that wasn’t quite the ultimate. The final, most putrid joke of all was the fact they probably wouldn’t even prosecute the fatuous little meat-head. Why should they? They’d have me. Presumably I was intelligent enough to know right from wrong, and they could reach into the State and Federal grab-bags without even looking and come up with a half-dozen charges that would stick. I tried a few on for size—conspiracy, obstructing justice, destroying evidence, impersonating a Federal officer, compounding a felony, and probably grand theft and accessory to armed robbery. Add flight to escape prosecution. And, oh yes, I had just finished destroying twelve thousand dollars worth of United States currency they were trying to recover. They were going to like me better than anybody they’d had in their hair since Gaston B. Means.
“You got your shoe back on,” he said.
“Yes,” I replied wearily. “It began to feel a little better.”
“Don’t seem to be swole much. You reckon you’ll need the bandage?”
“I don’t think so.” I laced the shoe up rather loosely. He handed me the crutch and I struggled to my feet, not bothering to make much of a production of it. What difference did it make now? Anyway, I was an F.B.I, superman, wasn’t I? If I tucked my feet up my pants legs and roared off the ground like a pheasant he wouldn’t consider it more than mildly noteworthy.
I’ll carry the surp buckets,” he said. He strung their handles on the wooden shaft of the shovel and slung it across his shoulder. I stared at them.
I’ll go slow,” he said. “Just tell me when you want to stop and rest.”
He started out. I fell in behind him.
In a moment lie looked back over his shoulder. “Is the crutch about right?”
“It’s fine,” I said. He went on.
The three pails bumped gently together as they swayed to his stride, forever three feet before my eyes. I tried to look away from them. I tried not to hear the small metallic sounds they made.
“We’ll make her in fine shape,” he told me reassuringly over his shoulder. “Sure,” I said.
“When we get to the cabin, we’ll use the boat.”
I didn’t say anything. I merely reflected it would be wonderful if we drowned. It would be such a fitting close to our brief encounter and to this perfect idyll