The diamond bikini - By Charles Williams Page 0,20

at them.

The one on that side turned his face a little and said to him out of the corner of his mouth “You looking for somebody, Jack?”

Pop sort of swallowed, and says, “No. Nobody at all.” He hurried across the sidewalk and got into the car, and we shot out of the parking place. The three men went on into the cafe.

As we drove out of town I said to Pop, “They looked a little like Dr Severance, didn’t they?”

“Yeah,” he says. “Maybe there’s a doctor’s convention in town.”

When we got back, Dr Severance was still waiting there around the bend from the highway. I didn’t see Miss Harrington anywhere, so she had probably gone back in the trailer. Pop told the doctor to follow us, and we started off.

It was only about two miles, and the big car didn’t have any trouble pulling the trailer in the sand, so it wasn’t too long till we came to the wire gate and turned off down the hill towards Uncle Sagamore’s farmhouse. About a hundred yards before we got to the house Pop pulled off to the left and stopped among some big trees in a little level place looking out over the lake. He motioned for Dr Severance to stop. We all got out.

“Well, how does this strike you?” Pop asked the doctor.

Dr Severance looked all around and back up the hill towards the wire gate and the road. You couldn’t see them from here because of the trees. “Hmmmm,” he says. “Seems to be all right.” He took some money out of his wallet and gave it to Pop.

“Here’s a month in advance,” he says, “But I was just thinking. Maybe you’d better not mention anything about us being here. Around to the neighbors, I mean. There might be zoning restrictions against trailers.”

“That’s right,” Pop says. “I hadn’t thought of that. We won’t say a word.”

I saw Uncle Sagamore come out of the house and look up the hill towards us and start walking this way to find out what was going on. But just then I heard another car coming down the hill from the gate. From the sound of it, it was really travelling. It shot out of the trees and went bucking down towards the house just the way those two sheriffs had. A big cloud of dust was boiling up behind it.

Then I forgot about it, watching Dr Severance. We was all three standing in front of his car when the other one shot out of the trees, but then he let out an awful cuss word and moved faster than I’d ever seen anybody move before. He whirled around and ducked behind the car so just his head was peering over, and his right hand shot up inside his coat. It all happened so fast I just stared at him.

The car went on past, bucking like crazy over the bumps. It slammed on down the hill and the man that was in it put his brakes on and it slid to a stop right by Uncle Sagamore. Dr Severance watched it, and then he straightened up. He looked around at us, and his eyes was real cold again.

“Who was that?” he barked at Pop.

“Uh—” Pop says. “Just one of the neighbors. Probably wants to borrow something.”

“Oh,” Dr Severance said. He seemed to relax a little. “I was afraid it was those damn reporters.”

Then he noticed he still had his hand inside his coat. He took it out, and shook his head. “Heart twinge,” he said. “Grabs me right there every once in a while.”

“Why, that’s too bad,” Pop says. “What you want to do is take it real easy and not excite yourself.” Then he grinned and scratched his head. “But who am I to be prescribin’ for a doctor?”

We all looked down the hill towards the house. There was only one man in the car. He got out and started talking to Uncle Sagamore, waving his arms like he was worked up about something.

Pop says to Dr Severance, “Well, you go ahead and set up camp. I’ll tell my brother Sagamore about our dicker.”

We drove down and parked under the big tree again, and walked over to where the man was still talking to Uncle Sagamore by his car. Or maybe talking wasn’t just the word. I couldn’t make out whether he was yelling or preaching, the way he was carrying on. He was a short, fat man with a big hat and