over forty. I was forty myself when he disappeared. If he was a day older, well, you couldn,t prove it by me. But come to find out, he,d been born in 1932. That was news to me. Of course he wasn,t born here, you understand. He was born overseas, and came out here later on. I knew him for a good fifteen years, I,d say. That,s about right. I never could quite figure out how he could have been sixty years old. But that,s what they said."
Reuben only nodded.
"Well, I,ve got to get going," Galton said finally. "This coffee,s warmed me up. I only came to check on things, make sure you,re all right, and by the way, did that fella ever find you, that old guy, that friend of Felix,s?"
"What fella?" asked Reuben.
"Marrok," said Galton. "I saw him a couple of nights ago down at the Inn. He was having a drink down there. And he asked if I knew when you were coming back."
"Tell me about him."
"Well, he,s been around for years. He was Felix,s friend, as I said. He always stayed up here at the house when he came, at least until Marchent would throw him out. She did that from time to time. Marchent couldn,t stand him, really. But she always let him back in. He,ll be coming around, probably just out of respect for Felix and the family, that,s all. He,s not nosy. He probably just wants to know the house is all right, in good hands. I told him it was in very good hands."
"Marchent and he didn,t get along?"
"Well, they did when she was a little girl, I guess, but after Felix disappeared, I don,t know. She wasn,t too keen on him and one time she told me she,d get rid of him if she could. My wife, Bessie, said that he was in love with Marchent, you know, coming on to her and all, and Marchent didn,t like it. Marchent wasn,t going to stand for any of that from him."
Reuben didn,t respond.
"And the brothers hated him," Galton said. "He was always getting the brothers in trouble. They,d be up to something, stealing a car, getting some liquor, you know, that they weren,t old enough to be buying, and he,d turn them in.
"Their father couldn,t much stand the man either. Abel Nideck was nothing like Felix Nideck, no, nothing at all. He didn,t run Marrok off, he just didn,t have the time of day for him. Then of course they weren,t here a lot of the time and neither was Marchent. Marchent argued for him for Felix,s sake, I figured. Sometimes he slept in the back bedroom upstairs, and sometimes he slept out in the woods. He would camp out there in back. Liked to do that. Liked to be alone."
"Where did he come from? Do you know?"
Galton shook his head. "There were always people coming to see Felix, friends of his from ... heck, all over the world. This fella,s Asiatic, Indian perhaps, I don,t know. He,s kind of dark skinned with black hair, very well spoken, like all of Felix,s friends. But he certainly was too old for Marchent, though he was like Felix, you know, he doesn,t show his age. I know how old he is because I remember. He was here when Marchent was a little girl." He looked to each side as though someone was going to sneak up on him and then he said in a confidential voice, "I,ll tell you what Marchent said to Bessie, she said, ,Felix told him to look out for me, to protect me. Well, who,s going to protect me from him!, " He drew back laughing, and swallowed another mouthful of coffee. "But he,s really all right. Why, when Abel and Celia were killed, he came up here and stayed with Marchent so she wouldn,t be alone. That,s about the only time she ever really needed him, I suppose. Didn,t last that long. You sure as hell don,t have to let him hang around this place, you know. This place is yours now, son, and people have got to get used to that. It,s not Felix,s house. Felix is long gone."
"Well, I,ll be on the lookout for him," Reuben said.
"Like I was saying, he isn,t really a bad fella. Everybody knows him around here. He,s just one of those strange international drifters that was always around. But this is your house now."
He walked Galton to the door.
"You come down to the