I'd say you were the loveliest and most beautiful girl that ever lived.
Any time.
Any place.
Anywhere.''
''If it were true, what difference would it make?''
''You have me there,'' the Colonel said. ''But it is true.''
''So now what?''
''So now we stand up and kiss each other and say good-bye.''
''What's that?''
''I don't know,'' the Colonel said. ''I guess that is one of the things everybody has to figure out for themselves.''
''I'll try to figure it.''
''Just take it as easy as you can, Daughter.''
''Yes,'' the girl said. ''In the vehicle without the shock-absorbers.'' ''You were tumbril bait from the start.''
''Can't you do anything kindly?''
''I guess not.
But I've tried.''
''Please keep on trying.
That's all the hope we have.''
''I'll keep on trying.''
So they held each other close and kissed each other hard and true, and the Colonel took the girl across the stretch of gravel and down the stone steps.
''You ought to take a good one.
Not that old displaced engine boat.''
''I'd rather take the displaced engine boat if you don't mind.''
''Mind?'' the Colonel said. ''Not me.
I only give orders and obey orders.
I don't mind.
Good-bye, my dear, lovely, beautiful.''
''Good-bye,'' she said.
CHAPTER 40
HE was in the sunken oak hogshead that they used in the Veneto for blinds.
A blind is any artifice you use to hide the shooter from that which he is attempting to shoot, which, in this case, were ducks.
It had been a good trip out with the boys, once they had met in the garage, and a good evening with excellent food cooked on the old open-hearth kitchen.
Three shooters rode in the rear seat, on the way to the shooting place.
Those who did not lie had permitted themselves a certain amount of exaggeration and the liars had never been in fuller flower.
A liar, in full flower, the Colonel had thought, is as beautiful as cherry trees, or apple trees when they are in blossom.
Who should ever discourage a liar, he thought, unless he is giving you co-ordinates?
The Colonel had collected liars all his life, as some men gather postage-stamps.
He did not classify them, except at the moment, nor treasure them truly.
He just enjoyed, completely, hearing them lie at the moment, unless, of course, something concerned with duty was involved.
Last night there had been a fair amount of good lying after the grappa had been passed around, and the Colonel had enjoyed it.
There had been smoke in the room from the open charcoal fire; no, there were logs, he thought. Anyway a liar lies best when there is a little smoke or when the sun has set.
He had come close to lying twice himself, and had held it up, and merely exaggerated.
I hope anyway, he thought.
Now here was the frozen lagoon to ruin everything.
But it was not ruined.
A pair of pin-tails came, suddenly, from nowhere, slanting down fast in a dive no airplane ever made, and the Colonel heard their feathered trajectory and swung and killed the drake.
He lay on the ice, hitting it as solid as a duck can hit ice, and, before he was down, the Colonel had killed his mate, who was climbing, long-necked and fast.
She fell alongside the drake.
So it is murder, the Colonel thought. And what isn't nowadays?
But, boy, you can still shoot.