We sat there without talking for a minute.
I even forgot my full house.
"Well?" I said.
"Well what?" said Marv.
"What's the explanation."
"Maybe," Doc said reluctantly, "they're all sterile."
"Why?" Jess asked again. Doc shrugged.
I started not liking the conversation. "Let's play poker." Jess took it up.
He was always sharp, Jess was.
Nobody wanted to stand up against him in court.
"Where did they come from?
Anybody ever ask?" "I never had the nerve," said By. "It might be unlucky, like counting your chips." We nodded. It was like that.
Then Marv spoke up.
"Candy came from Passaic, New Jersey.
It was on her baggage check."
"So did Choo-Choo," said Jess. He hesitated. "I asked her."
We looked at him with the respect of sensible cowards for a fool with guts enough to play Russian roulette.
"What have they got at Passaic?" By said.
"A lot of beautiful mothers," Doc said.
You've been around where someone will toss off an idea, casual like, and someone else will carry it on to something new and valuable?
Well, Jess started running with the ball.
"You ever heard any of the girls mention family?
Father, mother, brothers, sisters?"
We all shook our heads.
Damn it! He was beginning to make me wonder. Marv couldn't stand it.
"Well," he demanded, "what have they got at Passaic?"
Jess shrugged.
"A factory maybe?"
We laughed. Part of it was relief. It was a joke after all.
"Who ever heard," By said, "of a factory making things to give away?"
"Ever hear of installment payments?"
Jess asked, his eyes slitted thoughtfully.
"Do you keep track of every penny you give Dallas?
Or maybe, like me, you hand over five dollars here, ten dollars there.
Nothing down and twenty dollars a week for the rest of your life.
Or more.
They could make anything pay."
I mused softly,
"There never seems half as much stuff around as April asks money to buy."
By shrugged impatiently.
"We can afford it.
Besides, if it weren't for Dallas, I wouldn't have it to give herI'll swear to that.
A good wife is worth whatever you have to pay."
"Maybe so," Doc said, "but can we afford the other thing? The sterility?
Sure, as individuals.
But how about as a town, as a nation, as a race."
He looked thoughtful.
"It don't matter if there are no more Winslows.
But Neosho's dying.
So is the U.S.