They’re taking X-Rays in there now.
They can always tell from X-Rays.
But I don’t think he’s hurt bad.”
“Oh my, I hope not.”
The cops never said a word.
They just sat there and looked at us.
They wheeled him out, and his head was covered with bandages.
They put him on an elevator, and Cora, and me, and the nurse, and the cops all got on, and they took him up and put him in a room.
We all went in there.
There weren’t enough chairs and while they were putting him to bed the nurse went and got some extra ones.
We all sat down.
Somebody said something, and the nurse made them keep quiet.
A doctor came and took a look, and went out.
We sat there a hell of a while.
Then the nurse went over and looked at him.
“I think he’s coming to now.”
Cora looked at me, and I looked away quick.
The cops leaned forward, to hear what he said.
He opened his eyes.
“You feel better now?”
He didn’t say anything and neither did anybody else.
It was so still I could hear my heart pounding in my ears.
“Don’t you know your wife?
Here she is.
Aren’t you ashamed of yourself, falling in the bathtub like a little boy, just because the lights went out.
Your wife is mad at you.
Aren’t you going to speak to her?”
He strained to say something, but couldn’t say it.
The nurse went over and fanned him.
Cora took hold of his hand and patted it.
He lay back for a few minutes, with his eyes closed, and then his mouth began to move again and he looked at the nurse.
“Was a all go dark.”
When the nurse said he had to be quiet, I took Cora down, and put her in the car.
We no sooner started out than the cop was back there, following us on his motorcycle.
“He suspicions us, Frank.”
“It’s the same one.
He knew there was something wrong, soon as he saw me standing there, keeping watch.
He still thinks so.”
“What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know.
It all depends on that stepladder, whether he tumbles what it’s there for.
What did you do with that slung-shot?”
“I still got it here, in the pocket of my dress.”
“God Almighty, if they had arrested you back there, and searched you, we’d have been sunk.”
I gave her my knife, made her cut the string off the bag, and take the bearings out. Then I made her climb back, raise the back seat, and put the bag under it.
It would look like a rag, like anybody keeps with the tools.
“You stay back there, now, and keep an eye on that cop.
I’m going to snap these bearings into the bushes one at a time, and you’ve got to watch if he notices anything.”
She watched, and I drove with my left hand, and leaned my right hand on the wheel.
I let go. I shot it like a marble, out the window and across the road.