Deliverance - James Dickey [91]
really killed, right?" "Right. There's nobody who can argue with that. But if we take them up there, or if they go up there ..." "Now wait a minute. We'll say we spilled first a long ways upriver and that's where we lost the green canoe and Lewis was hurt. But we all survived and tried to make it downriver in Lewis' canoe. We were overloaded and taking chances trying to get Lewis out and just couldn't control the canoe when we hit the bad rapids. That last half-mile of falls got us, and Drew didn't make it. Now stay with that. Stay with it. If we do we'll make it home tomorrow night, or -- maybe even tonight." "Suppose they don't believe us? What am I going to say when that little rat-faced bastard faces me up to telling him where I said we lost the canoe?" "Tell him -- and anybody else around -- that he misread you. Was there anybody else listening to you when he was talking to you yesterday?" "No, I don't believe so." "That's good. And I don't think I let it slip to that first trooper. Anyway, it's more likely than not that he won't ask you, but will come around and ask me. When he does, I'll let him have it. I'm ready for him. I'm sure glad you told me about him. I sure am." "Is that all we have to change?" "As far as I can tell," I said. "Again, Ed, what if they don't believe us? What if there's just enough doubt so that they go looking farther up?" "Then, like I said, we may be in some trouble. But I don't think they will. Look, there are an awful lot of falls and rapids we came down day before yesterday. It could have happened anywhere up there. And the place where Drew was killed -- and the part where we sunk that other guy -- was right where the banks of the gorge are the highest and steepest. The only three ways to get there are upriver, which would make the whole search party have to fight rapids after rapids for hour after hour and probably day after day, searching the river in the rapids and between them foot by foot, and they're not going to want to take that on, just because one local guy disbelieves a survivor's story. An outboard wouldn't stand a chance in that stuff, and anything else'd be too heavy for the shallows. The other way is downstream, and if they came that way they'd have to run the same rapids we did, and you know what they're like. How'd you like to have to do that again? They'd be risking their lives, and it just wouldn't be worth it. Besides, how could they be doing that and searching too?" "They could search in the calm places, and that's where Drew is." "Right; in one of them. But which one?" "All right," he said. "I guess all right, anyway." "The only other way in is to come down the cliff. But they'd have to go down and come up it time after time, and they wouldn't do much of that, I can tell you. They might start out doing it, but they wouldn't keep on." "What if they went that far back and found the broken rope?" "Chances are they wouldn't. The rope broke at the very top and there's a lot of cliff. Anyway, there's not a damn thing we can do about it." "Is that all, now?" "Yes; all but one thing. We didn't see anybody on the river. Not since we left Oree have we seen another human being. That's awfully important, and we can't vary from it." "I'm not going to vary from it, I can clue you. We haven't seen anybody. I wish we hadn't." "We didn't. The only other thing is whether somebody was reported missing in that area, and people knew more or less where the person was going. That bothers me a little, but not so much as some of the other problems. Those were awful-looking men; who'd care where they were?" "Somebody might." "That's right. Somebody might. But whether the person would know where they went, or the area or direction they went in, we just can't have any idea. That one is beyond us. That's where we've got to ride on luck. And I feel lucky; the odds is good." Bobby laughed, and some of it was really laughter. "Do you reckon this room is bugged? Or that someone could be listening?" "It's not bugged," I said, "but that sure is a thoughty notion of yours, cousin." I slid off my tennis