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By Root 437 0

ever met Eveanna's husband? Don Jarchow? Veterinarian. I can't tell you how much I think of that boy. Vere, too. Vere English - the boy my girl Beverly had the good sense to settle on. If anything ever happened to me, I'm sure I could trust those fellows to take responsibility; Bonnie by herself - Bonnie wouldn't be able to carry on an operation like this . . ." Johnson, a veteran at listening to ruminations of this sort, knew it was time to intervene. "Why, Herb," he said. "You're a young man. Forty-eight. And from the looks of you, from what the medical report tells us, we're likely to have you around a couple of weeks more." Mr. Clutter straightened, reached again for his pen. "Tell the truth, I feel pretty good. And pretty optimistic. I've got an idea a man could make some real money around here the next few years." While outlining his schemes for future financial betterment, he signed the check and pushed it across his desk. The time was ten past six, and the agent was anxious to go; his wife would be waiting supper. "It's been a pleasure, Herb."

"Same here, fellow." They shook hands. Then, with a merited sense of victory, Johnson picked up Mr. Clutter's check and deposited it in his billfold. It was the first payment on a forty-thousand-dollar policy that in the event of death by accidental means, paid double indemnity.

"And He walks with me, and He talks with me, And He tells me I am His own, And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other has ever known . . ." With the aid of his guitar, Perry had sung himself into a happier humor. He knew the lyrics of some two hundred hymns and ballads - a repertoire ranging from "The Old Rugged Cross" to Cole Porter - and, in addition to the guitar, he could play the harmonica, the accordion, the banjo, and the xylophone. In one of his favorite theatrical fantasies, his stage name was Perry O'Parsons, a star who billed himself as "The One-Man Symphony." Dick said, "How about a cocktail?" Personally, Perry didn't care what he drank, for he was not much of a drinker. Dick, however, was choosy, and in bars his usual choice was an Orange Blossom. From the car's glove compartment Perry fetched a pint bottle containing a ready-mixed compound of orange flavoring and vodka. They passed the bottle to and fro. Though dusk had established itself, Dick, doing a steady sixty miles an hour, was still driving without headlights, but then the road was straight, the country was as level as a lake, and other cars were seldom sighted. This was "out there" - or getting near it.

"Christ!" said Perry, glaring at the landscape, flat and limitless under the sky's cold, lingering green - empty and lonesome except for the far between flickerings of farmhouse lights. He hated it, as he hated the Texas plains, the Nevada desert; spaces horizontal and sparsely inhabited had always induced in him a depression accompanied by agoraphobic sensations. Seaports were his heart's delight - crowded, clanging, ship-clogged, sewage-scented cities, like Yokohama, where as an American Army private he'd spent summer during the Korean War. "Christ - and they told me to keep away from Kansas! Never set my pretty foot here again. Although they were barring me from heaven. And just look at it. Just feast your eyes." Dick handed him the bottle, the contents reduced by half. "Save the rest," Dick said. "We may need it."

"Remember, Dick? All that talk about getting a boat? I was thinking - we could buy a boat in Mexico. Something cheap but sturdy. And we could go to Japan. Sail right across the Pacific, been done - thousands of people have done it. I'm not conning you, Dick - you'd go for Japan. Wonderful, gentle people, with manners like flowers. Really considerate - not just out for your dough. And the women. You've never met a real woman…”

"Yes, I have," said Dick, who claimed still to be in love with his honey-blond first wife though she had remarried.

"There are these baths. One place called the Dream Pool. You stretch out, and beautiful, knockout-type girls come and scrub you head to toe."

"You told me." Dick's