Reivers, The - William Faulkner [53]
"All right," Miss Reba said. "Go on."
"That's all," Ned said. "I can make this horse run. Only dont nobody but me know it yet. So just in case you ladies would like to make up a little jackpot, me and Lucius and Mr Hogganbeck can take that along with us too."
"That includes the one that's got that automobile now too?" Miss Reba said. "I mean, among the ones that dont know you can make it run?"
"That's right," Ned said.
"Then why didn't he save everybody trouble and send you and the horse both to Parsham, since he believes all he's got to do to have the horse and the automobile both, is to run that race?" Now there was no sound; they just looked at each other. "Come on," Miss Reba said. "You got to say something. What's your name?"
"Ned William McCaslin Jefferson Missippi," Ned said.
"Well?" Miss Reba said.
"Maybe he couldn't afford it," Ned said.
"Hell," Boon said. "Neither have we—"
"Shut up," Miss Reba said to Boon. She said to Ned: "I thought you said he was rich."
"I'm talking about the one I swapped with," Ned said.
"Did he buy the horse from the rich one?"
"He had the horse," Ned said.
"Did he give you a paper of any kind when you swapped?"
"I got the horse," Ned said.
"You cant read," Miss Reba said. "Can you?"
"I got the horse," Ned said. Miss Reba stared at him.
"You've got the horse. You've got him to Parsham. You say you got a system that will make him run. Will the same system get that automobile to Parsham too?"
"Use your sense," Ned said. "You got plenty of it. You done already seen more and seen it quicker than anybody else here. Just look a little harder and see that them folks I swapped that horse from—"
"Them?" Miss Reba said. "You said a man." But Ned hadn't even stopped:
"—is in exactly the same fix we is: they got to go back home sometime too sooner or later."
"Whether his name is Ned William McCaslin or Boon Hogganbeck or whether it's them folks I swapped the horse from, to go back home with just the horse or just the automobile aint going to be enough: he's got to have both of them. Is that it?" Miss Reba said.
"Not near enough," Ned said. "Aint that what I been trying to tell you for two hours now?" Miss Reba stared at Ned. She breathed quietly, once.
"So now you're going to walk him to Parsham, with every cop in west Tennessee snuffing every road out of Memphis for horse—"
"Reba!" Miss Corrie said.
"—by daylight tomorrow morning."
"That's right," Ned said. "It's long past too late for nobody to get caught now. But you doing all right. You doing fine. You tell me." She was looking at him; she breathed twice this time; she didn't even move her eyes when she spoke to Miss Corrie:
"That brakeman—"
"What brakeman?" Miss Corrie said.
"You know the one I mean. That his mother's uncle or cousin or something—"
"He's not a brakeman," Miss Corrie said. "He's a flagman. On the Memphis Special, to New York. He wears a uniform too, just like the conductor—"
"All right," Miss Reba said. "Flagman." Now she was talking to Boon: "One of Corrie's . . ." She looked at Ned a moment. "Connections. Maybe I like that word of yours, after all. —His mother's uncle or something is vice president or something of the railroad that goes through Parsham—"
"His uncle is division superintendent," Miss Corrie said.
"Division superintendent," Miss Reba said. "That is, between the times when he's out at the driving park here or in any of the other towns his trains go through where he can watch horse races while his nephew is working his way up from the bottom with the silver spoon already in his mouth as long as he dont bite down on it hard enough to draw too much notice. See what I mean?"
"The baggage car," Boon said.
"Right," Miss Reba said. "Then they'll be in Parshain and already out of sight by daylight tomorrow."
"Even with the baggage