Serenade - James M. Cain [31]
"I call you Hoaney."
I half wished she had picked out something different than what she had called every Weehawken slob that had showed up at her crib, but I didn't say anything. Then something caught my throat. It came to me that she wasn't calling me "Honey." She was calling me Johnny--her way. "Kiss me, Juana. That's exactly what I want you to call me."
The town was dark now, and quiet. I started, pulled out of the grove, and got over the road. As soon as I could I went into high, not for speed, but for quiet. With all that stuff out of the car we didn't make much noise, but I cut her back to the slowest roll that was in her, and we crept along until we got to the main street. I stopped, and listened. I didn't hear anything, so I started up again, and turned the corner, to the left. I hadn't put the lights on, and the moon was hanging low over the ocean, so the right side of the main street was in shadow. I had gone half a block when she touched my arm. I rolled in to the curb and stopped. She pointed. About three blocks down the street, on the left, where the moonlight lit him up, was a cop. He was walking away from us. He was the only one in sight. She leaned to me and whispered: "He go, so."
She motioned with her hand, meaning around the corner. That's how I went. I gave him about five seconds, then reached for the started. The car tilted. Somebody was beside me, on the running board. I still had the gun beside me. I snatched it and turned. A brown face was there, not six inches from mine. Then I saw it was Conners.
"Is that you, lad?"
"Yes. God, you gave me a start."
"Where've you been? I've been looking all over for you! I've broken out my hook, I'm ready to go, I'm out of humor with you.
"I got in some trouble."
"...Don't tell me it was you that hit the general?"
"I did."
His eyes popped open and he began to talk in a whisper. "The penalty is death, lad, the penalty is death."
"Irregardless of that--"
"Not so loud. It's all over town. One of them could be sleeping, and if they hear the English, they'll yell and it'll be the end of you...Did you mind what I said? The penalty is death. He'll take you to the jail and they'll spend an hour booking you, filling out every paper they've got. Then he'll take you out and have them shoot you--for trying to escape."
"If they catch me."
"They'll catch you. For God's sake, come on."
"I'm not coming."
"Did you hear me? The penalty--"
"Since I saw you, there are two of us. Miss Montes, Capitán Conners."
"I'm happy to know you, Miss Montes."
"Gracias, Capitán Conners."
He treated her like a princess, and she acted like one. But then he leaned close and put it in my ear. "You can't do it, man. You can't take up with some girl you met tonight, and you'll be putting her in terrible danger, too. She's a pretty little thing, but hark what I'm telling you. You must come on."
"I didn't just meet her tonight, and she's with me."
He looked up and down the street, and then at his watch. Then looked at me hard. "Lad--do you know the Leporello song?"
"I do."
"Then come on, the pair of you."
He slipped around the car and helped her out. She had the hatbox in her lap. He took it. She carried the other stuff. I grabbed the door, for fear he would slam it mechanically. He didn't. I slipped out on the right side, after her. He pulled us back of the car. "We'll keep the automobile between us and that policeman, down the street."
We tiptoed back to the corner I had just turned, and instead of going the way I had, he pulled us the other way, toward the beach. We came to a crooked alley, and turned into that.
Two minutes after that we trotted out on a dock, and dropped into a launch. Two minutes after that, we were on the deck of the Port of Cobh, with beer and sandwiches coming up. Two minutes after that we were slipping past the headland, and I was cocked back with a guitar on my knee, rolling the Leporello song out for him, and she was pouring beer.
Chapter 6
It was a happy week, all right. I didn't sing much, except a little at night if he wanted