The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty - Eudora Welty [101]
"Here comes some alligators," said Virgil. "Let's let them by."
They drew out on the shady side of the water, and three big alligators and four middle-sized ones went by, taking their own time.
"Look at their great big old teeth!" called a shrill voice. It was Grady making his only outcry, and the alligators were not showing their teeth at all.
"The better to eat folks with," said Doc from his boat, looking at him severely.
"Doc, you are bound to declare all you know," said Virgil. "Get going!"
When they started off again the first thing they caught in the net was the baby alligator.
"That's just what we wanted!" cried the Malones.
They set the little alligator down on a sandbar and he squatted perfectly still; they could hardly tell when it was he started to move. They watched with set faces his incredible mechanics, while the dogs after one bark stood off in inquisitive humility, until he winked.
"He's ours!" shouted all the Malones. "We're taking him home with us!"
"He ain't nothing but a little-old baby," said William Wallace.
The Malones only scoffed, as if he might be only a baby but he looked like the oldest and worst lizard.
"What are you going to do with him?" asked Virgil.
"Keep him."
"I'd be more careful what I took out of this net," said Doc.
"Tie him up and throw him in the bucket," the Malones were saying to each other, while Doc was saying, "Don't come running to me and ask me what to do when he gets big."
They kept catching more and more fish, as if there was no end in sight.
"Look, a string of lady's beads," said Virgil. "Here, Sam and Robbie Bell."
Sam wore them around his head, with a knot over his forehead and loops around his ears, and Robbie Bell walked behind and stared at them.
In a shadowy place something white flew up. It was a heron, and it went away over the dark treetops. William Wallace followed it with his eyes and Brucie clapped his hands, but Virgil gave a sigh, as if he knew that when you go looking for what is lost, everything is a sign
An eel slid out of the net.
"Rassle with him, son!" yelled the Malones. They swam like fiends.
"The Malones are in it for the fish," said Virgil.
It was about noon that there was a little rustle on the bank.
"Who is that yonder?" asked Virgil, and he pointed to a little undersized man with short legs and a little straw hat with a band around it, who was following along on the other side of the river.
"Never saw him and don't know his brother," said Doc.
Nobody had ever seen him before.
"Who invited you?" cried Virgil hotly. "Hi...!" and he made signs for the little undersized man to look at him, but he would not.
"Looks like a crazy man, from here," said the Malones.
"Just don't pay any attention to him and maybe he'll go away," advised Doc.
But Virgil had already swum across and was up on the other bank. He and the stranger could be seen exchanging a word apiece and then Virgil put out his hand the way he would pat a child and patted the stranger to the ground. The little man got up again just as quickly, lifted his shoulders, turned around, and walked away with his hat tilted over his eyes.
When Virgil came back he said, "Little-old man claimed he was harmless as a baby. I told him to just try horning in on this river and anything in it."
"What did he look like up close?" asked Doc.
"I wasn't studying how he looked," said Virgil. "But I don't like anybody to come looking at me that I am not familiar with." And he shouted, "Get going!"
"Things are moving in too great a rush," said Doc.
Brucie darted ahead and ran looking into all the bushes, lifting up their branches and looking underneath.
"Not One of the Doyles has spoke a word," said Virgil.
"That's because they're not talkers," said Doc.
All day William Wallace kept diving to the bottom. Once he dived down and down into the dark water, where it was so still that nothing stirred, not even a fish, and so dark that it was no longer the muddy