A young woman and two men. The men, both red-eyed with fever, were forced forseveral weeks to stay shut and shivering in an isolated hut, while the young woman,having presently taken a fancy to the wood-carver, shared the woodcarvers mat.
"I dont credit that part," Joe Bell said squeamishly. "I know she had her ways,but I dont think shed be up to anything as much as that."
"And then?"
"Then nothing," he shrugged. "By and by she went like she e, rode away on ahorse."
"Alone, or with the two men?"
Joe Bell blinked. "With the two men, I guess. Now the Jap, he asked about her upand down the try. But nobody else had ever seen her." Then it was as if hecould feel my own sense of letdown transmitting itself to him, and he wanted no partof it. "Ohing you got to admit, its the only definite news in I dont know howmany" -- he ted on his fingers: there werent enough -- "years. All I hope, Ihope shes rich. She must be rich. You got to be rich to go mug around inAfrica."
"Shes probably never set foot in Africa," I said, believing it; yet I could see herthere, it was somewhere she would have gone. And the carved head: I looked at thephotographs again.
"You know so much, where is she?"
"Dead. Or in a crazy house. Or married. I think shes married and quieted downand maybe right in this very city."
He sidered a moment. "No," he said, and shook his head. "Ill tell you why. Ifshe was in this city Id have seen her. You take a man that likes to walk, a man likeme, a mans been walking ireets going on ten or twelve years, and all thoseyears hes got his eye out for one person, and nobodys ever her, dont it stand toreason shes not there? I see pieces of her all the time, a flat little bottom, anyskinny girl that walks fast and straight -- " He paused, as though too aware of howily I was looking at him. "You think Im round the bend?"
"Its just that I didnt know youd been in love with her. Not like that."
I was sorry Id said it; it discerted him. He scooped up the photographs andput them ba their envelope. I looked at my watch. I hadnt any place to go, butI thought it was better to leave.
"Hold on," he said, gripping my wrist. "Sure I loved her. But it wasnt that Iwao touch her." And he added, without smiling: "Not that I dont think aboutthat side of things. Even at my age, and Ill be sixty-seven January ten. Its apeculiar fact -- but, the row, that side of things seems to be on my mindmore and more. I dont remember thinking about it so much even when I was ayoungster and its every other minute. Maybe the older you grow and the less easy itis to put thought into aaybe thats why it gets all locked up in your head andbees a burden. Whenever I read in the paper about an old man disgraghimself, I know its because of this burden. But" -- he poured himself a jigger ofwhiskey and swallowed it -- "Ill never disgrace myself. And I swear, it nevercrossed my mind about Holly. You love somebody without it being like that. Youkeep them a stranger, a stranger whos a friend."