Part 12 (1/2)
No one answered. He had, like Hadji the beggar, become in twenty-four hours again a drifter.
Babe sneaked out after him. ”Here, Curly,” she slipped her hand into her bosom and held out the octagonal slug. ”When Bet an' I reached Allie last night she was holdin' it in her little dead hand, an' there was such a smile on her face! You gave her that happy smile. G.o.d bless you for it! Now, you take this--”
But Curly turned away, blinking his eyes, and trying to swallow the lump in his throat. Babe stood watching him through her tears as he tramped down the street, out of the town on the road to the south.
Two years later in a hall in Sonora, a man strolled in to the card tables.
”Why, hel-lo, Curly!”
Curly glanced up briefly. ”h.e.l.lo, George.”
”Hear you've made another strike.”
”You can hear a lot that ain't true. This happens to be.”
”You know, I was telling--”
”Well, the sight of you don't put me in the mood to be told much.” There was an imperceptible s.h.i.+fting of the crowd around the table. They were moving away from Spellman.
”I was telling my wife--”
”My girl, you mean! It wasn't enough to keep my business, you had to go home an' marry my girl, too, didn't you?”
”Curly, for the love of heaven--”
”Take your hand off my arm, Pete. I'm going to kill this--. He's not the kind of man I thought he was.”
Two shots crashed in the room!
Spellman wavered through the smoke haze, then dropped his pistol and fell slowly across the card table littered with s.h.i.+ning cards and poker chips. An overturned tallow-dip dropped in a pool of wine and rolled down against the dead man's cheek, dabbling it with the color which would never return to it again.
”Bet, ain't that Curly Gillmore that we knew three years ago at Coloma, when Allie died?”
”Must be a-gittin' blind! Where?”
”The feller all dressed up an' walkin' with the lady. Sure it is! Hi, Curly, hel-lo! It's Babe. Well, ain't I glad--”
The woman with Curly fixed Babe with a stony glare. ”If you wish to converse with this... woman, kindly do so when your wife is not accompanying you,” she said to him in an angry undertone, and went majestically on.
”I'll come back, Babe. We've been married just a month and she doesn't understand. I'll be back later,” and he hurried off.
”Bet, did you see who that was with Curly? His wife, he said.”
”Aw-w, Babe, don't you fret! I guess we fill our little place out here in Californy near as much as some o' the fine ladies do.”
”I didn't care. No, I was thinkin' that the ways o' the Lord are curious. That lady used to be married to George Spellman.”