Metts tells me that he has sent a wagon out to the Hacienda Altmira with a casket an' a coupla cops with spades to dig up what is left of Sagers an' fix him properly. I reckon that these boys will be waitin' for me to go out an' show 'em where Fernandez buried the kid, so I scram downstairs an' get in the car an' drive out to the Hacienda.
The dawn is breakin'. I reckon the desert country looks pretty swell at this time.
I reckon that I would like to stick around here at this place just doin' nothin' an' doin' it all the time, instead of rushin' about the country pullin' in cheap crooks an' counterfeiters an' jumpin' around duckin' shots from dames like Paulette.
I leave the car at the front of the Hacienda, an' walk around the back. Two State coppers with a police wagon an' shovels are hangin' around. They have got a casket in the wagon. I show 'em where Sagers is buried an' they start diggin'.
Then I remember somethin'. I light a cigarette an' go back to the car an' drive over towards Henrietta's little rancho. When I get there I see Maloney just gettin' inta his car.
"Say, am I the big mug, or am I?" I tell him. "With all this depression that's been flyin' around, I forgot the only bitta good news I got for Henrietta. An' anyway where was you goin'?"
"I'm scrammin'," he says. "You see, now that Henrietta's in the clear I reckon I don't haveta stick around any more. I sorta wanted to give her a hand that's all, an' I reckon I sorta used the situation inta rushin' her inta a marriage with me. But she ain't that way about it. She says she'd like to think of me as a brother - you know the stuff."
He grins.
"Anyhow," he says, "I got a girl in Florida. I reckon I'll go along an' say how are you to her."
"Atta boy," I tell him.
I watch his dust as he goes down the road. Then I walk up to the door an' I bang on it. After a bit Henrietta comes along. She has changed her kit an' she is wearin' a white crepe-dechine frock an' white shoes. That dame sure can look a honey.
"Say, Henrietta," I tell her. "I gotta bit of news for you an' I was a mug not to have thoughta it bcforc.
"Granworth was insured for two hundred thousand, wasn't he? Well the policy covered everything except suicide, an' he never committed suicide. He was shot resistin' arrest yesterday by Rurales.
"OK. Well the Company will pay. That means that you get plenty dough so I reckon you needn't worry your head about anything. I'll have a word with Metts on my way back so's if you want any dough quick the bank'll let you have some. I'll wire the New York Police to send the policy along, so's the bank can hold it against any dough you want"
She looks at me an' her eyes are sorta starry.
"That's fine, Lemmy," she says. "But won't you come in? There's one or two things I want to say to you. Besides there's breakfast coming."
I look at her.
"Listen, lady," I tell her. "Maybe you ain't heard about me. I am one tough guy. I am not the sorta guy you can trust around the place havin' breakfast with a swell dame like you. Especially if you are good at makin' waffles. I reckon that when I eat waffles I just get goin' an' they tell me that then I get to be the sorta guy that dames oughta be warned against."
She leans up against the door post.
"I was goin' to give you fried chicken," she says, "but after that I think I won't. I've got a better idea."
"Such as?" I ask her.
"Such as waffles," she says.
I look at her again an' I start thinkin' of my old mother. Ma Caution usta tell me when I was a kid that I always put food before everything.
An' for once Ma Caution was wrong.