We went in and sat by the fire. “Does my shrimp smoke?”
“Not out here. The tobacco’s bad.”
“Wait.”
She got out a little green package of black cigarrillos, she called them, gave me one and took one herself. “You smoke?”
“Course I smoke.”
“That’s new to me.”
“Maybe a lot of things are new to you.”
She blew smoke in my eyes. I puffed my cigarrillo but I didn’t inhale it, because it was thick, white, sweet smoke I was afraid would make me sick. Mixed with the wine it just made me lazy. She kept blowing smoke in my mouth, looping her hair around my neck, and looking at me through the smoke. I put my arm around her, pulled her to me, and pushed my mouth up against hers. Then we were stretched out on the bearskin, the fire just a red glow all over the room, our faces hot, looking into each other’s eyes. I knew then I wasn’t going to say anything about the money that night, and that I wasn’t ever going to do it.
Next morning I woke up wondering if any of it was true, but I looked over and her black braid of hair was looped all over the pillow, and the blankets went up and down with her breathing, though she was so slim you could hardly see anybody was there. I didn’t make any move, but pretty soon a hand slid over and touched my hand, and I put my arms around her and we lay there a long time with the sleepy smell all around us. “I say what let’s do today.”
“What we going to do, live bait?”
“Go on a picnic.”
“Fried chicken picnic?”
“Fried chicken picnic and catch fish.”
“That sounds all right.”
After we fried up some eggs and ate them for breakfast I got in the boat and crossed over to the water front and got a chicken and some more eggs and other stuff. Then I cut off the chicken’s head and we picked him and fried him and boiled up the eggs and peeled them and packed all that and some bread and butter and fruit in a basket, and started out. I put some fishing lines in and a couple of miles down I threw out the anchor and we baited up with some worms I had dug the week before and put down our lines. It was one of those days you get once in six months. Everything was biting, from cats to perch, and we must have pulled in two dozen fish before we decided it was time to quit. It’s bare country down there, with mud flats all around, and no woods or anything, but here and there is a green grove of willow trees right down to the water’s edge. We shoved in there and went ashore, and there was an old hulk of a sailboat not far off, that had some short timbers in her I could prize off with the anchor prong, and in a few minutes we had a fire going and were broiling fish and getting out our other stuff, but saving our chicken for tonight. Then we lay on the bank and talked about the war. I hinted around I was for the South, to see how she felt, and of course she was for the South too, and I told her a little of what I was doing and she thought it was wonderful. “We going to have a separate country out here with Sacramento the capital and a whole passel of admirals and generals and ambassadors and ministers sashaying all around and horses and carriages and soldiers?”
“You got it all figured out.”
“I been in a capital.”
“Caracas?”
“Well?”
“For admirals you got to have a navy.”
“In San Francisco Bay, isn’t there enough room?”
“You’re way ahead of me.”
“And you, I bet you’ll be President.”
“Oh no, not me.”
“You’re the prettiest, why not?”
“You’re the prettiest. What’ll you be?”
“...Don’t you know?”
“Mrs. President.”
But that didn’t seem to go down at all, and she kept asking me didn’t I know what she’d be, and seemed surprised I didn’t know, and upset. She kept staring out at the sun, where it was sinking into the river, but when I mentioned we ought to take a swim, she brightened up, and we took off our clothes and went in. It was too cold to stay very long, but we paddled around and splashed water on each other, and her breasts drew up tight so she was so slim you could hardly believe it. Then we dressed and decided to eat supper back home. All the while we were in the grove, the boats had been clunking up and down, and the fishing sloops, and just as we got our basket packed, here came a steam launch going upriver and I hailed her and offered the Chinaman at the tiller a buck to tow us up to town and he caught my painter and we sat back and took it easy. It was pretty out there with the lights shining over the water and the launch engine panting and the Chink’s face showing red every time he opened his firebox and threw in a few chunks off his woodpile. A new moon was up there, but when I said let’s make a wish she began acting funny again and curled up against my shoulder without saying anything.
Next day she was restless and didn’t seem much interested when I said something about another picnic. We rowed upriver to the mud bar where my placer was, and she watched while I rocked out a spoonful of color, but then we rowed back and just sat around. After lunch she came back to where I was pumping up water into the shower tank and said she wanted to go out that night. “All right, if that’s how you feel about it. But I warn you right now it’s not the smartest thing you can do. They’re looking for you, and those officers, they circulate. Soon as they win five dollars on a wheel, and lap up a couple of drinks on the house, they’re off to the next place, and if we’re circulating too, it’s a hundred to one you’ll be seen.”
“Only one of them knows me.”
“That deputy you vexed so? Isn’t he enough?”
“I have a veil I can wear.”
“You can’t veil the shape, and unfortunately you uncovered so much of it for the captain that it’s probably impressed on everybody’s mind.”
“Well, listen at him.”
“That’s something I don’t forget in a hurry.”
“The shape’s on your mind too, then?”
“Looks a little that way.”
“Then act like it.”
She put her arms around me and I carried her inside, and after I acted like it a couple of times we lay there and she kept curling my hair around her finger and I said: “There’s only one way it’ll be safe for you to go over to Sacramento tonight and strut those places.”
“What way is that?”
“If you’re not wanted any more.”
“I am wanted, though.”
“Not if there’s been some mistake.”
She sat up on one elbow and looked at me a long time, her eyes with a shiny, fixed look to them like the eyes in a Chinese doll. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, you can never tell how things happen. If it was just a piece of foolishness, like you say it was, why maybe she’s found her pocketbook by now. Or the one that took it has maybe got ashamed of themself and sent it back. You never can tell about a thing like that. You could go over there. Row over and go down to the Wells, Fargo office and take one of their messengers and send him over to the Sheriff’s office with a little note or whatever you want to send — and find out.”
She kept staring, then laughed and kissed me. “Roger, you’ve given me the most wonderful idea.”
Around four she rowed across and I lost sight of her behind a dray on the embarcadero. But after a while she was back, and after she tied the boat up she ran in the house and came out with the glass I used when a little looking had to be done. She sat down on the grass and began to watch. Two or three boats were at the piers, ready to pull out for the night run to San Francisco, and I thought she was watching the Antelope, that was tied up near the bridge. But the Antelope pulled out and she stayed where she was, and then I saw it was the bridge she was watching. Pretty soon a stagecoach clattered over, and she followed it with the glass. Then she let out a yelp like some child that got a rattle it wanted. “Oh, oh, oh! Just look at the old fool!” She handed me the glass, and sure enough, on top of the coach, riding with the driver and messenger, was the deputy. “Where’s he going?”