She caught Margy's attention and imperatively gestured toward their bedroom. Margy let out a sigh of exasperation and stood up, frowning. She left the room. A moment later – her parents and Mr. Ferris studying the list -Dorry slipped after her.
She closed the door behind her and grabbed Margy's slender wrists. "Margy, you got to help me, honey. You got to do something fen me night now, hear?"
"Let go'n me! You took leave of what little sense Pa'n Ma gived you?"
"You got to slip out and scamper down to the shantyboat and warn Shad fer me. Margy – please. You just got to do it!"
"Dorry Mears, you lost your mother-wit? I cain't go do no such thing. Why should you want me to -" She lost the argument abruptly, staring at her sister, then at the new dress, and remembered the night before. The monitor of her mind began sorting facts into the proper slots. Shad had come to the house the night before and had given her pa two ten-dollar bills; later that night Dorry had slipped off to meet a boy; the next day she had bought a new dress in Torkville with a ten-dollar bill.
"Dorry," she said, "you knew last night that Shad had went and found that Money Plane, didn't you? He gived you that money fer the dress – stolen money."
"Of course, you little fool. Margy, please honey, I ain't got time to fuss overn hit now. I got to git back in there and find out all there is to find about what Mr. Ferris is goan do."
"But why? Why do you -"
"My goodness, Margy, cain't you understand nothing? Shad has that money hid out. When he gits it, him and me are going to run away with it. I want you should warn him that Mn. Ferris is here, that Mr. Ferris kin prove he's got his money outn that old plane, and that Mn. Ferris is coming at him tonight. Tell Shad to clear out a the shantyboat right now. Tell him to hide in the woods and to meet me by the old Colt place tomorry night at nine sharp. Margy – do you understand all that?"
"I don't want to understand it. You plain crazy to talk thisaway. Run off with Shad Hank. You fool, don't you know Mr. Ferris will git the law on you? Why, Dorry, you could end yourself in jail."
"Cain't you never do nothing fer me 'cept argue me to death? You the only one kin help me, and you got to! Mebbe I ben mighty and foolish in my time, but what I'm telling you now is purely honest; Shad'n me is running off with that money. I ain't goan let nobody stop me from that. Now you go on, and you go quick. I'm going back in there and pester that Mn. Ferris with questions 'til Pa whales me. Margy -I'll go on my knees to you if'n you'll do hit."
But she didn't. She opened the door and started through before her sister could get after her again. "Go on!" she hissed furiously. She closed the door, leaned against it.
Please, Lord: let Margy do hit. Let Shad git off'n the woods. Don't let Mn. Ferris take that money from him. I'll cold die without that money, I just will. I'll never git me outn this old slough-hole without hit. I'll just grow old here and fat and hank-haired, and git married to some fool like Tom Font and breech litters and never have no fun nen pretty things – and Lord, I just beg you from the bottom of my heart to let Shad git off with that money.
"Yes," Mr. Ferris said, "that makes six of them. Rather conclusive, I'd say."
13
When the knock sounded on his door, Shad already had his boots and pants off. Hayday, he thought, she timed that right close, and excitement poured through him as he started for the door. This was what he'd been waiting for all day. This would wash away the bad taste of Iris Culver.
"Let me in, Shad. It's Margy."
He blinked. Margy? Why in hell's name was it Margy? Where was Dorry? Something's gone wrong. Something's cold gone wrong. He said "Hold on," and went back for his jeans. He was getting as jittery as a man with sow bugs in his shorts.
He went to the door and opened it, didn't say anything, just looked at Margy and then stepped aside. She came in barefooted and quick, and not looking at him after the first time. She stopped just inside the door and stared at the cabin as though expecting great changes.
"Dorry sent me," she said.
She appeared subdued to him, and as he pushed the door shut he sensed that his temper was growing unhandy.
"I didn't reckon it was your ma. Has anything happened to Dorry?"
She shook her head. "No. But Mr. Ferris is up to our place."
Now Mr. Ferris was here to plague him. Iris – Iris must have phoned that damn Yankee after he ran out on her. No – couldn't be. Wouldn't be enough time for the insurance man to come that far. Who then?
"What's he doing at your place?"
"Come to check the money you give Pa. Got him a list of all the serial numbers of the bills that come from the Money Plane, and he's ben gathering up all of 'em that you've passed out like a drunk fool, and he knows thataway that you've gone and found hit."
"He's coo-coo!" Shad snapped automatically.
Serial numbers. That was something he hadn't counted on. The fat was surely in the fire now.
"Why's he coo-coo?" Margy asked. "Ever'body knows you found the Money Plane."
"Ever'body's got him a big mouth."
She looked at him challengingly. "Shad Hark – you goan stand there and tell me you ain't found it?"
"I ain't fixing to stand here and tell you nothing about it. You ner nobody else."
"But you did find it, didn't you, Shad?"
"Shut up on it." He turned away slowly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Where's Dorry?"
"She stayed up to home to keep Mr. Ferris busy while I come down here."
"Busy how?"
Her eyes sparked at that, and he liked the way she looked.
"I'll kindly thank you to know my folks is to home, Shad Hark," she said coldly. Shad grinned.
"Why you always flying off at me thataway? Did I even pull your pigtails en something when you was little?" he wanted to know.
Margy looked down at her bare feet, then she looked at his beltline. "Dorry says you'n her fixing to run away. Says you got that money hid, and when you git it you'n her goan be long gone."
"She did, huh?"
That Dorry. Had everything figured out as nice as a dress pattern. Well, she was right, but was it safe to trust Margy? He supposed so, anyway, it looked as though he'd have to trust someone.
"Is that what you got against me?"
She looked at his eyes. "You're a thief. And now you're fixing to steal my sister."
He caught her wrist, not to hurt, but to give emphasis to his denial.
"You got no call to brand me thief 'less you know fen certain I got that money out a the Money Plane. And if your sis has it in mind to tag after me, that's her idee."
"Shad -" her voice was low, "you love Dorry?"
Love? Well, did he? He hadn't really thought about that, ever, about anyone. You always say "I love you" to the girls you get in the bull-grass and the hay, but they expect that, whether they believe it on not, because it's part of the game. You accept a brother like Holly just because he is your brother; and it was impossible to love the old man; and he'd never really known his mother So who had he ever loved? He knew the driving something he felt for Dorry was a far cry from love, from the true meaning of the word. He'd learned that from the books Iris Culver had given him. It had baffled him at first, but later he'd begun to understand.
"Shore," he said. "Shore I love her." It didn't hurt to lie a little, did it? There wasn't any sense in getting Margy mad again, was there? And anyway, this something that made him hunger after Dorry -you might as well call it love.
"And you goan marry with her?"
Was he? He hadn't thought of that either, no more he bet than Dorry had. "Yeah. If'n she wants me."