the sticks by the lake he had mentioned, where it would hardly be seen, or attract any attention if it was.
There really was a lake and a lodge. The lodge didn’t belong to Cousin Fred, of course, but he couldn’t see that it would hurt anyone if he simply borrowed the use of it. It actually belonged to the man who operated the market for appropriated wheels with which Cousin Fred did business. Cousin Fred frequently did various errands for this man, who was a man of some importance, and one of these errands had taken Fred to the lodge on the lake. Being a perceptive fellow, he had recognized at once the possibilities of such a place, and he had seized the opportunity of having a duplicate made of the key with which he had been entrusted.
It certainly paid to think ahead, he thought.
Sitting back in the seat of the taxi that took him downtown, he closed his eyes and visualized Fidelity’s neat little behind, which was rather like a symmetrical Parker House roll.
TEN
After he had bathed and changed, putting his soiled garments into the bag from which he took the clean ones, Quincy left in the Buick. Stealth being necessary, he and Willie pushed the Buick out of the garage onto the incline of the drive, and Quincy leaped in nimbly and rolled backward to Ouichita Road without lights or engine. On the Road, he swung upgrade backward and then downgrade forward, still without lights or engine, and disappeared silently behind the high shrubs and bushes that grew along the way. Standing and listening in the drive outside the garage, Willie thought that she heard, finally, the Buick’s engine come to life at least a block or two away. Then she went into the garage, closing the big door after herself, and up through the house to her own room. She saw by the little clock on her dressing table that time had moved far into the morning, and she wondered if Quincy would make it to KC on schedule. But she was not particularly concerned about it, for such matters could safely be left in Quincy’s hands. Fortunately for her, the exertions of the night had exhausted her, and sleep, she thought, would come quickly. She went into the bathroom and showered, abusing Quincy a little for the mess he had left, and then, in her bed, lay and listened to the crying of an owl in her brain and went finally to sleep to the crying, although not so quickly as she had thought and hoped.
It was three o’clock the next afternoon when she opened her eyes and was instantly wide awake. It was clear to her at once that she was going to start thinking about things and getting depressed if she didn’t do something to avoid it, and the first thing to do, as a beginning, was to leave the house and go somewhere else. Considering places to go, she got up and walked over to a window and looked out onto the side lawn between the house and the hedge, and it was a hot day out there, filled with white sunlight. What she thought she would do then, seeing the hot white day, was to go swimming in the pool at the Club. The muscles of her thighs and back and arms were quite stiff from the disposal of Howard, and the swimming would be therapeutic for the muscles, as well as something to do for the sake of doing something. She thought that she would just wear her swimming suit under a beach coat, and so she put on the suit, which was rather a struggle because of its tight fit, and was on the way downstairs with the beach coat and a bright striped towel over her arm when the doorbell began to ring and kept right on ringing imperiously. She was exorbitantly startled by the harsh sound because it was a repetition of the incident that had happened last night when she was in practically the same position on the stairs, if not, fortunately, in the same circumstances. She had thought then that it was Mother Hogan ringing, and she thought the same thing now, but then it hadn’t been, and now it was. It was Mother Hogan. She came forcefully into the hall behind a magnificant
There really was a lake and a lodge. The lodge didn’t belong to Cousin Fred, of course, but he couldn’t see that it would hurt anyone if he simply borrowed the use of it. It actually belonged to the man who operated the market for appropriated wheels with which Cousin Fred did business. Cousin Fred frequently did various errands for this man, who was a man of some importance, and one of these errands had taken Fred to the lodge on the lake. Being a perceptive fellow, he had recognized at once the possibilities of such a place, and he had seized the opportunity of having a duplicate made of the key with which he had been entrusted.
It certainly paid to think ahead, he thought.
Sitting back in the seat of the taxi that took him downtown, he closed his eyes and visualized Fidelity’s neat little behind, which was rather like a symmetrical Parker House roll.
TEN
After he had bathed and changed, putting his soiled garments into the bag from which he took the clean ones, Quincy left in the Buick. Stealth being necessary, he and Willie pushed the Buick out of the garage onto the incline of the drive, and Quincy leaped in nimbly and rolled backward to Ouichita Road without lights or engine. On the Road, he swung upgrade backward and then downgrade forward, still without lights or engine, and disappeared silently behind the high shrubs and bushes that grew along the way. Standing and listening in the drive outside the garage, Willie thought that she heard, finally, the Buick’s engine come to life at least a block or two away. Then she went into the garage, closing the big door after herself, and up through the house to her own room. She saw by the little clock on her dressing table that time had moved far into the morning, and she wondered if Quincy would make it to KC on schedule. But she was not particularly concerned about it, for such matters could safely be left in Quincy’s hands. Fortunately for her, the exertions of the night had exhausted her, and sleep, she thought, would come quickly. She went into the bathroom and showered, abusing Quincy a little for the mess he had left, and then, in her bed, lay and listened to the crying of an owl in her brain and went finally to sleep to the crying, although not so quickly as she had thought and hoped.
It was three o’clock the next afternoon when she opened her eyes and was instantly wide awake. It was clear to her at once that she was going to start thinking about things and getting depressed if she didn’t do something to avoid it, and the first thing to do, as a beginning, was to leave the house and go somewhere else. Considering places to go, she got up and walked over to a window and looked out onto the side lawn between the house and the hedge, and it was a hot day out there, filled with white sunlight. What she thought she would do then, seeing the hot white day, was to go swimming in the pool at the Club. The muscles of her thighs and back and arms were quite stiff from the disposal of Howard, and the swimming would be therapeutic for the muscles, as well as something to do for the sake of doing something. She thought that she would just wear her swimming suit under a beach coat, and so she put on the suit, which was rather a struggle because of its tight fit, and was on the way downstairs with the beach coat and a bright striped towel over her arm when the doorbell began to ring and kept right on ringing imperiously. She was exorbitantly startled by the harsh sound because it was a repetition of the incident that had happened last night when she was in practically the same position on the stairs, if not, fortunately, in the same circumstances. She had thought then that it was Mother Hogan ringing, and she thought the same thing now, but then it hadn’t been, and now it was. It was Mother Hogan. She came forcefully into the hall behind a magnificant
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