edge. And then I could feel it again, that she wasn't saying what she meant. It was the same as it was that first afternoon I met her, that there was something else, besides what she was telling me. And I couldn't shake it off, that I had to call it on her.
"Why 'here lately'?"
"Oh—worry."
"You mean that down in the oil fields, some rainy night, a crown block is going to fall on him?"
"Please don't talk like that."
"But that's the idea."
"Yes."
"I can understand that. Especially with this set-up."
"...I don't quite know what you mean. What set-up?"
"Why—a crown block will."
"Will what?"
"Fall on him."
"Please, Mr. Huff, I asked you not to talk like that. It's not a laughing matter. It's got me worried sick...What makes you say that?"
"You're going to drop a crown block on him."
"I—what!"
"Well, you know, maybe not a crown block. But something. Something that's accidentally-on-purpose going to fall on him, and then he'll be dead."
It nailed her between the eyes and they flickered. It was a minute before she said anything. She had to put on an act, and she was caught by surprise, and she didn't know how to do it.
"Are you—joking?"
"No."
"You must be. Or you must be crazy. Why—I never heard of such a thing in my life."
"I'm not crazy, and I'm not joking, and you've heard of such a thing in your life, because it's all you've thought of since you met me, and it's what you came down here for tonight."
"I'll not stay here and listen to such things."
"O.K."
"I'm going."
"O.K."
"I'm going this minute."
"O.K."
So I ran away from the edge, didn't I, and socked it into her so she knew what I meant, and left it so we could never go back to it again? I did not. That was what I tried to do. I never even got up when she left, I didn't help her on with her things, I didn't drive her back, I treated her like I would treat an alley cat. But all the time I knew it would be still raining the next night, that they would still be drilling at Long Beach, that I would light the fire and sit by it, that a little before nine the doorbell would ring: She didn't even speak to me when she came in. We sat by the fire at least five minutes before either one of us said anything. Then she started it. "How could you say such things as you said to me last night?"
"Because they're true. That's what you're going to do."
"Now? After what you've said?"
"Yes, after what I've said."
"But—Walter, that's what I've come for, again tonight. I've thought it over. I realize that there have been one or two things I've said that could give you a completely wrong impression. In a way, I'm glad you warned me about them, because I might have said them to somebody else without knowing the—construction that could be put upon them. But now that I do know, you must surely see that—anything of that sort must be out of my mind. Forever."
That meant she had spent the whole day sweating blood for fear I would warn the husband, or start something, somehow. I kept on with it. "You called me Walter. What's your name?"
"Phyllis."
"Phyllis, you seem to think that because I can call it on you, you're not going to do it. You are going to do it, and I'm going to help you."
"You!"
"I."
I caught her by surprise again, but she didn't even try to put on an act this time. "Why—I couldn't have anybody help me! It would be—impossible."
"You couldn't have anybody help you? Well let me tell you something. You had better have somebody help you. It would be nice to pull it off yourself, all alone, so nobody knew anything about it, it sure would. The only trouble with that is, you can't. Not if you're going up against an insurance company, you can't. You've got to have help. And it had better be help that knows its stuff."
"What would you do this for?"
"You, for one thing."
"What else?"
"Money."
"You mean you would—betray your company, and help me do this, for me, and the money we could get out of it?"
"I mean just that. And you better say