“Is that in there?” said Ralph, with disgust. “Here! Give me that book.” Clinton handed him the dictionary. Ralph read aloud: “Rowan. A Eurasian tree.” He closed the book and examined its cover. Then he made his steam-kettle sound of mirth. “I think it’s a crime,” he said, good-naturedly, “slippin’ all those foreign words into an American dictionary. Webster’s Collegiate, my ass. Listen, I had a talk with some snotnose college kid in a saloon one night. You know what he said: Glass—now get this—glass is more perfectly elastic than rubber.” Ralph threw back his head and emitted a long spurt of invisible steam. “Well, I turned to the poor bastard, and I said, ‘Listen, if we leave the world to birds like you, we’ll end up looking through rubber windows, and screwing with glass contraceptives.”

Ralph and Clinton had a good laugh over this remark, and then the old man said: “Listen, Clint, I think the best step you ever took was drop out o’ school. And it wasn’t my idea, was it?”

“No. It was mine.”

“Tell her that.” He indicated Annabel with a downward motion of his thumb. “She says it was me give you that idea. —But whatthehell, if I pressed charges every time that woman slandered me, she’d be locked up for ninety-nine years. —Now answer me, when did I ever butt in on you boys? Or tell you what to do? Ever?”

“Never,” Clinton said.

“Oh, well. She can’t help it; we shouldn’t be too hard on her.” He lighted a cigarette. “It was her sent me up here, you know. She wants me to find out what you two bozos did down there in Key Bonita.”

“I told her I was only there overnight.”

“Didn’t see him at all, huh?”

“No, sir.”

Ralph nodded. “Listen, whatever you got to say is strictly volunteer. I’m not the one with the prosecution complex in this outfit. You know I’m no prosecutor, don’t you? You got anything to say, it’s up to you—and it don’t have to go any farther.”

There was a long moment of silence in which Ralph grew uneasy. “I come up here tonight just because—to see how you’re gettin’ along. The fact is, I miss you down in that cellar.”

“I missed you, too, Ralph.”

“Well, shit, why not!” There was another pause. Then: “Furthermore, I hope you had a helluva good time down there in Florida. I been playin’ with the idea o’ goin’ down there myself before I—before I, uh, decide not to. But then I prob’ly won’t go anyway.” Ralph studied the top of his shoe for a while. He turned his foot in various ways, considering it from several angles. “I never cared much for the water,” he said.