“Most of the time. Not all the time.”

“No. His sister came from Rapid City last night. She’s going to be living with us for a while.”

“Is that all? You don’t like this sister moving in?”

“No. That’s not all. She brought a still. She’s going to run it out of the barn.”

“You’ll have the sheriff on you.”

“That’s what I told her. She says she can take care of the sheriff. I don’t know what she means by that.”

Jim plucked a stalk of alfalfa, picked his teeth with it. “I have an idea what she means. You aren’t going to like it.”

“I know that.”

“You can stay with us anytime, long as you want.”

“Thank you, Jim. I’d like to, but my place is with my husband.”

Jim drove her back to Pancake Flats. The Ford Runabout was gone. There was a note on the kitchen table in what had to be Luella’s hand.

Emaline,

We’re going to be gone for two or three days, honey. You take care of things here and we’ll see you real soon. Lots of love from your sister-in-law.

Luella

The nerve of the woman, telling her to take care of things on her own farm. Wherever they’d gone, they were up to no good, she was sure of that.

They were away four days. Emaline would have left the farm, except that someone had to look after the livestock. The De Soto was still parked under the little shed Colonel Amen had built for it, but Emaline couldn’t drive. When she needed some things on Saturday, she walked to the Lindquist place and caught a ride into town with the Swedes.

When Jake and Luella returned, it was around midnight. Emaline saw the pattern. Luella drove at night because she figured there was less chance she would run into the law. This time, they unloaded whatever was in the back of the truck before they came into the house. Emaline waited until they were alone the next morning to confront him.

“Where have you been?”

“Way down in the southwest corner of Colorado.”

“What was that in the truck?”

“Load a broom corn.”

“Like they use to make brooms?”

“They used to. Don’t anymore. Found better uses for it now.”

“Like what?”

“To feed the hogs.”

“Why would you have to drive all the way to Colorado to get hog feed when we’ve got plenty of corn right here?”

“Not broom corn, we don’t.”

“You’re not going to feed it to the hogs at all, are you?”

“No, Em, we aint. The less you know about it, the better. We got a banknote to pay off. The quicker we get it paid, the better you’ll sleep at night.”

“I won’t sleep at all if you’re in jail.”