“Oh, well,” I said. “It don’t count when I do those things.”

“It don’t count! What the hell do you mean?”

I said I meant I was just doing my job, followin’ the holy precepts laid down in the Bible. “It’s what I’m supposed to do, you know, to punish the heck out of people for bein’ people. To coax ‘em into revealin’ theirselves, an’ then kick the crap out of ‘em. And it’s a god-danged hard job, Rose, honey, and I figure that if I can get a little pleasure in the process of trappin’ folks I’m mighty well entitled to it.”

Rose stared at me, frowning.

“What is this?” she said. “What kind of nutty talk is that?”

“Well, now, I guess it does sound kind of nutty,” I said, “but that ain’t hardly no ways my fault. By rights, I should be rompin’ on the high an’ the mighty, the folks that really run this country. But I ain’t allowed to touch them, so I’ve got to make up for it by being twice as hard on the white trash an’ Negroes, and people hike you that let their brains sink down to their butts because they couldn’t find no place else to use them. Yes, sir, I’m haborin’ in the Lord’s vineyard, and if I can’t reach up high, I got to work all the harder on the low-hangin’ vines. For the Lord loveth a willin’ worker, Rose; He liketh to see a man bustin’ his ass during workin’ hours. And I got them hours cut way, way down with eatin’ and sleepin’, but I can’t eat and sleep all the time.”

I’d let my eyes drift shut while I was talking. When I opened them Rose was gone, but I heard her moving around in Myra’s room.

I went to the door and hooked in.

She’d stripped out of her clothes, and was trying on some of Myra’s. I asked her if she was figurin’ on going somewhere, and she gave me a look that would have fried an egg.

“Am I going somewhere,” she said bitterly. “As if you didn’t know what I was going to do, what I have to do!”

I said I reckoned she’d be taking the dawn train out of town, because no one would see her leave that way and she’d have a full day’s start before I got excited and worried about Myra and Lennie and got around to discovering that they was murdered.

“Of course, that dawn train don’t carry passengers, they just got a water-stop here. But I reckon them trainmen will be proud to let you ride when they see how friendly you are. I bet they won’t charge you a cent, which makes things pretty nice since you don’t have no money you can put your hands on.”

Rose bit her lips; shook her head wonderingly.

“You’re actually enjoying this, aren’t you? You’re getting a kick out of it!”

“Not really,” I said. “It’s just part of my job, you know, to gloat over folks in trouble.”