I came bursting out of the bedroom and looked around, putting a real surprised look on my face. “What’s going on here, anyways?” I said, not givin’ anyone a chance to answer. “Why, good evening, Miss Mason. Is they some kind of trouble?”

Amy said no, they was not no kind of trouble; kind of mimicking me, you know. “Not now there isn’t, Sheriff. The trouble’s all settled. Your wife will tell you how to avoid any in the future.”

“My wife?” I gave Myra and Lennie a studyin’ look, and turned back to Amy. “Did my wife’s brother do somethin’, Miss Mason? You just tell me about it.”

“Of course, Lennie didn’t do anything!” Myra snapped. “He was just—”

“Is your name Miss Mason?” I said. “Is it?”

“W-What? What?”

“I asked Miss Mason a question,” I said. “In case you ain’t heard, Miss Mason is one of the most prominent and respected young women in Potts County, and when I ask her somethin’ it’s because I know she’ll tell the truth. So maybe you’d better not go contradictin’ what she says.”

Myra’s mouth dropped open. She turned from red to white, and then back to red again. I knew she’d probably give me all-heck when she got me alone, but for the present she wasn’t talkin’ back. She knew she just hadn’t better, what with an election coming up and Amy being so generally well-thought-of. She knew that someone like Amy could cause an awful lot of trouble, if they took a notion, and an election year was no time for trouble.

So Myra didn’t give me any trouble, much as she felt like it, and Amy was kind of pleased by the way I’d acted, and said she was sorry if she’d said anything hurtful. “I’m afraid I lost my temper for a moment,” she smiled, a little stiffly. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll run along home.”

“I’ll walk you home myself,” I said. “It’s too late at night for a young lady to be out by herself.”

“Now, that’s not at all necessary, Sheriff. I—”

I said it certainly was necessary; me and my wife, we wouldn’t have it no other way. “That’s right, ain’t it, Myra? You insist on me seem’ Miss Mason home, don’t you?”

Myra said yes, her teeth practically clenched together.

I nodded and winked to Rose and she winked back at me; and Amy and me left.

She lived right there in town, so I didn’t get out the horse and buggy like I might have if her home had been a far piece off. Anyway, I wanted to talk to her and I didn’t want her pulling away from me. And it’s just about impossible for a woman to be standoffish when you’re walking her home through the mud on a dark night.

She had to listen when I started telling her how Myra had hooked me. She said she just wasn’t interested and it wasn’t any of her business, and that sort of thing. But she listened anyway, because she couldn’t get out of it. And after a couple of minutes she stopped interruptin’ and began to cling closer to me, and I knew she believed what I was saying.