She was awful gentle, so gentle that it wouldn’t have hurt me in any of the places even if I had been hurt. I told her that maybe she’d better be a little more firm about it so I could make sure of where the pain was. So she pushed and pressed a little harder, asking if it hurt ‘there’ or ‘here’ and so on. And I let out an “Ooh” or an “Aah” now and then. But what I was feeling wasn’t pain.

It didn’t matter any more about Amy; me being with her that night, I mean. I was as ready and rarin’ as I’d ever been, and, of course, Rose wasn’t long in noticing the fact.

“Hey, now!” she said. “Just what’s going on here, mister?”

“What does it look like?” I said.

“It looks to me like a big business recovery.”

“Well, god-dang, gee-whillikins!” I said. “And right after a severe blow to the economy! You reckon we ought to celebrate the occasion?”

“What the hell you think?” she said. “Just let me get these goddam clothes off!”

I snoozed a little while afterwards. No more than fifteen minutes, probably, because I’d rested quite a bit that day and wasn’t really tired.

I came awake with Rose’s hand biting into my arm, her voice a scary whisper. “Nick!, Nick, wake up! Someone’s outside!”

“What?” I mumbled, starting to roll over on my side again. “Well, leave ‘em out there. Sure don’t want ‘em in here.”

“Nick! They’re on the porch, Nick! What—who do you suppose it—”

“I don’t hear nothin’,” I said. “Maybe it’s just the wind”.

“No, it—‘listen!’ There it is again!”

I heard it then; faint, careful footsteps, like someone moving on tiptoe. And along with them, a dull draggy sound, as if something heavy was being dragged upon the stoop.

“N-Nick. What do you think we’d better do, Nick?”

I swung my legs off the bed, and said I’d get my gun and have a look. She started to nod, and then she put out her hand and stopped me.

“No, honey, it won’t look right your being here this time of night. Not with the lights all off and your horse put away.”

“But I’ll just take a little peek out,” I said. “I won’t show myself to no one.”

“You might have to. You just stay here and keep quiet, and I’ll go.”

She slid quietly out of bed, and trotted into the other room, making no more noise than a shadow. I was pretty nervy, naturally, wondering who or what was upon the porch and what it might have to do with me and Rose. But the way she was taking things, sort of keeping out in front and leaving me in the background, was a big comfort. I thought about Myra’s idea of Rose as someone meek and mild and ready to jump at her own shadow, and I almost laughed out loud. Rose could whip her weight in bobcats if she took a notion. She’d maybe let Tom get the best of her, but that just wasn’t no way a fair match.