“I’m a sort of dry fellow. I don’t open up very easily. Irene—you’d call her gay.”

“You said it,” said Buck.

“She’s no housekeeper,” said the Doctor. “I know it. But that’s not the only thing a man wants. She’s enjoyed herself.”

“Yeah,” said Buck. “She did.”

“That’s what I love,” said the Doctor. “Because I’m not that way myself. She’s not very deep, mentally. All right. Say she’s stupid. I don’t care. Lazy. No system. Well, I’ve got plenty of system. She’s enjoyed herself. It’s beautiful. It’s innocent. Like a child.”

“Yes. If that was all,” Buck said.

“But,” said the Doctor, turning his eyes full on him, “you seem to know there was more.”

“Everybody knows it,” said Buck.

“A decent, straightforward guy comes to a place like this and marries the town floozy,” Bud said bitterly. “And nobody’ll tell him. Everybody just watches.”

“And laughs,” said Buck. “You and me, Bud, as well as the rest.”

“We told her to watch her step,” said Bud. “We warned her.”

“Everybody warned her,” said Buck. “But people get fed up. When it got to truck-drivers—”

“It was never us, Doc,” said Bud, earnestly. “Not after you came along, anyway.”

“The town’ll be on your side,” said Buck.

“That won’t mean much when the case comes to trial in the county seat,” said Bud.

“Oh!” cried the Doctor, suddenly. “What shall I do? What shall I do?”

“It’s up to you, Bud,” said Buck. “I can’t turn him in.”

“Take it easy, Doc,” said Bud. “Calm down. Look, Buck. When we came in here the street was empty, wasn’t it?”

“I guess so,” said Buck. “Anyway, nobody saw us come down cellar.”

“And we haven’t been down,” Bud said, addressing himself forcefully to the Doctor. “Get that, Doc? We shouted upstairs, hung around a minute or two, and cleared out. But we never came down into this cellar.”

“I wish you hadn’t,” the Doctor said heavily.

“All you have to do is say Irene went out for a walk and never came back,” said Buck. “Bud and I can swear we saw her headed out of town with a fellow in a—well, say in a Buick sedan. Everybody’ll believe that, all right. We’ll fix it. But later.