Double Toil and Trouble by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781610757270
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press

CHAPTER 12

Hock looked out the eastern window of the bank and saw that the sun had risen. Looking out the window, he noticed that one of its four panes was missing and remembered that he had broken it. He took a wastebasket and knelt and picked the pieces of glass off the floor and put them in the wastebasket, then went behind the teller’s counter and put the wastebasket behind it, under it. Then he took his pocketknife and began to gouge out the putty from around one of the windowpanes on a less conspicuous window behind the counter. He removed the pane intact, covering the hole by hanging a calendar over it. He found the glazing points from the broke pane and used them to hold the pane in place. It was a crude job, but anybody coming to the bank would not see that a window light had been busted. Emily Cooper, he noticed, was not watching him replace the window. She sat with her head in her hands, staring at the floor.

As he was finishing the window, he looked through it and saw two people coming up the road, a man and a woman. He waited until they were close enough for him to identify them—it was Willis Ingledew and his sister, Drussie, who was carrying a basket—and then he went behind the teller’s counter and crouched beneath it. “Comp’ny’s comin,” he said to Emily. He scrooched back into the darkest corner of the counter.

The side door opened. “Mornin,” he heard Willis Ingledew say, then Drussie said, “We brung ye some breakfust.” He heard a key turn in the lock of the wire cage, and Willis said, “Don’t try to git out. We’ll pass it in to you.” Then Hock heard the gate close and the lock snap.

Drussie said, “Reckon yo’re narvous it’s got pizen in it, huh? Wal, if you really kilt our brothers, pizenin’s too good fer ye.”

Hock could not hear if Emily said anything.

Willis said, “John’s goin up to Jasper directly, to fetch the sheriff. Reckon they’ll be here afore noon. If they aint, we’ll bring ye some dinner. I’ll leave that there side door unlocked so they kin git in when they come.” Hock heard them move to the door and open it.

Drussie said, “Law, what’s ole Horace settin yonder fer?”

“Reckon he thinks he’s guardin the bank,” Willis said.

They went away, and Hock came out from under the counter and tested the door and saw that Willis had actually left it unlocked. Well, at least Hock wouldn’t have any trouble getting out of the bank.

“Come and eat, Hawk,” she invited. “I’ll bet you’re starved.”

“I could eat a horse, hide and all,” he said and laughed. “But how am I going to get into there where the food’s at?”

“Why don’t you get some wire cutters?” she suggested.

“In broad daylight?” he said. “And didn’t you notice how I bothered to put another winder light up where I broke that’un?”

“Well, come here,” she said. “I can feed you through the wire.

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