Ethel was still there, lying curled on her side up against me. Sometime during the night the fire had gone down and she had gotten up to get a blanket and throw it over us. Somehow I got to my feet without waking her up. I pulled on my clothes, found my gun sling and my jacket on the floor. I remembered my wallet and felt around for it, getting mad when I didn’t find it. I sat on the arm of the sofa and shook my head to clear out the spiders. Bending over didn’t do me much good. The next time I used my foot and scooped it out from under the end table where I must have kicked it in getting dressed. Ethel Brighton was asleep and smiling when I left. It was a good night, but not at all what I had come for. She giggled and wrapped her arms around the blankets. Maybe Ethel would quit being mad at the world now. I climbed into my raincoat and walked out, looking up once at the sky overhead. The clouds had closed in again, but they were thinner and it was warmer than it had been. It took twenty minutes to reach the highway and I had to wait another twenty before a truck came along and gave me a lift into town.
