VII
Jimmie's whole world was wiped out, ended. He had no place to go, no
care what became of him. He stumbled on till he came to the
trolley-track, and got on the first car which came along. It was
pure chance that it happened to be going back to Leesville, for
Jimmie had no longer any interest in that city. When the car came to
the barn, he got out and wandered aimlessly, until he happened to
pass a saloon where he had been accustomed to meet Jerry Coleman,
distributor of ten-dollar bills. Jimmie went in and ordered a drink
of whisky; he did not tell the saloon-keeper what had happened, but
took the drink to a table and sat down by himself. When he had
finished, he ordered another, because it helped him not to think; he
sat there at the table, drinking steadily for an hour or more. And
so upon his confused mind there dawned a strange, a ghastly idea,
climax of all that night of horror. Which leg of Lizzie was it the
man had been carrying wrapped in a horse-blanket? The right leg or
the left? If it was the left leg, why, nothing; but if it was the
right, why then, under the stocking was sewed a bandage, and in that
bandage was wrapped a package containing seven faded yellow
twenty-dollar bills!
And what would they do about it? Would they bury the leg without
investigation? Or would the man who had found it happen to undress
it? And what was Jimmie to do? A hundred and forty dollars was not
to be sneezed at by a working-man--it was more money than he had
ever had in his life before, or might ever have again. But could he
go to the man and say, "Did you find any money on my wife's leg?"
Could he say, "Please give me my wife's leg, so that I can undress
it and unsew the bandage and get the money that I was paid for
keeping quiet about the surgical operation on Lacey Granitch, that
was done in my house before it was blown to pieces by the
explosion."
Jimmie thought it all over while he took a couple more drinks, and
finally settled it to himself: "Aw, hell! What do I want with money?
I ain't a-goin' to live no more!"
