As soon as Baston and I were back at the house and alone, I motioned for him to follow me and led him to a picnic table outside. “You got somethin’,” he declared. “Somethin’ you don’t want that there house to hear ’bout.”
I shook my head. “I only hope to get something. Do I have to tell you why I tried to get Ms. Heath to check out Audrey?”
He grinned. “Not less you want to.”
“Then we’ll skip that. Suppose we find the treasure. Will Ms. Heath keep her promise?”
“You’re a mite smarter ’n that, Ern.”
“Smart enough to value your opinion. Will she?”
“Depends on what it is.” Baston drew one of his guns, thumbed the hammer back to half cock, and thoughtfully spun the cylinder. “If it’s good, I won’t have to use this. If it ain’t, why I jest might.”
“They’ll burn you for it.”
He shrugged. “Ever been to the Badlands, Ern?”
“Are they real? They sound legendary.”
“A man could hide out there fer years if a hundred men was lookin’ fer him. You an’ me will have a talk ’bout them some other time, mebbe. You goin’ back to bed?”
I shook my head. “I wouldn’t sleep.”
“Me neither. Sun’ll be up in a hour or so. Lord knows I ain’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I kin find us that kitchen.”
21
A NEW FEVRE
There was a table there at which a familiar figure sat. I smiled, pulled out a chair, and sat down beside her. “Good morning, Rose. Do you know who I am?”
For a long moment she stared at me, then favored me with a radiant smile. As she did Buck Baston joined us, sitting on my left. I nodded. “Yes, I am the copy of Ern A. Smithe who rode in the trailer with you and Millie. That copy of Ern A. Smithe.”
She thanked me.
“Tell me something, Ern.…” Thoughtfully, Rose paused. “I … I’m not entirely ignorant but I need a lot more experience.”
“What is it that you need to know?”
“I—well, am I right when I think that I’m fully human?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“While you…?”
Before I could speak, Dr. Fevre joined us, setting a steaming cup on the table and pulling out a chair.
I said, “I’m a reclone, Rose. So are you. I am a resource currently on loan from the Spice Grove Public Library. Dr. Fevre’s wife checked me out of the Polly’s Cove Public Library some time ago. In a few days I’ll be overdue.”
“I see.…”
“When I am it will be my duty to go back there if I can, and I’d like your help with that.”
Slowly Rose nodded.
“May I have it? Have your help?”
She looked thoughtful. “Dr. Fevre checked me out. Would you like him to check you out too, or are you hoping he’ll return you?”
Dr. Fevre smiled but said nothing.
“I’d like him to check me out, of course. That would give me three checkouts this year. I should be safe for quite a while.”
Rose nodded, a little sadly. “I am already, Ern. Of course I’m the most recent edition at present. I … we romances age horribly fast.”
“That can’t be pleasant.” I tried to make it as sympathetic as I felt.
“Sometimes I look forward to it, daydream about the peace and the quiet.” One lily-white hand rose to cover her décolletage. “A whole year on the shelf when there’s not one lonely man anywhere who wants to run his poor damp hands over everything.”
Baston muttered, “Copper’d sooner be gold, only gold ’ud sooner be copper, passin’ from one to the next ’un an’ seein’ the world.”
“To remain on the shelf year after year, of no use to oneself or anyone else, is at least as painful as the fire,” I told Rose. “One eats and sleeps, and watches impatient patrons in search of something one can only guess at. We call it gathering dust.”
“And after that…”
I nodded.
Dr. Fevre had been listening. Now he went to the screen and gave his name. “My wife has checked out a resource titled Ern A. Smithe. My wife’s name is Adah Fevre.” He spelled it. “Smithe is here with me, and tells me he’ll be overdue soon. I’d like to check him out myself.”
“Do you have a library card, sir?”
“I have a universal card.” Dr. Fevre got out the platinum card and displayed it to the screen.
A moment later he turned back to me. “All right, you’re set for two more weeks. What do you know about the treasure?”
“Only that we found it and you have it.” Biting back half a dozen questions, I added, “I take it you want me to help you figure it out.”
“I want you to find out what it does, and how it can be made to do it safely, either in my company or in my absence. When you do, you must return it to me, your patron, and tell me what you’ve learned. I promise that you’ll be generously rewarded.” Dr. Fevre paused. “More than enough to let you buy yourself out, if the treasure lives up to expectations.”
I asked, “Is that legal? Buying myself out? I’ve never even heard of it.”
“That’s because it’s so rare. You need the help of a fully human who will act as the buyer of record, first buying and then freeing you. It takes a good deal of money. If you have that much, fully human help is easily found.”
Mostly to myself I said, “If the treasure’s as valuable as you seem to think, I’ll be able to buy myself out.”
Dr. Fevre nodded. “You may, if your share is large enough.”
“Even if it isn’t…”
“Money is always useful. I have no doubt you’ll find a use for it.”
“I’m not actually afraid of being burned,” I said. “Not for myself, at least. There’s a lady who checks me out for one day each year. That should keep me alive for a good long time.”
“You’re probably right, if she’s faithful and doesn’t die herself.”
Rose looked up from her omelet. “I take it she’s fully human?”
“Correct. Do you know about the treasure we found?”
She shook her head. “All I know is that you two got it. Have you figured it out yet? It sounds interesting.”
“This house seems certain it’s powerful,” I explained, “but it doesn’t know any more about it.”
When I had finished, Rose shook Tabasco sauce on what remained of her omelet, dotting its yellow surface with splashes of scarlet. “You think it might be gold and gems.”
I shook my head. “That would be nice, but it doesn’t seem probable. Money seems almost as unlikely. It might really be a scientific secret.”
“That wouldn’t interest me, since I couldn’t understand it. Could you?”
“Probably not. It would depend.”
“I guess it always depends.” Rose fell silent. When I offered no comment she said, “We traveled in that trailer together, Ern, and you never tried to climb into my bed. Not once. Are we friends?”