Show I 1 seconds to gol I 1 WONDERED why I 1 lot let cart carl bullard billiard drown it that I 1 hated him he was wai a nice e enough fellow enow just a boy of course and too sentimental and nd too soft and t too oo 00 r rich ich it if only h ha married constance rd id have saved him la in half a minute but for or that instead I 1 watched the water swirl over Us his head and wondered no one could know what I 1 had bad done that tha t I 1 had killed h him im allm almost 0 bt as mu much ch a ai s if I 1 had pushed hi him m down and held him under the surface ur ace how could they ever know I 1 was quiet and till still on the edge of the pier wi with th my feet dangling in the cool w water te r and a cifare cigarette tte b between my an fingers era behind me sat carl buls bids this PL lards lard wife talking ln calmly with some weeks of her da behind her the best shoreline shore line of carl Bul Bullar bullards lards df lend land fiction stretched away serene and smooth to carl bullards Bul lards roomy house on the opposite side fide ot of carl Bul bullard lards cove and I 1 stared bared down between my toe at carl bullards Bul larda lards white body in th aba a water he had looked straight at me as he went n t down it was a queer tortured twe ed pleading sort gort of 0 a look as a it if he knew exactly what was wa happening to him and was wa trying to ten tell me with his eyes he had opened his mouth to cry cry out shipped a full gasp 0 of I 1 water into that boyish chest of hf his Is and gone down with hardly more than a ripple cramps I 1 guess id seen the same thing before but not so quick the cove was twelve feet deep at the end of the pier and greenly translucent to the yellow sandy bottom it seemed almost too clear too innocent to kill a man but I 1 knew it was happening I 1 could see carl bullards Bul lards slow convulsive thrashing he was not yet halfway half way down how long would it be before he touched the sand two seconds second st ten but how eternally long a second can be constance had bad warned him said it was too soon after lunch said he ought to wait a while but he had laughed in that small boy way he had and chucked her under the chin and then he had run across the pier to jump in over my head I 1 could still feel eel the little breeze of his passing it was cold on my wet back it was the chin chucking chuckling I 1 think that made me sit fit still while he sank constance was not a woman to be chucked under the chin you sing swing in a church would you that what I 1 mean im a dae alne one to talk about churches but that what constance i now how long would it be before he touched the he and aada two second ten but how eternally long ions a second cn can be does doe to me yesterday I 1 saw her tor for the first time in three years and its worse with me now than it was then Alot A lot worse deeper potboy not boy and girl stuff any more man and woman and ashes married to carl bullard she would have married roe me it things had gone right they tho though u gh I 1 thought a year in buenos air alres es at an unbelievable salary would give me my start instead ot of that three years in buenos alres aires and amazing bad luck at any and all forms or of gambling gave me a taste for living and little to uve live on three years there had been letters between us the first few months gee I 1 miss you connie wish my year wa was up 1 I miss you too aleck seems like a year already keep writing often atut BUT the letter slowed down after a while and then stopped altogether my fault I 1 know I 1 keep lying to her about the money I 1 was supposed to be saving it it was well in my second year that I 1 heard shed been married the news filtered down to me one way or another I 1 mind then I 1 had other diversions three years is a long time A almost as long as it was taking carl bullard to reach the yellow sand he was near it now and not clearly outlined just a slow moving blur three years was enough to give me a lifetimes fill of everything somehow constance heard I 1 had come back and she wrote to me just a friendly welcome back note that meant she held no hard feelings the boy and girl stuff was wa done with and yet I 1 suddenly wanted to see her talk with her I 1 found her here at the cove she was still the constance I 1 remembered if a little subdued a little settled and satisfied but there was something in her eyes when she looked at me that made me wish id never gone away from her A glow not mot ju just a t friendliness more than that it was tle the glow in her eyes that kept me at the cove I 1 have stayed at the bullard place except for that A flock of guests as dull and c chattering battering as guests always are A hus bun band who kept grinning at her like a gawky boy and patting her arm and chucking her under the chin the glow in her eyes whenever she looked at me made up lor for an all of that I 1 wanted to take my stare from carl bollands bollards Bol Bul lards body now nearly on the sand and look over my y shoulder dented toward constance I 1 wanted to see those glowing eyes ag again ala meeting mino mine but I 1 move instead I 1 thought of something 1 very interesting it if I 1 were to sit lit still only a little longer the pier and the house and the cove and a great deal more mor wo would u id belong to 0 C constance on stan e shed be wealthy and with a glow in her eyes when she looked at me three years in the argentine tor for nothing and three minutes on carl bullards Bul lards pier for everything I 1 wanted why I 1 let carl bullard billiard drown ITS ITS STRANGE when youre tense and still how all your senses become sharp beyond normality while I 1 watched the greenish white blur that was carl bullard billiard the feminine voices behind me which before had been unintelligible became clear and distinct constance talking to her guests that water looks so good she said gald 1 I wish I 1 could go in why dont you connie I 1 wondered why you sh h doctors orders there was a pause conniel Conn lel you dont you might as wen know now as later I 1 guess be in december you noticed the way ive put on weight why my dear we had no ideal but now I 1 know why carl has been so attentive and that sparkle in your eyes connie AU ali the signs 11 the tha sparkle in her eyes the glow carl bullards Bul lards body was on the th sand land at last tumbling awkwardly shapelessly my cigarette garetta cl dropped into the th water I 1 heard it hiss and then I 1 dived in ia without taking time to ta stand carl bullards Bul lards grip nearly broke my arm |