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Show 81 when it rang. He could see the phone on the shipping clerk's desk through the window when he went back to look, and the receiver was on the hook. He considered going inside and calling her, but he was afraid of waking her parents. He would sweep another fifteen minutes, he decided, before giving up on her. After that if she called he would just let it ring. If anyone came out to the shop it would be just as well not to be found talking on the phone anyway. It might shake her up a little to call him and get no answer for a change. * * * They had nagged him once too often about the plates, and he had wearied of telling them he didn't have them any more, so now he was going to show them. He buttoned his vest and pulled on his morning coat, aware that they were watching him nervously, wondering what he was going to do. He gestured toward the door by a tilt of the head and walked out. He heard them scrambling to get their coats. He was already past the barn when he heard them burst out the pantry door and call out to him to wait. He slowed enough to let them catch up, but he was irritated enough that he didn't find it necessary to talk to them. He continued along the rutted wagon road that ran past the smokehouse, hearing the three of them behind him whispering excitedly. He climbed through a barbed wire fence, carefully watching his thumbs and the cuffs of his trousers, and cut across a field waist-high with ripe grass. He hadn't thought to worry about stepping on a snake until he realized he couldn't see his feet, but it was too late to turn back and go around. The others had gotten through the fence by now-predictably, Martin had snagged something and bellowed-and he heard them swishing along the pathway he had flattened. He led them over a small crest and down a gulley into the woods, |