"You're out early, Miss Skeeter."

"I went to church early. The rest were about ready to go by the time I got back to change. Dad will probably bring the rest of them out later on."

"Mr. Sewell here was wanting to see where that fella hanged himself. I don't have the time right now to take him over there."

She looked at me dubiously.

"If you really want to see it, I'll show you where it is. Wait until I saddle up and then you can follow me in the jeep. Or maybe you'd like to ride too?"

"No thanks. The jeep will be fine."

She trotted off toward the barns. I leaned against the jeep. Fidd went off. In about five minutes she came out on a big roan that was all stallion and half as high as a house. He felt sick going sideways. She yanked some sense into him, touched him with a little crop and cantered up to the jeep.

"Once we get beyond that fence line there we'll cut across country. Better put it in four wheel drive. Do you know how?"

"Yes."

"Don't follow Simpy too close. He gets nervous."

She spun him and lifted him into a full run. There wasn't any danger of my getting too close. I had enough trouble keeping him in sight. Far ahead of me she cut over toward a dirt road and swung to the ground. The far side of the road was lined with trees. I drove up and stopped and got out.

"This is the tree and that's the limb there. See, he had the car right about here, so that the limb was about ten feet above the roof of the car and about five feet behind it. It was easy to throw the rope over the limb."

"I wonder why he came out here?"

"They say he used to come out here a lot years ago.

They used to ride out here. He didn't really date Mary then. She was too young I guess."

Simpy cropped gra.s.s steadily. Skeeter seemed anxious to get on him and be off. I wanted to get her talking, and I didn't know exactly how to go about it.

"I guess they had to get a ladder to cut him down."

"I guess so."

"How do you feel about it, Skeeter?"

"What do you mean?"

"About Mary and Dodd Raymond."

"I didn't know him very well. Just to say h.e.l.lo to. I'm certainly not sorry he's dead, Mr. Sewell. Everything seems so dull without Mary. She was wonderful. We loved her, my sisters and I. It was a terrible thing to do."

"I guess it was, all right."

"Simpy wants his run. You can leave the jeep back by the house."

"How old are you, Skeeter?"

"Seventeen."

"The last time I saw you was a week ago today."

Her eyes seemed to change to a paler color.

"I know.

When you came up to the lake after throwing Mary's body out in the bushes, acting up there like nothing had happened. I remember it very well, Mr. Sewell."

"That was a mistake. It was bad judgment. I lost my head."

"You looked calm enough up at the lake."

"Skeeter, I was scared to death. Honestly."

She weighed that carefully.

"I guess maybe you had every right to be. But you did a bad thing."

"I know that. I had that impressed on me... forcibly."

"She was so alive."

"I know." I braced myself carefully, smiled and said, "A little too lively for her Uncle w.i.l.l.y, I guess."

"I don't think I know what you mean," she said with young dignity, slamming the family gates.

"From things she told me, I gathered that your father didn't care much for the way she led her life."

"Mary told you that?"

"We talked a lot. Remember, I knew her pretty well, Skeeter."

"Have you got a cigarette? I'm not allowed to smoke, so I can't carry them."

I gave her a cigarette, lighted hers and my own. She hitched her tight pants onto the flat surface of the front fender of the jeep.

"She just about drove Daddy crazy.

He's awfully strict with us. He tried to be the same way with Mary, but it didn't work because she was of age and had her own money. There wasn't any way he could punish her or restrict her the way he does us.

"At Christmastime Daddy caught Jigger kissing a boy.

Just kissing a boy! You'd think she was living in sin or something. Jigger didn't get any allowance and she couldn't have a date or even go to the movies for six whole weeks.

After dinner she had to go right to her room and study until bedtime. And he restricted Dusty and me for two weeks because he'd caught Jigger. Honestly!"

"They must have fought then?"