THE SENSE THAT IN THE SCENE DELIGHTS
15
been drawn back slightly from the car-the rusted end of the exhaust
pipe was visible-and its outer layer had curled and shredded in
the rain. Hanging heavily over the box from the branches of a
springy pine was a mass of white, sheet-like material.
They waited for the Doctor just beyond the fence, Charlie and
the Chief smoking under the umbrella; he came back to them
quickly, pushing the branches away from him carefully to protect
his glasses.
aUne charogne,"
he said, smiling at them.
"Don't give us that ginny talk, Doc," Charlie said, feinting at
the Doctor's stomach. "Can we move now?"
"My wagon here?" the Doctor asked.
"In a minute," the Chief replied. He nodded at the finder.
"Fellow here'll tell you anything you want about how it looked,
you need that, Doc. Gave it a real good close going-over."
The man laughed shortly. "I wouldn't exactly set up as an ex–
pert on dead bodies, Doctor."
"Well, there's quite a lot of them you get to see," the Doctor
said. "Ever see that French poem about a cadaver? Something. Not
like the original though . . . " He was shaking out the umbrella–
then suddenly he turned back to the finder:
"You pull the box off that way, huh?"
"Why . . . Well you see we just weren't sure and we wanted
to--"
"Oh my Jesus," the Doctor interrupted in his weak reedy
voice. "Let's go back and sit down. They're probably lost. I'm get–
ting drowned here."
"Give you a hand through here, Doc," the Chief said.
At the Chief's car, they saw numberless, dancing points of
light moving toward them in the meadows below. All four men
gazed at them silently, and then the finder asked :
"Anything I can do?"
"No," the Chief said. "Stay where you are's best."
But he gestured at the approaching lights. "You don't want
all those people up here, do you?"
"All right," the Chief said, "all right. You handle that, then.
You tell them all to get out quick and mind their own cellar."
