b82
RAMON SENDER
a rather high bridge, and that on one side there was a sign which
read: "Throwing objects into the river prohibited."
That night long ago Bob had the sudden idea that Matilda
could be right, and that in spite of everything her husband was
dead. The man who answered the telephone must have been a
policeman or neighbor.
"To those who are about to die," he said solemnly, "you
give whatever they wish. I can give it to you, my darling. I mean
it. How many hours do you want me to add to the night?"
Bob accelerated as if in a hurry to arrive somewhere and on
passing a drug store he stopped, saying that he wanted to buy
something. But again he went to the telephone and called Ma–
tilda's home. This time nobody answered and he was really
frightened.
Nevertheless as he took the wheel again he muttered:
"Listen, darling. And if there were no crime?"
"How many times do I have to tell you?
If
he isn't dead
yet, he will die. That doesn't keep me," she added hastily, "from
being an honest woman. I have never offended my husband. To
kill a man is not to offend him, is it?"
Then she repeated that she would commit suicide that very
night. Bob looked up at the sky:
"Don't worry," he said, "there's no sign of dawn yet."
They went to the airport, which she always insisted on call–
ing air course instead of airport. Everybody there knew Bob. He
signed some papers in an office with a strange swiftness and
without paying any attention to Matilda. Then a passport, which
he took from a leather jacket kept in a cupboard, was duly
stamped and signed.
When he appeared to have forgotten Matilda, he put
his
arm around her and led her to a kind of wardrobe beside the
hangars. There he had her put on an uncomfortable, coarse
jacket. Soon they were installed in the plane which took off.
"This
is
something I hadn't counted on," Matilda commented.
