nd watching the reddish
moon come up in the east. The moon looked as phoney as the setting sun.

He straightened in sudden determination. It had to be sometime. Get it
over with, get it over with now. He opened the fence-gap, slipped
through, and closed it firmly behind him. He retrieved his bag, and
waded quietly through the tall grass until he reached the hedge which
divided an area of sickly peach trees from the field. He got over the
hedge somehow, and started through the trees toward the house. He
stumbled over some old boards, and they clattered.

"_Shhh!_" he hissed, and moved on.

The dogs were barking angrily, and he heard a screen door slam. He
stopped.

"Ho there!" a male voice called experimentally from the house.

One of Marie's brothers. Hogey stood frozen in the shadow of a peach
tree, waiting.

"Anybody out there?" the man called again.

Hogey waited, then heard the man muttering, "Sic 'im, boy, sic 'im."

The hound's bark became eager. The animal came chasing down the slope,
and stopped ten feet away to crouch and bark frantically at the shadow
in the gloom. He knew the dog.

"Hooky!" he whispered. "Hooky boy--here!"

The dog stopped barking, sniffed, trotted closer, and went "_Rrrooff!_"
Then he started sniffing suspiciously again.

"Easy, Hooky, here boy!" he whispered.

The dog came forward silently, sniffed his hand, and whined in
recognition. Then he trotted around Hogey, panting doggy affection and
dancing an invitation to romp. The man whistled from the porch. The dog
froze, then trotted quickly back up the slope.

"Nothing, eh, Hooky?" the man on the porch said. "Chasin' armadillos
again, eh?"

The screen door slammed again, and the porch light went out. Hogey stood
there staring, unable to think. Somewhere beyond the window lights
were--his woman, his son.

What the hell was a tumbler doing with a woman and a son?

After perhaps a minute, he stepped forward again. He tripped over a
shovel, and his foot plunged into something that went _squelch_ and
swallowed the foot past the ankle. He fell forward into a heap of sand,
and his foot went deeper into the sloppy wetness.

He lay there with his stinging forehead on his arms, cursing softly and
crying. Finally he rolled over, pulled his foot out of the mess, and
took off his shoes. They were full of mud--sticky sandy mud.

The dark world was reeling about him, and the wind was dragging at his
breath. He fell back against the s