THE CRYSTAL CITY

Abe gave him a look but said nothing.

"What about all this extra money?" asked Arthur Stuart.

"I'm not taking it," said Abe. "I'll keep what's rightfully mine and Coz's, but the rest you can just leave there on the planks. Let the thieves come back and find it."

"But it wasn't theirs, neither," said Arthur Stuart.

"That's between them and their maker on Judgment Day," said Abe. "I ain't gettin' involved. I don't want to have any money I can't account for."

"To the Lord?" asked Alvin.

"Or to the magistrate," said Abe. "I gave a receipt for this amount, and it can be proved that it's mine. Just drop the rest of that. Or keep it, if you don't mind being thieves yourselves."

Alvin couldn't believe that the man Whose money he had just saved was calling him a thief. But after he thought about it for a moment, he realized that he couldn't very well pretend that he simply happened to find the money. Nor that it belonged to him by any stretch of the imagination.

"I expect if you rob a robber," said Alvin, "it doesn't make you any less of a robber."

"I expect not," said Abe.

Alvin and Arthur Stuart let the money dribble out of their hands and back down onto the planks. Once again, Alvin made sure that none of it fell through the cracks. Money wouldn't do no good to anybody down in the water.

"You always this honest?" said Alvin.

"About money, yes sir," said Abe.

"But not about everything."

"I have to admit that there's parts of some stories I tell that aren't strictly speaking the absolute God's-own truth."

"Well, no, of course not," said Alvin, "but you can't tell a good story without improving it here and there."

"Well, you can," said Abe. "But then what do you do when you need to tell the same story to the same people? You gotta change it then, so it'll still be entertaining."

"So it's really for their benefit to fiddle with the truth."

"Pure Christian charity."

Coz was still asleep when they found him, but it wasn't the sleep of the newly knocked-upside-the-head, it was a snorish sleep of a weary man. So Abe paused a moment to put a finger to his lips, to let Alvin and Arthur Stuart know that they should let him do the talking. Only when they nodded did he start nudging Coz with his toe.

Coz sputtered and awoke. "Oh, man," he said. "What am I doing here?"

"Waking up," said Abe. "But a minute ago, you was sleeping."

"I was? Why was I sleeping here?"

"I was going to ask you the same question," said Abe. "Did you have a good time with that lady you fell so much in love with?"

Coz started to brag. "Oh, you bet I did." Only they could all see from his face that he actually had no memory of what might have happened. "It was amazing. She was-only maybe I shouldn't tell you all about it in front of the boy."

"No, best not," said Abe. "You must have got powerful drunk last night."

"Last night?" asked Coz, looking around.

"It's been a whole night and a day since you took off with her. I reckon you probably spent every dime of your half of the money. But I'm a-tellin' you, Coz, I'm not giving you any of my half, I'm just not."

Coz patted himself and realized his wallet was missing. "Oh, that snickety-pickle. That blimmety-blam."

"Coz has him a knack for swearing in front of children," said Abe.

"My wallet's gone," he said.

"I reckon that includes the money in it," said Abe.

"Well she wouldn't steal the wallet and leave the money, would she?" said Coz.

"So you're sure she stole it?" said Abe.

"Well how else would my wallet turn up missing?" said Coz.

"You spent a whole night and day carousing. How do you know you didn't spend it all? Or give it to her as a present? Or make six more friends and buy them drinks till you ran out of money, and then you traded the wallet for one last drink?"

Coz looked like he'd been kicked in the belly, he was so stu

Then he reached up and touched his head. "I must have slept my way clear past the hangover."

"You don't look too steady," said Abe. "Maybe you don't have a hangover cause you're still drunk."

"I am a little wobbly," said Coz. "Tell me, the three of you, am I talking slurry? Do I sound drunk?"

Alvin shrugged. "Maybe you sound like a man as just woke up."

"Kind of a frog in your throat," said Arthur Stuart.

"I've seen you drunker," said Abe.

"Oh, I'm never go

"Oh, Coz, you know I won't leave you in such a bad way," said Abe.

"Won't you? You mean it? You'll give me a share of your half?"

"Enough to be respectable," said Abe. "We'll just say you ... invested the rest of it, on speculation, kind of, but it went bad. They'll believe that, right? That's better than getting robbed or spending it on likker."

"Oh, it is, Abe. You're a saint. You're my best friend. And you won't have to lie for me, Abe. I know you hate to lie, so you just tell folks to ask me and I'll do all the lyin'."

Abe reached into his pocket and took out Coz's own wallet and handed it to him. "You just take from that wallet as much as you think you'll need to make your story stick."

Coz started counting out the twenty-dollar gold pieces, but it only took a few before his conscience started getting to him. "Every coin I take is taken from you, Abe. I can't do this. You decide how much you can spare for me."

"No, you do the calculatin'," said Abe. "You know I'm no good at accounts, or my store wouldn't have gone bust the way it did last year."

"But I feel like I'm robbing you, taking money out of your wallet like this."

"Oh, that ain't my wallet," said Abe.

Coz looked at him like he was crazy. "You took it out of your own pocket," he said. "And if it ain't yours, then whose is it?"

When Abe didn't answer, Coz looked at the wallet again.

"It's mine," he said.

"It does look like yours," said Abe.

"You took it out of my own pocket when I was sleeping!" said Coz, outraged.

"I can tell you honestly that I did not," said Abe. "And these gentlemen can affirm that I did not touch you with more than the toe of my boot as you laid there snoring like a choir of angels."

"Then how'd you get it?"

"I stole it from you before you even went off with that girl," said Abe.

"You ... but then ... then how could I have done all those things last night?"

"Last night?" said Abe. "As I recall, last night you were on the boat with us."

"What're you..." And then it all came clear. "You dad-blasted gummer-huggit! You flim-jiggy swip-swapp!"

Abe put a hand to his ear. "Hark! The song of the chuckleheaded Coz-bird!"

"It's the same day! I wasn't asleep half an hour!"

"Twenty minutes," offered Alvin. "At least that's my guess."

"And this is all my own money!" Coz said.

Abe nodded gravely. "It is, my friend, at least until another girl makes big-eyes at you."

Coz looked up and down the little alleyway. "But what happened to Fa

"You know something, Coz?" said Abe. "You don't have much of a love life."

"Look who's talkin'," said Coz sullenly.

But that seemed to be something of a sore spot with Abe, for though the smile didn't leave his face, the mirth did, and instead of coming back with some jest or jape, he sort of seemed to wander off inside himself somewhere.