The Last Gentleman

Fe, he found a snug court in the Camino Real, in a poplar grove hard by the dry bed of the Santa Fe River, and went shopping for groceries. There was no grits to be had, and he had to buy Cream of Wheat. The next morning after breakfast he telephoned every hotel, motel, clinic, and hospital in town, but no one had heard of Dr. Sutter Vaught.
    Two days later he was stamping about and hugging himself in the plaza, shivering and, for lack of anything better to do, reading the inscription on the Union monument.
    To the heroes of the Federal Army who fell at the Battle of Valverde fought with RebelsFebruary 21, 1862
    Strangely, there occurred no stirring within him, no body English toward, the reversing of that evil day at Valverde where, but for so-and-so’s mistake, they might have gotten through to California. Then if they could have reached the ocean— But he felt only the cold.
    At ten o’clock the sun rose over the ’dobe shops and it grew warmer. Indians began to come into the plaza. They spread their jewelry and beaded belts on the hard clay and sat, with their legs stretched out, against the sunny wall. It seemed like a good idea. He found a vacant spot and stretched out his Macy’s Dacrons among the velvet pantaloons. The red Indians, their faces flat as dishes, looked at him with no expression at all. He had only just begun to read from Sutter’s casebook:
    You cite the remark Oppenheimer made about the great days of Los Alamos when the best minds of the Western world were assembled in secret and talked the night away about every subject under the sun. You say, yes they were speaking sub specie aeternitatis as men might speak anywhere and at any time, and that they did not notice that—
    when he happened to look up and catch sight of a thin man in shirtsleeves coming out of a ’dobe Rexall. He carried a paper bag upright in the crook of his arm. His shirt ballooned out behind him like a spinnaker. Without a second’s hesitation the engineer was up and on his way. But when he caught up, the thin man had already gotten into a dusty Edsel and the car was moving.
    â€œSir,” said the courteous engineer, trotting along and leaning down to see the driver.
    â€œWhat?” But the Edsel kept moving.
    â€œWait, sir.”
    â€œAre you Philip?” asked the driver.
    â€œEh?” said the engineer, cupping his good ear, and for a moment was not certain he was not.
    â€œAre you Philip and is this the Gaza Desert?” The Edsel stopped. “Do you have something to tell me?”
    â€œSir? No sir. I am Williston Barrett,” said the engineer somewhat formally.
    â€œI knew that, Williston,” said Sutter. “I was making a joke. Get in.”
    â€œThank you.”
    The hood of the car was still stained with the hackberries and sparrow droppings of Alabama. Edsel or not, it ran with the hollow buckety sound of all old Fords.
    â€œHow did you find me?” Sutter asked him. Unlike most thin men, he sat in such a way as to emphasize his thinness, craned his neck and hugged his narrow chest.
    â€œI found a map in your room with the route traced on it. I remembered the name of the ranch. An Indian told me where it was. There was no one at the ranch, so I waited in the plaza. There was also this in your room.” He handed the casebook to Sutter. “I thought you might have forgotten it.”
    Sutter glanced at the casebook without taking it. “I didn’t forget it.”
    â€œI have pondered it deeply.”
    â€œIt is of no importance. Everything in it is either wrong or irrelevant. Throw it away.”
    â€œIt seems to be intended for your sister Val.”
    â€œIt isn’t.” After a moment Sutter looked at him. “Why did you come out here?”
    The engineer passed a hand across his eyes. “I—think you asked me, didn’t you? I also came out to see Jamie. The family want him to come home,” he said, remembering it for the first time as he spoke. “Or at least to know where he is.”
    â€œThey know where he is.”
    â€œThey do? How?”
    â€œI called them last night. I spoke to Kitty.”
    â€œWhat did she say?” asked the engineer uneasily, and unconsciously hugged himself across the chest as if he too were a thin man.
    â€œFor one thing, she said you were coming. I’ve been expecting you.”
    The engineer told Sutter about his fugue. “Even now I am not too