The Last Gentleman

apartment out in the valley.”
    The engineer shrugged. “I can’t see that it’s anybody’s loss but mine if Jamie would rather live with his brother. In fact, it sounds quite reasonable.”
    Again Rita tried to enlist Kitty in some kind of exchange but the girl was hulkish and dull and sat gazing at the sea grapes.
    â€œIt’s like this, Lance Corporal,” said Rita heavily. “Kitty here can tell you how it was. I saved the man once. I loved him and pulled him out of the gutter and put him back together. And I still think he’s the greatest diagnostician since Libman. Do you know what I saw him do? Kitty was there. I saw him meet a man in Santa Fe, at a party, speak with him five minutes—a physicist—ask him two questions, then turn to me and say: that man will be dead of malignant hypertension inside a year.”
    â€œWas he?” asked the engineer curiously. “Dead, I mean?”
    â€œYes, but that’s neither here nor there.”
    â€œHow did Sutter, Dr. Vaught, know that?”
    â€œI have no idea, but that’s not what concerns us now.”
    â€œWhat were the two questions?”
    â€œAsk him yourself. What is important now is what’s in store for Jamie.”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œHere again Kitty will bear me out. If not, I shall be glad to be corrected. It is not that Sutter is an alcoholic. It’s not that he is a pornographer. These traits, charming as they are, do not in themselves menace Jamie, or you or me—no matter what some people may say. I flatter myself that all of us are sufficiently mature. No, what concerns me is Sutter’s deep ambivalence toward Jamie himself.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” asked the engineer, straining his good ear. The storm had begun banging away again.
    â€œHe has every right to make away with himself but he can damn well leave Jamie alone.”
    â€œI don’t believe that,” said Kitty. “I mean, I don’t believe he tried to harm Jamie.”
    â€œIt is not a question of belief,” said Rita. “It is a question of facts. Do you deny the facts?”
    Kitty was silent.
    â€œIt was an experiment,” she said presently.
    â€œSome experiment. What do you think of this as an experiment, Lance Corporal. Last summer, shortly after Sutter learned of Jamie’s illness, he took him camping in the desert. They were lost for four days. Even so, it was not serious because they had plenty of water. On the fourth day the canteens were found mysteriously emptied.”
    â€œHow did they get out?”
    â€œBy pure freakish chance. Some damn fool shooting coyotes from an airplane spotted them.”
    â€œHe meant no harm to Jamie,” said Kitty dully.
    â€œWhat did he mean?” said Rita ironically.
    â€œVal said it was a religious experience.”
    â€œThank you all the same, but if that is religion I’ll stick to my ordinary sinful ways.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, he is a pornographer?” the engineer asked her.
    â€œNothing out of the ordinary,” said Rita calmly. “He likes fun and games, picture books, and more than one girl at a time.”
    â€œI don’t think it’s pornography,” said Kitty.
    â€œThis time, by God, I know whereof I speak. I was married to him. Don’t tell me.”
    â€œMy brother,” said Kitty solemnly to the engineer, “can only love a stranger.”
    â€œEh?”
    â€œIt is a little more than that,” said Rita dryly. “But have it any way you please. Meanwhile let us do what we can for Jamie.”
    â€œYou’re right, Ree,” said Kitty, looking at her for the first time.
    â€œWhat do you want me to do?” the engineer asked Rita.
    â€œJust this. When we get home, you grab Jamie, throw him in this thing and run for your life. He’ll go with you!”
    â€œI see,” said the engineer, now falling away like Kitty and turning mindless and vacant-eyed. “Actually we have a place to go,” he added. “He wants either to go to school or visit his sister Val. He asked me to go with him.”
    Rita looked at him. “Are you going?”
    â€œIf he wants me to.”
    â€œFair enough.”
    Presently he came to himself and realized that the women had left in the storm. It was dark. The buffeting was worse. He made a plate of grits and bacon. After supper he climbed into the balcony bunk, turned up the hissing