“Not tonight. Maybe later. How much do they charge?”
“A dollar. Pretty nice girls mostly.”
“Maybe later,” said Adam. “I’m surprised they let them come in.”
“I was too at first. But they worked out a system.”
“You go often?”
“Every two or three weeks. It’s pretty lonesome here, a man living alone.”
“You wrote once you were thinking of getting married.”
“Well, I was. Guess I didn’t find the right girl.”
All around the main subject the brothers beat. Now and then they would almost step into it, and quickly pull away, back into crops and local gossip and politics and health. They knew they would come back to it sooner or later. Charles was more anxious to strike in deep than Adam was, but then Charles had had the time to think of it, and to Adam it was a new field of thinking and feeling. He would have preferred to put it over until another day, and at the same time he knew his brother would not permit him to.
Once he said openly, “Let’s sleep on that other thing.”
“Sure, if you want to,” said Charles.
Gradually they ran out of escape talk. Every acquaintance was covered and every local event. The talk lagged and the time went on.
“Feel like turning in?” Adam asked.
“In a little while.”
They were silent, and the night moved restlessly about the house, nudging them and urging them.
“I sure would like to’ve seen that funeral,” said Charles.
“Must have been pretty fancy.”
“Would you care to see the clippings from the papers? I’ve got them all in my room.”
“No. Not tonight.”
Charles squared his chair around and put his elbows on the table. “We’ll have to figure it out,” he said nervously. “We can put it off all we want, but we goddam well got to figure what we’re going to do.”
“I know that,” said Adam. “I guess I just wanted some time to think about it.”
“Would that do any good? I’ve had time, lots of time, and I just went in circles. I tried not to think about it, and I still went in circles. You think time is going to help?”
“I guess not. I guess not. What do you want to talk about first? I guess we might as well get into it. We’re not thinking about anything else.”
“There’s the money,” said Charles. “Over a hundred thousand dollars—a fortune.”
“What about the money?”
“Well, where did it come from?”
“How do I know? I told you he might have speculated. Somebody might have put him onto a good thing there in Washington.”
“Do you believe that?”
“I don’t believe anything,” Adam said. “I don’t know, so what can I believe?”
“It’s a lot of money,” said Charles. “It’s a fortune left to us. We can live the rest of our lives on it, or we can buy a hell of a lot of land and make it pay. Maybe you didn’t think about it, but we’re rich. We’re richer than anybody hereabouts.”
Adam laughed. “You say it like it was a jail sentence.”
“Where did it come from?”
“What do you care?” Adam asked. “Maybe we should just settle back and enjoy it.”
“He wasn’t at Gettysburg. He wasn’t at any goddam battle in the whole war. He was hit in a skirmish. Everything he told was lies.”
“What are you getting at?” said Adam.
“I think he stole the money,” Charles said miserably. “You asked me and that’s what I think.”
“Do you know where he stole it?”
“No.”
“Then why do you think he stole it?”
“He told lies about the war.”
“What?”
“I mean, if he lied about the war—why, he could steal.”
“How?”
“He held jobs in the G.A.R.—big jobs. He maybe could have got into the treasury, rigged the books.”
Adam sighed. “Well, if that’s what you think, why don’t you write to them and tell them? Have them go over the books. If it’s true we could give back the money.”
Charles’ face was twisted and the scar on his forehead showed dark. “The Vice-President came to his funeral. The President sent a wreath. There was a line of carriages half a mile long and hundreds of people on foot. And do you know who the pall bearers were?”
“What are you digging at?”
“ ’Spose we found out he’s a thief. Then it would come out how he never was at Gettysburg or anyplace else. Then everybody would know he was a liar too, and his whole life was a goddam lie. Then even if sometimes he did tell the truth, nobody would believe it was the truth.”
Adam sat very still. His eyes were untroubled but he was watchful. “I thought you loved him,” he said calmly. He felt released and free.
“I did. I do. That’s why I hate this—his whole life gone—all gone. And his grave—they might even dig him up and throw him out.” His words were ragged with emotion. “Didn’t you love him at all?” he cried.
“I wasn’t sure until now,” said Adam. “I was all mixed up with how I was supposed to feel. No. I did not love him.”
“Then you don’t care if his life is spoiled and his poor body rooted up and—oh, my God almighty!”
Adam’s brain raced, trying to find words for his feeling. “I don’t have to care.”
“No, you don’t,” Charles said bitterly. “Not if you didn’t love him, you don’t. You can help kick him in the face.”
Adam knew that his brother was no longer dangerous. There was no jealousy to drive him. The whole weight of his father was on him, but it was his father and no one could take his father away from him.
“How will you feel, walking in town, after everyone knows?” Charles demanded. “How will you face anybody?”
“I told you I don’t care. I don’t have to care because I don’t believe it.”
“You don’t believe what?”
“I don’t believe he stole any money. I believe in the war he did just what he said he did and was just where he said he was.”
“But the proof—how about the discharge?”
“You haven’t any proof that he stole. You just made that up because you don’t know where the money came from.”
“His army papers—”
“They could be wrong,” Adam said. “I believe they are wrong. I believe in my father.”
“I don’t see how you can.”
Adam said, “Let me tell you. The proofs that God does not exist are very strong, but in lots of people they are not as strong as the feeling that He does.”
“But you said you did not love our father. How can you have faith in him if you didn’t love him?”
“Maybe that’s the reason,” Adam said slowly, feeling his way. “Maybe if I had loved him I would have been jealous of him. You were. Maybe—maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting. Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure—never sure of her because you aren’t sure of yourself? I can see it pretty clearly. I can see how you loved him and what it did to you. I did not love him. Maybe he loved me. He tested me and hurt me and punished me and finally he sent me out like a sacrifice, maybe to make up for something. But he did not love you, and so he had faith in you. Maybe—why, maybe it’s a kind of reverse.”
Charles stared at him. “I don’t understand,” he said.
“I’m trying to,” said Adam. “It’s a new thought to me. I feel good. I feel better maybe than I have ever felt in my whole life. I’ve got rid of something. Maybe sometime I’ll get what you have, but I haven’t got it now.”
“I don’t understand,” Charles said again.
“Can you see that I don’t think our father was a thief? I don’t believe he was a liar.”
“But the papers—”
“I won’t look at the papers. Papers are no match at all for my faith in my father.”
Charles was breathing heavily. “Then you would take the money?”
“Of course.”
“Even if he stole it?”
“He did not steal it. He couldn’t have stolen it.”
“I don’t understand,” said Charles.
“You don’t? Well, it does seem that maybe this might be the secret of the whole thing. Look, I’ve never mentioned this—do you remember when you beat me up just before I went away?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember later? You came back with a hatchet to kill me.”
“I don’t remember very well. I must have been crazy.”
“I didn’t know then, but I know now—you were fighting for your love.”
“Love?”
“Yes,” said Adam. “We’ll use the money well. Maybe we’ll stay here. Maybe we’ll go away—maybe to California. We’ll have to see what we’ll do. And of course we must set up a monument to our father—a big one.”