10. would be no welcome for him there. He repeated, "Why shouldn't he?" "Oh, no reason, 'specially. I just thought-well, Henley, folks hereabouts don't take too kindly to you now, since the war, and I thought, maybe, since your brother had been killed, over there, your folks'd kinda resent you gettin' out of it, scotfree, like." "I didn't kill ray brother, Boze, anymore than you did." "Yeah, but I was in the war. I even got shot up a bit." Boze's words faded into the silence of the forest as Arnold moved away from him. But he did not miss Boze's emphasis on "I", which made Arnold feel as if he himself had shot his brother. As Arnold moved down the road,there were whips again, but the whips were from Boze's eyes. They cracked out and wrapped them-selves about Arnold's ankles, so that they made him stagger clumsily, almost making him fall. He tried to walk faster and tried to escape the whips, and the scorn in Boze's eyes and voice'. He felt, even after he had walked almost a mile from Boze, that the short, stocky man still stood there in the middle of road, hating him, and scorning him, possibly hoping the killer might find him, alone in the forest. For the first time, Arnold remembered that a killer was loose in these woods, and that he was still holding the Luger loosely in his hand. He brought it up close to his face to examine it. He could see the gun, and he could see a very faint gleam of starlight reflected along the shining barrel. Arnold's first impulse was to throw the gun into the bushes, but he remembered that it was a precious war trophy to Boze, who would always treasure it. Arnold came to a place, where the barbed - wire fence was broken. He climbed through, and began the last stretch of his homeward journey. As he made his way over the logs and around bushes and trees, he began to wonder what he would do if he were suddenly to meet the killer, face to face, here in the forest. He mused, talking aloud, but very softly, 11. "I wonder who he killed and why: I wonder if he would kill me or if I would kill him? If I saw him, and he didn't see me would I raise this gun to kill him. Could I do it?" Arnold stopped short, thinking he heard a sound a few yards ahead of him. He was in the thickest part of the forest now, and the light from the stars in the sky could not penetrate through the thick leaves and branches overhead. He saw nothing but he was sure he heard another sound. Wow he heard a quick, sharp scratch, and saw a match flare just ahead of him. He saw, in the light of the flame, the hand that held the match, and saw it move up to a man's face. In the few seconds before the match "went out, Arnold also saw a huge dianond ring glittering on the man's left hand. When the man had lit his cigarette, he fanned the match slowly back and forth before his face, putting it out. Arnold saw the whole ugly picture for three more quick flashes before the match finally went out. Then all he could see was the round red end of the cigarette glowing steadily, and moving, from time to time, up to the mouth of the man, and then down again. This man was certainly the killer. Unconsciously, Arnold shifted his weight from one foot to the other and sighed rather loudly. Instantly, the round red disc vanished and he heard the killer shift his body. Once again, Arnold heard the soft metallic, sliding sound again, and this time he realized that it could be the sound of a gun being cocked. Arnold gathered all of his strength, and his meager allotment of courage, and resolved to walk past the killer as if he hadn't even seen him. He had spent seven years in a prison camp, suffering from the scorn of his fellow men just because he wouldn't go to war, and he wan!t going to change his mind now. From somewhere in the back of his mind, he seemed to hear a voice saying, "It's no use Arnold to hide your head in the sand like an ostrich, and think that you can't be seen. There are ugly things in the world, and they're still there, whether you want to see them or not, and you're safer if you can see what's coming next. Why don't you take your