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fingers turning up a deuce of spades with a slipping thud.
    It’s not always right for the mouth to say what the eyes see, Theophil said. Sometimes, too, it’s better for the eyes to close.
    Sure, Kip said. Sure. But sometimes, he said, when the eye’s open a thing walks right in and sets down.
    The best thing to do, Theophil said, is to shoo it out. If you had a back door now, you could just keep it moving on. Back doors do have their points, he said, though they’re powerful mean for letting in the draughts.
    He looked at Angel.
    If I’d been here when William Potter came, he said, you’d not gone off the place. I don’t care to get mixed up with others. Moreover and besides, I don’t care to have you scrubbing for those strong enough to scrub for themselves.
    She got herself a dollar, Kip said.
    And what does she need a dollar for? Theophil asked. I bring back all that’s needed here.
    You best move on, he said to Kip.
    What did your eyes see? Angel asked. Just what?
    Step, Theophil said. Step.
    He put down the part of the deck which he still held and stood up. He shoved the door open and leaned against the frame.
    Lively, he said. We don’t want to hear nothing. We don’t want to see nothing.
    A tomcat uncoiled like a flame around the door-jamb. Raising its back against Theophil’s trouser leg. Bending its head sideways to his ankle.
    Just how can I get out? Kip asked.
    By putting one foot in front of the other, Theophil said. By getting that carcass in locomotion.
    I don’t see no way out, Kip said. All these eyes see is a cat and a man filling up the door space. An old yellow cat and a man.
    Angel stood up.
    Go along, she said to Kip. Phil’s boss here. The thing about a man who knows his own mind is that his mind is plain to others.
    Not so plain, Theophil said, having let Kip slide past him at the door, having shut the door behind him. Not so plain that a man’s woman doesn’t mistake his intent from time to time.
    Angel looked away.
    I had my own reasons for going, she said, when William Potter came knocking.
    A woman has no call for reasons, Theophil said. Not when her man treats her good. I make up the minds here. I don’t want trouble.
    There’s trouble enough, Angel said, without anybody’s asking you. A man can’t peg himself in so tight that nothing can creep through the cracks. Old Mrs. Potter’s dead, she said. Kip seen Coyote carry her away like a rabbit in his mouth. There’s no one he hasn’t got his eye on.
    That Greta, she said. She’s just making big. A man full up on beer saying in that beer how big he is. Not knowing that Coyote’ll get him just walking round the side of the house to make water.
    I don’t set no store by Coyote, Theophil said. There’s no big Coyote, like you think. There’s not just one of him. He’s everywhere. The government’s got his number too. They’ve set a bounty on him at fifty cents a brush. I could live well at his expense. On the other hand, I’m best to depend on myself, he said, and not go mixing myself up with the government. If you take money from anyone at anytime, it indebts you to the person handing it out. Let’s forget it, he said.
    Let’s go to bed, Angel said, since you’re so anxious on forgetting. A man is either up thinking or in bed forgetting. A man feels strongest in bed, Angel said.
    Theophil took off his trousers and shirt. He stood in thecandle-light in his undershirt and long cotton drawers. His arm stretched out to roll Felix’s children to one side.
    This is a thin mean place, men and cattle alike, he said.
    The cat stepped up into the space he had cleared for himself. He took it up in his arms and sat on the edge of the mattress. With one hand he held the cat close to his chest, with the other he stroked the fur between its eyes.
7
    Outside the cabin Kip leaned against the closed door. Forced out by Theophil under the white lick of the moon.
    All the time, he thought, people go shutting their doors. Tying things