'If Jim was here he'd do it for me all right. He'd take a drink of booze and then he'd wade right in and do it; that's what he'd do.' And that made him think of the liquor and he got out his bottle and it was empty, and that made him cry again; and he said that he would have to go back to Haleiwa and get some more, and then he'd be all right. 'Why,' he said, 'I'll take a big drink, one good, big drink, and then I won't have any trouble at all. That's what I'll do. I'll get the booze and then come back here and finish you up fine. Now you wait and I'll come back;' and he stumbled out and locked the door and I heard him start up the car outside and drive away up the road."
"Yes," said Dick, "And I suppose that was the car that nearly ran into me just this side of Haleiwa. He came within a hair's breadth of side-swiping me off of the road. My Lord, I wish I'd known who it was then!"
"No," said Evalani, "It's better as it is!"
"Do you suppose that he was too drunk to come back?" asked Dick.
"No," said Evalani, "He'd have come back. I'm sure that he would have come back. He was maudlin, but just enough so to be tenacious of his purpose. I don't believe that he would have drunk anything more until he got back; and then he would have, as he said, taken a big drink and tried to do it on the first flash of the liquor in his brain. No,
