Rainbow's End Read Online Free PDF Page B

head.
    There they came, bringing him in: first my johnboat with Mantle rowing and the fireman in the stern, then the skiff with one fireman in the bow, the third fireman in the stern, and Shaw stretched out in the middle with his arms sticking up. Mantle did a real neat job of pulling in to the bank, and Edgren grabbed the johnboat’s front end to hold it, while I grabbed the bow of the skiff. We tied both boats to small trees. Then Santos’ men stepped up with a stretcher like the one Jill had been put on and loaded Shaw on it, covering him with a blanket, though his arms still stuck up. Then they took him away. Edgren told Santos: “Put him in storage, but don’t freeze him. I’ll call the coroner myself, and he’ll take it from there. He’ll be having an autopsy done, and there’ll have to be an inquest.”
    â€œSure, sure, sure.”
    Santos seemed to know about what would have to be done and followed his men up the path. Mom said: “Aren’t you looking for that money?”
    â€œYou know where is?” asked Edgren.
    â€œCould be tangled up in that parachute. I know where it is, but I tell you right now, if you do find that poke, I’m putting in for the reward. I got it coming for showing you where to look.”
    â€œWe got nothing to do with that.”
    â€œWith that poke? Why not?”
    â€œWith the reward.”
    â€œI want my cut, I’m telling you.”
    â€œTell the airline, ma’am.”
    Mantle helped her into the johnboat, manned the oars again, and rowed around the island, first downstream a little way, then up on the other side until they were out of sight, hidden by the bushes. “Hey!” he called out. “Here’s the chute, looking at me.”
    â€œOK,” Edgren told him. “Hold everything. We’ll be out.”
    But he and the firemen had to figure out how they’d do it. They finally decided that the motor was out again; the propeller would foul in the parachute’s cordage. Then they saw they would need a line to tow the chute in with and asked me if I had one. I remembered a light cotton rope I used to line things up when putting in corn. When I got back from the house with it, Mantle had rowed Mom back to the river bank again. She was giving out once more about the reward. Nobody made any comment. Then Mantle rowed around the island again, up to where the chute was, caught on some snag in the river. The firemen had oars in their boat and followed behind the johnboat. Then Edgren, Mom, and I walked up the bank a short ways, past the head of the island, so we could see what was going on. One of the firemen reached down in the water, fished some cordage up, and made my line fast to it. Then they tried to haul the chute into the boat, but it slopped things up so bad that they gave up and decided to drag it. They rowed over to where we were, paying out my line as they came, and then started to haul. It was slow work. Out there in the johnboat, Mantle kept having to clear the cordage, when it would foul up. He would lean out of the boat, and once almost capsized. At last, though, he got things clear. The chute came out on the bank—silk with red and white pieces. It was no sooner on the bank than Mom started pawing at it, “in case that poke is in under it,” she said. But it wasn’t, and she nearly cried. “That means it’s in the river,” she wailed. “Being swept down to go over the dam. If it ever gets in the Ohio, we never will get it back! Never !”
    Mantle kept staring at her, and Edgren asked my permission to spread the chute on my land, “to give it a chance to dry.” I told him, “of course,” and the firemen spread it over some bushes. It was now around nine o’clock, and I asked them all up for some early lunch. “I can give you hot dogs pretty quick,” I said. “With coffee and pie. They might go pretty good.”
    The