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a tear.

"Twenty-eight!" Nim said. "That's bow old he is. For God's sake,

twenty-eight! Why, any normal man that age has still got ahead of him a

lifetime of. . ."

London said curtly, "I don't need a diagram." He finished his beer and

motioned a waiter for another. "One thing you gotta remember, Nim. Not

every guy's an all-star cocksman like you. With you, if you lost out the

way Wally has, I could understand it being the end of the road, or you

thinking it was." He asked curiously, "You ever kept score? Maybe you could

get in The Guinness Book of World Records."

"There's a Belgian writer," Nim said, his thoughts for the moment diverted,

"Georges Simenon, who says he made it with ten thousand different women.

I'm not up to that many, or even near it."

"Leave out the numbers, then. The point is, maybe his dong was never as

all-fired important to Wally as yours is to you."

Nim shook his head. "I doubt it." He remembered the times be bad seen Wally

Jr. and his wife, Mary, together. Nim's finely boned in-

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stincts told him the two of them had a good thing going sexually. He

wondered sadly what might happen to their marriage.

The beer and double vodka arrived. "When you're coming back," Nim told the

waiter, "bring the same again."

It was early evening. The bar they were in-The Ezy Duzzit, smallish and

dark, with a sentimental pianist who was just easing into Moon River-was

not far from GSP & L headquarters. Nim and Harry London had walked over

here at the end of their working day. The third day.

The past three days had been the worst short period of his life that Nim

ever remembered.

On the first day, at Devil's Gate, the sense of stupefaction following the

electrocution of Wally Talbot Jr. had lasted only seconds. Then, while

Wally was still being brought down from the tower, standard emergency

procedures went into high gear.

In any big utility company, electrocutions are rare but inevitably they

happen-usually several times a year. The cause is either momentary

carelessness, nullifying costly and rigid safety precautions, or a "thou-

sandth chance" accident such as that which happened so swiftly while Nim

and others watched.

Ironically, Golden State Power had an aggressive publicity program, aimed

at parents and children, warning of dangers when kites were flown near

overhead power lines. The utility bad expended thousands of dollars on

posters and comic books devoted to the subject and distributed them to

schools and other agencies.

As Fred Wilkins, the red-haired technician, was to disclose with an

guish later, he knew of the warning program. But Wilkins' wife,

Danny's mother, didn't know. She tearfully admitted having a vague

impression that she might have heard something of the kind, but bad

forgotten when or where, nor had the memory surfaced when the kite-a

birthday present from grandparents-arrived with the morning mail

and she helped Danny put it together. As for Danny's climbing the

tower, he was described by those who knew him as "a determined bov,

and fearless." The hooked aluminum rod he had carried aloft was a gaif

his father used for occasional deep sea fishing; it was stored in a tool

shed where the boy bad seen it often. %

None of that was known, of course, when a trained first-aid team, alerted

by the camp siren, rushed to administer help to Wally Talbot. He was

unconscious, had been badly burned over large areas of his body, and

breathing bad stopped.

The aid team, led by a registered nurse who ran the camp's small medical

clinic, competently began mouth-to-mouth breathing in conjunction with

external cardiac compression. While the resuscitation continued, Wally was

carried to the one-bed clinic. There, the nurse-taking radiophone

instructions from a doctor in the city-used a closed-chest

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defibrillator in an attempt to restore normal heart action. The attempt

succeeded. That, and the other measures, saved Wally's life.

By then a company helicopter was on the way to Devil's Cate-the same

machine which was to have collected Nim. Wally, accompanied by the nurse,

was flown directly to a hospital for more intensive treatment.

It was not until next day that his survival was assured and the detailed

nature of his injuries made known.

On that second day, newspapers played the story big, its impact

strengthened by eyewitness accounts from reporters on the scene. The

morning Chronicle-West gave it front-page treatment with a headline:

ELECTROCUTED MAN IS HERO

By afternoon, though the immediacy had lessened, the California Examiner

devoted half of page three to a Nancy Molineaux by-line story headed:

Sacrifices Self in Saving Child

The Examiner also ran a two-column cut of Wally Talbot Jr. and another of

young Danny Wilkins with one side of his face bandaged-tbe result of

abrasions when the boy slid downward near the top of the tower, the only

injury he received.

TV and radio had carried bulletins the night before, but continued their

coverage the following day.

Because of its human interest, the story drew statewide and some national

attention.

At the city's Mount Eden Hospital, shortly after noon on that second day,

an attending surgeon held an impromptu press conference in a corridor.

Nim, who had visited the hospital earlier, bad just returned and listened

from the fringes.

"Mr. Talbot's condition is critical but stable, and he is out of imme-

diate danger," the young surgeon, who looked like a reincarnated Robert

Kennedy, announced. "He has severe bums over twenty-five percent of his

body and has suffered certain other injuries."

"Could you be more specific, Doctor?" one of a dozen news reporters

asked. "What are the other injuries?"

The surgeon glanced at an older man beside him whom Nim knew to be

tbehospital administrator.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the press," the administrator said, "normally,

out of respect for privacy, no additional information would be disclosed.

In this instance, however, after discussion with the family, it has been

decided to be open with the press-quite frankly, to put an end to

speculation. Therefore the last question will be answered. But before it

is, I plead with you-out of consideration for the patient and

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his family-to be discreet in what you write and speak. Thank you. Please

continue, Doctor."

"The effects of electrocution on the human body are always unpredictable,"

the surgeon said. "Often, death results when large charges of electricity

pass through internal organs before escaping to ground. In the case of Mr.

Talbot this didn't happen, so to that extent he was fortunate. Instead the

electricity passed over the upper surface of his body and exited-to ground

through the metal tower-by the route of his penis."

There were gasps, and a shocked silence during which no one seemed eager to

ask the next question. Eventually an elderly male reporter did. "And,

Doctor, the condition of . . ."

"It was destroyed. By burning. Totally. Now, if you'll excuse me . . .

The press group, unusually subdued, drifted away.

Nim had stayed on. He identified himself to the administrator and inquired

about Wally Jr.'s family-Ardythe and Mary. Nim had not seen either since

the accident, but knew he would have to meet both women soon.

Ardythe, Nim learned, was at the hospital under sedation. "She went into

shock," the administrator said. "I presume you know about her husband's

death just a short time ago."

Nim nodded.

"The younger Mrs. Talbot is with her husband, but no other visitors are

being allowed for the time being."

While the administrator waited, Nim scribbled a note to Mary, telling her

he was available if needed, and in any case would return to the hospital

next day.

That night, as during the preceding one, Nim slept only fitfully, the scene

at Devil's Gate Camp repeating itself in his mind again and again, like a

recurring nightmare.

On the morning of the third day he saw Mary, then Ardythe.

Mary met him outside the hospital room where Wally was still under

intensive care. "Wally's conscious," she said, "but doesn't want to see

anyone. Not yet." Wally's wife looked pale and tired, but some of her

normal businesslike manner still came through. "Ardytbe wants to see you,

though. She knew you were coming."

Nim said gently, "I guess words aren't a lot of good, Mary. just the same,

I'm sorry."

"We all are." Mary led the way to a door a few yards distant and opened it.

"Here's Nim, Mother." She told him, "I'm going back to Wally. I'll leave

you now."

"Come in, Nim," Ardythe said. She was dressed and resting on a bed, propped

up by pillows. "Isn't this ridiculous-for me to be in the hospital too?"

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There was hysteria beneath her voice, he thought, and her cheeks were too

flushed, her eyes showed an artificial brightness. Nim remembered what

the administrator had said about shock and sedation, though Ardythe

appeared not to be sedated now.

He began hesitantly, "I wish I knew what to sayPausing, he

bent to kiss her.

To his surprise, Ardythe stiffened and turned her head away. He ended by

clumsily touching his lips to her cheek, which felt hot.

"Noill Ardytbe remonstrated. "Please . . . don't kiss me."

Wondering if he bad offended her in some way, finding it hard to gauge

her mood, he moved a chair and sat beside the bed.

There was a silence, then she said, half musingly, "They say Wally will

live. Yesterday we didn't know, so at least today is that much better.

But I suppose you know how he will live; I mean, what's happened to him,"

"Yes," he said, "I know."

"Have you been thinking the way I have, Nim? About a reason for what

happened?"

"Ardythe, I was there. I saw .

"I don't mean that. I mean why."

Bewildered, he shook his head.

"I've done a lot of thinking since yesterday, Nim. And I've decided that

what seemed like an accident could be because of us-you and me."

Still not understanding, he protested, "Please. You're overwrought. It's

a terrible shock, I know, especially coming so soon after Walter."

"That's the point." Ardythe's face and voice were tense. "You and I were

sinful, so soon after Walter died. I've a feeling I'm being punished,

that Wally, Mary, the children, are all suffering because of

It

me.

For a moment he was reduced to shocked silence, then said vehemently,

"For God's sake, Ardythe, stop this! It's ridiculous!"

"Is it? Think about it when you're alone, the way I've been doing. And

just now you said 'for God's sake.' You're a Jew, Nim. Doesn't your

religion teach you to believe in God's anger and punishment?"

"Even if it does, I don't accept all that."

"I didn't either," Ardythe said mournfully. "But now I'm wondering."

"Look," he said, searching desperately for words to change her thinking,