"Yes," snapped Stanley, "I see. I should have known. All right then, we'll do it your way. We will show them all." I stumbled a step or two toward the path. "Wino," said Stanley, "Wino Jones. We are going over to the other side now. But we will be back, you hear me? You just wait." "Sure, Stanley," said Jones, still gentle, kind. "Only, Stanley, are you sure?" "I'm sure," said Stanley. He turned to his friend. "Come on. Let's go." They moved together toward the bushes. Stanley looked back over his shoulder at Jones. "We'll be back," he said, "we'll be back, Wino. You be looking for us." Then they were gone. Thank the good Lord, they were gone. "Well," I quavered at Jones, "you did say you were kind of uneasy about him, didn't you?" "Yes," said Jones, "that's right. You going on home now, Ed?" "You bet!" "I don't like to impose, but would you mind if I kind of tagged along? I don't feel too good--after that thing with Stanley, built of all those thousands of hissing, wiggling snakes." With Jones, it had been snakes, not spiders. The others--to each his own? Somehow that made it seem even worse. Jones wanted to come along with me? I was glad and grateful. I don't know that I could have stood being alone that night. * * * * * Up in my apartment, we turned on all the lights. Had a couple of nightcaps. Sat up all night in my luxurious eight-by-ten living-dining-kitchen area for modern living. We talked a little, but not about Stanley and his friend. It was too fresh and we were too shaken. It seemed safer not to mention it. I suppose we must have dozed off and on. In the morning, I woke up. I still had the shakes. No hangover, but the shakes. "Jonesy," I said. "Jonesy, I guess maybe I ought to be getting along to work. What are you going to do?" He woke up, full awake, like that. "I'm not going back," he said. "You know?" "Yeah." "I got a feeling. I got kind of a feeling that maybe I am sort of Stanley's doorway or gate back here, if you know what I mean. He was always nearer to me than anyone. You notice he kept telling me to wait for him? I think maybe he needs to feel around and find me to make his way back across from wherever he went. So, if I'm not there, if he can't locate me, could be he won't be able to make his way back--with his friends. I think I better stay as far away from down there as I can get. You reckon there might be some kind of job I could do on that paper you work for?" "Sure," I said. I knew they needed some men in the circulation department. "That isn't so very far away, though, is it?" I had a sense that he was right about Stanley. "Not miles. Distance, like that, I don't think it makes much difference where Stanley is. It's the Yard and all that, huh? Seems to be like if I get a steady job, get to be a real, steady, normal citizen, that's what would make me hard for Stanley to find."