"Don't know. She runned away."
"She was blind wasn't she? Wasn't she born blind?"
I felt an icy twist in my stomach.
"That's right. Borned blind as a bat."
"What happened to her?"
"Runned away with some river rat."
"You've hidden her somewhere, Dirkson. Where?"
"I ain't hid her nowhere."
Mesner turned a dial. The hillbilly screamed. His body bent upward. Blood ran out of his mouth. He was chewing his tongue. Mesner stood up and frowned. "Guess he didn't know. If he knew he'd have told us. He's no disguised Egghead. Just a damn collaborating, bottle-headed jerk."
I went over behind some brush and was sick. The hillbilly would never answer any more questions, I knew that much. Now he was laughing and babbling and crawling around on his hands and knees.