"I don't know, Sharlie, I don't know."
"Why couldn't he have stayed there! Then he'd always have been like that.
We should never have known."
"You're not going to be unhappy about him?"
"No. I think I'm glad. It's a sort of relief. I shan't ever have that awful feeling of wondering what he'll do next…. Billy—you were with him, weren't you?"
"Yes."
"Was he all right?"
"Would it make you happier to think that he was or to know that he wasn't?"
"Oh—just to know."
"Well, I'm afraid he wasn't, quite…. He paid for it, Sharlie. If he hadn't turned his back he wouldn't have been shot."
She nodded.