On Saturday, Sam Bowden was lying on his back in the sun high in the sky, his eyes closed, and his right hand clutched a half-can of beer that was not so cold.He felt that Caro was beside him.Just had lunch and still digesting.Jamie and Butch were running up and down the bushes on the little island behind the little sandy beach, and Sam knew that before long, eleven-year-old Jamie would send six-year-old Butch down and ask them when they were going into the water. Not here again.In previous years, Nancy would run and scream with the two younger children. But this year Nancy was fourteen, and this year she brought a guest—a fifteen-year-old boy named Peake Foster.Nancy and Peake basked in the sun on the forecastle of the Sweet Sioux Three, a portable radio playing weird songs chosen by an avant-garde DJ, the Sweet Sioux moored on the crooked sandy beach A hundred feet away, the bow of the boat is ten feet away from the sand, and the music can be faintly heard.

Sam Bowden lay, his eyes glowing red with the sunlight on his eyelids, and he wanted almost desperately to tell himself that everything was right in his world, everything was fine.This is his first trip to the island this year.This year was also like 1950, the year before Butch was born, and every year since they discovered the island, they came three or four times a year.This is a ridiculously small island, twelve miles northwest of New Essex in a lake, too small to have a name, except for a small black dot on the chart to warn of a reef, the island There is a hill, a beach, and the water beyond the beach is deep enough.

Everything is under control.The marriage is extremely happy and the family is very healthy.He had been a partner in that law firm since 1948.Their house was just outside the village of Harper, thirteen miles from New Essex, a house he shouldn't have bought, but he took comfort in the increasing value of the ten acres of land.They had little savings to speak of, just a few hot stocks that were worth a fortune, but his generous life insurance made him feel safe. He raised his head slightly and drank the half can of beer without opening his eyes.He told himself that there was no need to worry, no need to be nervous, just treat it as another problem, one that could be solved quickly, efficiently and cleanly.

"Hello!" Caro said. "what?" "Wake up and look at me, you slob." He rolled over on his elbows and squinted at her. "You look fine," he said. She does look good.The light blue swimsuit accentuated her dark skin.Her hair is black, thick and shiny, which is hereditary from the distant ancestors of the Indians.The three ships they once owned were named accordingly.Her eyes are beautiful, dark and big.The bridge of her nose is high and slightly hooked. She herself hates this kind of nose, but he has always liked it.The age of thirty-seven is shown in the fine lines at the corners of her eyes and the blue veins on the back of her hands, but her slender body and round and flexible legs show no age at all.

"I'm not asking for anything," she said firmly. "This is serious business. Focus on it." "Yes, ma'am." "It started when you came back from get off work on Thursday. Although you were still there, your soul didn't know where you went. It was the same yesterday. Today, it's even worse. My friend who is in a trance, married ten years ago. Five years gave me ESP abilities." "That sounds very stimulating. These abilities look really good on you." "Go! Don't be mean, Samuel (that's Sam's full name). Don't hide, don't argue, please, sir. I want to know. Like now, you don't frown because the sun is too big, you If there's something on my mind, I'll know."

"All over New Essex know me as 'Smooth Sam'. Nobody knows what's going on inside of me. They can't see through my Mona Lisa smile and I can get a hand in it Straights (the poker term, of which a straight flush is one), don't move a single muscle in your face. And yet you have this horrible—" "Please." Her tone was so different from usual that he knew he had to tell her.He opened the small refrigerator, took out another can of beer, opened it and handed it to her, but she shook her head.He drank a third of it in one gulp. "Okay. But you know, I'm a born worrier. It's going so well that I'm a little superstitious. I just hope our baby apple van will stand on the four sides. go on the wheel."

"I can help you worry." "Or make fun of me so I don't worry about it, I hope so. When I left the office on Thursday, a strange thing happened. But it didn't start from there. It really started when I went overseas. You probably remember when you went to serve." He knew she would remember.Because there was only one time, in 1943, when Lieutenant Samuel B. Bowden, serving in the Military Advocate Service, sailed on the "Count Biancamano" operated by the United States Navy. The pale faces of the building's Ministry of Defense staff boarded the boat and ended up at the theater headquarters in New Delhi.

"I'll never forget it, love. You've been gone for a long time, you've been out of my life for a long time. A bad time, I should say." "It's been a while since you've heard my Bowden war anecdote, but do you happen to remember my Melbourne anecdote? Not very interesting." "I kind of remember it. Let me think about it. You got off the boat there, and you were involved in some incident. Because you had to be a witness in court, the boat couldn't wait for you and left. As a result, you never caught up with the one we worked carefully for. You packed your suitcase."

"I was a key witness in a court-martial, and it was a rape case." "Yes, I remember. But I don't remember how you came to be a witness." "A few of us took a room in the hotel to rest, and I ended up drinking Australian beer and getting drunk. Their wine is too strong. It was a June night and the weather was so cold (Australia in the southern hemisphere, June It's winter). I thought I'd have to walk a little way back to the boat. It was two o'clock in the middle of the night, and I was completely lost as I was walking, when suddenly I heard whimpering in the alley. I thought it was a small A dog or a kitten was barking, but it was a girl, she was only fourteen years old."

He knew the half-drunkness of that night would live on in his memory forever.In that big city made of stone, the streets were wide and empty, with only a few lights on.His footsteps bounced off the empty walls, echoing like metal coins.He was humming the song "Rolling the Keg," and it resonated well when he hummed it into the alley. He thought that no matter whether it was a puppy or a cat, they should be able to sneak onto the boat.But then he stopped, staring blankly at the two pale and trembling human legs, and the rough rhythm of the attacker. He heard the scream of a small animal, and the sound of a fist hitting her face.Once he understood what was going on, a savage rage followed.He pulled the soldier away from her, and before the man got up to his feet, he punched frantically, hitting the man's hard jaw with all his might.The man grabbed him feebly, then slid down, rolled over on his back, and, to Sam's surprise, the man began to snore.He ran out of the alley and, after a while, stopped a Coast Guard jeep.

They left him for court-martial.The girl was only fourteen, well-developed for her age, and very ordinary-looking.That night her father fell ill and she was going to her aunt's house to get help when the soldier named Max Cady caught her and dragged her into an alley. "Didn't they hang him?" "No, but the sentence was very heavy. He was a sergeant of twenty-five years old at the time. He had served seven years and had fought on the battlefield between the islands for more than two hundred days. Transferred from the army and sent to a nursing station near Melbourne. It was the first time he was in the city that day. He was drunk, and she looked much older than she was, and she was still on the street at two o'clock in the middle of the night .” "But even so, he couldn't do it." "They sentenced him to hard labor for life." He remembered the sergeant in court.The man was like a beast, silent, brutal, and dangerous, with a powerful build.Sam looked at him and knew that the punch that night was all luck, and Cady looked at Sam from across the courtroom with the expression on his face that he wanted to kill him with both hands: black hair fell to his forehead, thick. mouth and chin, and small brown eyes set in deep, monkey-like sockets. Sam could guess what Cady was thinking: a clean-cut civilian lieutenant who had never actually been in combat, a nosy fellow in a nice uniform who had never heard a shot while under fire.So this handsome lieutenant should get out of the alley immediately, go his own way, and leave the business of a real soldier alone. "Sam, honey, did you mean..." She had a frightened look on her face. "Hey, please. Take it easy, don't be so nervous, baby." "Did you see the man on Thursday? They let him out?" He sighed. "I never got a chance to finish. Yes, they let him out." He never thought that Cardi would run out from ancient times.He completely forgot about that.His memory of Cady was clouded by too many other impressions during his overseas service years.He returned home in 1945 with the rank of lieutenant. He got along very well with his captain, Bill Starch. After the war, he came to New Essex at Bill's invitation and joined the law firm. "Tell me the whole thing. What did he look like? How did he find you?" "I don't think it's a big deal. It's manageable. Anyway, I went to the parking lot on Thursday and a man I don't think I've ever met came up to me and walked beside me, and he kept using this weird The emoji was grinning at me and I thought he was crazy at the time." "Can we get in the water? Can we? Is it time?" Butch screamed and ran towards them. Sam looked at his watch. "You're wasting time yourselves, little ones. You were able to swim in the water five minutes ago." "Hello, Jimmy! It's time!" "Butch, wait a minute," Caro said. "You're not allowed to swim beyond that rock, neither you nor Jamie, understand?" "Nancy swam far." "When you pass the life-saving training test like she did, you can swim a good distance too," Sam said. "Don't complain. And try to keep your head down all the time." They watched two little boys jump into the water.Nancy and her friend stood up.She waved to her parents and tucked her dark hair into a swimming cap as she walked to the side of the Sweet Sioux. Sam looked at her, and was saddened to see her slender figure mature so quickly, and felt so old.Meanwhile, as usual, he privately thanked Heaven for making Nancy look like her mother.Both boys looked like him: sand-red hair, thick-boned, light blue eyes, freckles, and big teeth.It can be seen that when they grow up, the two boys will be like their father. They will be hopelessly thin, walk slowly, have strong muscles and bones, look lazy, but are actually very strong and tall.It would be a tragedy if his only daughter grew up like this. "That's the sergeant, isn't it?" Caro whispered. "That's the man. I've forgotten his name. Max Cuddy. He was released last September after his sentence was reviewed. He served thirteen years of hard labour, and if he doesn't tell, I didn't recognize him at all. He was about five feet nine, broad shoulders and thick chested, with more than half the crown of his head bald and so tanned that he looked as though he couldn't be hit by an axe. The eyes were the same as ever, The jaw and mouth are the same as before, but that's about it." "Did he threaten you?" "It's not like he actually threatened me. He was in control of the whole situation. He was enjoying himself, and he kept telling me that I didn't understand the situation, that I couldn't figure out the whole picture. He just kept saying Grinning at me, I've never seen such an uncomfortable smile, or such white, fake-looking teeth. He knew very well that he made me uncomfortable. He followed me all the way to the parking lot I got in the car to start the engine, when he moved like a cat, he snatched my keys, leaned against the car window, and looked at me. The car was hot like a furnace, I was sitting in the car sweating. Not sure what the hell to do. There was no way I was going to reach out and get the keys back, that was ridiculous." "Can you get out of the car and get the police?" "I suppose so, but it seemed so... humiliating, like reporting to the teacher. So I sat there and listened to him. He was very proud of finding me. Cross-examination by the judge-martial who defended him." When I was with you, I revealed that I got my law degree at the University of Pennsylvania. So Cuddy went to Philadelphia and asked someone to look up the alumni association data for him, so he found my home address and the address of my office. He wanted Tell me what thirteen years of servitude were like. He called me Lieutenant, he called me in every sentence, and he called me like a swear word. He said that because it was June, it seemed to us It’s the anniversary. He also said he’d been thinking about me for fourteen years, he’s glad I’m doing well, and he said he doesn’t want to find out I’m in a lot of trouble.” "What the hell does he want?" "Anyway what he meant was he wanted to make sure I knew what was going on and what the details were. I was sitting there sweating and I finally asked him for my car keys and he gave them back. He wanted more Give me a cigar, he's got a lot of cigars in his shirt pocket. He says they're good cigars, twenty-five cents apiece. As I back out, he grins and says, 'Give me my regards Lady and children, Lieutenant.'” "It really makes people feel hairy." Sam wondered whether to tell her the rest.But then he knew he had to.She should know all the rest, so as not to be careless - in case something happened. He patted her hand. "Hold on, Caro babe. Maybe it's just my imagination, I hope. But it's been on my mind. You remember I got home late on Thursday. Cady took me half an hour Well, I had a lot of opportunities to observe him. The more I listened to him, the little alarm bells in my head went off louder and louder. Even a trained psychologist can tell that meeting someone who is different from others Guy, you just know. I think we're all pretty much the same in a way, and there's a little bit of a clue as to the raging beasts. I don't think Cady's in his right mind." "Oh my God!" "I think you should know about him. I might be mistaken, I don't know how the doctor diagnoses - paranoid, I don't know, he just doesn't blame himself anyway. I want to tell him it's him My own fault, he said a girl is old enough if she's mature enough, and that girl was just an aussie bitch, I didn't get it at all, didn't understand the whole situation. I think he's the type who served in the military A regular soldier who has always looked down on officers, he believes that what happened in the alley is very normal, so I took thirteen years of his life, and I should pay for it." "But he didn't say that?" "No. He didn't say that. He's having a great time, and he knows I've been restless. What's wrong?" Her eyes were wide open, fixed on something far behind him. "How long has he been in New Essex?" "I don't know. I think he's been here for a week or two." "Does he have a car?" "I have no idea." "What kind of clothes is he wearing?" "Kaki pants, not very clean, a white short-sleeved sweatshirt, no hat." This happened more than two weeks ago.Maybe nothing.I think it was Wednesday last week.The kids were at school in the morning and I heard Marilyn barking like hell and thought she was chasing something dangerous up a tree - a chipmunk or something, so I didn't pay much attention.Then it let out a scream, and I walked out into the yard, and it was running back from the outside, with its tail between its legs, looking back at the road behind.There was a gray car parked in the road, pretty old, right on the shoulder, and there was a man sitting on the stone wall of our house, and he was about a hundred yards or so away from me, right across from our house. "He was a very thick guy, bald, smoking a cigar. I stared at him, but he didn't move. I didn't know what to do. I thought Marilyn was barking at him, but I can't tell if he threw a rock at it or something. Even if he just pretended to throw a rock, our brave little dog, man's best friend, would have the same reaction. Is the wall trespassing or not, that wall is the boundary of our house. Later Marilyn and I went back into the house and it hid under the living room couch. That guy made me a little uncomfortable, you know, he was alone Outside. I told myself he was a salesman or something, just because I liked the view, so I stopped, sat there and watched the view for a while. When I went to see it for the second time, he was still sitting there. But when I went to look again, he was gone. I really don't want to think that it might be...he." "I don't want to either, but I guess we better assume it's him. Damn it, we should get a better dog." "They couldn't have a better dog. Marilyn isn't brave, but she's cute. Look at her." Marilyn, who was awakened from her sleep by the children splashing and shouting, also jumped into the water.He was a negated red setter with a nice coat and a good build.It jumped around the swimming children, squawking with joy and excitement. "After frustrating you," he said with feigned amusement, "I can talk about some happy things. Although our law firm Tauredi, Starr & Bowden dealt with corporate assets and I still have quite a few friends in the police force on tax matters. In our tidy little town of 125,000, Sam Bowden is somewhat famous, and probably well respected. I It even feels like I might run for some kind of public office in the future.” "Please, please don't." "I just wanted to say that I'm a respectable person, and we guys can take care of ourselves. I had lunch with our bright young councilor, Charlie Hooper, yesterday, and I told him about it. " "I bet you'd make it sound like a joke." "My hands weren't shaking and I didn't look like I was haunted, but I thought I'd let him know I was worried. Charlie didn't seem to think it was any big trouble. He took the man's name and Appearance, I remember his elegant expression is to find someone to 'check him'. This probably means that the police can still find many ways to inflict punishment on an unwelcome person without going beyond the law. Let him find another place where he can live more comfortably." "But how can we be sure that he will leave here, and how can we know that he will not sneak back again?" "I wish you hadn't asked that question, dear, that's what I was thinking about." "Why didn't they put him in jail?" "On what charge? My God, it would be nice to do that, wouldn't it? It's going to be a whole new legal system, putting people in jail who might cause trouble, and what about New Essex?" It's not totalitarian. Look baby, I think I've always played it lightly when it comes to legal matters. We moderns don't like to say we're dedicated to something. But I believe in the law, even though It's a rickety, rather crude and infuriating structure. There are many problems with it. Sometimes I wonder how our legal system manages to survive. Yet at its very foundations, law is an ethical and moral structure, based on non-interference with the liberty of every citizen, and it still works the vast majority of the time. A few small figures, in the middle of the century, tried to whittle it down to another new shape, but this stubbornness But the old monster refuses to change. Behind all the packed schedules and overworked judges and useless legislation is the solid framework of 'all men are equal under the law' and I love it. I live by it. I I like to think of it this way, I like to think of a person as an old house, although it is leaky, rattling, and hard to keep warm, but all the wood in it is as solid as when it was built. So ,maybe it's just the nature of my philosophy that I think the Khadi thing has to be dealt with within the law. If the law doesn't protect us then haven't I been devoted to a myth and oh best Wake up quickly." "I think I've got to love you for who you are, and maybe that's what you are for, Barrister. We women are more opportunistic, and if he comes back I might take your Take a baby spear and shoot him off our stone wall." "You think you can do it. Shouldn't we two old ones go into the water and play with those young ones?" "Okay. But don't start asking Peake again, you've made him miserable." "I'm just being a good daddy to his girlfriend." They go to the sea.Caro looked up at him and said, "Stop being so sulky, Sam. Please, let me know when things change." "I'll let you know, don't worry. I'm just too superstitious to be afraid, because everything we've got is so smooth and beautiful." "Everything is fine with us." When they entered the water, Nancy was climbing onto the side of the Sweet Sioux, water glistening on her bare shoulders.Her buttocks, which had been dry and flat not long ago, had begun to bulge out the curves of a woman.She steadied herself, then leaped cleanly into the water. Kai Luo touched Sam's arm lightly. "How old was that girl?" "Fourteen." He looked into Kai Luo's eyes, then took her wrist and held it tightly. "Hey, don't think about this kind of thing, don't think about it again." "But you thought of it too." "Just a thought, just as you came to that little conclusion. Now the two of us get rid of that disgusting thought together." "Yes, sir," she smiled. But there was something wrong with her smile, not like her usual one.They sat facing each other again, and then waded into the water.He swam vigorously towards the periphery, but he couldn't swim out the fear that had just formed in his heart.