Year of the Jackpot 20

seat along with cans and books and coats and covered the
plunder with all the blankets in the house. They went back
up the rickety stairs for a last check.
"Pottywhere's your chart?"
"Rolled up on the back seat shelf. I guess that's allhey,
wait a minutel" He went to a shelf over his desk and began
taking down small, sober-looking magazines. "I dern near
left behind my file of The Western Astronomer and of the
Proceedings of the Variable Star Association."
"Why take them?"
"Hub? I must be nearly a year behind on both of them.
Now maybe I'll have time to read."
"Hmm . . . Potty, watching you read professional journals
is not my notion of a vacation."
"Quiet, womani You took Winnie; I take these."
She shut up and helped him. He cast a longing eye at his
electric calculator but decided it was too much like the
White Knight's mouse trap. He could get by with his slide
rule.
As the car splashed out into the street she said, "Potty,
how are you fixed for cash?"
"Hub? Okay, I guess."
"I mean, leaving while the banks are closed and every-
thing." She held up her purse. "Here's my bank. It isn't much,
but we can use it."
He smiled and patted her knee. "Stout fellow! 1m sitting
on my bank; I started turning everything to cash about the
first of the year."
"Oh. I closed out my bank account right after we met."
"You did? You must have taken my maunderings seri-
ously."
"I always take you seriously."
Mint Canyon was a five-mile-an-hour nightmare, with
visibility limited to the tail lights of the truck ahead. When
they stopped for coffee at Halfway, they confirmed what
seemed evident: Cajon Pass was closed and long-haul traffic
for Route 66 was being detoured through the secondary
pass. At long, long last they reached the Victorville cut-off
and lost some of the traffica good thing, as the windshield
wiper on his side had quit working and they were driving
by the committee system. Just short of Lancaster she said
suddenly, "Potty, is this buggy equipped with a snorkel?"
"Nope."
"Then we had better stop. But I see a light off the road."
The light was an auto court. Meade settled the matter of
economy versus convention by signing the book herself;