GGG
Once they got inside they decided to light the lamps… no one was out there to see them anyway. A small fire in the fireplace was next. When that was started they moved the bed they'd laid the Warden out on closer to the comfort of the fire and carefully added another layer of dressings over the bandages from the aid kit they found in the car. Goniff rummaged, but there was nothing to eat in the small cupboards hanging crookedly on the wall or stashed under the wooden counter that was knocked together over in the corner. There was a dusty iron pot still hanging from a bar on the hearth. He decided to take it out to the stream that ran along the road that brought them here and fill it up. If nothing else they could fill their bellies with hot water. The trip down and back didn't take long.
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"Lookit here, what I got!" Goniff stood in the doorway, the bottom of his trousers were wet and mud spattered; the heavy iron pot pulled his right arm and shoulder down and the water that sloshed out onto the floor left a puddle for him to stand in. He raised his left hand up and a large rabbit hung limply from his fist.
Casino turned and stared. Chief was the one who usually came up with dinner out in the woods, not Goniff. Goniff could always scrounge up something to eat but he usually made use of his sticky fingers and swiped it off a table or out of some store. There was a deep rumble in Casino's chest when he took in a breath to speak. "Where'd you get that thing?"
"He come to the water to get himself a drink when I was down there. Bold as brass, he was…. Seemed a shame to leave 'im out there all on his own, so I beaned him with the pot and brung him along."
"That's great! But you know what it means?"
"A 'course I do." Goniff insisted, a note of triumph in his voice. "It means supper!"
"It means you gotta skin it and gut it." Casino watched the look on Goniff's face change. He rubbed at the back of his neck and sighed. "I don't s'pose you know how to do that?"
Goniff held the rabbit out at arms length, turning it so that he was looking at the animal's face. He was good at scrounging food. Eggs, they was always easy, he thought. Fruit could be plucked from trees if you could keep clear a the farmer. And anything that he could make off with that he could find stacked up in the venders' stalls in the market square was fair game in his mind. He'd had more than his share of free meals from the handcarts blokes pushed along the streets, both in London and in New York. But he'd never gotten his own meat before, not like this anyway. He didn't have a clue how to go about turning this into something you could actually throw a lip over.
Casino shook his head, coughed and rubbed absently at his chest as he stalked towards the little pick pocket. He snatched the rabbit from his hand and he elbowed his teammate out of the way. "Give it here. I'll do it." He growled, his voice was gruffer than usual like the words were spilling out over ground glass.
Casino didn't really know what he was doing either but he figured that he'd have a better chance of getting the job done than the cockney second story man. Disappearing into the darkness he called back over his shoulder. "Get some more wood for the fire. You'r gonna need a nice bed a coals to do this up right."
"Thanks, mate!" Goniff called out to his teammate's retreating back. "A nice hot meal'll be just the ticket for the Warden when he wakes up."
"Jeeze! You crazy Limey, he's not gonna…" Casino swung back to face Goniff. He was going to tell him the Warden wasn't going to wake up. He was going to tell him to stop livin' in a dream world. He was going to tell him that, but Goniff was standing there with that dopey, hopeful grin on his face and…, "…He's not gonna be able to eat the stuff, stupid. We'll have t' cook some of it down to a broth for him."
"Well… Yeah. A'course! That's what I meant."
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Casino walked across the clearing and down the slight slope to the stream. He pulled up a couple of long, narrow, strap-like leaves he found growing along the water's edge and used them to bind the rabbit's back legs together. As he twisted the leaves they emitted the delicate odor of wild onion. Casino's mouth lifted in a grim smile, looked like Chief wasn't the only one that could come up with dinner after all.
Twenty minutes later the rabbit was skinned, gutted and ready to cook. While it was bleeding out, and again while it was rinsing in the flowing water of the little stream, Casino gathered a double handful of the onions he found along the bank. There were mushrooms down there too, but he wasn't sure if he knew a good one from a bad one in the dark so he left those alone, in fact, just to be safe, he didn't go anywhere near them.
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Goniff brightened when Casino entered the room. "That's more like it!" he chirped. He had the iron pot steaming away over the flames, and he'd found some wooden plates and a couple of tin cups along with a small iron kettle tucked away in the corner. Now that the safecracker was back he pushed up to his feet from where he'd been crouching down next to the Warden to go wash everything out down at the stream.
"Hey, do that off to the left a that big pine tree." Casino advised. "That's where I, uh….." he raised the roughly dressed rabbit and the firelight glistened on the fresh meat.
Goniff's nose wrinkled and he tried not to think about it, but he angled off to the left as he walked across the clearing and he ended up several feet upstream from the large pine to do his washing. When he returned the rabbit was already chopped and in the pot and the smell of cooking onions was beginning to make the room seem a bit more inviting. He crossed to the bed and pulled the blanket up around Garrison's shoulders and settled down in front of the fire, shoved the kettle full of water in close to coals and leaned back against the side of the cot the Warden was on. Casino wandered nonchalantly over to the corner where they'd stashed the weapons, picked up a rifle and shouldered it.
"You sure you'r up t' takin' first watched, then?" Goniff asked.
Casino walked back over to the hearth and crouched down next to the Warden. He was still breathin'. Fast and shallow, but for some reason he was still at it. He reached out and adjusted the thin wool blanket, tucking it in a little closer, then stood again, and turned for the door. "I'm gonna walk back down that damn road and find out where I got us turned around."
Goniff was on his feet in an instant. "Are you barmy? You can't do that!"
"Well we can't stay here." Casino turned back to face him over the Warden's cot.
"I know that, but…. But," Goniff tried to come up with something that would make sense, make Casino change his mind "But you'r sick and..."
"Which is why I gotta get out a here before I unload this crud on the Warden."
Without thinking Goniff gave a laugh. "The way you was carryin' 'im? If he's gonna catch that stuff you already give it to 'im, mate."
"Swell." Casino cleared his throat and turned for the door. "Thanks for pointin' that out."
Goniff closed his eyes for a second as he realized what the other man was probably thinking. Hurt as he was if the Warden got sick on top of it he was probably a goner. "Blimey, Casino, I didn't..." But he could see that he wasn't going to stop him with an apology, he'd have to try something else. "… But we should stick together."
"Oh sure!" Casino swung back around and jabbed a stiffened finger down at their wounded leader. "Haulin' him along while we traipse up and down all those crummy roads 'til we finally find the right one'll do him a world a good now won't it?"
"No, but…" Goniff was running out of arguments and he waved his hand in the general direction of the pot that hung over the fire. "But you can't go 'thout havin' a bite a somethin'. Just wait for that, eh?"
"And by then he could be… Jeeze, Goniff! It's the only way." Casino turned away and started for the door again, the little cockney right on his heel. He grabbed the door knob but Goniff stopped him with a hand on his arm.
"What if somebody sees you out there? What then?"
"There's nobody out there to see me." He insisted without turning around.
"Then what if you get lost out there and can't find you'r way back here?"
He continued to stare at the door. "I'm not gonna get lost."
"You ain't Chiefy, mate," the pick pocket reminded him quietly.
"So I'll pretend." Casino tried to make a joke of it, but it didn't come out the right way.
"Well…. Well, but what if somebody finds us here when it's just me and him?"
"Goniff, we can't even find us here!" Casino flung his hand towards the weapons stacked in the corner. "You got enough firepower there to hold off an Army. C'mon, you know we gotta do it like this."
"Yeah, I know." The door opened and his teammate and friend moved through with a resolute stride, closing the door behind him. "That don't mean I gotta like it."
Goniff continued to stand at the small window and watched until Casino disappeared around the sharp curve the track that had brought them here took. "You be careful out there, mate." He stood for a few more moments staring out into the darkness, then he turned back to check on the Warden.
