Palindrome by Stuart Woods Page A

who was coming out of a tiny church. "And here comes its only resident." He raised his voice. "Good morning, Buck," he called. "Come over here and meet somebody."
    The old man shuffled across the few yards that separated them. "Hey, Mist' Angus," he said.
    "How you doing'?"
    "Pretty good. Buck, this is Miz Barwick. She's staying down to Stafford Beach. Miz Barwickthis is Buck Moses, who worked for my daddy and me for most of the past century. Buck is our only officially retired citizen. I still work."
    Liz remembered having seen him in his truck. "Hello, Mr. Moses," she said.
    "Now, you call me Buck, just like everybody else," the old man said, with a toothless grin.
    "Buck is the only man alive who knows more about this island than I do," Angus said. "He taught me what I know, but he kept a few secrets to himself, didn't you, Buck?"
    "Now, Mist' Angus, you know I can't hide nothing from you. You see right through me."
    "That's a laugh." Angus snorted. "Well, Buck, we've got some territory to cover. We'll be on our way." With a wave, he drove on.
    "How old is he?" Liz asked.
    "Nobody knows; not even Buck," Angus replied. "I'm ninety-one my last birthday, and the first time I remember Buck he must have been twelve or thirteen. That'd make him at least a hundred and five, but he might be older. He was my best friend when I was a boy; taught me everything. My son, too, and my grandsons. My daddy spent most of his time in New York, so I didn't see much of him. Buck took up the slack. Then, when my boy was killed in that plane crash in 'sixty, old Buck was right there with the twins, too. I expect Buck believes he owns Cumberland Island, and in a way I suppose he's right. He's going to outlive me, I know it."
    Angus drove on in silence for a while, then pulled off the road and drove along a track for a way, ducking tree branches. Finally, he stopped and waved an arm. "Lake Whitney," he said. Liz saw a lake nearly covered with water lilies. As she watched, a doe waded into the water on the other side, a hundred and fifty yards away. "We're downwind," Angus said. "Go ahead and take your picture."
    Liz quietly got set up and had the deer framed when a commotion broke out in the water on the other side of the lake. She snatched her head from under the black cloth, away from the upside-down image, and looked.
    The deer was screaming, thrashing about in the water. Then it went down and disappeared, while the water continued to churn.
    "Well, I'll be a son of a bitch," Angus said, wonderingly, almost to himself.
    "What happened?" Liz asked weakly, too stunned to move.
    "It's Goliath," Angus said. "Miz Barwick, you're a lucky girl. You could live on this island for nearly a hundred years, like I have, and not see a thing like that."
    "Who's Goliath?" Liz asked.
    "He's the biggest alligator I ever saw, and the last time I saw him was a good fifteen years ago. He was a twelve-footer then; God knows how big he is now."
    Liz stood, looking at the spot where the doe had disappeared. The water was glassy smooth again. She suddenly realized that she had not pressed the shutter release.
    "Let's get going," Angus said.
    "The poor deer," Liz said, climbing into the jeep.
    "Gators got to eat, too," Angus said with a shrug. He got the jeep going again and pointed it away from the lake. "See you don't take any swims in Lake Whitney, nor any place around it. Gators can walk, too."
    They were on what passed for a main road now. Angus swung around a sharp bend and drove down a straight stretch. They passed through a gate and came to a flat lawn.
    Ahead of them sat a gracefully designed Palladian mansion, gleaming white in the sun, framed by giant live oaks. Angus stopped the jeep.
    "That's Plum Orchard," he said. "I built it for my boy, Evan, after the last war."
    "It's beautiful," Liz said. "Who lives there now?"
    "Nobody," Angus said, swinging the jeep around. "I keep a roof on it, keep it painted. I wouldn't want to see it fall down. Maybe one of