Читать книгу We Who Survived - Sterling Noel - Страница 16

RUFE HOWARD met us at the jetshield and told us that Steve Engles had sent word to hold the Garbut Transport until he and his mother could get aboard. I found the pilot and asked him if he would take mother and son to some destination on the East Coast.

“The ship belongs to Dr. Harrow until midnight,” he replied. “I’ll take ’em anywhere this side of the United Arab Republic.”

I went back in the house and found Bill Wernecke spread out with his papers on the living room floor, working on the drawings for the reinforcement of barn and house. I asked him if he had seen Steve Engles.

“He was down here a moment ago,” he said, “but I think he went back upstairs.”

I went up to the second floor and along the hall that opened to the guest rooms. I heard voices coming from one and knocked on the door. Steve told me to enter.

Cora Engles was lying on the bed, a blanket drawn up under her chin. She was fluttering her eyelids in a most peculiar and difficult way.

“Oh, my heart!” she exclaimed. “I just know I am going to have another attack!”

“I’ll get Dr. Howard right away,” said Steve, great concern in his voice.

“Don’t, please don’t,” said Cora, gasping between the words.

“But you must have a doctor!” said Steve.

“Not Dr. Howard,” she said then, her voice suddenly firm and no-nonsense. “Get me my medicine.” Then she became the fading lily. “I don’t trust that Rufe Howard, Stevie.”

He got her medicine, a large bottle of purple pills, then filled a glass with water in the bathroom and held her head up gently in his arm while she took a pill and a sip. He eased her back on the pillow and stood looking at her sadly.

Cora was what you would call a handsome woman, at first glance. That was the over-all impression, but, as you examined her feature by feature, you were inclined to change your mind. Her mouth was too thin, her eyes were small and sharp when you looked at them closely under the make-up, and her nose was much too small for the wide cheekbones and the broad forehead. But she had kept her figure, her feet were always neat, and her legs, which she showed often, were pleasantly curved. Steve finally turned to me and opened his palms in a gesture of helplessness.

“The Garbut will take you and your mother anywhere,” I said.

Cora fluttered her eyelids, then opened her eyes and looked at me for the first time. “Hello, Colonel Savage,” she said. “Please excuse me for being so deathly ill. . . . I didn’t know you were in the room.”

“I’m afraid my mother can’t travel tonight,” Steve said. “We’ll have to charter a Ring in the morning.”

“The morning may be too late,” I said. “You heard what Gabe predicts. Of course, if the wind doesn’t come up suddenly—”

“We’ll just have to take that chance,” he said. “You can see how ill she is.”

“Don’t bother about me, son,” she said. “Take the transport yourself and leave me here. . . . I’m no good to you any more.”

He knelt by the bed and put his arms around her. “Don’t talk that way, mother!”

I went back downstairs.