Читать книгу The Master - T. H. White - Страница 10
ОглавлениеHypnotized
Outside the black door, Bonio was in a dither. He had gone Cockney.
“Wot did e sye ter yer? Wotzee gonner do witcher?”
“He said something in Latin.”
“Didjer unnerstan im?”
“It was Non Omnis Something-or-other.”
“Latin, eye? That means eze pleased widjer. E speaks foreign when eze appy.”
And suddenly, as they passed along the corridor, the dialects fell from Bonio, before he had got around to Welsh. From now till the last time they saw him he spoke like a stage clergyman, which was his natural tone. They never found out exactly why he had used the strange imitations to begin with. It might have been as a sort of disguise, or because he was by nature a deceiver, or perhaps it was a subtle way of teasing them. But now that they were in favour with the Master, and perhaps about to be important people in this queer group, none was so ready as Bonio to fawn upon them with the hand of Christian charity.
“My dear young friends,” he said, “allow me to congratulate you on your success with our leader! A noble future lies before you, I have no doubt—a noble future as members of our happy band! Our happy band of brothers, I may say, upon this rock set in the silver sea, etc. Let your first friend be the first to share your triumph. Nothing, I repeat nothing, can be too much to do for youthful comrades, should it be only in my power. In any difficulty, apply to Dr. McTurk. Totty McTurk, they call me, on the lower deck—a form of nickname, you understand, common among the seafaring classes. You must regard me as a friend, nay, as a servant. Let us put it, as the servant of the servants of God, ha, ha. You can rely upon Totty absolutely. Although not privileged to enjoy the confidence of our Master like yourselves—for, depend upon it, if he has not only kept you but even spoken to you in Latin, there is a Purpose, yea, perhaps a mighty one—although not privileged to be chosen like yourselves—I am not without my uses, even I. A cog, my dears, a unit in the mighty scheme. Yes, even poor old Dr. McTurk was not found wanting. He is your friend. Rely on him. You may ask him anything, absolutely anything.”
A demon of mischief rose in Nicky, as they listened to all this.
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
“Then what’s the square root of forty-nine million forty-two thousand and nine?”
Without batting an eyelid, Dr. McTurk replied at once, “Seven thousand and three.”
Curled up in the hospital bed, with the oily mongrel nestling in her bosom, Judy said, “I thought he was wonderful.”
There was no need to ask who.
“I don’t see why.”
“But Nicky, he was so kind. He was interested in everything I told him. He said he knew Daddy’s great-grandfather. Gee, he must be old! That was after I had said who we were and how we came on Uncle Pierrepoint’s yacht just to say we had been here and ...”
“What are you talking about, Ju?”
“The Master of course. He couldn’t have been nicer. And then when I told him how darling Jokey had been taken away and would be missing us he sent the Chinaman to fetch her and he said how he had had a Skye Terrier himself that was given to him by Queen Victoria called Rabbie and ...”
“But, Judy, he didn’t say anything to you at all!”
“Don’t be silly. We talked for hours.”
He gazed at her helplessly, doubting his senses.
“What did you tell him?”
“Everything. I told him how rich Uncle Pierrepoint was and that he was a Senator in America, and he said he once knew a young man called Rockefeller who used to give dimes to golf caddies or something, and he said it would be nice to know Uncle Pierrepoint because he might be useful to him, and I told him about Mummy and he said he would send her a message that we were quite safe and he explained why we could not go back on the yacht just yet....”
“Why not?”
“I can’t remember.”
“Why can’t we go back on the yacht?”
“He explained, Nicky. You wouldn’t understand. But he explained it beautifully and we are to stay here for a long holiday until he has got the thing done....”
“What thing?”
“The thing he is doing. And then perhaps we can help him through Daddy—yes, he definitely said that, because of Daddy’s connections or something—and then of course Jokey arrived and afterwards he began talking to you.”
“He never talked to me.”
“But I watched you. You were chatting for at least five minutes.”
“I didn’t say a single word.”
“Nicky!”
“I didn’t. I didn’t. I didn’t.”
“Well, I wasn’t listening, because I was playing with Jokey. But he must have said lots of things.”
“He said exactly three words in Latin, and I didn’t understand them.”
“With all the conversation going on ...”
Nicky sat up in bed and shouted, “It didn’t happen! You’re imagining it! You’re mad! You’re hypnotized!”
