"H. L. Gold - Man With English" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gold H. L)

wouldn't have been in time. Stone stamped up the ladder
to reach the highest shelves, where there were scraps of
bolts. One of them might have been the remnant of the
material Miss Ellis had bought six-and-a-half years ago. But
Stone never found out.
He snatched one, glaring down meanwhile at the top of
Miss Ellis's head, and the ladder skidded out from under
him. He felt his skull collide with the counter. He didn't feel
it hit the floor.
"God damn iti" Stone yelled. "You could at least turn on
the lights."
"There, there, Edgar. Everything's fine, just fine."
It was his wife's voice and the tone was so uncommonly
soft and soothing that it scared him into a panic.
"What's wrong with me?" he asked piteously. "Am I
blind?"
"How many fingers am I holding up?" a man wanted to
know.
Stone was peering into the blackness. All he could see
before his eyes was a vague blot against a darker blot.
"None," he bleated. "Who are you?"
"Dr. Rankin. That was a nasty fall you had, Mr. Stone
concussion of course, and a splinter of bone driven into
the brain. I had to operate to remove it."
"Then you cut out a nervel" Stone said. "You did some-
thing to my eyes!"
The doctor's voice sounded puzzled. "There doesn't seem
to be anything wrong with them. I'll take a look, though,
and see."
"Youll be all right, dear," Mrs. Stone said reassuringly, but
she didn't sound as if she believed it.
"Sure you will. Pop," said Amold.
"Is that young stinker here?" Stone demanded. "He's the
cause of all this!"
"Temper, temper," the doctor said. "Accidents happen."
Stone heard him lower the Venetian blinds. As if they
had been a switch, light sprang up and everything in the
hospital became brightly visible.
"Welll" said Stone. "That's more like it. It's night and
you're trying to save electricity, hey?"
"It's broad daylight. Edgar dear," his wife protested. "All
Dr. Rankin did was lower the blinds and"
"Please," the doctor said. "If you don't mind, T'd rather
take care of any explanations that have to be made."
He came at Stone with an ophthalmoscope. When he
flashed it into Stone's eyes, everything went black and Stone
let him know it vociferously.
"Black?" Dr. Rankin repeated blankly. "Are you positive?
Not a sudden glare?"
"Black," insisted Stone. "And what's the idea of putting