"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 285 - Fountain of Death" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

his head. "Anyway, I guess I'm looking in the general direction of Sapphire Springs. Maybe not, though."

Solemnly finishing his drink of water, Johnny gave a sudden laugh and reached for the bottle.

"I'm looking Kirkwood's direction, though," chuckled Johnny. "Due West, the way the tunnel goes under
the river. So here's to you, Kirkwood. I hope the three quarts in your suitcase will hold out until you
reach the ever-flowing Springs."

With that, Johnny's face went solemn again, as though it wasn't right to jest about such matters. Johnny
sat down suddenly, still nursing his second glass of water.

"Don't mind me if I talk aloud," spoke Johnny. "I'm only pretending that you're still here, Kirkwood.
That's why Elder sent you along, to encourage me to speak my thoughts. It must have been, because you
never answered, Kirkwood."

A pause; a few sips of the energizing spring water. Then:

"If I hadn't talked, you would have stayed. That was your job, Kirkwood, and I admire you for it. You
found out I was all right, so you went your way. But it was boring to have you around, so here's to you,
Kirkwood."

Finishing the glass, Johnny thumped it on the table; then stared at the blank wall.

"You were a crutch, Kirkwood, that's all you were!" Johnny's tone became defiant. "A human crutch that
Elder sent along because he thought I needed it! I'm talking to you, Kirkwood, and I might as well be
looking at you, because that wall is no blanker than your face!

"I'll prove it!" Coming to his feet, Johnny drew a pencil from his pocket and drew a circle on the wall. He
added two lines for a pair of closed eyes, a circle for a nose, and a straight slit for a mouth. "That's you,
Kirkwood, old frozen face!"

Standing back, Johnny surveyed his character sketch; then proved that he had something of the artist in
him. Stepping to the wall, Johnny began to add expression to the thing that he had drawn.

"All you need is a little touching up," declared Johnny. "That's all, Kirkwood, old boy. Some eyebrows
like mine, a sharper nose, a grin like the one I used to give you - only you wouldn't take it.

"Funny about you, Kirkwood" - leaning back; Johnny studied his improvements, which indeed has
something of his own features - "do you know, the way you always kept watching me gave me hope that
some day you'd turn human. I'm human enough, and I was trying to help you, but maybe I'm too human.

"You weren't watching me to acquire some of my charm - if any." Johnny gave a disparaging chuckle.
"You were watching to see that I didn't eat too much, that I drank enough Sapphire Water, that I took
my nap. You were watching when I talked and laughed to learn if I was the old Johnny or the new."

Flinging the pencil across the room, Johnny gave a disgruntled snarl and flung himself in an easy chair.

"That's the way the old Johnny acted," he sneered. "I can be my old self, now that you aren't here,
Kirkwood, but I won't keep on with it." Drawing himself erect in his chair, he added with steady dignity:
"I'm the new Johnny Craver - here to stay."