"Henry Kuttner - Call Him Demon " - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

but singularly glamorous, in a class with the Japanese flowers that would bloom in water, and the Chinese paper-shelled almonds
that held tiny prizes.
From behind her, Beatrice deftly produced the butcher's package.
'Two pounds,' she said. 'Janie had some money, and Merton's was open this afternoon. I thought we'd better. .. .'
Emily kept on painting diligently. Charles jumped up.
'Are we going up now, huh?'
Jane was uneasy. 'I don't know if I'd better come along. j__'
'I don't want to either,' Bobby said, but that was treason. Charles said Bobby was scared.
'I'm not. It just isn't any fun. I want to play something else.'
'Emily,' Beatrice said softly. 'You don't have to go this time.'
'Yes I do.' Emily looked up at last from her painting. 'I'm not scared.'
'I want to see the lights," Charles said. Beatrice whirled on him.
'You tell such lies, Charles! There aren't any lights.'
'There are so. Sometimes, anyhow.'
There aren't.'
'There are so. You're too dumb to see them. Let's go and feed him'
It was understood that Beatrice took command now. She was the oldest. She was also, Jane sensed, more afraid than the others,
even Emily.
They went upstairs, Beatrice carrying the parcel of meat. She had already cut the string. In the upper hall they grouped before a
door.
'This is the way, Jane,' Charles said rather proudly. 'W,e gotta go up to the attic. There's a swing-down ladder in the bathroom
ceiling. We have to climb up on the tub to reach.'
'My dress,' Jane said doubtfully.
'You won't get dirty. Come on.'
Charles wanted to be first, but he was too short. Beatrice climbed to the rim of the tub and tugged at a ring in the ceiling. The trap-
door creaked and the stairs ascended slowly, with a certain majesty, beside the tub. It wasn't dark up there. Light came vaguely
through the attic windows.
'Come on, Janie,' Beatrice said, with a queer breathlessness, and they all scrambled up somehow, by dint of violent acrobatics.
The attic was warm, quiet and dusty. Planks were laid across the beams. Cartons and trunks were here and there.
Beatrice was already walking along one of the beams. Jane watched her.
Beatrice didn't look back; she didn't say anything. Once her hand groped out behind her: Charles, who was nearest, took it. Then
Beatrice reached a plank laid across to another rafter. She crossed it. She went onтАФstoppedтАФand came back, with Charles.
'You weren't doing it right,' Charles said disappointedly. 'You were thinking of the wrong thing.'
Beatrice's face looked oddly white in the golden, faint light.
Jane met her cousin's eyes. 'BeeтАФтАФ'
'You have to think of something else,' Beatrice said quickly. 'It's all right. Come on.'
Charles at her heels, she started again across the plank. Charles was saying something, in a rhythmic, mechanical monotone:
'One, two, buckle my shoe, Three, four, knock at the door, Five, six, pick up sticksтАФтАФ'
Beatrice disappeared.
'Seven, eight, lay themтАФтАФ'
Charles disappeared.
Bobby, his shoulders expressing rebelliousness, followed. And vanished.
Emily made a small sound.
'OhтАФEmily!' Jane said.
But her youngest cousin only said, 'I don't want to go down there, Janie.'
'You don't have to.'
'Yes, I do,' Emily said. 'I'll tell you what. I won't be afraid if you come right after me. I always think there's something coming up
behind me to grabтАФbut if you promise to come right after, it'll be all right.'
'I promise,' Jane said.
Reassured, Emily walked across the bridge. Jane was watching closely this time. Yet she did not see Emily disappear. She was