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

'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 onЧstoppedЧand 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. 'BeeЧЧ'

'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 sticksЧЧ'

Beatrice disappeared.

'Seven, eight, lay themЧЧ'

Charles disappeared.

Bobby, his shoulders expressing rebelliousness, followed. And vanished.

Emily made a small sound.

'OhЧEmily!' Jane said.