"Patricia A. McKillip - The House on Parchment Street" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKillip Patricia A)
we can put it back."
"We can glue it back in," Alexander said. "Shove over and let me have a comer."
"It would look funny," Bruce said, "just sitting there without any mortar. But better one stone than three.
One will take awhile anywayтАФthis one looks about a foot deep." He lowered his arms a moment,
flexing his fingers. His face was speckled with ancient mortar. He stared doubtfully at the wall.
"Think of Christopher Columbus discovering America," Alexander said, his voice breaking with the
powerful, rhythmic blows of his hammer. "Think of Marco Polo discovering China. Think ofтАФ"
"Think of my mother coming down to put something in the freezer and discovering us."
"Let's not think," Carol said.
When the drilling stopped at noon, they had chipped the mortar as far as they could reach, and
their chisels almost disappeared in the crevice that had formed around the stone. The noon bells drifted
sweetly across the silence. They dropped their arms and slid to the floor.
"We'll have to find something longer," Bruce said. His bones cracked as he straightened his arms.
"Spikes or something. I'll look in the tool-shed. Your faces are all white. Carol, your hair turned white."
"That's all right," she said tiredly. "I never liked it red."
"Why? It's a beautiful color. Vermilion, with touches of yellow ochre."
She looked at him out of the corners of her eyes. "It sounds like a disease."
"Red-gold," Alexander said, yawning. "If you're going to compliment somebody, you should do it in
English."
"That wasn't a compliment. It was just a fact." He got to his feet and began to brush himself. "Come on.
Let's go find some lunch."
Aunt Catherine was making sandwiches in the kitchen when they came in.
"Hello. What have you been up to?" She gave Carol a sandwich on a plate. Then she frowned puzzledly
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/New%20Folder/Patricia%20McKillip%20-%20The%20House%20on%20Parchment%20Street.txt
and brushed lightly at Carol's hair.
"We've been investigating," Alexander said.
"What? A chalk factory?" She opened the kitchen door and called down the hall, "Harold! Lunch!" They
heard Uncle Harold's shout back. She turned
and said irritably, "Bruce, will you sit down and give your food a fighting chance?"
Bruce sat down, chewing. They were silent, staring at their plates as they ate, until Alexander said, "That
was good. May I have another?"
Bruce stood up. "I'll go to the tool-shed and get what we need."
"What are you doing?" Aunt Catherine said as he left. Alexander disposed of a quarter of his sandwich
in a bite.
"Investigating antique stones," he said finally. "It's sort of archeology with a bit of geology thrown in.
Like a fossil-hunt. We needed some chisels."
"Oh."
Uncle Harold came in. "What were you shouting? OhтАФfood. Good." He took a sandwich and peered
into it. "Peanut butter?"
"Mine," said Aunt Catherine, rescuing it. She gave him another. "Yours."
"Is this lunch, or a lesson in possessive pronouns?"
The back door closed softly. Bruce passed them quickly, rather stiffly. Carol went out and joined him.
He opened the cellar door quietly. She looked at what he was carrying.
"Isn't that a crowbar?"
"Sh. I thought we might need it. I got some long files and a big screwdriverтАФthey should reach."
Alexander joined them a few minutes later. They waited until the drilling started again, and then they
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