"Robertson-WendyDarling" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robertson R Garcia Y)

hanky over my face, puffin' a cigarette while nervous blokes pot shots at me
from twenty paces. Bloody Red Baron's more sportin' than that."

She stared hard, betting that behind that fine spoiled conceit he was scared
down to his socks. "Have you ever killed a man?"

"Several for sure."

"And seen them die?"

"The last time was a Rumpier over Poelcapelle. Engine caught fire. The pilot
jumped at fifteen-thousand feet, to save himself from burning. Observer rode the
bus all the way in. Not the same as sticking someone wi' a bayonet and seeing
him squirm -- still a fairly raw business."

"But you never held someone down while two boys slit his throat?"

"Not much call for that in the Flying Corps -- one of the reasons I like my line
of killing." He asked where she ever got such notions?

She shrugged. "Oh, I've done it. Scores of times."

"You're more mad than I am."

"Much more." She looked up at the stars. One twinkled down at her, saying,
"Silly ass."

They took the train back to Canterbury. At dawn she stood at Bekesbourne
aerodrome watching the squadron rev up. The SE5s took off, formed into flights,
and wheeled toward France, disappearing into a glorious cloud-free sky.
Twenty-four hours later the Gothas returned, flying in neat fan-like formation
into the heart of London. No horns gave warning. No sirens sounded. Their
approach was so low and leisurely no one around Wendy supposed the aeroplanes
were German until the bombs began to fall.

Peter struck. John clapped his hands on the ill-fated pirate's mouth to stifle
the dying groan . . . and the carrion was cast overboard. A splash, and then
silence.

"One!" (Slightly had begun to count.)

--Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie

STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING

BY SEPTEMBER the bombers came only at night. No one called them Wong-wongs
anymore-- Londoners knew the name Gotha all too well. The thrill of first being
bombed was long forgotten. When the Prime Minister toured the East End, mobs of
women rioted, jeering at the bobbles sent to force them back to factory and
kitchen. Wendy did not join in, but she understood, and planned her own revenge.