"Gene Wolfe - The Ziggurat" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolfe Gene)

which his cabin stood, and skidded to a stop. Doors flew open, and all three kids piled
out. Jan herself left more sedately, shutting the door on the driver's side behind her
almost tenderly, tall and willowy as ever, her hair a golden helmet beneath a blue-
mink pillbox hat.
Her left hand held a thick, black attachщ case that was probably his.
Brook was already on the porch. Emery stood and shouted a warning, but it was
too late; Brook was inside the cabin, with the twins hard on his heels. Jan looked
around and waved, and deep inside Emery something writhed in agony.


By the time he had reached the cabin, he had decided not to mention that the
intruders had shot at him. Presumably the shooter had chambered a new round,
ejecting the brass cartridge case of the round just fired into the snow; but it might
easily be overlooked, and if Brook or the twins found it, he could say that he had fired
the day before to scare off some animal.
"Hello," Jan said as he entered. "You left your door open. It's cold as Billy-o in
here." She was seated in a chair before the fire.
"I didn't." He dropped into the other, striving to look casual. "I was robbed."
"Really? When?"
"A quarter hour ago. Did you see another car coming in?"
Jan shook her head.
They had been on foot, then; the road ended at the lake. Aloud he said, "It doesn't
matter. They got my rifle and my ax." Remembering his checkbook, he pulled out the
drawer of the little table. His checkbook was still there; he took it out and put it into
an inner pocket of his mackinaw.
"It was an old rifle anyhow, wasn't it?"
He nodded. "My old thirty-thirty."
"Then you can buy a new one, and you should have locked the door. I--"
"You weren't supposed to get here until tomorrow," he told her brusquely. The
mere thought of another gun was terrifying.
"I know. But they said a blizzard was coming on TV, so I decided I'd better move
it up a day, or I'd have to wait for a week -- that was what it sounded like. I told
Doctor Gibbons that Aileen would be in next Thursday, and off we went. This
shouldn't take long." She opened his attachщ case on her lap. "Now here--"
"Where are the kids?"
"Out back getting more wood. They'll be back in a minute."
 As though to confirm her words, he heard the clink of the maul striking the wedge.
He ventured, "Do you really want them to hear it?"
"Emery, they know. I couldn't have hidden all this from them if I tried. What was I
going to say when they asked why you never came home anymore?"
"You could have told them I was deer-hunting."
"That's for a few days, maybe a week. You left in August, remember? Well,
anyway, I didn't. I told them the truth." She paused, expectant. "Aren't you going to
ask how they took it?"
He shook his head.
"The girls were hurt. I honestly think Brook's happy. Getting to live with you out
here for a while and all that."
"I've got him signed up for Culver," Emery told her. "He starts in February."
"That's best, I'm sure. Now listen, because we've got to get back. Here's a letter
from your--"