Norton, Andre - Novel 32 (19 page)

Lucas turned on a camp lantern like those they
had used to explore the cave and it gave enough light
for the long table through the gloom of the
big
room. After lunch Shan was the only one now who wanted to explore. He tugged at
the
leash Christie had put around a
chair leg and
demanded in sharp cries
to be let loose.

"Must be mice here," Libby said.

"What would they eat?" Perks asked.
"There's no food except what
we have."

"Field mice," Libby explained. "They'd
find their food outside but would
live in here."

"We can't go out in this storm." Lucas had
gone to the front door.
"There's a regular flood
running down the street.
Might as well explore
in here."

They repacked the picnic baskets and set out
to do just that.
Behind the dining room was an
even
darker kitchen with a big stove, yellow with rust, and shelves on which were
gathered
a few pieces of thick china
black with dust and dirt.

On the opposite side of the lobby, having
passed through another archway,
they found
a long bar
behind which hung the fragments of
a mirror, most of which had been broken away.
Some bottles still stood under
that and there were more chairs and tables. At the other end
of the room the lantern light
struck a platform
three
steps above the regular floor, a curtain hanging in tatters on either side of
that.

"Gave shows here, I suppose." Father took more
camera shots with his light bulbs snap
ping, startling in the gloom.

From there they went up the stairs to the
second floor, Lucas, in the lead,
testing each
step
with care before he put his full weight upon
it. There was a hall with doors open along it.
Some of the rooms were empty. In
one or two were beds with springs but no
mattresses,
and
in some a
washstand or a chest of drawers. All were dark because of shuttered windows
along
the front of
the building.

Lucas paused before one door that was shut
and had to put his shoulder to it
before it came
open.
Rain instantly swept in and they looked
out on the balcony above the street.

"Hey, all the rain's coming in!" Neal jumped
back and Christie
expected Lucas to close the
door.
Instead he stood straining out until Father
came out of another room.

"What's the matter?"

Now Lucas pulled the door shut. "Just tak
ing a look," he said slowly.
"Might be more
damage after
a burst like this one."

They went back downstairs while the rain
came in fierce gusts. Father
warned them to
stay
away from the windows—even those that
were boarded up. Twice they heard loud crashes.
Perks ran to Father and held on
to him tightly,
burying
her face in his shirt. Baron cowered
and whimpered. Shan used his claws to climb
Christie as if she were a tree,
hanging on to her
shirt
front,
his
ears flat against his head.

Father said he thought that some more of the
old buildings must be breaking up
under the
pounding
of the furious wind. Each storm in its
time must add to the damage. Twice he went
closer to the front door to look out at the station
wagon. Once Neal crept along after him and
came back to report that the water was running
along halfway up the wheels of the car and the
street looked like a river.

Runnels of the rain oozed in under the front
doors as well as trickled from the broken panes.
The dark red of the old carpet showed through
in patches as the water washed the dust away.

"How long do these storms last?" Father
finally asked Lucas.

The Navajo shrugged. "It's anyone guess.
Though this is
decidedly more forceful than
usual."

"I don't like this!" Perks quavered. "I
want
to go
home!"

"We can't drive through a rain like this,"
Neal told her.

"Come on, Perks." Christie put her arm
about the younger girl. "Why
this is a regular
adventure.
Aren't we lucky to have found so good a place to stay out of the storm? Oh—
look at Shan!"

The cat had jumped from her shoulder only
a moment ago, and was now
crouched, only
the tip of his
outstretched tail quivering slightly
as he
crept forward very slowly, getting ready
to spring on something only he
could see. Then
he pounced and sat for a
moment, both fore-
paws pinning down
his prey.

"A mouse!"
Christie hurried to rescue the
captive and then stopped short
with a cry of
disgust
as Shan's prisoner was shown to be, as
he raised one paw, a very large black beetle.

"Nasty thing!
You don't want that, Shan!"
Christie used the edge of one of the newspapers
they had spread for a tablecloth to flip the
insect
out of the way. Surely it was
not the only one here and she began to agree with Perks that it would be better
to get out of this dark, queer-
smelh'ng
place and head home again.

Shan tugged at his leash, trying to follow the
scuttling beetle.
Christie heard Baron barking
at the
door.

Lucas was talking to Father. "It's slacking
off now. If this had lasted much longer it would
have washed most of the town away."

The
wind and the drum of the rain were less
ening.
It was not long before they were able to
go out on the porch and look down the street
to where the
shrinking stream had cut new gul
lies in the
earth, even carried away sections of
the
broken plank sidewalk.

"What's the matter with the road—up there?"
Neal pointed to the rise down
which they had
driven
into
Darringer
.

Christie took off her glasses, rubbed them
dry on the tail of her shirt, and
settled them
once
more on her
nose,
sure she had not seen
properly before. The rise looked
queer. Study
ing it,
she was alarmed to see the road had
gone! There was just a big hole there, as if half
the ground had just disappeared!
What had hap
pened?

"Cave-in," said Lucas. He frowned and
Father looked very sober.

"Is there another road out?"

"There could be.
Rougher track that
leads
through the reservation.
It's either
try
that or
I
walk out for horses and we come for the car
later. There must have been a mine cutting un
der that ridge that brought it
down when the
ground
loosened."

Did that mean they would have to stop here—
maybe overnight? Christie shivered
and drew
nearer to
Father. She did not want to be in
Darringer
in the
full dark—the ghost town
seemed more and more strange and threaten
ing.

Father, looking up at the gray sky, a little
lighter now, asked another
question. "Is there
liable to be another such downpour, do you
think?"

Lucas was studying those same clouds. "I'd
say no. Let me scout that other
way out. The worst parts are those closest to town. Once
we're through these hills the
going's level—if
rough.
It will take us longer to get back, but I'd
say it is the only way out after that landslip."

He rummaged in the car and brought out a
square of waterproof plastic with
a hole in the
center
for his head, and he tucked his Levi
pants into his boots. Then he set out, jumping
over the deep cuts made by the
streams of
water. Before he disappeared
around the corner
of the hotel he called
back, "You'd better try
the
motor,
to be sure it isn't flooded out."

"Will do!"
Father looked at the children.
"You," he told them in
a no-argue voice, "stay
right here."

As he splashed out to the station wagon,
Perks's
hand crept into Christie's.

"Chris—
suppose—
suppose we
can't get
home—"

"But we will!" Christie said in as sure a
voice
as she could
use. "If we can't take the car, then
Libby's father will be back with horses and
we'll ride. That will be a real
adventure! Of
course
we can get home all right!"

"I don't like adventures like this," Perks said
doubtfully.

"Why don't we get the baskets and the can
teens, and Shan, and have
everything ready to
load
into the car?" Libby suggested. "Come
on."

The boys did not follow, but Christie was
glad Libby had thought of doing
this. She was
even
ready to go, as long as Libby held the
lighted camp lantern, into the big kitchen with
the rubbish—packing that into the
rusty stove
while
Libby lighted a match to burn it.

Afterward, they poured water over the stove
fire and the charred remains of
the rubbish. But
the
kitchen was so dark, they were very glad
to go out on the porch again.

Father not only had the car running but had
backed up and turned around to
face in the
direction
Lucas had gone. Now he had a big
map spread out on the steering wheel and was
studying it. Seeing the girls, he
beckoned to
them.

"We might as well load up. We don't want
to waste any time if the road out
can be fol
lowed. There
is
a trail
marked on this, but since
it goes through the
reservation, it will take us
longer to
get back to the station."

The last drizzle of rain had stopped. Water
still dripped from the roofs of
the houses and
trickled in thinner
streams down the road. They
got in the car
and waited. It was not too long
before
Lucas came again around the hotel and
waved
them on. Father drove slowly, stopping
to
pick him up.

"I think we have a clear road through the
worst of the hill part,"
Lucas reported. "Also I do know the trail well enough to take that
way. We had better get as far
along as we can while it is still daylight."

The station wagon passed a barn. Half of the
roof had fallen in and a mass of
decayed hay
hung over
the edge of the break.
Toliver
pointed up and beyond that.

"There's an entrance to a mine—see?"

It was difficult to make out, but there was a
square opening into a hillside and
more half-
ruined
buildings. Christie held on to one side
of
the seat, Shan on her knees, while Libby and
Perks
clung to the other as the car dipped,
bumped,
and skidded a little, Father struggling
with the wheel to hold it straight on a very
narrow track.

Parky
let out a whoop of excitement
from the
seat just
behind. "Up and down—like the
boop-
doop
in the park!"

"This isn't fun!" Christie turned on him.
"Keep
quiet,
Parky
!"

"Yes, shut up!" Neal snapped. "Don't yell
in Dad's ears now!"

"You
can't—"
Parky
began, when his brother
swooped on him to place a hand firmly over his
mouth, saying fiercely, "I can and will! You
just keep quiet!"