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time. We"
"But why," Oliver interrupted, "did you insist on this
house? Why do the others want to get it away from you?"
Kleph stared at him. He saw the tears rising again in
small bright crescents that gathered above her lower lids. He
saw the look of obstinacy that came upon her soft, tanned
face. She shook her head.
"You must not ask me that." She held out the steaming
cup. "Here, drink and forget what I have said. I can tell you
no more. No more at all."
When he woke, for a little while he had no idea where he
was. He did not remember leaving Kleph or coming to his
own room. He didn't care, just then. For he woke to a sense of
overwhelming terror.
The dark was full of it. His brain rocked on waves of fear
and pain. He lay motionless, too frightened to stir, some ata-
vistic memory warning him to lie quiet until he knew from
which direction the danger threatened. Reasonless panic
broke over him in a tidal flow; his head ached with its vio-
lence and the dark throbbed to the same rhythms.
A knock sounded at the door. Omerie's deep voice said,
"Wilson! Wilson, are you awake?"
Oliver tried twice before he had breath to answer. "Y-yes
what is it?"
The knob rattled. Omerie's dim figure groped for the light
switch and the room sprang into visibility. Omerie's face was
drawn with strain, and he held one hand to his head as
if it ached in rhythm with Oliver's.
It was in that moment, before Omerie spoke again, that
Oliver remembered Hollia's warning. "Move out, young man
move out before tonight." Wildly he wondered what threat-
ened them all in this dark house that throbbed with the
rhythms of pure terror.
Omerie in an angry voice answered the unspoken question.
"Someone has planted a subsonic in the house, Wilson.
Kleph thinks you may know where it is."
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"S-subsonic?"
"Call it a gadget," Omerie interpreted impatiently. "Prob-
ably a small metal box that"
Oliver said, "Oh," in a tone that must have told Omerie
everything.
"Where is it?" he demanded. "Quick. Let's get this over."
"I don't know." With an effort Oliver controlled the chat-
tering of his teeth. "Y-you mean all thisall this is just
from the little box?"
"Of course. Now tell me how to find it before we all go
crazy."
Oliver got shakily out of bed, groping for his robe with
nerveless hands. "I s-suppose she hid it somewhere down-
stairs," he said. "S-she wasn't gone long."
Omerie got the story out of him in a few brief questions.
He clicked his teeth in exasperation when .Oliver had fin-
ished it.
"That stupid Hollia"
"Omerie!" Kleph's plaintive voice wailed from the hall.
"Please hurry, Omerie! This is too much to stand! Oh,
Omerie, please!"
Oliver stood up abruptly. Then a redoubled wave of the in-
explicable pain seemed to explode in his skull at the motion,
and he clutched the bedpost and reeled.
"Go find the thing yourself," he heard himself saying diz-
zily. "I can't even walk"
Omerie's own temper was drawn wire-tight by the pres-
sure in the room. He seized Oliver's shoulder and shook him,
saying in a tight voice, "You let it innow help us get it
out, or"
"It's a gadget out of your world, not mine!" Oliver said
furiously.
And then it seemed to him there was a sudden coldness
and silence in the room. Even the pain and the senseless ter-
ror paused for a moment. Omerie's pale, cold eyes fixed
upon Oliver a stare so chill he could almost feel the ice
in it.
"What do you know about ourworld?" Omerie demand-
ed.
Oliver did not speak a word. He did not need to; his face
must have betrayed what he knew. He was beyond conceal-
ment in the stress of night-time terror he still could not un-
derstand.
Omerie bared his white teeth and said three perfectly un-
intelligible words. Then he stepped to the door and snapped,
"Kleph!"
Oliver could see the two women huddled together in the
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hall, shaking violently with involuntary waves of that strange,
synthetic terror. Klia, in a luminous green gown, was rigid
with control, but Kleph made no effort whatever at repres-
sion. Her downy robe had turned soft gold tonight; she shiv-
ered in it and the tears ran down her face unchecked.
"Kleph," Omerie said in a dangerous voice, "you were eu-
phoric again yesterday?"
Kleph darted a scared glance at Oliver and nodded guilt-
ily.
"You talked too much." It was a complete indictment in
one sentence. "You know the rules, Kleph. You will not
be allowed to travel again if anyone reports this to the au-
thorities."
Kleph's lovely creamy face creased suddenly into impeni-
tent dimples.
"I know it was wrong. I am very sorrybut you will not
stop me if Cenbe says no."
Klia flung out her arms in a gesture of helpless anger.
Omerie shrugged. "In this case, as it happens, no great harm
is done," he said, giving Oliver an unfathomable glance.
"But it might have been serious. Next time perhaps it will
be. I must have a talk with Cenbe."
"We must find the subsonic first of all," Klia reminded
them, shivering. "If Kleph is afraid to help, she can go out
for a while. I confess I am very sick of Kleph's company
just now."
"We could give up the house!" Kleph cried wildly. "Let
HoUia have it! How can you stand this long enough to
bunt"
"Give up the house?" Klia echoed. "You must he mad!
With all our invitations out?"
"There will be no need for that," Omerie said. "We can
find it if we all hunt. You feel able to help?" He looked at
Oliver.
With an effort Oliver controlled his own senseless panic as
the waves of it swept through the room. "Yes," he said. "But
what about me? What are you going to do?"
"That should be obvious," Omerie said, bis pale eyes in the
dark face regarding Oliver impassively. "Keep you in the
house until we go. We can certainly do no less. You under-
stand that. And there is no reason for us to do more, as it
happens. Silence is all we promised when we signed our trav-
el papers."
"But" Oliver groped for the fallacy in that reasoning. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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