The Death Of Grass by John Christopher

The Death Of Grass by John Christopher

Author:John Christopher
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2010-05-23T23:00:00+00:00


from that, food, as I said. And petrol, of course.' `Why petrol?'

`Because we may need it, if only for our internal lines of communication.' He grinned. '

Sounds very military, doesn't it? Bit like the old days, in some ways.

But it's on our own doorsteps now.'

John said: 'We've got another eighty or ninety miles to do. The Ford can do forty to the gallon, the other two around thirty. All the tanks are pretty full. Will you leave us nine gallons between us?'

The man in tweeds said nothing. He grinned.

John looked at him. 'We'll ditch one of the big cars. Will you leave us six gallons?

`Six gallons,' the man in tweeds said, 'or one revolver

the sort of thing that might make the difference between our holding this town and seeing it go up in flames. Mister, we're not leaving you anything that we can possibly make good use of.'

Òne car,' John said, 'and three gallons. So you don't have three women and four children on your consciences.'

`Nay,' the man said, 'it's all very well talking about consciences, but we've got our own women and kids to think about.'

Roger and Pirrie were standing by him. Roger said: `They'll take your town, and they'll burn it. I hope you live just long enough to see it.'

The man stared at him. 'You don't want to start spoiling things, mister. We've been treating you fair enough, but we could turn nasty if we wanted to.'

Roger was on the verge of saying something else. John said: Àll right. That's enough, Rodge.' To the man in tweeds, he went on: 'We'll make you a present of the cars. Can we take our families through the town towards Wensley? And do you think we could have a couple of old perambulators you've finished with?'

Ì'm glad to see you're more polite than your friend, but it's no – to both. No one's coming into this town. We've got our roads to guard, and the men who aren't guarding them have got work to do and sleep to get. We can't spare anyone Lo watch you, and it's damn certain

we're not letting you go through the town unwatched.' John looked at Roger again, and checked him. Pirrie spoke:

`Perhaps you will tell us what we can do. And what we can take – blankets?'

Ày, we're well enough supplied with blankets.' Ànd our maps?'

One of the searchers came up and reported to him:

`Reckon we've got everything worth having, Mr Spruce. Food and stuff. And the guns.

Willie's syphoning the petrol.'

Ìn that case,' Mr Spruce said, 'you can go and help yourselves to what you want. I shouldn't carry too much, if I were you. You won't find the going so easy. If you follow the river round' – he pointed to the right –ìt's your best way for getting round the town.'

`Thank you,' Roger said. 'You're a great help.'

Mr Spruce regarded him with beady benevolence. `You're lucky – getting here before the rush, like. We shan't have time to gossip with 'em once they start coming in fast.



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