The Red Right Hand by Joel Townsley Rogers

Author:Joel Townsley Rogers [Rogers, Joel Townsley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

He had squashed a bloated mosquito on top of his bald skull. It made a smear on his palm as he lifted it. He stood there with his face to the flower bed he had been working at, holding his hand motionless two inches above his head.

“Yes?” he said, in a whisper.

“I was wondering—” I said, a little hesitantly.

“Yes?” he repeated.

As if he were concentrating, not quite sure whether he had heard my voice, or had only imagined it. And if he had heard it, and not just imagined it, where in hell it had come from—whether it had come from inside the house, where the subdued voices of those two women were still talking and gabbling, or whether it had come from the general dusk around him, or maybe from the ground.

“Here I am,” I said. “Behind you.”

“Behind me,” he repeated.

He turned around, with his shoulders bent, gripping his spade with both brown hands. There was a gray furze on his pale chest. His face was sunbrowned, like his hands, darker than his arms and body, and he had brown outstanding ears, like a huge bat. He stared at me with compressed and toothless jaws, with pale-blue searching eyes, across the silver dusk.

“Where in hell did you come from?” he said, with his toothless jaws, after a moment. “Who are you?”

I took my hand from the mirror ball. I walked toward him.

“My name’s Riddle,” I said. “Dr. Harry Riddle, of New York. My car is stalled up the road. I wondered if you knew of a garage man around—”

“A garage man?” he mumbled, staring at me.

“I didn’t really expect to find one,” I said. “I think I might be able to take care of the trouble myself, if I had a small wrench. All I need is just to unscrew a nut. I haven’t any tools in my car. Any kind of small adjustable wrench, or a pair of pliers, ought to do the trick, if you have any.”

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