Star Ka'at by Andre Norton

Author:Andre Norton
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-01-10T00:43:14+00:00

5

"Going to Find Us a Home Place—"

There was nothing interesting or useful in the small amount of trash that had been collected in the bin lately. Jim made only a pretense of poking into it a job he had to force himself to do. He had five dollars in his bank, that he had made sure of before he left the house. But the on-sale carrier cost twice that, if the store still had one left.

Elly might be happy with nickels and dimes, but Jim had to do better than that, and in a very short time, too. Mrs. Dale had told him the truth when she had come down before Jim left the house. Mr. Dale's early morning call had been from the reserve officer's headquarters. He was being called back to duty. Then Mrs. Dale had turned on the small radio in the kitchen and there had been a lot of talk about trouble overseas which Jim hardly listened to, being far more absorbed in the idea of getting the cat carrier.

"I'll phone Elizabeth tonight," Mrs. Dale snapped off the radio before the announcer had finished. Her face looked queer, as if she was scared.

"It won't take long to close things up here. Maybe we can take off the same day Robert leaves."

But, Jim remembered, she had not said what day that would be. How much time did he have? Hi—there was a Coke bottle! He picked it up out of the gutter. Yes, it was not broken and he could take it back—for pennies. It would take more than one Coke bottle to get what he needed.

He did not squeeze through the fence to reach the lot where the house had been. This time he slipped around the boards the workmen had left in front. Jim was sure Elly had pretty well combed the cellar for anything salable, but he would just look again.

Jim had reached the head of the steps when he heard a sound which stopped him short. At first he thought it was some kind of animal that had been hurt and was calling for help.

He hurried toward the pile of old lumber. It sounded as if it came from behind there.

As he rounded the boards he saw her.

"Elly!" Jim skidded to a stop.

She had her arms clasped about her shins, her head bent over so all he could see was her hair, nothing of her face at all. But it was Elly making those strange sounds! Beside the girl's shoulder Mer rubbed her head back and forth, now and then adding a little cry of her own.

"Elly, what is the matter?" Something terrible must have happened. In all the time Jim had known Elly he had never seen her like this. He reached out his hand and touched her arm anxiously.

"—go—way—!" The words were so muffled he could hardly understand.

The girl hunched her shoulders as if to throw off both his touch and Mer's.

Elly must be sick. Jim glanced around the overgrown garden of the vanished house.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.