THE HOME FRONT
169
was no doubt about it, something was trapped in the chimney. He
returned to his chair in indecision and poured out another glass of
Kummel
and considered. He knew that it was Freddie's lost bird,
beating its wings against the walls.
The boy had left the hedge and
his
shears lay atop the formal
leaves. He would be at his supper now (were they not, at this very
moment, spooning up the repellant sauce that surrounded their mus–
sels?) so there was still time in which to choose between an armistice
and revenge. For a few minutes the man sat still in his rocking chair,
listening tensely to the desperate wings. But presently he could endure
the creature's agony no longer and he left his room, having decided
to drive a bargain with the boy.
From the top of the stairs, Dr. Pakheiser could see through the
window to the left of the front door. Milenka was sitting on the wall,
looking archly down at the tabby who crouched in the grass. "I-yi–
yi-yi, bad puss," he thought. His feet were slow on the steps and he
clutched the bannister with an unnaturally moist hand. He was half
way down when Mr. Horvath came into his ken. The large man
moved soundlessly around the comer of the house and stood at the
edge of the lawn under a young elm tree, and in a moment, Freddie
joined him, carrying a rifle. Dr. Pakheiser hesitated for the length
of time it took Mr. Horvath to aim and fire and then, in order not to
see the body fall off the wall, turned and went back to his room.
Late, after the Chance Vought worker had gone to the grave–
yard-shift, Dr. Pakheiser opened the damper of the fireplace and a
dead oriole fell to the hearth. He gazed abstractedly at the black and
golden feathers and touched the soft body with the fire tongs. A
bright apple leaf was caught under one wing. He picked the bird up
carefully with a piece of newspaper and put it in a box which he
found on the shelf of his closet. He carried the box downstairs and
into the backyard and he floated it on the water, blue with the lights
from the factory windows. He pondered if it would float to the
Sound and if it did, how far it would go then. A mile on the way
to Europe? Halfway?
"Go,
Milenka," he addressed the box which al–
ready had drifted several feet from the bani{. In the cool air his head
cleared a little and he felt a wonderful exhilaration as if he had
been freed of a persistent pain. He ran like a young man back to the
house, took the stairs two at a time and when he got to his room, he
lay down without undressing and at once was fast asleep.
