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.There didn t seemto be much to say for the moment except: Are you all right? Have you hurt yourself? Only a bit shaken up.Nothing broken.But there seems to be more skill in itthan I d thought, she said.Phyllis raised her head to tell him: You never ought to have tried it, A.B.! You might have killed yourself. Thenput it back, and went on crying comfortably.Bocker looked at the tousle of hair on his shoulder for some thoughtfulseconds, and then up at me, inquiringly.I shook my head. Others have had to face a lot worse - but it has been lonely, and verydepressing, Itold him.He nodded, and patted Phyllis s shoulder again.Presently she began to getmore control of herself.Bocker waited a little longer, and then remarked: Ifyou, sir, would care to remove your wife just for a moment, I d like to findout if I am still able to stand. Page 92 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlHe could. Nothing but a bump and a bruise or two, he announced. A lot luckier than you deserve, Phyllis told him severely. It was aperfectly ridiculous thing to do at your age, A.B. Just what I was thinking when I was about halfway down, he agreed.Phyllis s lips were still trembling as she looked at him. Oh, A.B., she said, It s wonderful to see you again.I still can t believeit. He put one arm around her shoulders, and linked his other into mine. I m hungry, he announced, practically. Somewhere round here there s aparcel of food that we dropped. We went down to the cottage, Phyllis chattering like mad all the way exceptfor the pauses in which she stopped to look at Bocker and convince herselfthat he was really there.When we arrived, she disappeared into the kitchen.Bocker sat down, cautiously. There should be drinks now - but they were finished some time ago, I toldhim sadly.He pulled out a large flask.He regarded a severe dent in it for a moment. H m, he said. Well, let s hope it s more comfortable going up than comingdown. He poured whiskey into three glasses, and summoned Phyllis. Here s to recovery, he said.We drank. And now, I said, since nothing in our experience has been more unlikelythan you descending from the skies on a trapeze, we d like an explanation. That wasn t in the plan, he admitted. When I found out from the Londonpeople that you had set out for Cornwall, I guessed that this was where youwould be, if you had made it.So, when I was able to, I came to take a look.But the pilot didn t like your bit of terrain at all, and wouldn t risklanding his machine.So I said I d go down, and they could buzz off tosomewhere where they could land, and come back to pick me up in three hourstime. Oh, I said, rather flatly.Phyllis just stared at him. It s all very well your looking like that, but I d have been with you beforethis if you d stayed where you were.Why didn t you? It got us down, A.B.We thought that you d died when the Harrowgate place wasoverrun.The Whittiers never came back.The link went dead.The helicopterstopped coming.There wasn t a British station to be heard on the air.After abit it looked as if things really had come to a finish.So we came away.Evenrats prefer to die in the open. Phyllis got up and started to lay the table. I don t think you would have just have quietly stayed there waiting for aninevitable end, either, A.B., she said.Bocker shook his head. Oh yea of little faith! This isn t Noah s world, you know.The twentiethcentury isn t a thing to be pushed over quite as easily as all that.Thepatient is still in a grave condition, he s been very, very sick indeed, andhe has lost a tragic lot of blood - but he s going to recover.Oh, yes, he sgoing to recover all right, you ll see. I looked out the window at the water spread over former fields, at the newarms of the sea running back into the land, at the houses that had been homes,and now were washed through by every tide. How? I asked. It isn t going to be easy, but it s going to be done.We lost a great deal ofour best land, but the water hasn t risen anymore in the last six months, andwe reckon that we ought to be able to grow more than enough to feed fivemillion people, once we get organized. Five million? I repeated. That s the rough estimate of the present population - not much more than aguess really, of course. Page 93 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html But it was something like forty-six millions! I exclaimed.That was a side that Phyllis and I had avoided talking about, or thinkingabout more than we could help
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Tematy
IndexJohn Ringo Ghost 01 Ghost
John Norman Gor 04 Nomads of Gor
John Norman Gor 01 Tarnsman of Gor
John Norman Gor 23 Renegades of Gor
John DeChancie Castle 07 Castle Spellbound
John Norman Gor 12 Beasts of Gor
John Dalmas Farside 01 The Lion of Farside
02.Kenner Julie Trylogia Starka Wezwij mnie
Royal L, K.Priest Przybysze z wewnętrznych Âświatów
Christie, Agatha Noc W Bibliotece