Holocaust House by Norbert Davis (brene brown rising strong TXT) đ
- Author: Norbert Davis
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âIâm the station master. This hereâs company property. What you doinâ on it?â
âTrying to get off it,â said Doan.
âWhereâd you come from?â
âThe train, stupid. You think Iâm a parachute trooper?â
âOh,â said the tall man. âOh. Was you a passenger?â
âWell, certainly.â
âOh. I thought you were a bum or something. Nobody ever comes up here this time of year.â
âIâll remember that. Come closer with the light. Keep the dogs back.â
The tall man came slowly closer. Doan saw now that he had only one armâthe leftâthe one that was holding the lantern. His right sleeve was empty.
âWhoâs our friend here?â Doan asked, indicating the stiff frozen figure against the wall.
The tall man said casually: âHim? Oh, thatâs Boley, the regular station master. Iâm his relief.â
âHe looks a little on the dead side to me.â
The tall man had a lean gash of a mouth, and the thin lips moved now to show jagged yellow teeth. âDead as a smoked herring.â
âWhat happened to him?â
âGot drunk and lay out in the snow all night and froze stiff as a board.â
âPlanning on just leaving him here permanently?â
âI canât move him alone, mister.â The tall man indicated his empty right sleeve with a jerk of his head. âI told âem to stop and pick him up tonight, but they musta forgot to do it. Iâll call âem again. It ainât gonna hurt him to stay here. He wonât spoil in this weather.â
âThatâs a comforting thought.â
âDead ones donât hurt nobody, mister. Iâve piled âem on trench parapets and shot over âem. Theyâre as good as sandbags for stop-pinâ bullets.â
âThatâs a nice thought too. Whereâs this station youâre master of?â
âRight ahead a piece.â
âStart heading for it. Keep the dogs away. I donât like the way they look at me.â
The light lowered. The tall man sidled past Doan, and his thin legs moved shadowy and stick-like in the lantern gleam, going away.
Doan followed cautiously, carrying the grip in one hand and the cocked revolver in the other. He looked back every third step, but the yellow eyes were gone now.
The shed ended abruptly, and the station was around the curve from it, a yellow box-like structure squashed in against the bare rock of the canyon face with light coming very dimly through small, snow-smeared windows.
The tall man opened the door, and Doan followed him into a small square room lighted with one unshaded bulb hanging behind the shining grillwork of the oval ticket window. Yellow varnished benches ran along two walls, and a stove gleamed dully red in the corner between them.
Doan kicked the door shut behind him and dropped his grip on the floor. He still held his revolver casually in his right hand.
âWhatâs your name?â he asked.
âJannen,â said the tall man. He had taken off his duck-hunterâs cap. He was bald, and his head was long and queerly narrow. He stood still, watching Doan, his eyes gleaming with slyly malevolent humor. âYou come up here for somethinâ special? There ainât no place to stay. Thereâs a couple of hotels down-canyon, but they ainât open except for the snow sports.â
Doan jerked his head to indicate the storm outside. âIsnât that snow?â
âThis here is just an early storm. Itâll melt off mostly on the flats. In the winter season she gets eight-ten feet deep here on the level, and they bring excursion trains upâsometimes four-five hundred people to onceâand park âem on the sidings over weekends.â
There was a whine and then a scratching sound on the door behind Doan.
The tall man jerked his head. âCan I let my dogs inside, mister?â
Doan moved over and sat down on the bench. âGo ahead.â
Jannen opened the door, and three shadowy gray forms slunk through it. They were enormous beasts, thick-furred, with blunt wedge-shaped heads. They circled the room and sat down in a silent motionless row against the far wall, watching Doan unblinkingly with eyes that were like yellow, cruel jewels.
âNice friendly pets,â Doan observed.
âThemâs sled dogs, mister.â
âWhat dogs?â Doan asked.
âSled dogsâhuskies. See, sometimes them tourists that come up here, they get tired of skiinâ and snow-shoeinâ and then I pick me up a little side money haulinâ âem around on a dog sled with the dogs. Lot of âem ainât never rid behind dogs before, and they get a big kick out of it. Them are good dogs, mister.â
âYou can have them. Do you know where the Alden lodge is from here?â
Jannenâs lips moved back from the jagged teeth. âYou a friend of that girlâs?â His voice was low and tight.
âNot yet. Are you?â
Jannenâs eyes were gleaming, reddish slits. âOh, yeah. Oh, sure I am. I got a good reason to be.â With his left hand he reached over and tapped his empty right sleeve. âThatâs a present from her old man.â
Doan was watching him speculatively. âSo? How did it happen?â
âGrenade. I was fightinâ over in China. It blew up in my hand. Tore my arm off. Old man Aldenâs factory sold the Chinks that grenade. It had a defective fuse.â
âThatâs not the girlâs fault.â
Jannenâs lips curled. âOh, sure not. Nobodyâs fault. An accident. Didnât amount to nothinââjust a manâs right arm tore off, thatâs all. Just made me a cripple and stuck me up in this hell-hole at this lousy job. Yeah. I love that Alden girl. Every time I hear that name I laugh fit to bust with joy.â
His voice cracked, and his face twisted into a fiendish grimace. The dogs stirred against the wall uneasily, and one of them whimpered a little.
âYeah,â Jannen said hoarsely. âSure. I like her. Her old man skimped on that grenade job, and skimped on it so he could leave that girl another million. Youâd like her too, mister, if an Alden grenade blew your right arm off, wouldnât you? Youâd like her every time you fumbled around one-handed like a crippled bug, wouldnât you?
âYouâd like her every time the pain started to bite in that arm stump so you couldnât sleep at night, wouldnât you? Youâd feel real kind toward her while you was sleepinâ in flop houses and she was spendinâ the blood money her old man left her, wouldnât you, mister?â
The man was not sane. He stood there swaying, and then he laughed a little in a choking rasp that shook his thin body.
âYou want me to show you the way to the lodge? Sure, mister. Glad to. Glad to do a favor for an Alden any old time.â
Doan stood up. âLetâs start,â he said soberly.
ïżœ
CHAPTER V. MISS MILLION-BUCKS
DOAN SMELLED THE smoke first, coming thin and pungent down-wind, and then Jannen stopped short in front of him and said:
âThere it is.â
The wind whipped the snow away for a second, and Doan saw the house at the mouth of a ravine that widened out into a flat below them. The walls were black against the white drifts, and the windows stared with dull yellow eyes.
âThanks,â said Doan. âI can make it from here. If I could offer some slight compensation for your time and troubleâŠâ
Jannen was hunched up against the wind like some gaunt beast of prey, staring down at the house, wrapped up in darkly bitter thoughts of his own. His voice came thickly.
âI donât want none of your money.â
âSo long,â said Doan.
âEh?â said Jannen, looking around.
Doan pointed back the way they had come. âGoodbye, now.â
Jannen turned clumsily. âOh, Iâm goinâ. But I ainât forgettinâ nothinâ, mister.â His mittened left hand touched his empty right sleeve. âNothinâ at all. You tell her that for me.â
âIâll try to remember,â said Doan.
He stood with his head tilted against the wind, watching Jannen until he disappeared back along the trail, his three huskies slinking along like stunted shadows at his heels. Then he shrugged uneasily and went down the steep slant of the ridge to the flat below. The wind had blown the snow clear of the ground in places, and he followed the faint marks of a path across the stretch of frozen rocky ground.
Close to it, the house looked largerâdark and ugly with the smoke from the chimney drifting in a jaunty plume across the white-plastered roof. The path ended at a small half-enclosed porch, and Doan climbed the log steps up to it and banged hard with his fist against the heavy door.
He waited, shivering. The cold had gotten through his light clothes. His feet tingled numbly, and the skin on his face felt drawn and stiff.
The door swung open, and a man stared out at him unbelievingly. âWhatâwhoâre you? Whereâd you come from?â
âDoanâSevern Agency.â
âThe detective! But man alive! Come in, come in!â
Doan stepped into a narrow shadowed hall, and the warmth swept over him like a soft grateful wave.
âGood Lord!â said the other man. âI didnât expect youâd come tonightâin this storm!â
âThatâs Severn service,â Doan told him. âWhen duty calls, we answer. And besides, Iâm overdrawn on my salary.â
âBut youâre not dressed forâWhy, you must be frozen stiff!â
He was a tall man, very thin, with a sharp dramatically haggard face. His hair was jet-black with a peculiarly distinctive swathe of pure white running back slantwise from his high forehead. He talked in nervous spurts, and he had a way of making quick little half-gestures that had no meaning, as though he were impatiently jittery.
âA trifle rigid in spots,â Doan admitted. âHave you got some concentrated heat around the premises?â
âYes! Yes, surely! Come in here! My name is Brill, by the way. Iâm in charge of Miss Aldenâs account with the National Trust. Taking care of the legal end. But of course you know all about that. In here.â
It was a long living room with a high ceiling that matched the peak of the roof. At the far end there was an immense natural stone fireplace with the flame hooking eager little blue fingers around the log that almost filled it.
âBut you should have telephoned from the station,â Brill was saying. âNo need to come out tonight in this.â
âHave you a telephone here?â Doan asked.
âCertainly, certainly. Telephone, electricity, central heating, all that⊠. Miss Alden, this is Mr. Doan, the detective from the Severn Agency. You know, I told youââ
âYes, of course,â said Sheila Alden. She was sitting on the long, low divan in front of the fire. She was a small, thin girl with prim features, and she looked disapprovingly at Doan and then down at the snow he had tracked across the floor. She had lusterless stringy brown hair and teeth that protruded a little bit, and she wore thick horn-rimmed glasses.
âHello,â said Doan. He didnât think he was going to like her very well.
âThis seems all very melodramatic and very unnecessary,â said Sheila Alden. âA detective to guard me! Itâs so absurd.â
âNow, not at all, not at all,â said Brill in a harassed tone. âItâs the thing to doâthe only thing. Iâm responsible, you know. The National people hold me directly responsible for your well-being. We must take every reasonable precaution. We really must. Iâm doing the best I know how.â
âI know,â said Sheila Alden, faintly contemptuous. âPull up that chair, Mr. Doan, and get close to the fire. By the way, this is Mr. Crowley.â
âHello, there,â said Crowley cheerfully. âYouâre hardly dressed for the weather, old chap. If you plan to stay around here Iâll have to lend you some
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