Genre Short Story. Page - 18
n them. He carried them (they were the budget for the coming fiscal year) into his office, staggering a little on the way, and dropped dazedly into his chair. They showed the budget for his own department as exactly one hundred times what he'd been expecting. That is to say, fifty times what he'd put in for.
When the initial shock began to wear off, his face assumed an expression of intense thought. In about five minutes he leaped from his chair, dashed out of the office with a shouted syllable or two for his secretary, and got his car out of the parking lot. At home, he tossed clothes into a travelling bag and barged toward the door, giving his wife a quick kiss and an equally quick explanation. He didn't bother to call the airport. He meant to be on the next plane east, and no nonsense about it....
* * * * *
With one thing and another, the economy hadn't been exactly in overdrive that year, and predictions for the Christmas season were gloomy. Early retail figures bore them out. Gift buying dribbled along feebly until Thanksgivin
el path.
"Who on earth are you?" he gasped, trembling violently.
"I am Major Brown," said that individual, who was always cool in the hour of action.
The old man gaped helplessly like some monstrous fish. At last he stammered wildly, "Come down--come down here!"
"At your service," said the Major, and alighted at a bound on the grass beside him, without disarranging his silk hat.
The old man turned his broad back and set off at a sort of waddling run towards the house, followed with swift steps by the Major. His guide led him through the back passages of a gloomy, but gorgeously appointed house, until they reached the door of the front room. Then the old man turned with a face of apoplectic terror dimly showing in the twilight.
"For heaven's sake," he said, "don't mention jackals."
Then he threw open the door, releasing a burst of red lamplight, and ran downstairs with a clatter.
The Major stepped into a rich, glowing room, full of red copper, and peacock
and; his face expressed horror and disgust, yet there was in it also the mark of imperious command and confident power. The left half of the picture was the strangest, however. The interest plainly centred there.
On the pavement before the throne were grouped four soldiers, surrounding a crouching figure which must be described in a moment. A fifth soldier lay dead on the pavement, his neck distorted, and his eye-balls starting from his head. The four surrounding guards were looking at the King. In their faces, the sentiment of horror was intensified; they seemed, in fact, only restrained from flight by their implicit trust in their master. All this terror was plainly excited by the being that crouched in their midst.
I entirely despair of conveying by any words the impression which this figure makes upon anyone who looks at it. I recollect once showing the photograph of the drawing to a lecturer on morphology--a person of, I was going to say, abnormally sane and unimaginative habits of mind. He
rshes of Sonaput.
THIS Uninhabited Island
Is off Cape Gardafui,
By the Beaches of Socotra
And the Pink Arabian Sea:
But it's hot--too hot from Suez
For the likes of you and me
Ever to go
In a P. and 0.
And call on the Cake-Parsee!
HOW THE LEOPARD GOT HIS SPOTS
IN the days when everybody started fair, Best Beloved, the Leopard lived in a place called the High Veldt. 'Member it wasn't the Low Veldt, or the Bush Veldt, or the Sour Veldt, but the 'sclusively bare, hot, shiny High Veldt, where there was sand and sandy-coloured rock and 'sclusively tufts of sandy- yellowish grass. The Giraffe and the Zebra and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Hartebeest lived there; and they were 'sclusively sandy-yellow-brownish all over; but the Leopard, he was the 'sclusivest sandiest-yellowish-brownest of them all--a greyish-yellowish catty-shaped kind of beast, and he matched the 'sclusively yellowish-greyish-brownish colour of the High Veldt to
up all these years to get his crown, and everything!"
And wise people shook their heads and foretold a decline in the National Love of Sport. And, indeed, soccer was not at all popular for some time afterward.
Lionel did his best to be a good King during the week, and the people were beginning to forgive him for letting the Dragon out of the book. "After all," they said, "soccer is a dangerous game, and perhaps it is wise to discourage it."
Popular opinion held that the Soccer Players, being tough and hard, had disagreed with the Dragon so much that he had gone away to some place where they only play cats' cradle and games that do not make you hard and tough.
All the same, Parliament met on the Saturday afternoon, a convenient time, for most of the Members would be free to attend, to consider the Dragon. But unfortunately the Dragon, who had only been asleep, woke up because it was Saturday, and he considered the Parliament, and afterwards there were not any Members left, so they t
o her and kissedher and asked, "How knewest thou that I should come to thee thisvery night?" She answered, "I knew it not! By Allah, this wholeyear past I have not tasted the taste of sleep, but have watchedthrough every night, expecting thee; and such hath been my casesince the day thou wentest out from me and I gave thee the newsuit of clothes, and thou promisedst me to go to the Hammam andto come back! So I sat awaiting thee that night and a secondnight and a third night; but thou camest not till after so greatdelay, and I ever expecting thy coming; for this is lovers' way.And now I would have thee tell me what hath been the cause ofthine absence from me the past year long?" So I told her. Andwhen she knew that I was married, her colour waxed yellow, and Iadded, "I have come to thee this night but I must leave theebefore day." Quoth she, "Doth it not suffice her that she trickedthee into marrying her and kept thee prisoner with her a wholeyear, but she must also make thee swear by the o
The Queen of Spades A.S. Pushkin
The Cloak N.V. Gogol
The District Doctor I.S. Turgenev
The Christmas Tree And The Wedding F.M. Dostoyevsky
God Sees The Truth, But Waits L.N. Tolstoy
How A Muzhik Fed Two Officials M.Y. Saltykov
The Shades, A Phantasy V.G. Korolenko
The Signal V.N. Garshin
The Darling A.P. Chekhov
The Bet A.P. Chekhov
Vanka A.P. Chekhov
Hide and Seek F.K. Sologub
Dethroned I.N. Potapenko
The Servant S.T. Semyonov
One Autumn Night M. Gorky
Her Lover M. Gorky
Lazarus L.N. Andreyev
The Revolutionist M.P. Artzybashev
The Outrage A.I. Kuprin
"Oil!" Deston exclaimed, involuntarily, as everything fell into place in his mind. The way she walked; poetry in motion ... the oil-witch ... two empires ... more millions than he had dimes.... "Oh, you're Barbara Warner, then."
"Why, of course; but my friends call me 'Bobby'. Didn't you--but of course you didn't--you never read passenger lists. If you did, you'd've got a tingle, too."
"I got plenty of tingle without reading, believe me. However, I never expected to----"
"Don't say it, dear!" She got up and took both his hands in hers. "I know how you feel. I don't like to let you ruin your career, either, but nothing can separate us, now that we've found each other. So I'll tell you this." Her eyes looked steadily into his. "If it bothers you the least bit, later on, I'll give every dollar I own to some foundation or other, I swear it."
He laughed shamefacedly as he took her in his arms. "Since that's the way you look at it, it won't bother me a bit."
sum invalue five times the fortune which she has a right to expect from herhusband. This shall lie in your hands, together with her dowry, and youmay apply the united sum as suits her interest best; it shall be allexclusively hers while she lives: is that liberal?"
Douw assented, and inwardly acknowledged that fortune had beenextraordinarily kind to his niece; the stranger, he thought, must beboth wealthy and generous, and such an offer was not to be despised,though made by a humourist, and one of no very prepossessing presence.Rose had no very high pretensions for she had but a modest dowry, whichshe owed entirely to the generosity of her uncle; neither had she anyright to raise exceptions on the score of birth, for her own origin wasfar from splendid, and as the other objections, Gerald resolved, andindeed, by the usages of the time, was warranted in resolving, not tolisten to them for a moment.
"Sir" said he, addressing the stranger, "your offer is liberal, andwhatever hesitation I may