Джон Пристли - The Doomsday Men

Charlie shouted something about trying to get nearer, and suddenly roared down, bringing out several people from the main house and one man out on to the tower platform; but Jimmy could not discover anything more of any importance. He appeared to have seen all there was to be seen from the air. He yelled this in Charlie’s ear, and Charlie nodded, and sent Bendy careering up again, leaving the valley behind. Jimmy could not help feeling a trifle disappointed. He could not imagine what he had hoped to see; but what he had seen had really told him nothing. They were no wiser than when they had left this morning. He did not even understand how the place was reached by road. In fact, he understood exactly nothing.

The return journey, however, was much pleasanter. Jimmy was now fairly familiar with most of Bendy’s playful antics, and could believe that each repetition of them did not mean the beginning of the end. They ate their sandwiches too, which made him feel more at home in this rickety machine. The desolation below was no longer so startling and terrifying; it began to take on the appearance of a vast relief map; and Jimmy tried to take an intelligent interest in its topography. Reluctant to leave the air, Charlie took a wide sweep round, and Jimmy was able to observe the Mohave Desert curving away like a yellowish sea. At last a faint thread below, dropped among the black or glistening rocks, was declared by Charlie to be the very road along which Rosalie had brought Jimmy from Barstow. They could follow it, Charlie said, straight back to the ranch; and Jimmy was all for doing this. So Charlie brought them down several hundred feet, remarking casually at the same time that it was a risky thing to do, and they went swooping and roaring above the road.

Farther along there was a moving blur of dust. Jimmy looked at it anxiously. “Isn’t that a car going to the ranch?” he shouted.

“Must be,” said Charlie, and swooped down to get a better look. As they came nearer, the car arrived at a point where another track, going to lose itself in the hills, left the road to the ranch, and now it stopped, and two men climbed out presumably to decide the way and after a moment they were joined by two others. Jimmy could plainly see the four of them pointing and gesticulating, and then he saw them look up.

“Can we get closer?” he yelled to Charlie.

Charlie swung the indignant Bendy, who tilted and creaked and strained horribly at being wrenched from her former course, round in a circle, and then, returning towards the men, sent her roaring down, sharply, sickeningly. But Charlie seemed to know exactly how to handle his machine, for he brought her down in such a way that although they were bumping along at a great speed and it was not easy to look down over the side, Jimmy was able to catch a reasonably good glimpse of those men. One, taller than the others, wore no hat. Yes, it was Brother Kaydick again.

“All okay?” asked Charlie.

“No,” shouted Jimmy. “Get back to the ranch.”

Charlie shot them up and swung them out again, and as they turned Jimmy saw that the car was moving again, and had taken the right turning, straight to the ranch.

“Four of ’em,” he shouted to Charlie.

“They’re travelling too,” said Charlie. “Doesn’t look it from here, but they’re going hell for leather.”

Bendy might be old and battered but she was still more than a match for any car, though Charlie could not let her full out and had to be careful because, he explained, there were some particularly nasty air pockets above the little patch of mountainous rock between them and the ranch. As it was, they bumped horribly, but now Jimmy did not care, so long as they got back to the ranch in time. Once it looked as if they would never return at all, for Bendy behaved very badly and Charlie cursed and sweated at the controls. And the landing was not easy, for there was not much room to spare and Charlie shouted that the wind, which curled sharply, almost spun itself, in that narrow little valley, was unusually bad. But at last they did land.

Charlie had been so occupied handling the machine that Jimmy had felt it impossible to discuss anything with him. Now he had to talk fast.

“There’s only one thing to do, Charlie,” he cried urgently. “Get Rosalie out of it.”

“This won’t take three, y’know-”

“I know. But I’ll stay-”

“Hell, I don’t like that, Jimmy,” Charlie began protesting. “Let’s fight it out with ’em.”

“We can’t-only two of us-and with Rosalie here-and four of them, ready to use guns. Honestly, it’s the only thing, Charlie. Now keep her running, and be ready to take off. I’ll fetch Rosalie.”

As he turned and ran forward, he saw her come out of the ranch-house and wave. He ran as hard as he could go, but once he had left the flattened ground where Charlie landed and took off, it was soft going and he was a heavy man, so that it took time to cover the two or three hundred yards and when he arrived near the house, yelling as he came, he was hot, breathless and nearly exhausted.

“What’s the matter?” she was saying.

“Kaydick-and three other men-coming along in a car. Be here any minute. Only thing to do-you go off in the plane with Charlie.”

“Why, Jimmy, certainly not.”

“I tell you, Rosalie, it’s the only thing we can do. You’ll have to believe me. And we haven’t a second to lose.”

“But are you sure? I mean, that it’s those men?”

“I distinctly saw them. Come on.” And he grabbed her by the arm and began hurrying her away from the house. At first she was taken by surprise, but after a moment she tried to free herself.

“I don’t want to go. You’re the one who ought to go. It’s you they’re after.”

“They’ll think now we’re all in it together,” he replied, still pulling her along. “Look! There they are.”

His own startled tone and the actual sight of the car racing up the road combined together to make her afraid now. She offered no more resistance, but hurried along, with his hand at her elbow. Charlie must have seen or heard the car too, for now he had his engine running again and had turned the plane round. He was leaning forward to help Rosalie in. Now she was hesitating again.

“It’s all right,” said Jimmy gasping, “quite safe.”

“I wasn’t thinking of that,” she flashed at him, reproachfully. “I was thinking of you.”

“I’m all right,” said Jimmy, who felt anything but all right. He could hardly get his breath, and there were fifty knives in his side-to say nothing of Kaydick and the others bearing down on them. But he made a great effort and fairly lifted Rosalie into the plane.

“Jimmy,” Charlie shouted, “you’re a great guy. I’ll take her to the coast. Here,” and he flung out a folded scrap of paper, “that’s my phone number, if you want me and Bendy in a hurry. Or shall I tell the police?”

“Not yet, Charlie, give me a day or two. Goodbye, Rosalie,” and he staggered back out of the way. She was saying something, but he could not catch a word. There was just time, however, to notice that she seemed to be crying a bit.

As Bendy shot forward, Jimmy saw that the big car had stopped, and now the men came hurrying towards them. But they were too late. Bendy was off, tilting badly, protesting against it all, but nobly taking to the air again. Jimmy just gave himself time to make sure she was up, and then, with the knives at work inside him and his heart nearly bursting out of his body, he made for the ranch-house again, as fast as he could go. And as he went, he cursed himself for a thrice-damned fool. While he was persuading Rosalie to go, he could have easily rushed inside, taken out that piece of apparatus that Kaydick thought was so important, and put it in the plane. Now it was hopeless, but with some vague idea of reaching the house before they did, he staggered on, almost blindly, with the sweat streaming down his broad puckered face.