This produced a snarl from Theo out on the veranda. It sounded like pure jealousy.
“You can come in, too, if you want, Theo,” I said hastily. Theo gave no sign of understanding, but when I next looked, he was half across the threshold. He was crouched, not lying. His hackles were up, and his eyes glared at Hugh. Hugh’s eyes moved to see where he was, but he did not raise his chin from my knee.
All this so unnerved me that I tried to explain what a hint was by telling Eggs a story. I should have known better. “In this story,” I said, absently stroking Hugh’s head as if he were my dog. Theo instantly rose to his feet with the lips of his muzzle drawn back and his ears up. I removed my hand—but quick! “In this story,” I said. Theo lay down again, but now it was me he was glaring at. “A lady was left three boxes by her father, one box gold, one silver, and one lead. In one of the boxes there was a picture of her. Her father’s orders were that the man who guessed which of the three boxes her picture was in could marry her—”
Eggs bounced up with a triumphant laugh. “I know! It was in the lead box! Lead protects. I can marry her!” He rolled about in delight. “Are you that lady?” he asked eagerly.
I suppressed a strong need to run about screaming. I was sure that if I did, either Theo or Annie would go for me. I was not sure about Hugh. He seemed to have been a house pet. “Right,” I said. “It was in the lead box, Eggs. This other lady knew that, but the men who wanted to marry her had to guess. All of them guessed wrong, until one day a beautiful man came along whom this other lady wanted to marry. So what did she do?”
“Told him,” said Eggs.
“No, she was forbidden to do that,” I said. God give me patience! “Just like you. She had to give the man hints instead. Just like you. Before he came to choose the box, she got people to sing him a song and—remember, it was the lead box—every line in that song rhymed with ‘lead.’ A rhyme is a word that sounds the same,” I added hurriedly, seeing bewilderment cloud Eggs’s face. “You know—‘said’ and ‘bled’ and ‘red’ all rhyme with ‘lead.’”
“Said, bled, red,” Eggs repeated, quite lost.
“Dead, head,” I said. Hugh’s cold nose nudged my hand again. Wolves are not usually scavengers, unless in dire need, but I thought cheese would not hurt him. I passed him a round to keep him quiet.
Theo sprang up savagely and came half across the room. At the same instant, Eggs grasped what a rhyme was. “Fed, instead, bed, wed!” he shouted, rolling about with glee. I stared into Theo’s gray-green glare and at his pleated lip showing the fangs beneath it and prayed to heaven. Very slowly and carefully, I rolled a piece of cheese off the sofa toward him. Theo swung away from it and stalked back to the window. “My hint is bedspread, Lady!” Eggs shouted.
Hugh, meanwhile, calmly took his cheese as deftly and gently as any hunting dog and sprang up onto the sofa beside me, where he stood with his head down, chewing with small bites to make the cheese last. “Now you’ve done it, Hugh!” I said, looking nervously at Theo’s raked-up back and at the sharp outline of Annie beyond him.
“Thread, head, watershed, bread!” bawled Eggs. I realized he was drunk. His face was flushed, and his eyes glittered. He had been putting back quantities of “juice” ever since he first showed me the kitchen. “Do I get to marry you now, Lady?” he asked soulfully.
Before I could think what to reply, Hugh moved across like lightning and bit Eggs on his nearest large folded knee. He jumped clear even quicker, as Eggs surged to his feet, and streaked off to join Theo on the veranda. I heard Theo snap at him.
Eggs took an uncertain step that way, then put his hand to his face. “What is this?” he said. “This room is chasing its tail.” It was clear the “juice” had caught up with him.
“I think you’re drunk,” I said.
“Drink,” said Eggs. “I must get a drink from the faucet. I am dying. It is worse than being remade.” And he went blundering and crashing off into the windowless room.
I jumped up and went after him, sure that he would do untold damage bumping into cauldron or candle. But he wove his way through the medley of displays as only a drunk man can, avoiding each one by a miracle, and reached the kitchen when I was only halfway through the room. The hum of the crystal apparatus held me back. It dragged at my very skin. I had still only reached the cauldron when there was an appalling splintering crash from the kitchen, followed by a hoarse male scream.
I do not remember how I got to the kitchen. I only remember standing in the doorway, looking at Eggs kneeling in the remains of the glass table. He was clutching at his left arm with his right hand. Blood was pulsing steadily between his long fingers and making a pool on the glass-littered floor. The face he turned to me was so white that he looked as if he were wearing greasepaint. “What will you do, Lady?” he said.
Do? I thought. I’m a vet. I can’t be expected to deal with humans! “For goodness’ sake, Eggs,” I snapped at him. “Stop this messing about and get me the Master! Now. This instant!”
I think he said, “And I thought you’d never tell me!” But his voice was so far from human by then it was hard to be sure. His body boiled about on the floor, surging and seething and changing color. In next to a second the thing on the floor was a huge gray wolf, with its back arched and its jaws wide in agony, pumping blood from a severed artery in its left foreleg.
At least I knew what to do with that. But before I could move, the door to the outside slid open to let in the great head and shoulders of Annie. I backed away. The look in those light, blazing eyes said: “You are not taking my mate like she did.”
Here the chiming got into my head and proved to be the ringing of the telephone. My bedside clock said 5:55 A.M. I was quite glad to be rid of that dream as I fumbled the telephone up in the dark. “Yes?” I said, hoping I sounded as sleepy as I felt.
The voice was a light, high one, possibly a man’s. “You won’t know me,” it said. “My name is Harrison Ovett, and I’m in charge of an experimental project involving wild animals. We have a bit of an emergency on here. One of the wolves seems to be in quite a bad way. I’m sorry to call you at such an hour, but—”
“It’s my job,” I said, too sleepy to be more than proud of the professional touch. “Where are you? How do I get to your project?”
I think he hesitated slightly. “It’s a bit complicated to explain,” he said. “Suppose I come and pick you up? I’ll be outside in twenty minutes.”
“Right,” I said. And it was not until I put the phone down that I remembered my dream. The name was the same, I swear. I would equally swear to the voice. This is why I have spent the last twenty minutes feverishly dictating this account of my dream. If I get back safely, I’ll erase it. But if I don’t—well, I am not sure what anyone can do if Annie’s torn my throat out, but at least someone will know what became of me. Besides, they say forewarned is forearmed. I have some idea what to expect.
ENNA HITTIMS
Anne Smith hated having mumps. She had to miss two school outings. Her face came up so long and purple that both her parents laughed at her when they were at home. And she was left alone rather a lot, because her parents could not afford to leave their jobs.