Eagle in the Sky - Smith Wilbur (бесплатные версии книг .txt) 📗

screams of rage and agony rang from the hills about them, and the female

eagle sailed anxiously above the leadwood.  She added her querulous

screeching to the sound of conflict.

The young bird is dying.  David studied him through the lens, watching

the carmine drops ooze from the gaping yellow beak to fall and glisten

upon the snowy breast, like a dying king's rubies.

And the old bird- Debra listened to the clamour with face upturned, her

eyes dark with c oncem.

He will never get those claws loose, they lock automatically as soon as

pressure is applied and he will not be able to lift himself.  He will

die also.  Can't you do something?

Debra was tugging at his arm.  Can't you help him?  Gently he tried to

explain to her that the birds were locked together seventy feet above

the earth.  The hole of the leadwood was smooth and without branches for

the first fifty feet of its height.  It would take days of effort to

reach the birds, and by then it would be too late.

Even if one could reach them, darling, they are two wild creatures,

fierce and dangerous, those beaks and talons could tear the eyes out of

your head or rip you to the bone, nature does not like interference in

her designs.  Isn't there anything we can do?  she pleaded.

Yes, he answered quietly.  Ve can come back in the morning to see if he

has been able to free himself.  But we will bring a gun with us, in case

he has not.  in the dawn they came together to the leadwood tree.

The young bird was dead, hanging limp and graceless, but the old bird

was still alive, linked by his claws to the carcass of the other, weak

and dying but, with the furious yellow flames still burning in his eyes.

He heard their voices and twisted the shaggy old head and opened his

beak in a last defiant cry.

David loaded the shotgun, snapping the barrels closed and staring up at

the old eagle.  Not you alone, old friend, he thought, and he lifted the

gun to his shoulder and hit him with two charges of buckshot.  They left

him hanging in tatters with trailing wings and the quick patter of blood

slowing to a dark steady drip.  David felt as though he had destroyed a

part of himself in that blast of gunfire, and the shadow of it was cast

over the bright days that followed.

These few days sped past too swiftly for David, and when they were

almost gone he and Debra spent the last of them wandering together

across Jabulani, visiting each of their special places and seeking out

the various herds or individual animals almost as if they were taking

farewell of old friends.  In the evening they came to the place amongst

the fever trees beside the pools, and they sat there until the sun had

fallen below the earth in a splendour of purples and muted pinks.  Then

the mosquitoes began whining about their heads, and they strolled back

hand in hand and came to the homestead in the dark.

They packed their bags that night and left them on the stoop, ready for

an early start.  Then they drank champagne beside the barbecue fire. The

wine lifted their mood and they laughed together in their little island

of firelight in the vast ocean of the African night - but for David

there were echoes from the laughter, and he was aware of a sense of

finality, of an ending of something and a new beginning.

When they took off from the landing-strip in the early morning, David

circled twice over the estate, climbing slowly, and the pools glinted

like gunmetal amongst the hills as the low sun touched them.  The land

was lush with the severe unpromising shade of green, so different from

that of the lands of the northern hemisphere, and the servants stood in

the yard of the homestead, shading their eyes and waving up at them,

their shadows lying long and narrow against the ruddy earth.

David came around and steadied on course.

Cape Town, here we come, he said, and Debra smiled and reached across to

lay her hand upon his leg in warm and companionable silence.

They had the suite at the Mount Nelson Hotel, preferring its ancient

elegance and spacious palmy gardens to the modern slabs of glass and

concrete upon the foreshore and the rocks of Sea Point.  They stayed in

the suite for the two days, awaiting the Brig's arrival, for David had

grown unaccustomed to humanity in its massed and unlovely multitudes,

and found the quick inquisitive glances and murmurs of pity that

followed him hard to stomach.

on the second day the Brig arrived.  He knocked on the door of the suite

and then entered with his aggressive and determined stride.  He was lean

and hard and brown, as David remembered, and when he and Debra had

embraced, he turned to David and his hand was dry and leathery, but it

seemed that he looked at David with a new calculation in the fierce

warrior eyes.

While Debra bathed and dressed for the evening, he took David to his own

suite and poured whisky for him without asking his preference.  He gave

David the glass and began immediately to discuss the arrangements he had

made.

Friedman will be at the reception.  I will introduce him to Debra and

let them talk for a while, then he will be seated next to her at the

dinner-table.  This will give us the opportunity to persuade Debra to

undergo an examination later, Before we go any further, sir, David

interrupted, I want your assurance that at no time will it ever be

suggested to her that there is a possibility of Debra regaining her

sight.

Very well.

I mean, at no time whatsoever.  Even if Friedman determines that surgery

is necessary, it must be for some other reason than to restore sight, I

don't think that is possible, the Brig snapped angrily.  If matters go

that far, then Debra must be told.  It would not be fair It was David's

turn for anger, although the frozen mask of his features remained

immobile, the lipless slit of mouth turned pale and the blue eyes

glared.

Let me determine what is fair.  I know her as you never can, I know what

she feels and what she is thinking.  If you offer her a chance of sight,

you will create for her the same dilemma in which I have been trapped

since the possibility first arose.  I would spare her that.  'I do not

understand you, the Brig said stiffly.  The hostility between them was a

tangible essence that seemed to fill the room with the feel of thunder

on a summer's day.

Then let me explain, David held his eyes, refusing to be brow-beaten by

this fierce and thrusting old warrior.  Your daughter and I have

achieved an extraordinary state of happiness.

The Brig inclined his head, acknowledging.  Yes, I will accept your word

for that, but it is an artificial state.

It's a hot-house thing, reared in isolation, it has no relation to the

real world.  It's a dream state.

David felt his anger begin to shake the foundations of his reason.  He

found it offensive that anybody should speak of Debra and his life in

those terms, but at the same time he could see the justification.

You may say so, sir.  But for Debra and me, it is very real.  it is

something of tremendous value.  The Brig was silent now.

I will tell you truly that I thought long and hard before I admitted

that there was a chaance for Debra, and even then I would have hidden it

for my own selfish happiness, You still do not make sense.  How can

Debra regaining her sight affect you?

Look at me, said David softly, and the Brig glared at him ferociously,