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"Perhaps he has a lighter one ready for travel purposes, as you do That thing doesn&039;t look too portable"

"Yeah, maybe"

"But I concede that this is also odd You said he has earth in his bed?"

"Sewn up tight in so me Each time I breathed in to talk Escott went over to the bed and flipped up the linens Everything was in place as I&039;d found it a few nights ago

"As far as we know, this island is his hoain

"He ht yet retain title to some house or--"

Bloodsmell

"--plot of land in the area and could have gone there"

I drifted over to the bath, opened the door, and looked in

"But the journal in there bothersThe whole da such a revealing document behind?"

And I was just another poor bastard with the bad luck to keep buness of it all

"Jack?"

"Poor bastard"

"What is it?"

Then he was next toon the cold tile floor

"Oh, my dear God"

The color left Escott&039;s face and he put out a hand to steady hiht&039;s dizziness hitto the bed The alien soil was no co at it and I didn&039;t like the look in his eyes

"I should have anticipated this" His voice was very soft, very weary

"I should have I&039;ve blown this whole business"

"Charles-"

He shook his head, quickly, to cutbreath and went into the bath After a moment he called out, "Jack, I want your help"

Jesus, for what?

Barrett had been pulled in feet first so that his head was just inside the door He wore plain blue pajamas, but the top had been partially unbuttoned The expensive silk was soaked through with massive patches of blood,on the floor, but wide smear marks and two or three wet toadded in the tub indicated a little preli had been done

Escott knelt over the body, his long fingers delicately peeling back the stiffening shirt front The skin around the inch-thick shaft of wood in Barrett&039;s chest was parchment thin and just as dry He was like that all over His handsome features had shriveled up like an old rin by the lips and gulad his eyes were clenched shut

"What do you want?" I asked

"To render first aid"

"Charles, he&039;s dead He&039;s probably been dead all day"

He shot ry as I&039;d ever seen hi what you kno can you tell?"

That shut ave me a second to think, then said, "I need to try, I have to Will you please help ulped back whatever I&039;d started to say God knows I owed hiht, name it"

Some of the tension left him "I daren&039;t pull the stake out until we have soile now; the extra shock could be too s I used to help you is in the car, along with that livestock syringe Fetch it out and go to the stables--"

"But I don&039;t kno to use a--"

"It&039;s only a syringe All you have to do is find a vein and push the needle into it Pull the plunger back slowly, though"

I nodded doubtfully

"The stable lad et his help, but hurry"

I shoved down the sick hopelessness inside and got

The front door was more direct and faster, but I didn&039;t want to be seen, stopped, or questioned, and opted to disappear I tore through the big hall, weaving between knots of dawdlers until I hit against the entry door and slipped through Our car ay off to the left and Isolid The cloudy darknessspotted fro alone now on the grass It looked like a long night ahead and I didn&039;t want anyone noticing it

Escott had given rounds until it was hidden from the casual eye by a break of trees

Escott had stashed the bag in the back It contained everything but the syringe, which I found in a e, but then large anie ahosted up the road

Rounding the bulk of the house, I went solid and saw lights on over the stables Haskell, the groom, was in I trotted up the stairs to his roo his name

He presented a startled face, all sun tan and mussed hair and wore only his undershirt and workpants "Yeah, who are you? What is it?"

"I&039;m a friend of Barrett&039;s Listen to me, it&039;s very important that you do exactly what I tell you"

He ht have cooperated withouthis inevitable questions By noas long past the point of worrying about theforced hypnosis; it was a tool and it worked I gave hih time to pull on his boots and sent hi in the horses

My hands shook as I pulled out the syringe It was one thing to usethat idea at times, but it was quite another to use a needle to do the saet squea and tied its halter rope to a ring on the wall Its ears twitched, but I soothed it doith a little stroking and talking Horses like to listen to nonsense, and this one was in the mood for it When Haskell led in a second horse I stopped him and held up a milk bottle

"Can you find me more like this? Clean ones?"

He stared hard at it

"Any kind of bottles?"

He finally nodded and I sent him off

I crouched next to the roan, picked out a vein, and decided on a firet it settled somewhere in the middle I was clumsy and the horse felt it, but kept still while I filled the barrel of the syringe

It sees When it was full I drew out the needle, shoved the point inside the er The process was far too sloith the blood coet six quarts

From the look of Barrett&039;s dried-out and shrunken body, he&039;d need every ounce and fast

At the base of the syringe, where the needle attached, was a giz Trust Escott to think about neatness I opened it up and poured the rest into theit halfway

Just as I finished, Haskell returned, carrying a case of amber beer bottles

"Those clean?"

He nodded

"You make your own?"

"Me &039;n Mayfair, but don&039; tell hisin the other horse, will you?"

He did and I worked I was getting better at putting the needle in right, but no one would give me points for neatness or speed But at least theto start with

"Haskell"

He let go tying a rope

"You see what I&039;?"

"Yes"

"Think you can take over for me?"

"Yes"

"Great Just fill it up and unscrew this pan to empty it into one of your bottles Okay?"

"Uh-huh"

"And wash the needle clean each time I&039;ll be back shortly for rabbed up the

The door to the kitchen was open and lights were still on everywhere

Not knowing how I could freely trot through the house with such a gory burden and unsure about finding the right hall again, I went down the cellar steps for a shortcut With the bottle and gear hugged close to h the thick brick wall into Barrett&039;s rooh a book whose pages were covered with fine, script-style writing His back was to ave hi?" I handed over the bag

"Waiting for you and poking into things" He put away the book and returned to the bathroom

Barrett looked worse than I re to do it?"

"Tube down his throat," he said tersely

"Was I like this when you found me at the warehouse?"

"Not as bad I&039;ll hold hiht as you can"

I pulled The brittle body vibrated The wood shaft sang against the ribs and came free Unbelievably, there was more blood left in him to well up in the wound We both looked to his rimaced and placed the tube between Barrett&039;s teeth and fed it down his throat

"Isn&039;t it supposed to go up his nose?"

"The tissues are too shriveled to atteht be open and I could end up putting the blood into his lungs instead of his stomach"

"You can&039;t tell?"

"Not unless he&039;s breathing" He fitted the other end of the rubber tube into a stopper with a hole in the et by for me, then?"

"I was lucky"

"You learn all this at that hospital?"

"I picked up so my brief sojourn" He shoved the stopper fir the tube slightly to regulate the flow "Can you geton it I&039;ll be right back"

Haskell had the first of the beer bottles full and was busy drawing off ood job," I said "Ever have to before?"

"Yeah, I know a little about this stuff" His tone was different He&039;d come out of the hypnosis sooner than I&039;d expected

"Are you all right?" I asked

"Yeah"

"Do you knohy you&039;re doing this?"

"No, but I figure you&039;re trying to help Mr Barrett"

"You know about hilanced up and I could see there was a brain working inside his head

"Maybe as much as you do?"

"What do you know?"

He drew out the needle, detached it froe, and carefully poured the contents into a bottle "I know I got a steady job here, the pay is good, and I have a lot of free time How many people can say that these days?"

"Then you&039;ve seen Barrett--"

He nodded, tapping in a final drop "Yeah, he&039;s careful, but I seen him a couple times down in the yard"

"Doesn&039;t it bother you?"

He shrugged "It scared me at first, but not now He don&039;t hurt no one, he don&039;t hurt the horses This is a good place to work and he&039;s a nice man, you know?"

"What about Miss Laura? What d&039;you think of her?"

Another shrug "She&039;s all right, maybe a little too full of herself"

"How do you mean?"

"She&039;s just not the type to think about others, but I guess she&039;s still young yet"

I took the bottles to Escott "Any change?"

"Look at his teeth"

I did Barrett&039;s piercing canines had been even with his others, but now they were h ready to feed

"Of course, it ht only be a reflex of soet too hopeful"

"What about his chest?"

Escott&039;s own heart was beating very fast "The hole has closed up"

I felt a grin start up on et another couple bottles"

When I cae in Barren&039;s appearance

His face looked fractionally fuller and the skin was flexible to the touch "It&039;s working, Charles"

He nodded, but his own expression was still tight "You were a long ti a talk with Haskell"

"Yes?"

"He said he saddled a horse for Laura at one-thirty, and then she asked hi, but she gave hiain anyway It kept him busy on the opposite side of the house and he didn&039;t see where she went"

"Interesting"

"Yeah, especially when you realize she&039;d have no proble back into the house from a patio door on the far side I checked--"

Barrett&039;s body spased on the tube down his throat Escott quickly pulled it out

"Charles, you&039;re a goddamned miracle worker!"

His face flushed "Some days are better than others"

Barrett&039;s lips moved, his teeth still prominent Escott put the tube to them, but Barrett drew the blood out too fast and the tube collapsed fro and put it straight into the bottle like a straw

"We need "

In the end, Barrett drained away just over six quarts of the stuff, and I witnessed a faster version of the kind of recovery I&039;d gone through s turned into fingers, and stiff parchan coughing at one point, getting rid of the fluid that had built up in his pierced lung It was a rabbed a towel and I helped turn hilued to the floor

"How long do you think he&039;s been here?" I asked

"An expert could estimate from the condition of the blood, but I&039;m no expert Perhaps it was concurrent with the incident on the stairs"

Barrett would be listening Escott knew there was no need to hit him with the news of Eically and practically, I would say it was done earlier, as this was a crime that was never meant to be discovered Later than two o&039;clock and she would never have had the chance to be alone long enough to do it"

"And he&039;s been here like this all day"

"Heto ease ed from the bed, Barrett&039;s contact with his soil would be severed He&039;d have been aware Unable to act, but aware Forworse than that kind of helplessness

I stood and motioned Escott to come with me to the far end of the library, and kept ain

Can you handle all this with hi to have a talk with Laura It&039;s way overdue"

"Agreed, but I&039;d like to be there myself"

"I know, but I need you to keep Barrett busy"

Whether he could read anything else into that, I wasn&039;t ready to guess

The i that was halfway convincing so I could get out of there He was distracted because Barrett was coughing and still needed help, otherwise I ument from him

Escott finally nodded, and if he knehat I had in ht take awhile," I added, risking it anyway A part ofme out of it

He didn&039;t, or wouldn&039;t "Very well Take as long as you need" I shut the metal fire door behindInside me, equal portions of fire and ice went to war