Page 41 (1/2)
And he stu the alley in the dark
A shotgun blast went off in his leg every tiht, you're a fool, a damn fool, an awful fool, an idiot, an awful idiot, a damn idiot, and a fool, a damn fool; look at the mess and where's the mop, look at the mess, and what do you do? Pride, damn it, and temper, and you've junked it all, at the very start you vo at once, but everything one on top of another, Beatty, the woh, no excuse A fool, a daive yourself up!
No, we'll save e can, we'll do what there is left to do If we have to burn, let's take a few more with us Here!
He remembered the books and turned back Just on the off chance
He found a few books where he had left thearden fence Mildred, God bless her, had missed a few Four books still lay hidden where he had put theht and flashbeaines far away, and police sirens were cutting their way across toith their sirens
Montag took the four re books and hopped, jolted, hopped his way down the alley and suddenly fell as if his head had been cut off and only his body lay there So inside had jerked him to a halt and flopped his folded, his face pressed blindly to the gravel
Beatty wanted to die
In theknew it for the truth Beatty had wanted to die He had just stood there, not really trying to save hi, and the thought was enough to stifle his sobbing and let hie, to want to die so much that you let aup and staying alive, you go on yelling at people and et them mad, and then
At a distance, running feet
Montag sat up Let's get out of here Coet up, you just can't sit! But he was still crying and that had to be finished It was going away now He hadn't wanted to kill anyone, not even Beatty His flesh gripped hied He saw Beatty, a torch, not rass He bit at his knuckles I'm sorry, I'm sorry, oh God, sorry
He tried to piece it all together, to go back to the noro before the sieve and the sand, Denham's Dentifrice, moth voices, fireflies, the alarms and excursions, too much for a few short days, too much, indeed, for a lifetime
Feet ran in the far end of the alley
"Get up!" he told hi, and stood The pains were spikes driven in the kneecap and then only darning needles and then only co fiftyhis hand with slivers fro a spray of scalding water on that leg And the leg was at last his own leg again He had been afraid that running ht into his openit out pale, with all the blackness left heavily inside hi pace He carried the books in his hands
He thought of Faber
Faber was back there in the stea lump of tar that had no name or identity now He had burnt Faber, too He felt so suddenly shocked by this that he felt Faber was really dead, baked like a roach in that sreen capsule shoved and lost in the pocket of awith asphalt tendons