roof.
The fans hummed softly and Erd Neff slept.
_Sleck-thud, sleck-thud!_
* * * * *
He was awake pawing the wall for the light switch, but even as hishand found it, and his eyes discovered the closed ventilator doors, areddish vapor sank over his body. A single gasp and Neff was clawinghis throat. Sharp, brown-tasting, acid-burning, eye-searing,nose-stinging!
He fell to his knees and clawed to the far corner, fighting for air,but the acrid stink stained his throat and nose. His eyes keptburning. The whole room must be full!
The door-lever! No, that's what they wanted. Blind! Gun's no good now.God, for a breath of air! Damned tears! Can't open my eyes! Air! _Gotto have it!_
His throat refused to open. The stink, a little like iodine, a lotlike a hospital smell but a million times stronger--raked at thetender tissues of his throat. Icepicks stabbed from his soft palate,up into his brain, his temples. He swayed against the door, caught thelever and heaved convulsively. The door fell away slowly. He stumbledforward, gashing his knee against the sharp jamb.
A light struck redly through his clenched, tear-soaked eye-lids.
"That did it. Get the gun!" The voice was high, almost girlish. Ayoung boy?
A slightly heavier voice said, "Got it. Keep an eye on him while Ifind out why the fan stopped working."
"He's going no place. You were right. That bromine stuff really didthe business. Lookit his face. Sure it won't kill him?"
"Don't care if it does now. We got the door open."
"What is this bromine, anyhow? Boy it sure stinks!"
"It's a chemical element like chlorine, only it's a liquid. It fumesif you don't keep it covered with water, and the fumes really get you.They used it in gas bombs in the war."
"That was chlorine."
"They used bromine, too. I read it."
"Air!" Neff rasped.
"Help yourself if you call this stinkin' stuff in your warehouse air."
From the vault the deadened voice came. "This must be the switch. Theother switch is for the lights."
"Look out! When you turn it on don't get dosed yourself."
"I only dumped a few drops in. There. It'll blow out in a few--phew,let me outta here. That stuff does--God, it's worse than the dose Igot in the chem lab!" The voice grew, coughing and cursing. "Betterwait a minute or two. How's our big brave dog-killer doing?"
On his hands and knees, Neff was on the verge of passing out, butdoggedly he tried to place the voices. Highschool kids? _Bromine._Sounded like a chemical they might filch from the highschoollaboratory.
A kick in the ribs reminded him he was still helpless. "All right, getback in there." They aimed him through the vault door and kept kickinghim until he went. They hauled him up into his chair. He tried tostrike out blindly, but his chest was full of licking flames thatspread pain out to his shoulders.
Now rope whipped around his feet, hands, chest and neck, jerking hisbody hard against the castered desk-chair and cramping his head back."Tie him good. No way to lock him in with this door."
Neff opened his eyes. The boys were wet blurs rummaging through hisdesk. "Look! Just look at that! We can't carry all that."
"Get one of those burlap sacks out there. By the door."
Footsteps went and returned. "Now, just the small bills. Up to twenty.No, Jerry, leave the big stuff alone. Who'd take one from a kid?"
"Okay, let's make tracks."
"Wait!" Neff said desperately. "My legs and hands. You've cut off thecirculation!"
* * * * *
Something hard like the barrel of a gun rapped down on the top of hishead. "I ought to blow your dirty brains out. Killing my littlesister's dog, damn you. Damn you, I think I will kill you. Damn you,damn you!" the voice crested.
"Wait a minute Jerry," the other voice cut in. "I got a better idea.Here. Look at this."
Short silence. "Yeah! Yeah, that's just dandy. Look how thin he is.That's just what the doctor ordered. Okay, the top's loose. Stand bythe door and don't let him get by you. Wait. Got your flash? Good! Inthe dark. That's real good. Which switch is it?"
"Throw them both."
"Okay. Flash it over here. Look out, here I come!"
"Hurry up! Look at that hungry, black-eyed little devil. That ought tofix up the son-of-a--" ..._Thunk!_ The compression rammed heavily intoNeff's ears. The bolts shot solidly into place from the outside, andthe combination knob rang faintly as it was spun. Silence.
They'd go out the same way they came in and tack the board back inplace. How long before anybody would miss him? Twenty-four hours?Hell, no. Nobody would bust a gut worrying that soon. Two days? Someweeks he was gone several days making the rounds of his loan offices.
A week? Maybe. Girls at the Palace would get suspicious. Tell CollinBurns.
But a week! They'd cut off the blower when they threw both switches.No ventilation. No air.
Neff strained at the ropes. His legs were pulled under the seat sotightly that his feet were turning numb. Hands were tingling, too.Dirty little sadists. Turning John loose thinking--
He _had_ to get loose. Less than one day's air, then--
"John!" Thank God John wasn't an ordinary rat.
"John, come over to me. These ropes. Chew them, John. Come on, John.Come on, boy."
No sound at first, then a faint motion in the old newspapers.
"John, say the alphabet!"
"Eh--bih----"
"That's right. Go on!"
"Fih----jih----" The squeaking stopped.
"Come over to me, John. Come to me, boy."
He held his breath. The beating of his heart was so loud he couldn'tbe sure that John was moving. The silence was long. Even the rat wasblind in this blackness. He must be patient.
Sweat began oozing and trickling down his face, his armpits, hisback--even his left leg. No, wait! That wasn't sweat!
* * * * *
The throbbing in his legs was greatest at his left knee. The tricklewas blood from the gash. It ran freely, now, the ropes backing uparterial pressure. Never mind that!
"John!"
The coffee can tipped over, and the racket made Neff start against hisbonds. The rope sawed his Adam's apple.
_Crunch!_
"Leave that damned wheat alone, John. Come over to me, boy. I'll giveyou a whole bag full when you chew off these ropes. Hear that, John?And a chicken foot. I'll bring you a whole chicken. A live one. I'lltie her down so she won't peck you. That's what I'll do, John."
He was breathing heavily now. "Do you get me, John? Would you like alive chicken?"
"Yeff."
The crunching resumed for a minute then stopped. Neff remembered,there had been only a dozen or so grains of wheat left. John wouldstill be hungry. The thought of a chicken should do it. If not, hecould threaten him.
Neff waited. Relax! There was all night to work this out.
Finally, he felt something at his ankles. "That's the boy, John. Uphere and down my arms. They're behind me. Get the rope off my handsfirst. Come on boy."
It was John, all right. Neff could feel the little claws coming up hisleft leg.
"Come on, hurry up, John. Tell you what. I'll bring you a nice, fatfemale, just like yourself. A live one. You can live in the cagetogeth----John, don't stop there!"
The claws had paused near his knee and were clinging to theblood-soaked cloth.
"No, no, John! Don't! I'll stick you with the fork. I'll stickyou--I'll kill you! John, we got to get out of here or we'll both die.Die, do you hear! We'll suffocate! Don't do that. Stop. Stop orI'll--"
Neff's threats beat hard into the rat's brain, and now as the slantingincisors tore at the cloth and chewed the luscious, blood-smothered,hot meat, Neff's screams sent tremors through the skinny, voraciousbody, and the tail tucked down. The words made John nervous, but itwas dark. And there was food, such wonderful food, so much food!
They we
re harsh words, terrible, screaming words: but words are wordsand food is food, and after all--
John was only a rat.
THE END
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Brown John's Body Page 2
