Part 4 (2/2)
The Croker Sack
Elinor and Oscar were wakened immediately by the noise of the explosion and the screams of both Frances and Queenie. As Elinor rose in her bed, there was the sound of a gunshot, and the window of their bedroom shattered and a picture on the opposite wall crashed to the floor. The house seemed to be under fire from the direction of the levee.
”For G.o.d's sake Elinor, get down!” cried Oscar.
Elinor paid no attention. She leaped from the bed and ran out of the room, calling ”Frances! Frances!”
There were more shots. Elinor heard windows breaking on the first floor. There were dull thumps as the bullets struck the side of the house. A window seemed to break somewhere inside the house, and Elinor heard Zaddie's scream.
Queenie stood in the doorway of her room, holding herself up weakly by the doorjamb. She had her thumb on the switch to turn on the hall light.
63.”No!” cried Elinor. ”Don't! They'll be able to see inside the house!”
”It must be Carl!” cried Queenie wildly.
A shot, aimed through the broken staircase window, whizzed down the corridor and smashed three panes of stained gla.s.s in the door at the opposite end.
”Mama?” said Malcolm tentatively. He and Lucille stood in the open doorway of the children's room, staring at the broken gla.s.s at their feet.
”Go back inside your room,” said Elinor quickly. ”Sit down on the floor and don't move.”
The children hesitated.
”Now!”
Lucille and Malcolm retreated inside and slammed the door after them.
”Queenie, go back in and sit down in that chair in the corner. Don't get up no matter what.”
”It's Carl,” cried Queenie in desperation, ”trying to kill us all!”
The shots, which had briefly stopped, resumed. Elinor stood upright against the doorway of her room. With resounding thumps, two bullets embedded themselves in the ceiling of the hallway.
”Frances!” she called.
”Mama?” The terrified voice came weakly from below.
”Where are you?”
”I'm on the stairs! I'm cut! The gla.s.s cut me!”
”Frances, don't turn on any lights. And don't try to come back upstairs.”
”Miss El'nor!”
”Zaddie?”
”Yes, ma'am!” Zaddie called up.
”Zaddie, don't turn on any lights. Can you see Frances?”
”Yes, ma'am.”
”Zaddie, come get me,” whispered Frances.
”Walk up the stairs and get her,” said Elinor, ”then 64.carry her down to the front hallway. Don't go near any windows.”
”You want me to call the police, Miss El'nor?”
”No,” replied Elinor, ”Oscar's calling them now.”
Oscar reached out from behind and put his hand on Elinor's shoulder. ”I cain't get Mr. Key on the line. Are we sure it's Carl?”
”Who else is going to be firing bullets into the house, Oscar?”
”n.o.body else, I guess. Is everybody standing away from the windows, Elinor?” He whispered, as if by his voice, at such a distance, Carl Strickland would find them out.
”Lucille and Malcolm are in the children's room. They're safe-at least for now-because that's at the front of the house. Queenie's sitting in the corner chair in Frances's room. Some of the shots went through the screens, and that inside window is broken, but if Queenie sits still, she'll be all right.”
”Where's Frances?”
”Downstairs with Zaddie. I told them to sit in the hallway. Frances got cut when the staircase window broke.”
”Is she cut bad?”
”I don't know.”
”Let me go call Dr. Benquith.”
Oscar went back into the sitting room, which had no window open to the back of the house and the madman firing there, and telephoned Leo Benquith. He returned to the door, saying, ”He's coming right over, but I told him to be careful, he should-”
Elinor was no longer there.
He called for her frantically.
”Hus.h.!.+” she cried from the landing.
She was on her knees, inching her way across the gla.s.s-littered floor. Once past the danger of the exposed staircase window, Elinor got to her feet and descended the stairs. Broken gla.s.s crackled beneath her feet. ”I'm going to see to Frances, Oscar! You 65.stay up there. Make sure Queenie and the children stay where they are!”
”Elinor, you shouldn't have left me!”
”Mama!” cried Frances. Regardless of the splinters and shards of gla.s.s, Elinor seated herself on the bottom step. She held out her arms to her daughter, and the child leaped into them.
”Frances, did anything get in your eyes? Can you see me?”
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