Part 27 (1/2)
But Muckluck stared incredulously.
”_Two_ at the same time!” she exclaimed. ”It's like that, then, in your country?”
The Boy saw not astonishment alone, but something akin to disgust in the face of the Princess. He felt, vaguely, he must justify his twins.h.i.+p.
”Of course; there's nothing strange about it; it happens quite often.”
”_Often?_”
”Yes; people are very much pleased. Once in a while there are even three--”
”All at the same time!” Her horror turned into shrieks of laughter.
”Why, your women are like our dogs! Human beings and seals never have more than one at a time!”
The old man in the corner began to moan and mutter feverishly. Nicholas went to him, bent down, and apparently tried to soothe him. Muckluck gathered up the supper-things and set them aside.
”You were at the Holy Cross school?” asked the Boy.
”Six years--with Mother Aloysius and the Sisters. They very good.”
”So you're a Catholic, then?”
”Oh yes.”
”You speak the best English I've heard from a native.”
”I love Sister Winifred. I want to go back--unless”--she regarded the Boy with a speculative eye--”unless I go your country.”
The sick man began to talk deliriously, and lifted up a terrible old face with fever-bright eyes glaring through wisps of straight gray hair. No voice but his was heard for some time in the ighloo, then, ”I fraid,” said Muckluck, crouching near the fire, but with head turned over shoulder, staring at the sick man.
”No wonder,” said the Boy, thinking such an apparition enough to frighten anybody.
”Nicholas 'fraid, too,” she whispered, ”when the devil talks.”
”The devil?”
”Yes. s.h.!.+ You hear?”
The delirious chatter went on, rising to a scream. Nicholas came hurrying back to the fire with a look of terror in his face.
”Me go get Shaman.”
”No; he come soon.” Muckluck clung to him.
They both crouched down by the fire.
”You 'fraid he'll die before the Shaman gets here?”
”Oh no,” said Muckluck soothingly, but her face belied her words.
The sick man called hoa.r.s.ely. Nicholas got him some water, and propped him up to drink. He glared over the cup with wild eyes, his teeth chattering against the tin. The Boy, himself, felt a creep go down his spine.