Читать книгу The Complete Works of Algernon Blackwood. Novels, Short Stories, Horror Classics, Occult & Supernatural Tales, Plays онлайн

433 страница из 1552

'H'mmmm, you did.'

'Only, remember, you were all very young when I was in America' weren't you?' he added by way of excuse.

Nixie nodded her head approvingly.

'And you, 'expect,' she replied thoughtfully, 'were too hard then. I hadn't thought of that. You might never have squeezed through the Crack, mightn't you? You're much softer now,' she decided after a second's reflection, 'ever so much softer!'

'I have improved, I think,' he admitted, blushing like a pleased schoolboy. 'I am decidedly softer!'

He made a violent dig with his penknife, breaking down the hard barrier between two ditches, where-,upon Pouf, thinking the resultant splinter was a plaything specially contrived for its happiness, opened i its eyes wider than ever, and stretched out a paw that looked huge compared with the splinter and the penknife. Paul put the weapon away, and Pouf fixed its eyes intently on the pocket where it had vanished, leaving its paw absent-mindedly lying on the splinter which it had already wholly forgotten. It purred louder than ever, trying to give the impression that it was really a big cat.