Chapter 26 Section 25

Lucy realized quite suddenly that the house was too small.After all, there are only four rooms in the house, connected by a small corridor with a flight of stairs.You just walk around and you run into people.If you stand still and listen, you can hear what everyone is doing: Henry filling the basin, David sliding down the stairs, Joe playing with his teddy bear in the living room.Lucy wished she could have a little time to herself before she met someone else, so she would have time to quiet down the memories of last night, bury them deep in her mind; It's like nothing happened. She guessed that she was not good at deceiving.It doesn't come naturally to her to lie, she has no such experience.She tried to recall another instance in her life when she had cheated on a loved one, but she couldn't think of one.Not because she has extremely high moral standards, but because she has never had anything to hide from others.

David and Joe are sitting at the kitchen table, eating.David said nothing, Jo babbled, and Lucy didn't want to eat. "Won't you have some?" David said casually. "I've had some." Voila—her first lie.Not too bad. It was raining so hard that Lucy couldn't see the barn from the kitchen window.The gray sky hangs low and the fog is heavy, forming a continuous twilight.In the garden, the rainwater ran into streams among the potato plants, and the meadow formed a pool of water.The nests under the eaves have been washed away, and sparrows are flying in and out under the eaves in panic.

Lucy felt better when she heard Henry come downstairs.For some reason, she was sure he was very good at covering up. "Good morning!" Faber said comfortably.David, leaning against the dining table in his wheelchair, looked up and smiled.Lucy busied herself by the stove, shame reflected all over her face.Faber muttered to himself, but David didn't seem to notice her expression.Faber began to think that David was an idiot. Lucy said, "Sit down and have some breakfast, Henry." "Thank you very much." David said, "I'm afraid I can't take you to church. The best we can do is listen to the hymns on the radio."

Only then did Faber realize that today is Sunday: "Do you go to church?" "No," David said, "what about you?" "nor." "Sunday is pretty much the same as any other day for a farmer," David continued. "I'm going to drive across the island to see my shepherds. You can come with me if you want." "I'd love to go." That could give him a scouting opportunity.He needs to identify the way to the house with the transmitter. "Will you let me drive?" David glared at him: "I can drive by myself." After a moment of nervous dullness, he said again: "In this kind of weather, finding the way is entirely based on memory, and it will be much safer for me to drive."

"Of course." Faber began to eat breakfast. "Don't force it, if you think it's too much—" "No, I'm glad to go." "Did you sleep through the night? I don't think you're so tired anymore. I hope Lucy hasn't been talking to you too late." Faber forced himself not to see Lucy.Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that she was blushing up to her ears. "I slept all day yesterday." He tried to keep David's eyes on himself. useless.David is staring at his wife.She turned her back.He wrinkled his forehead, and for a split second his mouth was open in a look of astonishment.

Faber was a little uneasy.Now David was suspicious.It's not dangerous, but it can be annoying. David quickly returned to normal.He shook the wheelchair away from the table and headed for the back door. "I'll get the Jeep out of the garage first," he muttered.He took a raincoat from a hook, threw it over his head, opened the door and cranked out. During the few minutes the door was left open, the squall blew into the kitchenette, soaking the floor and chilling the occupants.After the door closed, Lucy shivered and began mopping the rain off the ground. Faber reached out to touch her arm.

"Don't," she said, shaking her head in Joe's direction as a warning. "Don't be stupid," Faber told her. "I think he knows," she said. "If you think about it, you don't really care if he knows or not." She thought about it. "I do not think so." Faber shrugged.The jeep's horn blared impatiently outside the door.Lucy handed him a raincoat and a pair of rain boots. "Don't talk to him about me," she said. Faber put on his raincoat and walked to the front door.Lucy followed him, closing the kitchen door behind him, out of Joe's view.

With one hand on the doorknob, Faber turned and kissed her. She kissed him back hard, then turned and went into the kitchen. Faber ran through the mud in the rain, jumped into the jeep, and sat next to David.He started the car immediately. The car has been modified for people without legs: there is a handbrake, an automatic gear, and a handle on the steering wheel for one-handed turning.The folded wheelchair slides into a special space behind the driver's seat.In the rack above the windshield was a shotgun. David is a skilled driver.He was right about the road: it was just a track made by tires in the heather.The deep ruts were filled with rainwater.The car skidded in the mud.David seemed to be driving quite vigorously.He had a cigarette in his mouth, and he had a nonchalant look on his face, which didn't match the difficulty of driving.Maybe he's doing it instead of flying.

"What do you do when you're not fishing?" he said, smoking a cigarette. "I'm a civil servant," Faber told him. "What job?" "Finance. Just a cog in the machine." "In the Treasury?" "mainly." Even such a stupid answer didn't stop David from asking. "Interesting?" he insisted. "It's okay." Faber racked his brains to make up some excuses, "I know a little bit about how much a project should cost, and most of the time is to confirm that taxpayers will not pay more taxes." "Ah, I see. We're all doing our part in the war, each in our own way."

This is a sarcasm.David didn't understand why Faber didn't feel disgusted. "I'm too old to be a soldier," Faber said mildly. "Did you take part in the First World War?" "It was too young." "Lucky enough to escape." "That's right." The road was close to the edge of the cliff, but David didn't slow down.A thought crossed Faber's mind as to whether David wanted to die with him.He reached out and grabbed the armrest. "Do you think I'm driving too fast?" David asked. "You seem to know the way very well," Faber replied.

"You look a little scared," David said. Faber ignored it.David slowed down a bit, obviously satisfied that he had finally guessed this right. The island, Faber observed, was fairly flat and bare.The ground undulates gently, and he has not seen any mountains.Vegetation is mainly grass, with some ferns and shrubs, very few trees, and no protection from wind and rain.David Ross' sheep must be tough, he thought. "Are you married?" David asked suddenly. "No." "wise." "Oh, I don't know if that's the case." "I bet you got into a lot of trouble over there in London." David shot him sideways. Faber had never liked the contemptuous insinuations some men made of women.He snapped, "I think you are very lucky to have Lucy." "Oh, is it?" "yes." "However, it can't be changed into a taste, huh?" Faber thought to himself: Where the hell is this guy leading the conversation?"I haven't had a chance to try out the joys of monogamy," he said. "more or less." Faber thought: David himself doesn't know where to lead the conversation.He decided that since every word the other person said would start a fire, he'd better not say anything. "Honestly, you don't look like a government accountant. Where's your umbrella and top hat?" Faber put on a faint smile. "But you're kind of a pen-holder." "My position is lowly." "You must be strong and strong to survive this shipwreck." "Thank you. I appreciate the compliment." "You don't look past military age either." Faber turned to stare at David. "Where do you want to go, David?" he asked quietly. "We're almost there," David said. Faber looked out the windshield and saw a small house very similar to Lucy's.The house stood on top of a hill, the only hill Faber had seen on the island, and it wasn't really a hill.The house is solid and looks quite comfortable.The jeep climbed toward it, skirting a field of pines and firs.Faber couldn't figure out why the house wasn't built in the shade of the trees. There is a hawthorn plant next to the house, which is dotted with raindrops.David stopped the car.Faber watched as he unfolded the folded wheelchair and slid from the driver's seat into it.Faber knew he wouldn't be happy if he offered to help him. They entered the room through an unlocked wooden door.They were greeted by a black and white shepherd dog in the hall.Sheepdogs are small in size with broad heads and wag their tails but don't bark.The layout of the house was the same as Lucy's, but the atmosphere was very different: it was bare, gloomy, and not very clean. David led the way into the kitchen.The shepherd sits by an old-fashioned wood-burning stove, roasting his hands.He stood up. David said, "Henry, this is Tom McAVity." "Nice to meet you," said Tom solemnly. Faber shook his hand.He was a stocky man with the face of an old tan suitcase, and he wore a cloth cap and smoked a large capped briar pipe.His handshake was strong, his skin rough as sandpaper.He has a big nose.His Scottish accent was so thick that Faber had a hard time understanding him. "I hope I'm not in your way," Faber said. "I'm just driving around." David rocked his wheelchair and approached the table. "I don't think there's much we can do this morning, Tom—just look around." "Well. Let's have a cup of tea before we go." Tom poured strong tea into three large mugs, and added a little whiskey to each.The three sat down and drank in silence.David smoked a cigarette, Tom smoked his pipe quietly, and Faber was sure these two often passed the time in this way: smoking, warming their hands, and saying nothing. When they had finished their tea, Tom put the cup in the shallow stone sink, and they went out into the car.Faber sat in the back seat.This time David drove slowly, and the dog named Bob trotted along side the car without much effort.Clearly David knew the terrain like the back of his hand, and he turned the steering wheel confidently across the open grass without once sinking into a swampy pothole.The flock looked pitiful: their wool was all soaked, some were huddled in the hollows, some leaned against the bushes, and some stayed on the leeward slope, not thinking of grazing at all.Even the lambs are obediently hiding under the ewes. Faber was staring at the dog.I saw it stopped, listened for a while, and then rushed forward. Tom was watching too. "Bob found something," he said. The jeep followed the dog for a quarter of a mile.When the car came to a stop, Faber heard the roar of the sea—they were approaching the northern end of the island.The dog stood on the edge of a small canyon.They got out of the car and heard what the dog had just heard: a sheep whining.They walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down. The sheep was lying on its side twenty feet or so below, threatening to slide down the steep slope at any moment.One of its front legs was raised awkwardly.Tom stepped down carefully to examine its bad leg. "Mutton is tonight," he called up. David took the musket out of the car and slid it down the slope to him.Tom ended the suffering of the wounded sheep with a single shot. "Are you going to rope him up?" David cried. "Well—not if Henry will come down and help me." "Of course," Faber said.He picked his way down to where Tom was standing.Each of them dragged a leg of lamb and pulled the dead sheep up the slope.Faber's raincoat caught on a thorn and almost fell off. He pulled hard, and with a loud sound, the raincoat came off the thorn. They threw the sheep into the car and drove off again.Faber felt very wet. It turned out that he almost tore the back of the raincoat. "I'm afraid I've ruined this raincoat." "It wasn't on purpose," Tom told him. They soon returned to Tom's house.Faber took off his oilskin and wet jacket, and Tom put the jacket over the stove to dry.Tom's house didn't have Lucy's modern flush toilet, and they went one by one to the outhouse.Tom made new tea. "This sheep is the first we've lost this year," David said. "what." "We're going to put a fence in the canyon this summer." "what." Faber noticed that the atmosphere was a bit strange, a slight change from two or three hours ago.They sat drinking tea and smoking as before, but David seemed disturbed.Twice Faber noticed David staring at him thoughtfully. At last David said, "We've got to go, you kill the sheep here, Tom." "it is good." David and Faber are gone.Tom didn't get up to see them off, but the dog saw them to the door. David unhooked the musket from its rack above the windshield, reloaded it, and put it back again before starting the car. On the way home, his mood changed again, and he rapped: "I once flew a Spitfire, you know. What a lovely kite. Four guns on each wing - USA The Browning type, which can fire 1,260 rounds per minute. The Germans love guns, of course—their Mi-109s only have two machine guns. The guns are powerful, but our Bo Ronning is faster and more accurate." "Really?" Faber said politely. "They put guns on the Tornado later, but it was our Spitfire that won the Battle of Britain." Faber was annoyed by his exaggeration.He said, "How many enemy planes have you shot down?" "I lost my legs in training," David said. Faber peeked at his face, which showed suppressed anger. David said, "I haven't killed a German yet." The signal is crystal clear.Faber was suddenly alert.He didn't know what David had discovered, but the man undoubtedly knew something.Faber turned slightly to face David, put one foot on the gearbox on the chassis, braced himself, and gently placed his right hand on his left forearm.He waited for David's next move. "Are you interested in airplanes?" David asked. "No." Faber's tone was flat. "I guess enemy plane spotting has become a national pastime. It's like bird watching. People buy books on identifying planes and spend afternoons lying on their backs looking at the sky with binoculars. I thought you were into that too." What about this matter?" "why?" "how?" "How do you think I'm a keen observer of airplanes?" "Oh, I don't know." David paused, lighting a cigarette.They were in the middle of the island, five miles from both Tom's and Lucy's houses.David threw the match on the ground: "It's probably a photo that fell out of your pocket—" Before he finished speaking, he threw the lit cigarette in Faber's face while reaching for the gun above the windshield.