Nurse Gray moved from the window and Rat saw the second form in the
room, a slight, quiet figure on a small cot. "My patient," Nurse Gray
explained. "She overheard our conversation awhile ago. Quick, please,
can you?"
Rat looked at her and then at the girl on the cot. He vanished from the
window. Almost immediately, he was back again.
"When?" he whispered.
"As soon as possible. Yes. Do you know...?" but he had gone again.
Nurse Gray found herself addressing blackness. On the point of turning,
she saw him back again.
"Blankets," he instructed. "Wrap in blankets. Cold--hot too. Wrap
good!" And he was gone again. Gray blinked away the illusion he
disappeared upwards.
She ran over to the girl. "Judith, if you want to back down, now is the
time. He'll be back in a moment."
"No!" Judith moaned. "No!" Gray smiled in the darkness and began
wrapping the blankets around her. A light tapping at the window
announced the return of Rat. The nurse pushed open the window wide, saw
him out there with arms upstretched.
"Grit your teeth and hold on! Here we go." She picked up the blanketed
girl in both arms and walked to the window. Rat took the girl easily as
she was swung out, the blackness hid them both. But he appeared again
instantly.
"Better lock window," he cautioned. "Stall, if Boss call. Back
soon...." and he was gone.
To Nurse Gray the fifteen minute wait seemed like hours, impatient
agonizing hours of tight-lipped anxiety.
* * * * *
Feet first, she swung through the window, clutching a small bag in her
hands. She never touched ground. Rat whispered "Hold tight!" in her
ear and the wind was abruptly yanked from her! The ground fell away
in a dizzy rush, unseen but felt, in the night! Her feet scraped on
some projection, and she felt herself being lifted still higher. Wind
returned to her throat, and she breathed again.
"I'm sorry," she managed to get out, gaspingly. "I wasn't expecting
that. I had forgotten you--"
"--had wings," he finished and chuckled. "So likewise Greaseball." The
pale office lights dropped away as they sped over the field. On the far
horizon, a tinge of dawn crept along the uneven terrain.
"Oh, the bag!" she gasped. "I've dropped it."