"Now show me those nasty animals? I'm going to see to it that you get
rid of them right away."
It was over! And despite the imminent corporal punishment, Red felt
something like a load fall from him. At least the decision was out of
his hands.
"Right there, ma. I didn't do anything to them, ma. I didn't know. They
just looked like little animals and I thought you'd let me keep them,
ma. I wouldn't have taken the meat only they wouldn't eat grass or
leaves and we couldn't find good nuts or berries and cook never lets me
have anything or I would have asked her and I didn't know it was for
lunch and--"
He was speaking on the sheer momentum of terror and did not realize that
his mother did not hear him but, with eyes frozen and popping at the
cage, was screaming in thin, piercing tones.
X
The Astronomer was saying, "A quiet burial is all we can do. There is no
point in any publicity now," when they heard the screams.
She had not entirely recovered by the time she reached them, running and
running. It was minutes before her husband could extract sense from her.
She was saying, finally, "I tell you they're in the barn. I don't know
what they are. No, no--"
She barred the Industrialist's quick movement in that direction. She
said, "Don't _you_ go. Send one of the hands with a shotgun. I tell you
I never saw anything like it. Little horrible beasts with--with--I can't
describe it. To think that Red was touching them and trying to feed
them. He was _holding_ them, and feeding them meat."