Cape Fear by John D. MacDonald Read Free Book Online Page B

dog wrapped in a tattered old khaki blanket. Sam lifted her out of the car and carried her to the hole. She was extremely heavy. He covered her quickly and shapedthe mound with the shovel. Dr. Lowney refused the offer of a drink and drove on back to town.
    Dinner was a cheerless affair. During dinner Sam outlined the new rules. He had half expected objections. But the kids accepted them without comment.
    After the children were all in bed, Sam and Carol sat in the living room.
    “It’s so hard on them,” Carol said. “Bucky most of all. He was two when we got her, and she was sort of his dog.”
    “I’ll do a little slave-driving tomorrow. Make them all work on the boat. It’ll take their minds off it.”
    “And some target practice?”
    “You sound eager. You were pretty reluctant the last time.”
    “Because there didn’t seem to be much point in it.”
    They read for a while. He got up restlessly and looked out at the night. There was a distant grumble of June thunder. It sounded as though it came from the north, out over the lake. Marilyn had always had a standard reaction to thunder. The head would go up and tilt. Then the ears would go back. She would stand up and give a vastly artificial yawn, lick her chops, eye them in a side-long way and saunter in the general direction of the couch. With one more apologetic glance she would crawl under the couch. Once when a loud clap of thunder had come without previous warnings from the distance, she had shot across the room and miscalculated the clearance and banged her forehead mightily on the bottom edge. She had rebounded, staggered, recovered, and scrambled under, and everybody had laughed except Bucky.
    “It was like a charmed circle,” Carol said.
    He turned and looked at her. “I think I know what you mean.”
    “The untouchables. And now something has come in out of the darkness and struck one of us down. The charm isn’t working any more.”
    “The business of living is a very precarious occupation.”
    “Don’t be philosophical with me. Let me have my ridiculous little superstitions. We had a nice little fool’s paradise.”
    “And will have again.”
    “It won’t be the same.”
    “You’ve had a grim day.”
    She stood up and stretched. “And I’m going to put an end to it right now. This was a real whistler of a day. A doozy.” The thunder sounded again, closer. “Let’s lock up the joint,” she said.
    “I’ll do it. You run along. I’ll be right up.”
    After she had gone up he stood in the back of the house and watched the northwest sky. There were pink flashes below the horizon line. It would have been easier for all of them, he thought, if Marilyn had been a valiant, brave and noble animal. But she had been such a hapless creature, full of alarms and forebodings, yelping at the mere threat of pain, constantly in a state of apology. It was as though all her fears had come true, as though she had always known of the special agony awaiting her.

Four
    ALL FIVE BOWDENS HAD BREAKFAST , for once, at the same time. There was discussion of the violence of the storm that had struck in the night. Jamie and Bucky had not heard it at all. Nancy said it had awakened her and she had put her robe on and sat by her window and watched it. Neither Sam nor Carol mentioned that Carol, wakened by the storm and timid of lightning, had slid over into Sam’s bed, cuddling in fragrant closeness to still her fears. Marilyn was not mentioned. But Bucky had shadowy hollows under his eyes.
    “Schedule,” Sam said. “Attention, all Bowdens. Nancy will help her mother swamp out the kitchen and make the beds while you boys help me find the stuff for the boat and load it in the wagon. Then we shall have a spot of target practice. You are in charge of hanging up the cans, Jamie. Then we go work on the boat.”
    The range was part way up the gentle hill behind the house. The backstop was a clay bank. Jamie got a half dozen empty cans from the rubbish and tied