Wolfweir by A. G. Hardy Read Free Book Online Page A

stations, the train slowing and stopping for only a few minutes before lurching into that chugging rickety movement again. As his mother and father slept in the next compartment, Alphonse had glued his forehead to the cold window to try to behold anything he could, down to the smallest sheep grazing in a mountain pasture, lightning- ed by the passing windows of the train. To a child every sensation shines new, like a Christmas toy.)
     
    Alphonse folds the blue schedule and sticks it into his vest. He goes to a jar by the stove and withdraws from it a thick wad of francs and stuffs this currency into his vest with the schedule.
     
    "Ah, but however on earth shall we disguise you?" Lucia asks.
     
    Alphonse hangs his head to concentrate on this question. Then he snaps his wooden fingers, goes to a tall wardrobe in the hallway, and withdraws a ship's plaid blanket.
     
    He pulls a beret down from a peg by the wardrobe. Wraps the blanket about his shoulders, then plants the beret on his puppet crown and picks up his sword cane, leaning forward on it. Shuffling forward a few steps.
     
    Lucia claps.
     
    "You look like an old man. Excellente ! E io . My disguise shall be what?"
     
    Alphonse tosses Lucia a black tophat . It's an old one of his father's, lined with green leather. Then he tosses her a splashy black opera cape.
     
    "Ah! I see! You want me to look like an actor! I will put my hair up like this -- "
     
    Lucia twists her hair up and places the tophat on her head. She throws the silk lined cape over her bony shoulders.
     
    "Ta ta !"
     
    Alphonse claps, his wooden palms clacking like castanets.
     
    **
     
    They exit the apartment carrying three suitcases stuffed with old clothing and some hard sausages Alphonse found in the cupboard. He's carrying the Toledo sword cane. On the way out, he picks up the twin dueling pistols from the hall table and stuffs them into his belt. He slips the bag of powder and shot into a trouser pocket.
     
    (One may prefer to work up close with sharpened steel, but one just never knows when one might require the barking assistance of a firearm.)
     
     
    With the blanket wrapped about him and his head down, his pine eyes shadowed by that blue Basque beret, his silver-tipped sword cane tapping the stairs, puppet Alphonse looks like an infirm gentleman attended by his actor friend going out for a walk under the blossoming chestnut trees on this fine April morning in Paris, the city of lights and dreams and good food.
     
    Even the sharp eyed concierge is fooled, thinking this sad figure wrapped in a ship's blanket is perhaps the somewhat germ-phobic Mr. Pierrot from the sixth floor. She takes the boy in the silk opera cape to be an eccentric nephew.
     
    "Poor ancient thing," she says to her drowsing cat. "It's good he has the boy to help him walk. He's soon to be in Pere Lachaise, no doubt of that. I can hear his bones rattle from all the way over here!"
     
    The Gare du Nord
     
    At the end of the Avenue Dupin , Alphonse raised his cane to hail a clip-clopping horse cab.
     
    They rode under the black canopy to the Gare du Nord and disembarked, dragging those overstuffed suitcases into the vast, echoing station under the great brass clock and the arced steel-and-glass skylights.
     
    Lucia bought two tickets on the Milan Express. She and Alphonse slumped together on a hard bench to await departure at twelve noon sharp.
     
    Alphonse was starting to drowse on Lucia's bony shoulder when she shook him so his teeth clicked.
     
    "Attend! Look," she whispered.
     
    Two men in long green dusters and derby hats were walking slowly together almost in step through the vast station concourse, shoving aside anyone who happened to get in their way.
     
    They looked dangerous, vicious, and professional. They were turning their heads from side to side in unison to sweep the station with steely eyed gazes.
     
    Clearly these deadly men were searching for someone.
     
    A shiver went through