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Show 56 "Yes sir. First road to the right, second house on the left." And as Sid drove away he came to attention, saluting as smartly as a cracked whip. "Puts you on your uppers, doesn't it?" Louise murmured. "Though I must say - - " And she gazed about at the puddle-pocked, duckboard-laced parade ground, her voice dying dispiritedly. At the far end tha flag streamed in the perennial wind; beyond it the waters of the bay riffled in pewter monotony. As befittad Smead's position, his house was second to the Colonel's, both in site and size, though as they walked to the door Sid and Louise tried not to stare: talked casually about topis in which, at the moment,neither one A had much interest. In a few seconds the door opened, and Ellen stood before them, smiling with the enjoyment other people seemed to summon from her as love from a child. "Goodness," she said, gazing seaward, "come in out of the gale. Let me take your coats." And removing a couple of hangers from the closet she carried on the polite introductory talk that, while light, seemed easy and natural. "You're here." It was Smead, in shirt-sleeves, his necktie casually askew. "No problems," said Sid. "Considering tha roads in Higashi, that's a victory. Ought to jump on the gooks, make 'em fill the holes." "I suppose," Louise murmured, always defensive of the Japanese, "they've got so much to do. . . . " |