Flames Coming out of the Top Read Free

change’ll do you good.”
    Kay went over and put her arm affectionately around her mother. Dunnett looked away. He hated to see her festooning herself about the withered Mrs. Barton in this way. She only did it to be provoking, to show how loving she could be to other people. But for some reason, this time she suddenly changed her mind.
    â€œYou go along, mother,” she said. “I shall be coming in a minute.”
    As soon as Mrs. Barton had gone—she left them reluctantly as though doubting whether Dunnett were really to be trusted —Kay turned towards him.
    â€œI’ve been horrid,” she said.
    â€œNo you haven’t,” he assured her. “Of course it’s rotten being sent away like this—just now I mean.” It was the first time she had ever apologised to him and he did not quite know how to take it.
    â€œDon’t be cross with me,” she said, putting her hand on his arm. “I know I’ve been beastly. But it isn’t very nice to come home and find that somebody you’re fond of is going away for five months.”
    â€œAre you fond of me?” he asked.
    â€œYou know I am.”
    â€œYes, but I don’t know how much.”
    â€œYou can kiss me if you want to.” She let herself go limp in his arms.
    He had never kissed her like this before. The sleek waves of her pale gold hair became ruffled and fell in little tresses over her face, and her smart organdie bow was reduced to a piece of crumpled rubbish.
    â€œShall we get married straightaway?” he asked stupidly, as though the miracle could happen on the spot.
    â€œWhen you get back, perhaps,” she answered.
    â€œWhat do you mean, ‘perhaps’?”
    â€œPerhaps you won’t want to. You may see somebody else you like better.”
    â€œI shan’t see anybody I like better,” he told her. “I want to marry you and I don’t want to marry anyone else, and I never shall.”
    â€œI shouldn’t be too sure,” she said faintly. “There are lots of things that might happen.”
    â€œNot to us, there aren’t,” he said. “Not if you really love a person.”
    When he got to his boarding house he went straight to his room. He had called in at the Public Library on his way back from the office and the Librarian had given him everything about South America that he had. The books lay on the flimsy table beside the bed. He kicked off his shoes and stretched himself out to read up his subject. For a start, he reached out for
The South American Handbook
. But it was Prescott’s
History of the Conquest of Peru
that came to his grip. The words were strange and his eye caught something. “… the voyagers were now abreast of some of the most stupendous heights of this magnificent range,” he read; “Chimborazo, with its broad round summit, towering like the dome of the Andes, and Cotopaxi, with its dazzling cone of silvery white, that knows no change except from the action of its own volcanic fires.” With the feeling of unknown excitements just beyond his grasp he turned the page and read on. “The people of Tumbez were gathered along the shore and were gazing with unutterable astonishment on the floating castle, which, now having dropped anchor, rode lazily at its moorings in their bay. …” Somehow the
Handbook
lay neglected; outside his window, the glow of London hung like a dome in the sky and the noise of its inhabitants was a reverberation that would have muffled an explosion. ButHarold Dunnett had been transported away from all that; he was on the other side of the world now, with the Conquistadores. “On landing,” the words ran on enticingly,” Molina was surrounded by the natives, who expressed the greatest astonishment at his dress, his fair complexion and his long beard. The women especially manifested great curiosity in respect to him, and Molina seemed to be entirely