He said he didn’t touch spirits and went away, a perplexed, scared look on his face.
Hopper stared across the room at me, and under the intense scrutiny of those glaring eves I felt a little spooked. I hoped fervently the handcuff on his ankle was strong enough to hold him if he took it into his head to try and break loose.
“I have been thinking, Hoppie,” I said, speaking slowly and distinctly. “What we must do is to cut that punk Bland’s throat and drink his blood. We should have done it before.”
“Yes,” Hopper said, and the glare in his eyes began to fade. “We will do that.”
I wondered if it would be safe to try for the key now, but decided against it. I wasn’t sure of Brother Quell. If he caught me trying I felt it would sadden his young life even more than it was saddened already.
“I will make a plan,” I said to Hopper. “Bland is very cunning. It won’t be easy to trap him.”
Hopper seemed to calm down and his face stopped twitching.
“I will make a plan too,” he said.
The rest of the evening went by while he made his plan and I thought about what I was going to do if I got free of the cuff. It seemed unlikely that I should be able to escape from the house, but if I could locate Anona Freedlander and have a talk with her and warn her she was soon to be rescued I wouldn’t waste my time. Then when Kerman showed up—and I was certain he would show up sooner or later—we wouldn’t have to waste time hunting for her.
Quell looked in occasionally. He didn’t do more than put his head around the door, and Hopper was too preoccupied with his plans to notice him. I made ssh-ing signs every time Quell appeared, pointing at Hopper and shaking my head. Quell nodded back, looking more like a horse than ever, and went silently away.