The Everlasting Whisper

Book Excerpt: ...returned to the injured man with a brimming cup. Parker drank thirstily, demanded more, and sank back with a long sigh."The thing's unlucky, you know, King," he said queerly."Is it?" said King coolly. It was like him not to pretend that he did not know to what Andy Parker's thoughts had flown.Parker nodded, pursing his lips, and kept on nodding like a broken automatic toy. At the end he jerked his head up and muttered: "There's been the devil's luck on it for more'n sixty years and maybe a thousand years before that! Oh, you know! Look how it went with those old-timers. The last one of the Seven got it. Look how it happens with old man Loony Honeycutt, clucking and chuckling and stepping up and down in his shadow all the time; gone nuts from just smelling of it! Look what happens to me, all stove up here." He paused and then spat out venomously: "Oh, it'll get Swen Brodie and it'll get you, too, Mark King. You'll see.""Another drink before I go?" demand...