Wings Read Online Free PDF

the elevator shafts, in and out of the telephone switchboard -"
    "I thought you always said kids spent far too much time running around and getting into mischief these days?"
    "Ah. Yes. Well, that's juvenile delinquency," said Gurder sternly. "It's quite different from our youthful high spirits. Let's try up here." T
    hey crawled between two warm metal walls. There was daylight ahead.
    Masklin and Gurder lay down and pulled themselves forward.
    There was an odd-shaped room, not a lot bigger than the cab of the Truck itself. Like the cab, it was really just a space where the human drivers fitted into the machinery. There was a lot of that.
    It covered the walls and ceiling. Lights and switches, dials and levers. Masklin thought, if Dorcas were here, we'd never get him to leave. Angalo's here somewhere, and we want him to leave.
    There were two humans kneeling on the floor. One of the giving-out-food females was standing by them. There was a lot of mooing and growling going on.
    "Human talking," muttered Masklin. "I wish we could understand it."
    "Very well," said the Thing. "Stand by."
    "You can understand human noises?"
    "Certainly. They 're only nome noises slowed down."
    "What? What? You never told us that! You never told us that before!"
    "There are many billions of things I have not told you. Where would you like me to start?"
    "You can start by telling me what they're saying now," said Masklin. "Please?"
    "One of the humans has just said, 'It must have been a mouse or something,' and the other one said, 'You show me a mouse wearing clothes, and I'll admit it was a mouse.' And the giving-out-food female said, 'It was no mouse I saw. It blew a raspberry at me (exclamation).' "
    "What's a raspberry?"
    "The small red fruit of the plant Rubus idaeus."
    Masklin turned to Gurder. "Did you?"
    "Me? What fruit? Listen, if there'd been any fruit around I'd have eaten it. I just went 'thrrrrrrrrp.'"
    "One of the humans has just said, 'I looked around and there it was, staring out the window.'"
    "That's Angalo all right," said Gurder.
    "Now the other kneeling-down human has said, Well, whatever it is, it's behind this panel and it can't go anywhere.'"
    "It's taking off a bit of the wall!" said Masklin. "Oh, no! It's reaching inside!" The human mooed.
    "The human said, 'It bit me! The little devil bit me!' " said the Thing, conversationally.
    "Yep. That's Angalo," said Gurder. "His father was like that too. A fighter in a tight corner."
    "But they don't know what they've got!" said Masklin urgently. "They've seen him, but he ran away! They're arguing about it! They don't really believe in nomes! If we can get him out before he's caught, they're bound to think it was a mouse or something!"
    "I suppose we could get around there inside the walls," said Gurder. "But it'd take too long." Masklin looked desperately around the cabin. Besides the three people trying to catch Angalo there were two humans up at the front. They must be the drivers, he thought.
    "I'm right out of ideas," he said. "Can you think of anything, Thing?"
    "There is practically no limit to what I can think of."
    "I mean, is there anything you can do to help us rescue Angalo?"
    "Yes."
    "You'd better do it, then."
    "Yes." A moment later they heard the low clanging of alarms. Lights began to flash. The drivers shouted and leaned forward and started doing things to switches.
    "What's going on?" said Masklin.
    "It is possible that the humans are startled that they are no longer flying this machine," said the Thing.
    "They're not? Who is, then?" The lights rippled smoothly across the Thing.
    "l am."
    One of the frogs fell off the branch, and disappeared quietly into the leafy canopy far below. Since very small light animals can fall a long way without being hurt, it's quite likely that it survived in the forest world under the tree and had the second most interesting experience any tree frog has ever had.
    The rest of them crawled onward. They were going to have the most