"We'll fix it up. Don't worry."
But Montag did not move and only stood thinking of the ventilator grill in the hall at home and what lay hidden behind the grill. If someone here in the firehouse knew about the ventilator then mightn't they "tell" the Hound . . . ?
The Captain came over to the drop hole and gave Montag a questioning glance.
"I was just figuring," said Montag, "what does the Hound think about down there nights? Is it coming alive on us, really? It makes me cold."
"It doesn't think anything we don't want it to think."
"That's sad," said Montag, quietly, "because all we put into it is hunting and finding and killing. What a shame if that's all it can ever know."
Beatty snorted, gently. "Hell! It's a fine bit of craftsmanship, a good rifle that can fetch its own target and guarantees the bull's-eye every time."
"That's why," said Montag, "I wouldn't want to be its next victim."
"Why? You got a guilty conscience about something?"
Montag glanced up swiftly.
Beatty stood there looking at him steadily with his eyes, while his mouth opened and began to laugh, very softly.
One two three four five six seven days. And as many times he came out of the house and Clarisse was there somewhere in the world. Once he saw her shaking a walnut tree, once he saw her sitting on the lawn knitting a blue sweater, three or four times he found a bouquet of late flowers on his porch, or a handful of chestnuts in a little sack, or some autumn leaves neatly pinned to a sheet of white paper and thumbtacked to his door. Every day Clarisse walked him to the corner. One day it was raining, the next it was clear, the day after that the wind blew strong, and the day after that it was mild and calm, and the day after that calm day was a day like the furnace of summer and Clarisse with her face all sunburnt by late afternoon.
"Why is it," he said, one time, at the subway entrance, "I feel I've known you so many years?"
"Because I like you," she said, "and I don't want anything from you. And because we know each other."
"You make me feel very old and very much like a father."
"Now you explain," she said, "why you haven't any daughters like me, if you love children so much?"
"I don't know."
"You're joking!"
"I mean--" He stopped and shook his head. "Well, my wife, she . . . she just never wanted any children at all."
The girl stopped smiling. "I'm sorry. I really thought you were having fun at my expense. I'm a fool."
"No, no," he said. "It was a good question. It's been a long time since anyone cared enough to ask. A good question."
"Let's talk about something else. Have you ever smelled old leaves? Don't they smell like cinnamon? Here. Smell."
"Why, yes, it is like cinnamon in a way."
She looked at him with her clear dark eyes. "You always seem shocked."
"It's just I haven't had time--"
"Did you look at the stretched-out billboards like I told you?"
"I think so. Yes." He had to laugh.
"Your laugh sounds much nicer than it did."
"Does it?"
"Much more relaxed."