[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

me won a fight with you, and I flew out of here a few days later, that'd still
leave you top dog locally, at least. Of course, you didn'thave to quit
outlawing just because a Shorty beat you. It wasn't as if I was a real man."
"No, but it was a sign to me you winning like that," said Bone Breaker sadly.
"I was getting slow and weak, Pick-and-Shovel, and it was only a matter of
time until somebody else took me. I could tell that."
"Oh, you don't look all that old and weak yet," said Bill.
"Nice of you to say so, Pick-and-Shovel," said the Bone Breaker. "Oh, I might
stand up to any other real man around here for a few years yet. But I sure
can't stand up to a fire-eating Shorty like you."
"Well, it's particularly nice to hear you say that," pounced Bill. Bone
Breaker's gaze centered on him remained calm and innocent. "Because this
mixed-up memory of mine's been giving me all sorts of trouble about that
fight."
"Memory?" queried Bone Breaker, with rumbling softness.
"That's right." Bill shook his head. "You remember you must have hit me quite
a clip in that storehouse, even if I did get out of it on my feet, first. I
was laid up for a few days afterward. And that knock on the head seems to have
got my memory all mixed up. Would you believe it, I find myself thinking that
I touched your leg, lying on the floor,before all those logs came tumbling
down, and covered you up."
"My!" Bone Breaker shook his head slowly. "I really did clip you one, then,
didn't I, Pick-and-Shovel? Now, what would I be doing lying down on the floor,
waiting for some logs to roll down on me?"
"Well, I guess you'll laugh," said Bill. "But it just seems to stick in my
head that you were not only lying there, but that you pulled those logs down
on yourself, and it was that that made folks think I'd won. But anyone knows
you wouldn't do that. After all, you were fighting for your old free way of
life. The last thing you wanted was to get married and settle down to
innkeeping. So I tell myself I shouldn't think that way.Should I ?"
Page 204
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Bill shot the last two words hard at the big Dilbian. Bone Breaker breathed
quietly for a second, his eyes half-closed, his expression thoughtful.
"Well, I'll tell you, Pick-and-Shovel," he said at last. "As long as it's
just you, and you being a Shorty, I don't guess I mind your thinking that, if
you want to. After all, your thinking it happened like that doesn't dome any
harm as long as you're getting in that flying box there and going away. So,
you go ahead and think that, if you like and I won't mind."
Bill let out a deep breath in defeat. Bone Breaker had managed to weasel out
of it.
"But I'll tell you something," went on Bone Breaker, unexpectedly. "I'll tell
you how I like to think of our fight."
"How's that?" asked Bill, suspiciously.
"Why, I like to think of how I was tiptoeing along in the darkness there and
suddenly you came at me like a wild tree-cat," said Bone Breaker. "Before I
was half-ready, you were on me. Next thing I knew you'd knocked my sword
spinning out of my fist and split my shield. Then you picked up a log and hit
me. And then you hit me with another log and the whole pile came tumbling down
as you threw me through the wall of the storehouse, jumped outside and threw
me back in through another part of the wall, just as the rest of the logs came
tumbling down and covered me."
He stopped speaking. Bill stared at him for a long moment before he could
find his voice.
"Threw you through the wall,twice ?" echoed Bill, his voice cracking. "How
could I? There weren't any holes made in the storehouse walls!"
"There weren't!" said Bone Breaker, on a note of surprise, rearing back.
"Why, now, that's true, Pick-and-Shovel! I must be wrong about that part. I'll
have to remember to leave that part out when I tell about our fight. I
certainly am obliged to you, Pick-and-Shovel, for pointing that out to me. I
guess my memory must have gotten a little mixed-up just like yours did."
"Er yes," said Bill.
Suddenly, a great light burst upon Bill. Anything a Dilbian said had to be
interpreted and he had been looking for Bone Breaker to admit the truth about
the duel in a different way.This , then, was the admission in the shape of a
story about Bill's prowess too wonderful to believe. So he had picked up this
nine-hundred-pound hulk before him and thrown it through a wall of logs, not
once, but twice, had he?
"But, after all," Bone Breaker was going on, easily, "there's no reason for
us to go picking on each other's memories. Why don't I just remember the fight
the way I remember it, and you remember it your way, and we'll let it go at
that?"
Bill grinned. He could not help it. It was a violation of the rules of
Dilbian verbal fencing, which called for a straight face at all times, but he
hoped that his human face would be alien enough to Bone Breaker so that the
Dilbian would not interpret the expression.
Whether this was the case or not, Bone Breaker did not seem to notice the
grin.
Page 205
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"All right," said Bill. Bone Breaker nodded in satisfaction.
"Well, I guess I'll be rolling home for dinner, then," he said. "You know,
Pick-and-Shovel, you're not bad for a Shorty. Something real manly about you.
Pleased to have met you. So long!"
He turned and left as abruptly as had the Hill Bluffer. Watching him go, Bill
saw him stop to speak to another male Dilbian who had been examining the
courier ship, but who now hurried to intercept the ex-outlaw chief.
There was something undeniably respectful about the way the other Dilbian
approached the big, black-furred figure. Whatever other changes had occurred
in Bone Breaker's life as a result of his losing the fight to Bill and taking
up innkeeping, it was plain to see that he had not lost anything of his local [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

kajaszek.htw.pl