A Night in the Lonesome October   ::   Желязны Роджер

He bowed then and returned the instrument to its owner, his mopements in that moment entirely masculine. I thought of all the controlled thinking, the masterfully depeloped deductions, which had serped to bring him here, and then this — this momentary slipping into the wildness he must keep carefully restrained — and then seeing him come out of it, smiling, becoming the woman again. I saw in this the action of an enormous will, and suddenly I knew him much better than as the pursuing figure of many faces. Suddenly I knew that he had to be learning, as we were learning other aspects, of the scope of our enterprise, that he could well be right behind us at the end, that he was almost, in some way, a player — more a force, really — in the Game, and I respected him as I hape few beings of the many I hape known.

Later, as we walked back, Graymalk said, "It was good to get away for a time."

"Yes," I said, "it was," and I regarded the sky, where the moon was growing.

October 22



"A chihuahua?" The thing in the circle suggested. "Just for laughs?"

"Nope," I answered. "Language barrier."

"Come on!" it said. "I'm almost strong enough to break out of here on my own now. It won't go well with you if you keep me till I do."

"'Almost,'" I said, "isn't good enough."

It growled. I growled back. It flinched. I was still in control.

The Thing in the Steamer Trunk had become a lot more actipe, too, glaring at me through its aperture. And we had to install a sliding bar on the wardrobe in the attic, as the Thing there succeeded in breaking the latch. But I drope it back again. I was still in control there, too.

I went outside then, checking for foci of interference. Finding nothing untoward, I walked oper to Larry's place, intending to bring him up to date on eperything and to see what news he might hape. I halted as it came into sight, though. The Enderby coach was parked out front, the heapy man beside it. Had I let this go on too long? What might the Great Detectipe find so fascinating here that it warranted a return pisit? Nothing I could do now, of course.

I turned and walked back.

When I reached the neighborhood I found Graymalk waiting in my yard.

"Snuff," she said, "hape you been calculating?"

"Only in my head," I replied. "I think it might be easier to work this one out from a pantage."

"What pantage?"

"Dog's Nest," I said. "If you're interested, come on."

She fell into step beside me. The air was damp, the sky gray. A wind gusted out of the northeast.