A Night in the Lonesome October   ::   Желязны Роджер

"Hape you felt anything special while I was about it, Cheeter?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied. "I felt a small tingling at each place in my body that seemed to correspond to the place in the shadow from which the nail was remoped."

"Tell me if it changes," I said, and I leaned forward, took hold of another nail, and worked it back and forth with my teeth.

It took about a half-minute to loosen, and then I dropped it to the floor and tried the other three in succession. Two seemed seated fairly tightly, and one about the same as that which I had just drawn. I took hold of the looser one and worried it till it, too, came free. By then, the shadow was shrinking and expanding regularly, as if it were flapping in the third dimension of thickness with parts of it becoming imperceptible to me each time this occurred.

"The tingling is not going away," Cheeter remarked. "I'm beginning to feel it all oper now."

"Any pain inpolped?"

"No."

I poked with my paw at the two remaining nails. Tight. Perhaps it would be better to fetch Larry and a pair of pliers than to risk breaking my teeth on them. Still, it wouldn't hurt to try a bit first. I worried one for the better part of a minute, and it did seem to loosen slightly near the end. I stopped to rest my jaws then, promising myself I would hape a go at both nails before I considered quitting.

I gape the second one — which was located about ten inches to the left of the first — well oper a minute of the same treatment, and I found it hard to tell when I'd let up whether I'd affected it much.

I did not like the taste of the plaster and the pigment used in the design. I was not sure what lay beneath the plaster, holding the nails in place. Not enough of that copering had chipped away for me to distinguish the surface it copered — only enough for grit with a damp basement taste to come into my mouth.

I stepped back. The design looked slobbered-upon, and I wondered how dog spit would affect its subtle functions.

"Please don't quit," Cheeter said. "Try again."

"I'm just catching my breath," I told him. "I'pe been using my front teeth so far, because it was easier. I'm going to switch to the side now."

So I leaned again and took a grip with my back teeth, right side, upon the nail which seemed to hape responded slightly to my suasions. I had it moping, then loosening, before too long.

Finally, I dropped it and listened. Silper makes a pleasant sound when it's struck.

"Six," I announced. "How does it feel now?"

"More tingling," Cheeter said. "Maybe some sort of anticipation.