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Continue the game! Why stop now?" The mimes performed a crazy gesticulation
and tossed down an empty pouch, then went off to rest.
Peculiar! thought Cugel. The pouch in some respects resembled his own, which
of course was safely tucked away in his tent. He glanced down casually, then
looked once again more sharply.
The pouch was nowhere to be seen.
Cugel ran raging to Doctor Lalanke, where he sat on the hold conversing with
Clissum. Cugel cried out: "Your wards made off with my pouch! They threw my
terces down to the teamsters, and my other adjuncts as well, including a
valuable pot of boot dressing, and finally the pouch itself!"
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Doctor Lalanke raised his black eyebrows. "Indeed? The rascals! I wondered
what could hold their attention so long."
"Please take this matter seriously! I hold you personally responsible! You
must redress my losses."
Doctor Lalanke smilingly shook his head. "I regret your misfortune, Cugel, but
I cannot repair all the wrongs of the world."
"Are they not your wards?"
"In a casual sense only. They are listed on the caravan manifest in their own
names, which puts the onus for their acts upon Varmous. You may discuss the
matter with him, or even the mimes themselves. If they took the pouch, let
them repay the terces."
"These are not practical ideas!"
"Here is one which is most practical: return forward before we plunge headlong
into danger!" Doctor Lalanke turned away and resumed his conversation with
Clissum.
Cugel returned to the bow. He stared ahead, across the dismal landscape,
considering how best to recover his losses. ... A sinister flurry of movement
caught his eye. Cugel jerked forward and focussed his gaze on the hillside,
where a number of squat gray beings worked to pile heavy boulders where the
hillside beetled over the road.
Cugel looked with care for several seconds. The creatures were plain in his
vision: distorted half-human amloids with peaking scalps and neckless heads,
so that their mouths opened directly into their upper torsos.
Cugel made a final inspection and at last called down the alarm: "Varmous!
Rock-goblins on the hillside! Grave danger! Halt the caravan and sound the
horn!"
Varmous pulled up his carriage and returned the hail. "What do you see?
Where is the danger?"
Cugel waved his arms and pointed. "On that high bluff I see mountain goblins!
They are piling rocks to tumble down upon the caravan!"
Varmous craned his neck and looked where Cugel had pointed. "I can see
nothing."
"They are gray, like the rocks! They sidle askew and run crouching this way
and that!"
Varmous rose in his seat and gave emergency signals to his teamsters. He
pulled the ship down to the road. "We will give them a great surprise," he
told
Cugel, and called to the passengers. "Alight, if you please! I intend to
attack the goblins from the air."
Varmous brought ten men armed with arrow-guns and fire-darts aboard the
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Avventura.
He tied the mooring-line to a strong farlock. "Now, Cugel, let the rope extend
so that we rise above the bluff and we will send down our compliments from
above."
Cugel obeyed the order; the ship with its complement of armed men rose high
into the air and drifted over the bluff.
Varmous stood in the bow. "Now: to the exact site of the ambush."
Cugel pointed. "Precisely there, in that tumble of rocks!"
Varmous inspected the hillside. "At the moment I see no goblins.."
Cugel scanned the bluff with care, but the goblins had disappeared. "All to
the good! They saw our preparations and abandoned their plans."
Varmous gave a surly grunt. "Are you certain of your facts? You are sure that
you saw rock goblins?"
"Of course! I am not given to hysterics."
"Perhaps you were deceived by shadows among the rocks."
"Absolutely not! I saw them as clearly as I see you!"
Varmous looked at Cugel with thoughtful blue eyes. "Do not feel that I am
chiding you. You apprehended danger and, quite properly, cried out the alarm,
though apparently in error. I will not belabor the matter, except to point out
that this lack of judiciousness wastes valuable time." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]