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Johnson," he would say, when, coming from the down-town store where he worked, he would meet the two coming from their own labors in the brickyard, "how are you an' Mistah Johnsonham mekin' it ovah yo' names?" "Well, I don' know that Johnsonham is so much of a name," Ike would say; and Jim would reply: "I 'low it's mo' name than Johnson, anyhow."
If necessary, he would convince King Humphrey that a royal order must be issued to send the Sylva light-centuries away, before the Mekinese empire began to restore itself to devastated calm if that process hadn't already begun. Mekin had its grand fleet assembled and ready.
Presently some creature came bounding over the brush. I saw him break through the wall of darkness and stop quickly in the firelight. Then D'ri brought him down with his rifle. "Started him up back there 'n the woods a few mild," said D'ri. "He was mekin' fer this 'ere pond thet 's what he was dewin'." "What for?" I inquired.
He gave himself no rest. There were papers from other planets now under the hegemony of Mekin. Some were memoranda from citizens of this planet, who had traveled upon the worlds which Mekin dominated as it was about to dominate Kandar. They, especially had to be pulverized.
In the ground-car on the way to the fleet, Bors said helplessly to Gwenlyn, "I'm not the right man to be the liaison with you people. But this might make us a pretty costly conquest for Mekin! With luck, we may trade them ship for ship! They won't miss the ships they lose, but it'll be a lot of satisfaction to us!" "You expect to be killed," Gwenlyn said flatly.
"Yes, sir," said a brisk voice. "The broadcast's right, sir?" "It is," said Bors. "You're mining the grid set-up. We'll blow it before we leave. There's no point in letting Mekin set down transports loaded with troops to punish innocent people because they heard the Mekinese accurately described. Make 'em land on rockets and there won't be so many landing." "Yes, sir. Will do, sir." A click.
Somebody said cheerfully, "The condemned men ate a hearty breakfast, sir?" Bors grinned. "The breakfast we can be sure of. The condemned part we'll have something to say about that. Some Mekinese wouldn't have good appetites if they knew what's ahead of them. One word! Don't waste missiles! There are a lot of Mekin ships. We've got to make each missile count!" There was laughter.
"But I know that I have effective Talents. There's no evidence that he has." "He might have a Talent whose talent is confusing our Talents," Bors said with some sarcasm. Morgan grinned tolerantly. "Talk to these two. We've got some firm precognitions that make things look bad for Mekin." He left the room.
He heard references to the fight off Meriden, and the temporary escape of one of his enemies, and that he'd pursued it to the solar system of Mekin itself and there destroyed it while Mekin watched, helpless to interfere. The distortion of facts was astounding. But the mere existence of facts at this distance was impossible!
They crave triumphs over them and each other, and they create disaster everywhere, until they are crushed. Bors said evenly, "If the king's planning to surrender the fleet to Mekin as ransom for Kandar, it won't work." "He's considering it," said his uncle. "It will be a way of giving them the victory we cheated them of, though we didn't intend to win." "It won't work," repeated Bors.
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