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"We're supposed to have known long ago that these things happen, and to have adjusted ourselves to our chances." "Ninnies that get scared first thing, when the facts begin to show!" Tiflin snarled. "Cripes let's don't be like soft bugs under boards!" "You're right, Tif," Frank Nelsen agreed, feeling that for once the ne'er-do-well the nuisance might be doing them all some good.
Speeding along, they passed the first scattered domes, a hydroponic garden, an isolated sun-power plant. It was another hour before they reached the checking-gate of one of the main airlocks. Frank Nelsen didn't try any tricks before the white-armored international guards. "There have been some difficulties," he said. "I think you will want all of our names."
Nelsen heard Parnay roar commands and curses that might have awed many a man. But then there was a cluster of minute sparks in the distance, as rockets, not launched by the defenders, homed and exploded. There was a pause. Then many voices were audible, shouting at the same time, with scarcely any words clear... Several minutes passed like that. Then there was almost silence.
They probably could have made such protein-poisons, too; but they had never used them against men, no doubt because something that could spread and infect others was better. For a while, as the black, starshot night closed in, Nelsen knew, or remembered, nothing at all unless the mental distortions were too horrible.
But at the end his eyes opened, and sparks of anger or acid humor seemed to dance in them. "I know very well what sort of poetic tomfoolery you are talking about, Nelsen," he said. "I wondered how long it would be before one of you other than my grandson with his undiluted brass, and knowing me far too well in one sense, anyway would have the gall to come here and talk to me like this.
And they don't always stop trouble, but they try... Anyhow, what side do you think I was on, after Fessler kicked me around for months...? Let Igor go. He's got law and order in his soul. I kind of like having him around... But keep your mouths buttoned, will you? I'm talking to you, Mr. Baines, and you, Mr. Kuzak, as well as to you, Nelsen.
The first of these bulletins announced to Europe that his Swedish Majesty was about to leave Stralsund; and that his army would take up its position partly between Nelsen and Haarburg, and partly between Domitz and the frontiers of Hamburg. Among the anecdotes of Napoleon connected with this campaign I find in my notes the following, which was related to me by Rapp.
"So here we all are, on a piece of paper pledged to victory or death," Reynolds laughed. "Anyhow, we're out of a rut." Nelsen figured that that was the thing about Charlie Reynolds. Some might not like him, entirely. But he could get the Bunch unsnarled and in motion. Old Paul Hendricks had come back from waiting on some casual customers in the store. "Want to sign, too, Paul?" Reynolds chuckled.
Out under the significant stars of the crisp October night, Nelsen was approached at once by a shadow. "I was waiting for you, Frank. I got a problem." The voice was hoarse sorrow almost lugubrious comedy. "Math again, Two-and-Two? Sure shoot." "Well that kind is always around with me," Two-and-Two Baines chuckled shakily. "This is something else personal.
The mathematics of probabilities denied that luck could last forever. In this thought there was a sense of helplessness, and the ghost of a second Asteroid Belt. Frank Nelsen might have continued to make himself useful in Pallastown, or he might have rejoined the Kuzaks, who had moved their mobile posts back into a safer zone on the other side of Pallas.
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