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Updated: June 10, 2025
He added amiably, "If you were given food, it would be disgraceful to cut your throat." He disappeared. Hoddan carried his ship bag and followed a man in a dirty pink shirt to a stone-walled room containing a table and a chair. He sat down, relieved to have a rest for his back. The man in the pink shirt brought him a flagon of wine. He disappeared again. Hoddan drank sour wine and brooded.
There on a galloping horse beside Hoddan in the darkness, Thal zestfully repeated his lesson. "Show another man and send him to me for a pistol," Hoddan commanded curtly. "I'll be showing others." He turned to the man who rode too close to his left. Before he had fully instructed that man, another clamored for a weapon on his right. This was hardly adequate training in the use of modern weapons.
He lifted it experimentally and opened part of its case to make sure the thermo battery that would power it in an emergency was there and in working order. It was. "Put this on a horse, Thal," commanded Hoddan. "We're taking it up to Don Loris'." The red-headed man's mouth dropped open. He said stridently: "Hey! You can't do that!" Hoddan turned upon him and he said sourly: "All right, you can.
There was commerce and manufacture and wealth and culture, and Walden modestly admitted that its standard of living was the highest in the Nurmi Cluster. Its citizens had no reason to worry about anything but a supply of tranquilizers to enable them to stand the boredom of their lives. Even Hoddan was satisfied, as of the moment. On his native planet there wasn't even a landing grid.
"Don Loris would have my throat cut if I deserted you! Mount and ride!" Hoddan painstakingly fastened his bag to the saddle of the lead horse. He unfastened the lead rope. He'd noticed that Thal pulled in the leather reins to stop the horse. He'd seen that he kicked it furiously to urge it on. He deduced that one steered the animal by pulling on one strap or the other.
Hoddan had nothing to do but worry. He worried. Thal tapped on the door again. "About time to get ready to fight?" he asked dolefully. "Not yet," said Hoddan. "I'm running away from our victim, now." Another half hour. The course changed. The yacht was around behind Walden. The whole planet lay between it and its intended prey. The course of the small ship curved, now.
He paused, and added, "I do hope you're not just a common murderer with the police after him! We can't offer asylum to such only a breathing-space and a chance to start running again. But if you're a political offender " Hoddan began to try to rub sensation and usefulness back into his legs. Feeling came back, and was not pleasant.
By the charts, the capital city and the spaceport should be on that ocean's western shore. After a suitable and very long interval, the site of the capital city came around the edge of the planet. From a bare hundred thousand miles, Hoddan stepped up magnification to its limit and looked again. Then Walden more than filled the telescope's field.
"Give me two minutes," said Hoddan over his shoulder. "I have to get what they sent me for. After that everybody starts even." He entered and closed the door behind him. Then he locked it. By the nature of things it is as needful to be able to lock a spaceboat from the inside as it is unnecessary to lock it from without. He looked things over. Standard equipment everywhere.
Another voice took over instantly. "It will be remembered that some days since the gigantic pirate fleet then overhead sent down a communication to the planetary government, warning that single ships would appear to loot and giving notice that any resistance " Hoddan felt a contented, heart-warming glow.
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