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Magnus Ridolph returned to his room with his suitcases and what electrical
equipment the pilot was able to spare. A half hour later he stood back. Now,
he thought, next move to the Men-men.
A face appeared at the door - narrow, purple-brown, big-eyed, with a long thin
nose, slit mouth, long sharp chin.
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THE MANY WORLDS OF MAGNUS RIDOLPH by Jack Vance
"King he want you come eat." The face peered cautiously around the room,
brushed the wires Magnus
Ridolph had strung up.
Crackle - spat.
The native yelped, bounded away.
"Ho, ho!" said Magnus Ridolph. "What's the trouble?"
The native uttered a volley of angry syllables, gesticulating, showing his
pointed white teeth. Magnus
Ridolph at last understood him to say, "Why you burn me, eh?"
"To teach you not to steal from me," Magnus Ridolph explained.
The native hissed scornfully. "I steal everything you got. I great thief. I
steal from king. Sometimes I steal everything he got. Then I be king. I best
stealer in Challa, you bet. I steal king's crown pretty soon."
Magnus Ridolph blinked his mild blue eyes. "And then?"
"And then - "
"Yes - and then?" came a third voice, harsh, angry. King Kanditter sprang
close to the native, struck furiously with a length of cane. The native howled
and leapt into the bushes. Magnus Ridolph hastily disconnected the powerpack
lest the king receive a shock and inflict a like punishment on himself.
Kanditter threw the cane stalk to the ground, gestured to Magnus Ridolph.
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"Come, we eat."
"I'll be with you right away," said Magnus Ridolph. He picked up his
suitcases, disconnected the powerpack, slung it under his arm and presented
himself to the king. "Your invitation comes as a pleasant surprise, your
Majesty. I find that carrying my possessions everywhere gives me quite an
appetite."
"You careful, eh?" said Kanditter with a wide thin-lipped grin.
Magnus Ridolph nodded solemnly. "A careless man would find himself destitute
in a matter of minutes."
He looked sidewise at the king. "How do you guard your own property? You must
own a great deal -
micromacs, powerpacks and the like."
"Woman, she watch now. Woman, she very careful. She lose -
ugh!"
He flailed his long dark arms significantly
"Women indeed are very useful," agreed Magnus Ridolph.
They marched in silence for a few yards.
"What you like telex for?" the king asked.
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THE MANY WORLDS OF MAGNUS RIDOLPH by Jack Vance
"The telex crystal," said Magnus Ridolph, "vibrates - shakes - very fast.
Very, very, very, very fast. We use it to send voices to other stars. Voices
go very far, very fast, when given shake with telex."
"Too much noise," was the king's observation.
"Where are your fields?" asked Magnus Ridolph ingenuously. "I've heard a great
deal about them."
Kanditter merely turned him a side-glance, grinned his narrow grin.
Days passed, during which Magnus Ridolph sat quietly in his lodgings,
reviewing recent progress in mathematics, developing some work of his own in
the new field of contiguous-opposing programs.
He saw little of Mellish, who spent as much time as possible with the king -
arguing, pleading, bluffly flattering, while Tomko was relegated to guarding
the luggage.
Magnus Ridolph's barricade proved effective to the extent that his goods were
safe so long as he sat within his room. When circumstances compelled him to
walk abroad he packed everything into his suitcases, carried them with him.
His behavior by no means set him apart or made him conspicuous.
Everywhere could be seen natives carrying their possessions in bags made from
the thoraxes of large tree-
dwelling insects. Mellish had fitted Tomko with a sack strapped to his chest
and locked, in which reposed the objects named in the wager with Magnus '
Ridolph - or rather, those which still remained to him.
With disturbance Magnus Ridolph noted a growing ease and familiarity between
Mellish and King
Kanditter. They talked by the hour, Mellish plying the king with cigars, the
king in his turn supplying wine. Observing this camaraderie, Magnus Ridolph
shook his head, muttered. If Kanditter signed away any rights now, before [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]