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hailed a taxi and had it drop him off near the La Brea Tar Pit. From there, he walked up Wilshire until he
came to another booth. Fifteen, not ten, minutes had passed. Di Angelo answered the phone this time.
Although he must have recognized Kickaha's voice, he said nothing except for him to wait while he
switched the call. Urthona's voice was the next.
"You can speak to my niece, the leblabbiy-lover, first," Urthona said. Anana's lovely voice said,
"Kickaha! Are you all right?"
"Doing fine so far!" Kickaha said. "The Beller is dead! I killed him myself. And Red Orc is on the
run. Hang on. We'll get back to the good world yet. I love you!"
"I love you, too," she said.
Urthona's voice, savage and sarcastic, cut in. "Yes, I love you too, leblabbiy! Now, do you want to
hear from Wolff?"
"I'm not about to take your word that he's O.K.," Kickaha said.
Wolff's voice, deep and melodious, came over the phone. "Kickaha, old friend! I knew you'd be
along, sooner or later!"
"Hello, Robert, it's great to hear your voice again! You and Chryseis all right?"
"We're unharmed, yes. What kind of deal are you making with Urthona?"
The Lord said, "That's enough! You satisfied, Earthling?"
"I'm satisfied that they're alive as of this moment," Kickaha said. "And they had better be when the
moment of payment comes."
"You don't threaten me!" Urthona said. And then, in a calmer tone, "Very well. I shall assist you in
any way I can. What do you need?"
"The address of Red Orc's house," Kickaha said.
"Why would you need that?" Urthona said, surprised.
"I have my reasons. What is the address?"
Urthona gave it to him but he spoke slowly as if he were trying to think of Kickaha's reasons for
wanting it. Kickaha said, "That's all I need now. So long."
He hung up. A minute later, he was in a taxi on his way to Urthona's house. Two blocks away, he
paid the driver and walked the rest of the way. The small iron gate was chained now, and the lights in the
little guardhouse near the big gate showed three men inside. The mansion was also ablaze, although he
could see nobody through the windows.
There did not seem to be any way of getting in just then. He was capable of leaping up and grabbing
the top of the wall and pulling himself over, but he did not doubt that there would be alarms on top of the
wall. On second thought, so what? At this time, he did not intend to invade the house. All he wanted was
to get the beamer and then get out. By the time Urthona's men arrived, he could be back over the wall.
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It was first necessary to cache the Horn somewhere, because it would be too awkward, in fact,
impossible, to take it with him in scaling the wall. He could throw it over the wall first but did not want to
do that. A minute's inspection showed him that he could stick the case in the branches of a bush growing
on the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street. He returned to the spot by the wall opposite
where he had hidden the beamer. He went across the street, stood there a minute waiting until a car went
by, and then dashed full speed across the street. He bounded upward and his ringers closed on the rough
edge of the wall. It was easy for him to pull himself upward then. The top of the wall was about a foot
and a half across and set with a double row of spikes made of iron and about six inches high. Along these
was strung a double row of thin wires which glinted in the light from the mansion.
He stepped gingerly over the wires and turned and let himself down over the edge and then dropped
to the soft earth. For a few seconds, he looked at the guardhouse and the mansion and listened. He
heard nothing and saw no signs of life.
He ran into the bush and picked up the beamer. Getting back over the wall was a little more difficult
with the beamer strapped over his shoulder, but he made it without, as far as he knew, attracting any
attention from inside the walls. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]