Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman Page B

the harbor and they won't release his cargo from the warehouse. He's been driving everyone mad with his complaining. If he doesn't shut up soon I'm going to throw him out."
    "Oh," said Lee. "Why won't they release the cargo?"
    "I don't know. Probably he hasn't paid the storage fee. Who cares?"
    "Well," said Lee, "I guess he does."
    He turned round in a leisurely way and rested his elbows on the bar behind him. The man with the red hair was about fifty, stocky and high-colored, and when one of the other men at the table tried to put a hand on his arm he shook it off violently, upsetting a glass. Seeing what he'd done, the Dutchman put both hands to his head in a gesture that looked more like despair than fury. Then he tried placating the man whose beer he'd spilt, but that went wrong too, and he banged both fists on the table and shouted through the hubbub.
    "Such a frenzy!" said a voice beside Lee. "He'll work himself into a heart attack, wouldn't you say?"
    Lee turned to see a thin, hungry-looking man in a faded black suit that was a little too big for him.
    "Could be," he said.
    "Are you a stranger here, sir?"
    "Just flew in."
    "An aeronaut! How exciting! Well, things are really looking up in Novy Odense. Stirring times!"
    "I hear they've struck oil," said Lee.
    "Indeed. The town is positively palpitating with excitement. And there's to be an election for Mayor this very week. There hasn't been so much news in Novy Odense for years and years."
    "An election, eh? And who are the candidates?"
    "The incumbent Mayor, who will not win, and a very able candidate called Ivan Dimitrovich Poliakov, who will. He is on the threshold of a great career. He will really put our little town on the map! He will use the mayoralty as the stepping stone to a seat in the Senate at Novgorod, and then, who knows? He will be able to take his anti-bear campaign all the way to the mainland. But you, sir," he went on, "what has inspired your visit to Novy Odense?"
    "I'm looking for innocent employment. As you say, I'm an aeronaut by profession . . ."
    He noticed the other man's glance, which had strayed to the belt under Lee's coat. In leaning back against the bar, Lee had let the coat fall away to reveal the pistol he kept at his waist, which an hour or two before had done duty as a hammer.
    "And a man of war, I see," said the other.
    "Oh, no. Every fight I've been in, I tried to run away from. This is just a matter of personal decoration. Hell, I ain't even sure I know how to fire this, uh, what is it—revolvolator or something . . ."
    "Ah, you're a man of wit as well!"
    "Tell me something," said Lee. "Just now you mentioned an anti-bear campaign. Now, I've just come here through the town, and I couldn't help noticing the bears. That's a curious thing to me, because I never seen creatures like that before. They just free to roam around as they please?"
    The thin man picked up his empty glass and elaborately tried to drain it before setting it back down on the bar with a sigh.
    "Oh, now let me fill that for you," said Lee. "It's warm work explaining things to a stranger. What are you drinking?"
    The bartender produced a bottle of expensive cognac, to Lee's resigned amusement and a click of annoyance from Hester's throat.

    "Very kind, sir, very kind," said the thin man, whose butterfly-daemon opened her resplendent wings once or twice on his shoulder. "Allow me to introduce myself. Oskar Sigurdsson is my name—poet and journalist. And you, sir?"
    "Lee Scoresby, aeronaut for hire."
    They shook hands.
    'You were telling me about bears," prompted Lee, after a look at his own glass, which was nearly empty and would have to remain so.
    'Yes, indeed. Worthless vagrants. Bears these days are sadly fallen from what they were. Once they had a great culture, you know—brutal, of course, but noble in its own way. One admires the true savage, uncorrupted by softness and ease. Several of our great sagas recount the deeds of the bear-kings. I myself am