The Right to Arm Bears by Gordon R. Dickson Page B

crackling of footfalls among the dry leaves under the trees a little distance off. They were approaching behind John, and he found he was too tightly trussed to turn around. At the fire, Tark- ay busied himself breaking up small pieces of wood and adding them to the blaze. He did not look up.
    The footfalls approached. They came right up behind John and stopped. John heard the slow, even sound of deep breathing, above and behind his head.
    Then the feet moved whoever it was around in front of John and he saw a great yellow moon-face beaming down at him from eight feet above the ground.
    "Well, well," said a heavy, liquid voice, "so, here's our quarry, trussed and ready for roasting. How should we season him, Tark- ay ?"
    It was the Hemnoid ambassador to Dilbia, Gulark- ay .
     
     

CHAPTER 13
    "You'll think of something, Mr. Ambassador, I'm sure," replied Tark- ay and the two Hemnoids chuckled together like a couple of gallon jugs of machine oil poured out on the ground.
    The sound woke up Boy Is She Built. She sat up.
    "Here you are!" she said to Gulark- ay .
    "Absolutely right, Boy Is She Built," replied the Hemnoid ambassador. "Here, indeed, I am. You don't look pleased?"
    "I don't know why we had to wait for you," she said.
    "Because," said Gulark- ay , "there's more to this than simply throwing someone you don't like over a cliff. Remember? You were only supposed to take his wrist radio there at Brittle Rock, not drop him into a five hundred foot canyon."
    "It would have saved a lot of trouble," said Boy Is She Built. She looked rebellious.
    "So you think. But, as you would have found out, if you'd been successful, what it actually would have done would have been to cause a lot of trouble. Do you think the Shorty authorities are going to let one of their people get killed here on your world and not want to know what happened?"
    "They wouldn't dare make a fuss," said Boy Is She Built. "They need to make friends with us real people. Just like you Fatties do. If they attacked us, you'd just like the excuse to back us up." She snorted. A curiously feminine version of the Hill Bluffer's favorite emotional outlet. "They wouldn't dare make trouble over one little Shorty."
    "Never mind," said Gulark- ay . "Life's a little more complicated than you think, Boy Is She Built. You don't get things without paying for them. And, believe me, you can't just kill a Shorty on a whim without paying for that, either."
    "Oh, you sound just like my father!" said Boy Is She Built, furiously.
    "Thank you," said Gulark- ay , dryly. He turned away from her and sat down by John on the ground, spreading his robes over his enormous knees.
    "And how is our cat's-paw doing?" he asked.
    "You're talking to me?" said John.
    "Of course," said Gulark- ay . "Didn't you realize that's what you've been all along?"
    "To tell you the truth," said John, "and now that you ask me, no, I didn't."
    "Such trust," said Gulark- ay .
    "And faith," said John. "To say nothing of experience." He pointed out something. "I'm a little bit older and more widely traveled than Boy Is She Built, for example."
    "What's he saying about me?" said Boy Is She Built, lifting her head up. "What's travel got to do with it?"
    "But I'm only telling you what's true," said Gulark- ay , bassly and liquidly. "How do you think Tark- ay here, and Boy Is She Built happened to be waiting for you on the trail your first day out? How do you think Boy Is She Built happened to know enough to deprive you of your wrist phone?"
    "Now, that's an interesting point," said John. "You say she took my wrist phone off. Why? When she was going to throw me over the cliff, anyway?"
    "She wasn't supposed to do anything but get the wrist phone," said Gulark- ay . "As to why she still bothered to do that after deciding to kill you, is something you'd have to ask her."
    "They told me to," said Boy Is She Built sulkily.
    "But you miss the point," said Gulark- ay to John, "which is how we knew where you were going to be