Jack Vance The Many Worlds of Magnus R

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The garbage-collector reared amazingly erect, leaning far back, revealing its
pale under-body, it's double row of pale short legs. It writhed, hunched.
"Duck!" yelled Boek as the Golespod spat a stinking wash of liquid to all
quarters of the room. From the depths of its body came a rumbling voice. "Now
all die, all die..."
"Quiet!" said Magnus Ridolph sharply. "Quiet everyone! Mayor, quiet please!"
The Yellowbird's crazed piping diminished. "There is no danger for anyone,"
said Magnus Ridolph, coolly wiping his face, eyes upon the Golespod, who still
reared back. "An ultra-sonic vibrator below the floor, a Hecthmann irradiator
in the ceiling have been operating ever since we entered the room. The
bacteria in McInch's serum were dead as soon as they left his mouth, if not
before."
The Golespod hissed, lowered himself, plunged for the door, little legs
pumping like pistons. The chief of police lunged like a porpoise from a wave,
landed on the Golespod's flat writhing back. His clawed flippers hooked in the
flesh, tore. The Golespod screamed, turned on its back, scraped the amphibian
between its legs, folded itself around him, squeezed. Joe Bertrand sprang
forward, kicking at the milk-
blue eye. The Portmar centipede rippled into the m�l�e, and with each of his
slender feet seized one of the
Golespod's, strained to pull them aside from the constricted chief of police.
The Mayor hopped up through the hole in the ceiling, hopped back with a
skewer, stabbed, stabbed, stabbed...
Boek staggered out to the car. Magnus Ridolph, throwing his stinking white and
blue tunic into a ditch, joined him.
Boek clung to the wheel, his pink face clabbered.
"They - they tore him to pieces," he whispered.
"An unnerving spectacle," said Magnus Ridolph, testing his clotted beard. "A
sordid adventure in every respect."
Boek turned a round accusing eye at him. "I believe you planned it like that!"
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THE MANY WORLDS OF MAGNUS RIDOLPH by Jack Vance
Magnus Ridolph said, gently, "My friend, may I suggest that we return to the
Mission and bathe ourselves? I believe clean clothes would help restore our
perspectives."
A sober Klemmer Boek sat across from Magnus Ridolph at the dinner table, a
Klemmer Boek who barely looked at his food. Magnus Ridolph ate fastidiously,
though substantially. Once again he wore crisp linen, and his white beard was
soft, expertly trimmed.
"But how," blurted Boek, "did you know the garbage-collector was McInch?"
"A simple process," said Magnus Ridolph, gesturing with his fork. "A perfectly
straightforward sequence of logic; a framework of theory, the consulting of
references - "
"Yes, yes, yes," muttered Boek. "Logic this, intelligence that..."
Magnus Ridolph's mouth twitched slightly. "Here, in the concrete, is my chain
of thought. McInch is a grafter, a thief, stealing large sums of money. What
does he do with his loot? Nothing very conspicuous, otherwise his identity
would be common knowledge. Assuming that McInch spent some or all of his money
- an assumption by no means sure - I considered each of the civic officials,
the most likely suspects, from the viewpoint of one of his own race.
"There was Joe Bertrand, the fire-chief. By this test, he was innocent. He
lived frugally in an uncongenial environment.
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"I considered the Mayor. What was a Yellowbird's definition of delight? I
found it would include a field of a certain type of flower, the scent of which
drugs and exalts the Yellowbirds. Nothing of this sort was evident on
Sclerotto. The Mayor, in his own eyes, lived a meager life.
"Next the warehouse manager, the Tau Gemini ant-creature. The wants of these
individuals are very modest. The words 'luxury' and 'leisure' have no
equivalents in their language. If for this reason alone I
was tempted to drop him. I learned from the postmaster that he purchased a
number of books every month
- these were his only conspicuous indulgence - but their value was
commensurate with his salary.
Temporarily, at least, I dismissed the warehouse manager.
"The chief of police - a decisive case. By nature he is an amphibian,
accustomed to a diet of mollusks. His planet is marshy and dank. Contrast all [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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