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"Do you have any tools down there?"

"A book, a ham sandwich, a money belt – you’d think I could buy ht – just a second, ht"

I squiretpocket I squirht out I switched it on It was a tiny little thing but it was blinding in there I blinked at the light for a few seconds, then played it around the interior of the casket There were all sorts of hinges and clasps and things, and none of theernails would have ht, Evan? Will you be able to get out now?"

"I don’t see how," I said "I would need, oh, a screwdriver and a knife and a saw and God knohat else"

"I have theive them to you"

"Sure, Plum That’s wonderful"

"What is the matter, Evan?"

I said, "Once upon a tiht horses And they had to figure out how to tell the horses apart They counted their hoofs, but both horses had the sa X on one, but the rain washed it off Finally they measured them, and lo and behold they had a sure-fire way to tell them apart, because the black horse o inches shorter than the white horse"

"But if one was black and the other white-"

"That’s the point, Plum"

"I don’t understand why you raise the question of color at a time like this"

I closed my eyes for a few seconds Then I said, "No, you don’t understand, Plu the horses apart If you could pass me a knife and a screwdriver and a saw and I don’t knohat else, there would be a space big enough to crawl through, and I wouldn’t need the tools to begin with Like the horses"

"Look out, Evan"

"Huh?"

Look out for what, I wondered And, in answer totube and hit me in the mouth I made the appropriate noise and Plum said that she was sorry but that she had warnedthat had hit me I said, "Oh"

"You see, Evan?"

"It’s one of those knives," I said

"Yes"

"One of those knives with a hundred blades in it"

"Sixteen blades, I think"

"They sell them in those little schlock shops on Ti-"

"Swiss Ar the knife There was a nail file, a tiny pair of scissors, a thing forholes in your belt-

"It was acy to me I always carry it"

"I didn’t knoas in the Swiss Army"

"He was in every army at one time or another My mother told me this My father was a brave mad Welshman ild eyes and the soul of a poet"

I kept on opening the knife A can opener, a cap lifter, a saw, a couple of cutting blades, a chisel-

"You carry this around all the tilad you do, but why?"