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Of course the fact that they were all stoned out of their gourdsthe way I set the gourd aside and accepted a plate heaped high with stew I had been drinking not only because I wanted to but also with the thought in mind that the steould be easier to take after a couple of belts, and now I tried it, and it was great I guess there was human flesh in it When all is said and done, I don’t think there’s any way to avoid that conclusion I’ve tried rationalizing h, God knows, but it won’t hold up There was hu plateful of crud served fro it over, ate it unselectively and voraciously, and the argu more unorthodox than pork and chicken and la to believe this in Paramus

Once I had finished with my food I let myself withdraw froht hold of ourd of punch would make me lose my cool I went back to , and fro well, untroubled by nightmares I wished her well and stretched out beside her for a few h the full cycle of relaxation exercises, all of which were easier on a full stomach and with a roups were stubborn – the eyelids, the solar plexus area, the calf ofa persistent propensity for tightening up of their own accord But I ed to unwind fairly well, and when I packed it in after a half hour or so and yawned and stretched and yawned again and sat up, I was better rested than I had been in a couple of days

Outside, the party was just getting into top for up a storenitals flashed in the firelight There seemed to be a limitless supply of the reater effect upon theo rigid and fall over as if he had been clubbed His felloould leave hi anything

It occurred to me, and not for the first time, that this would have been an ideal tiet the hell out of there I had been thinking this ever since they trotted out the booze, and the more the red crotch set drank, the more sense the idea made to me But Boas still in Sheena’s hut, and there were two sober guards in front of that hut, and Pluh ould have to put it off for a day or two Not for too long, though, because judging fro out there, feasts were not that unusual a part of ar rather often

I did slip outside three or four ti for Bowman, but it was no use The first few tiet close to Sheena’s hut The final tiot to it and inside it, and I called Bowot no response whatsoever He seeave it up and went back to Pluhtened noise and I would soothe her back to gentler sleep

I was in the doorway at sunup when Bowered across the central clearing, weaving his way through a ave hi very heavily "Shee-it," he said "That woht I’d live to have so much I wouldn’t want any more, but the day has done coot that haircut Maybe it wasn’t his hair they cut You ever think of it that way?"

"Yes"

"You did?" He shrugged, disappointed I said sootten the hell out of there that night, ith all of the others stoned "Yeah, but we get another chance in two days," he said "There’s a party after every raid, and there’s a raid comin’ up tomorrow"

"Another one?"

He scratched a map in the dirt "She laid it all on me in between the acts We’re here now This here is the Yellowfoot River It swings up and then winds down and out, and it’s the very sastown"

"We followed the highway That brilliant road the Retriever built"

"Beautiful, ain’t it? You got to give theit, this here’s the Yellowfoot, and right at the top of this bend is the leprosarium We break caet ourselves some boats, and then we-"

"The what?"

"The leprosarium, Tanner cat Like a hospital for people with leprosy"

"I knohat a leprosariuet shirty, etting ready and tomorroe hit the place sometime in the afternoon We’ll be headin’ downstream, so that takes the pressure off It ain’t all that far anyway We hit the leprosarium-"

"Wait a minute We hit the leprosarium? We kill doctors and nurses and, God help them, lepers?"

"That’s the drill, baby" He furrowed his brow, scratched his head "I get your drift, Tanner cat I truly do"

"Great"

"I do It don’t see the leprosariuhtily "But to tell you the truth, I don’t see what choice we got open We ht tie it now And toonna do?"

Chapter 11

Fat black flies buzzed in the reeds that lined the riverbank Bees worried the trumpet-shaped blood-hued blossoms of a puri-puri vine, which in turn worried the trunk of a stately wali tree To our right, one of the younger ish broater

I squatted and explored ish and brown as the Yellowfoot River It was noon, and it was hot, and after a rough ame of hurry up and wait I stifled a yawn and scratched an itch and tried to re Plum a hard time "You sure do look like a boy," I heard hi uninterrupted look at you at that mission, Plum kitten, and that wasn’t no boy I was lookin’ at"

I don’t knohether Plum blushed or blanched or what It was i