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"And I sure did like your color, Plum kitten Earl Grey tea with sweet cream in it That’s rare, that combination Black is beautiful, but brown can stick around when it looks like you"

Plu her, and she didn’t like it, but at the saet up and walk away He had that effect on people And I suppose, too, that in part she gloried in the flattery It would have been extraordinary if she hadn’t

I found it annoying, and not merely out of sis toward the girl These factors were there, but so was the conviction that our situation called for ent matters than verbal seduction In less than twenty-four hours ere scheduled to participate in an act of barbarism unparalleled in our experience and unexceeded in hule of wretched lepers of their few ree that every passing hour increased the likelihood that we, too, would be si much for my state of mind either

I said, "Look, we just don’t have time to waste We have to cut out of here before that raid"

"Can’t be done, Tanner cat"

"It has to be done"

"During, maybe If we run into a little resistance at the leper place thereon so that the three of us could shove one of the dugouts back into the water and get clear before they kneere gone Not h, is there? Soainst anihts they’ll be out of the play before they get to their guns, and what are the lepers goin’ to do? Beat us off with their stuht’s the time Everybody be drunk and passed out, and we can slip a boat into the river and be one"

"Why can’t we do that tonight?"

"No chance"

"Why not?"

"Because they won’t be drinking tonight,sloppy" He let out a long sigh "Used to be different before I ca They would all sleep at once, didn’t even post a single daht ’e the whole caht theht dirty"

"Well, if you can’t lick ’e the them into a professional ar theled, and Bownore this

I said, "All right We’ve got to ht It , they don’t expect anything I don’t eared for long-range planning, Sa type"

"True They live in the ht be difficult to take the rush or a sudden surprise attack, but that calculated subterfuge ht have a chance"

"In other words," said Plum, "we con them"

"Or in still better words," said Bow natives when they least expect it"

He sounded bitter "Maybe it offends your black pride," I said, "but try to live with it These are desperate ti like fifty to three"

"Two"

"Huh?"

"Fifty to two," Bow"

"I don’t follow you"

"Well, she toldit for a surprise Sheena, man Like Uncle Sam in all theht," he said, grinning pleasantly "You and Sheena, Tanner cat It’s your turn in the barrel"