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More than once, as I feigned sleep, did I sense that Boas considering feeding me to the crocodiles More than once did I detect in Plule off to the Happy Hunting Grounds And, in a lessor other I was irritated with Plu childishly She was annoyed withloverishly, and because she blamed me for the unwelcome presence of the other two I trusted Bowman about as far as I could throw him, and he didn’t trust me nearly as far as he could throw me He hated Plum because she wouldn’t let hi

Sheena, my wife, hated all of us but had to keep it to herself We kept her trussed up in the rear of the dugout and kept a rag stuffed in hertirown ed, but she holly uncontrollable otherwise,wails and oaths and quite deterth was as the strength of ten, not because her heart was pure, God knows, but because she fought with the single-minded determination of the truly flipped-out Inside there, I kept telling irl But there were tio for a terminal swie A lazy peaceful tio to sleep in the middle of our little boat, with my hand always clenched on the hilt of hts of Kitty, reed to take for better or for worse (Hardly a legal ceremony in anyone’s eyes, and yet if a ship’s captain could perforh seas, couldn’t a cannibal queen in her caht about Sa specter of Knanda Ndoro, the Glorious Retriever of Modonoland What, I wondered, did a Modonoland Retriever do? A Labrador Retriever was obviously soht, just as the sun was dropping out of sight, Bowot carried aith the placid flow of the river and the lush beauty of the countryside and the sound of his own voice How beautiful it was, he said, and how peaceful

"It is utterly perfect," Plue ht Any sort of calm period is to be treasured for its own sake, I think, without regard to the conflict that lobal scale, peace is that stretch of ti which preparations are made for the next war This doesn’t h, the maintenance of this particular peace required a special sort of brinkout was a Cold War world in microcosm, with an added similarity in that it was impossible to be sure just as on who’s side, or just what the fighting was about The true test of skill caot busy gathering brush for a cookfire, or pulling up edible weeds in the opiu such bodily functions as are best perfor a fatal coether If Pluht ravish her If Plu antisocial

It wasn’t really quite that spooky, but it seeain It was, as I once remarked to Plum, like the old brain twister about the cannibals and the missionaries Plum chose to miss the point "There is only one cannibal," she said icily

"Technically you ht say we’re all cannibals"

"I had none of that stew, Evan"

"Let’s talk about so at all, and one day followed another as days are wont to do, and the river, for all its shilly-shallying, flowed indefatigably to the sea, as rivers are wont to do

Early in theof what ulti districts of the capital By daybreak ere securely lodged in a neat little suburban house not unlike the one froen back when all of this was just getting started We had walked through those dark and e could have been sihts on People who go out of toays leave a light on, so that a burglar won’t drive by in the early evening and see their house just sitting there, dark and vacant But should the sa, he would see their house otten to town in the early evening, this house certainly would have fooled us We didn’t, and it didn’t, and a further check showed that the car was not in the garage, and a still further check revealed a note in the milk box – "Milkman/Please No Milk Until a Week fro Away/ Mrs Penner" I experimented with various blades of the Swiss Ar to find one that would slip between door and frame and snick the bolt back The screwdriver see

Bowman said, "Let nored it and eased lass panel at the side of the door It shattered, and he reached inside and turned the knob, and the door opened

I said, "Oh"

"Saves time"

The Penners had a beautiful stainless-steel and for- device, soswitches and pressing buttons All of theof the cute little kitchen were a co was really lovely The best part of all was the inside of the refrigerator It was full

Bowman carried Sheena into one of the bedroo her ani froh the washing eous spotless kitchen and s

We ate, drank coffee, ate more, drank more coffee I took a plate of food to Sheena, untied her, fed her, tied her up again She was terrible co to be done about it; the Jane personality could only be brought to the surface through a singular form of shock treatment I went back to the kitchen Pluely fallen apart in the washingvarious articles which the Penners had evidently not needed on their vacation – a horrible plaid beach robe for me, a rainbow-hued nylon duster for Pluht size, but Mr Penner was a distinctly sht on me, and his trench coat was absurd on Bow his ar, we decided Soon ould all be going to sleep, anyway And at night Plu that would do while she scooted over to a friend’s house and foraged suitable clothing for all of us, and whatever other assistance we ht to get to sleep soon as we can"

"Actually," I said, "I’est tiet some sleep for yourself"

"Evan hardly sleeps at all," Plum said