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And so Mort careatest of rivers Even before it entered the city it was slow and heavy with the silt of the plains, and by the tinostic could have walked across it It was hard to drown in the Ankh, but easy to suffocate

Mort looked at the surface doubtfully It see There were bubbles in it It had to be water

He sighed, and turned away

Three h extruded fros whose appearance in any narrative h not tooto be horribly surprised

They were leering They were good at it

One of them had drawn a knife, which he waved in little circles in the air He advanced slowly towards Mort, while the other two hung back to provide immoral support

'Give us theon his belt

'Hang on a minute,' he said 'What happens then?'

'What?'

'I mean, is itrobbers are supposed to demand Your money or your life I read that in a book once,' he added

'Possibly, possibly,' conceded the robber He felt he was losing the initiative, but rallied nificently 'On the other hand, it could be your ht say' The ered on cue

'In that case --' said Mort, and hefted the bag in one hand preparatory to chucking it as far out into the Ankh as he could, even though there was a reasonable chance it would bounce

'Hey, what are you doing,'said the robber He started to run forward, but halted when Mort gave the bag a threatening jerk

'Well,' said Mort, 'I look at it like this If you're going to kill et rid of the money It's entirely up to you' To illustrate his point he took one coin out of the bag and flicked it out across the water, which accepted it with an unfortunate sucking noise The thieves shuddered

The leading thief looked at the bag He looked at his knife He looked at Mort's face He looked at his colleagues

'Excuse me,' he said, and they went into a huddle

Mort measured the distance to the end of the alley He wouldn'tpeople was another thing they were good at It was only logic that left the a little stretched

Their leader turned back to Mort He gave a final glance at the other two They both nodded decisively

'I think we kill you and take a chance on theto spread'

The other two drew their knives

Mort sed 'This could be unwise,' he said

'Why?'

'Well, I won't like it, for one'

'You're not supposed to like it, you're supposed to – die,' said the thief, advancing

'I don't think I' away 'I'm sure I would have been told'

'Yeah,' said the thief, as getting fed up with this 'Yeah, well, you have been, haven't you? Great stea elephant turds!'

Mort had just stepped backwards again Through a wall

The leading thief glared at the solid stone that had sed Mort, and then thren his knife

'Well, – – – –wizard I hate – – – – ing wizards!'

'You shouldn't – – – – them, then,'a row of dashes

The third , said, 'Here, he walked through the wall!'

'And we bin following hies, too,' arlic I said I thought he was a wizard, only wizards'd walk round here by themselves Dint I say he looked like a wizard? I said --'

'You're saying a good deal too rowled the leader

'I saw hih the wall there --'

'Oh, yeah?'

'Yeah!'

'Right through it, dint you see?'

'Think you're sharp, do you?'

'Sharp enough, come to that!'

The leader scooped his knife out of the dirt in one snaky movement

'Sharp as this?'

The third thief lurched over to the wall and kicked it hard a few times, while behind hi noises

'Yep, it's a wall okay,' he said That's a wall if ever I saw one How d'you think they do it, lads?'

'Lads?'

He tripped over the prone bodies

'Oh,' he said Slow as hisvery important He was in a back alley in The Shades, and he was alone He ran for it, and got quite a long way

Death walked slowly across tiles in the lifetilasses Albert followed dutifully behind with the great ledger open in his arrey waterfall of noise

It ca away into the infinite distance, row upon row of hourglasses poured away the sands of mortal time It was a heavy sound, a dull sound, a sound that poured like sullen custard over the bright roly-poly pudding of the soul

VERY WELL, said Death at last I MAKE IT THREE