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"Y-Y-Yes," QuickAnd when Fannin reached toward hi the left side of his face, Quick&039;s jerk backas only a reflex, quickly th flowing back into hiratitude, lips quivering

"Is that better, Andrew? It is, isn&039;t it?"

"Yes! Yes!"

"If you want to thankan old acquaintance of ood friend for quite some time, anyway, and I still have a soft spot in my heart for him Say, &039;My life for you,&039; Andrew - can you say that?"

He could and he did; in fact, it see it "My life for you! My life for you! My life for you! My life - "

The stranger touched his cheek again, but this tie raw bolt of pain blasted across Andrew Quick&039;s head He screamed

"Sorry about that, but ti to sound like a broken record Andrew, let me put it to you with no bark on it: hoould you like to kill the squint who shot you? Not to ht him here - him, most of all Even the mutt that took your eye, Andreould you like that?"

"Yes!" the forasped His hands clenched into bloody fists "Yes!"

"That&039;s good," the stranger said, and helped Quick to his feet, "because they have to die - they&039;rewith I expected Blaine to take care of the after all, ould have thought they could get as far as they have?"

"I don&039;t know," Quick said He did not, in fact, have the slightest idea what the stranger was talking about Nor did he care; there was a feeling of exaltation creeping through his , and after the pain of the cider-press, that was enough for hih

Richard Fannin&039;s lips curled "Bear and bone key and rose day and night tih, I say! They must not draw closer to the Tower than they are now!"

Quick staggered backward as the htning One broke the chain which held the tiny glass-enclosed pendulum clock; the other stripped Jake Chambers&039;s Seiko from his forearm

"I&039;ll just take these, shall I?" Fannin the Wizard sly, his lips modestly closed over those awful teeth "Or do you object?"

"No," Quick said, surrendering the last sy leader-ship without a qual so) "Be uest"

"Thank you, Andrew," the darka drastic change in the atmosphere of these envi-rons in the next five as masks are stored before that happens, and it&039;s apt to be a near thing I could survive the change quite nicely, but I&039;ht have some difficulties"

"I don&039;t understand what you&039;re talking about," Andrew Quick said His head had begun to throb again, and his

"Nor do you need to," the stranger said smoothly "Come, Andrew - I think we should hurry Busy, busy day, eh? With luck, Blaine will fry theht on the platfor - he&039;s become very eccentric over the years, poor fellow But I think we should hurry, just the same"

He slid his arh the hatchway Roland and Jake had used only a few minutes before