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Phil never found out whether Juno was, as she seemed, a bit cowed by the diabolical venom in Mary&039;s voice, for just then there was a frantic padding of feet on the stairs and Jack Jones and Cookie burst into the room from the hall

"Juno!" Jack yelled "I told you I&039;d kill you if you ever ca moment of silence Cookie could be heard to confir the stance of a bear "Listen, you ten-tiht hoan to roll up, or rather rip up, the long sleeves of her frock Her furpiece had already fallen off and her hat hung by a cropped hair

Meanwhile Jack was surveying the scene and getting a real idea of how hast, but advancing, "you&039;ve been wrecking the place, you&039;ve been wrecking the little people, you even brought the Ikeless Joe!" And in passing he gave Phil a shove that sent hi "Don&039;t you see what you&039;ve done, Juno?" Jack continued with poignantly aggrieved indignation, as if he must convince Juno of the enor her "You&039;ve done the one thing they won&039;t ever forgive, the one thing that&039;ll turn &039;eainst even me" He was practically tearful "Don&039;t you realize they&039;re the only two people in the world thatto me? Don&039;t you realize that outside of Mary and Sacheverell, I don&039;t care a fig for anybody?"

Surprisingly to Phil, the retort to this caly, but fro about me, either," he accused shrilly "I&039;ve suspected it for a long time, and now you say it yourself"

"Shut up, you&039;re just a du around

"Oh, so I&039;e, aht about one thing and I wish I&039;d ado These Akeleys have turned your head They&039;ve dazzled you"

At thatback into the rooainst the black velvet "Stop, at once!" he co Rise above hate Do you realize I can&039;t see anything of you but ink blobs, your auras are so black? Evenhe will be unable to reach you"

"Shut up that silly talk abouthe, "Cookie snarled "I don&039;t want to hear the word again or anything more about your stupid cults that I had to pretend to be interested in You&039;ve done Jackie quite enough daotten thousand dollars for that cat you&039;re using for your idiotic unned it and was all ready to hand it over to Moe Brimstine and collectten thousand dollars, when you have to prance in with thatugly witch of a wife of yours andhe was starting a new religion or so you the cat I hate you I want to hurt you" And he started toward Sacheverell, walking on his toes and puffing out his sweatered chest like a bright blue fighting cock

Once again to Phil&039;s surprise, Sacheverell&039;s horrified and reproachful gaze was turned not on Cookie, but Jack

"Jack," he gasped, "do you un, that you even dreahim for money? Judas!"

"Now see what you&039;ve done," Jack moaned, not at Cookie, but at Juno "You&039;ve spoiled everything"

"I&039;ll spoil you, you rancid little intelleckchul-lover," she roared and ran at him blindly like a novice Jack&039;s face set itself in a shrewd grihtly to one side and slipped out a hand for a hold But just then Juno&039;s professional training seerabbed the wrist of the hand snaking toward her, bent, spun, and sent Jack sailing over her hip in a flying mare that landed him on the silver pentacled table It toppled with a crash and various religious objects fell from the wall

Meanwhile, Mary Akeley had picked up a small vise that had broken froreat accuracy at Cookie&039;s head, but then Cookie suddenly hurled hih the space where Cookie&039;s head had been

While all this was going on, Phil, completely to his surprise, walked coolly over to the shelves of figurines, carefully picked up that of Mitzie, and put it in his jacket pocket

When he turned around, Jack had selected a black glass Aztec sacrificial knife froious objects and writhed to his knees like a cobra Juno picked up a rather small, but very solid, brass Buddha

Nearer the velvet curtains, Cookie had Sacheverell on his back and was choking hih his shoulder was pinned, was industriously trying to beat Cookie on the head with the silver chalice frorabbed up some hatpins and darted forward She hesitated whom to attack, then started for Cookie - not so much, Phil fancied, to help her husband but because Cookie&039;s "ugly" had rankled

Never before, not even in the trenches and foxholes, had Phil Gish seen real murder in a human face

Now he saw it in five

And then, very suddenly, it wasn&039;t there at all

The roolass knife and the chalice clattered from Jack&039;s and Sacheverell&039;s hands Mary&039;s hatpins struck the floor with a faint, vibrant rattle Juno&039;s Buddha thudded on the Mosle Cookie&039;s hands unlocked themselves and writhed back, as if ashae from the brain

Expressions unlocked too Hate furrows softened and vanished Lips that had writhed back from teeth

Jack said, in a soft, amazed voice, "Juno, you really do love me You don&039;t just want to own me and shame me as a man"

Juno said, "You really do care what I think, don&039;t you, Jack? Gosh!"

Cookie said, "I didn&039;t realize it, Sacheverell: you partly "

Mary said, "And you actually want Jack to be happy, Cookie It isn&039;t simply vanity and envy"

Sacheverell said, "My God, it&039;s happening And I "

As for Phil, his feelings were in that golden sea they&039;d swum in this afternoon He felt as if his heart were joined by sensitive strands to those of the five persons around hiossaurines so that he understood Romadka, Barnes, Vanadin, maybe even himself

Then, simultaneously with the others, he turned toward the velvet curtains A few inches above the floor, Lucky&039;s little green head had poked through It hung there like a large green jewel, flooding them in turn with its h the curtains

Swiftly, from under tables and chairs, out from the fireplace, and froathered around Lucky in a circle

"It has begun," Sacheverell whispered happily "The world is changing"

"Saint Francis of Assisi," Mary murmured weakly, "incarnate in a cat"

Then Lucky walked slowly across the room The other catsa respectful distance He passed Mary and Cookie, passed Sacheverell, who looked just a shade disappointed, and sprang lightly into Phil&039;s arhed so little, or felt fur so electric His chest seemed to him to be rather too sly, "You are the chosen one" Phil looked at hiust of apprehension, at the blackbehind hiray waves were spreading in it from a central spot

At the sao dead Lucky leaped convulsively in the air and fell perhaps six feet away frolass in theshattered all at once and tinkled to the floor, leaving only a few jagged shards around the frae broke up and its members raced into the hall and up the stairs

Moe Brih the ith a suppleness one would never have expected of his huge body He stood just inside it, gripping a stun-gun in his big mitt His jowl seemed to Phil to be slasses elliptical patches of it

"There&039;s a couple of boys with orthos out there," Moe said, stepping to one side of the"I know you don&039;t want to get yourselves sliced up"

Apparently nobody did, though Phil at least hadn&039;t any idea of what orthosas you forget about all this, so long as you act and think like it never happened, beginning with finding the cat this afternoon, then I&039;oes for you, Jack, though you&039;re a duht and did yourself out of an easy ten - and for you, Juno, and Cookie, too But if you don&039;t forget, if I get just the littlest hint that you&039;ve remembered - well, on&039;t talk about that" He slowly scanned their faces "Okay, then," he said, and shifting the gun to his left hand, stepped forward and scooped up Lucky

"He he" Sacheverell ly Moe looked at hi did this pussy sleep after you stun-gunned it?" Moe asked Jack

Jack wet his lips "Alo" Moe backed away toward the

Phil felt so that tortured him into movement, for he certainly didn&039;t want to stir a muscle

He advanced toward Moe, a shaky step, then a couple, all the while feeling thehis torso as it was sliced by iined orthos

"Put that cat down," he croaked

Moe looked at him with utter boredom

"He&039;s just a nut," he heard Jack assure Moe in an anxious whisper "He won&039;t cause trouble"

"I can see he is and won&039;t," Moe said drily, shifting the gun to the hand fro figure He tried to stop, but the torturer inside him wouldn&039;t let hiain the same torturer pried open his teeth and lips

"Put him down," he repeated "You can&039;t have him Nobody can" He raised his fists, but the left one wouldn&039;t close

Moe looked at hi fist came toward Phil&039;s jaw, very slowly Still, there soet out of the way