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MYIILv~r TERENS was in the act of re a book-filnal sounded The rather pudgy outlines of his face had been set in lines of thought, but now these vanished and changed into the more usual expression of bland caution He brushed one hand over his thinning, ruddy hair and shouted, "One minute"

He replaced the fil section to spring back into place and becouishable from the rest of the wall To the simple millworkers and farue pride that one of their own nuhtened, by tenuous reflection, the unrelieved dusk of their own minds And yet it would not do to display the filht of thes It would have frozen their none too articulate tongues They ht boast of their Townman&039;s books, but the actual presence of them before their eyes would have made Terens seem too much the Squire There were, of course, the Squires as well It was unlikely in the extreme that any of them would visit him socially at his house, but should one of theht would be injudicious He was a Townes but it would never do to flaunt the!"

This ti the upper sea was soot he had been born on Florina

Valona March was on the doorstep She bent her knees and ducked her head in respectful greeting

Terens threw the door wide "Come in, Valona Sit down Surely it&039;s past curfew I hope the patrollers didn&039;t see you"

"I don&039;t think so, Townman"

"Well, let&039;s hope that&039;s so You&039;ve got a bad record, you know" "Yes, Townrateful for what you have done for me in the past"

"Neverto eat or drink?"

She seated herself, straight-backed, at the edge of a chair and shook her head "No, thank you, Town the villagers to offer refreshment It was bad form to accept Terens knew that He didn&039;t press her

He said, "Nohat&039;s the trouble, Valona? Rik again?" Valona nodded, but seemed at a loss for further explanation Terens said, "Is he in trouble at the ain?"

"No, Town and growing sharp

"Well, Valona, you don&039;t expect uess your trouble, do you? Come, speak out or I can&039;t help you You do want help, I suppose" -

She said, "Yes, Townman," then burst out, "How shall I tell you, Townman? It sounds almost crazy"

Terens had an impulse to pat her shoulder, but he knew she would shrink froe hands buried as far as ers were intertwined and sloisting

He said, "Whatever it is, I will listen"

"Do you remember, Townman, when I came to tell you about the City doctor and what he said?"

"Yes, I do, Valona And I remember I told you particularly that you were never to do anything like that again without consulting me Do you remember that?"

She opened her eyes wide She needed no spur to recollect his anger "I would never do such a thing again, Townman It&039;s just that I want to re to help me keep Rik"

"And so I will Well, then, have the patrollers been asking about hiht?"

"I&039; patience "Now, co"

Her eyes clouded "Townman, he says he will leave me I want you to stop him"

"Why does he want to leave you?"

"He says he is res"

Interest leaped into Terens&039; face He leaned forward and als? What things?"

Terens remesters clustered near one of the irrigation ditches just outside the village They had raised their shrill voices to call him

"Townman! Townman!"

He had broken into a run "What&039;s the sters&039; names when he came to town That ith the mothers and made the firstsick He said, "Looky here, Town white and squir at once in confused explanation Terens a They were intent on telling hiress, the point at which they had been interrupted, with a slight subsidiary argu" All that didn&039;t matter, of course

Rasie, the twelve-year-old black-haired one, had heard the whi and had approached cautiously He had expected an ani He had found 131k

All the boys were caught between an obvious sickness and an equally obvious fascination at the strange sight It was a grown hu and crying feebly, ar about aimlessly Faded blue eyes shifted in randorown stubble For a ht those of Terens and seemed to focus Slowly the man&039;s thumb came up and inserted itself into his hed "Looka hi"

The sudden shout jarred the prone figure His face reddened and screwed up A hining, unaccompanied by tears, sounded but his thumb remained where it was It shoet and pink in contrast to the rest of the dirt-smeared hand

Terens broke his own nuht, look, fellows, you shouldn&039;t be running around here in the kyrt field You&039;re da the crop and you knohat that will , and keep quiet about this And listen, Rasie, you run to Mr Jencus and get hi to a doctor the town had He had passed some time as apprentice in the offices of a real doctor in the City and on the strength of it he had been relieved of duty on the farms or in the mills It didn&039;t work out too badly He could take teive injections and, most important, he could tell when some disorder was sufficiently serious to warrant a trip to the City hospital Without such se, those unfortunates stricken with spinal ht suffer intensively but usually not for long As it was, the fore but words of being an accessory after the fact to a conspiracy of

Jencus helped Terens lift the ht, carried hiether they washed off the accu to be done about the hair Jencus shaved the entire body and did what he could by way of physical examination

Jencus said, "No infection I c&039;n tell of, Townman He&039;s been fed Ribs don&039;t stick out too et out there, d&039;you suppose, Townman?"

He asked the question with a pessih no one could expect Terens to have the answer to anything Terens accepted that philosophically When a village has lost the Townrown accustomed to over a period of nearly fifty years, a newcoe must expect a transition period of suspicion and distrust There was nothing personal in it

Terens said, "I&039;m afraid I don&039;t know"

"Can&039;t walk, y&039;know Can&039;t walk a step He&039;d have to be put there Near&039;s I c&039;nelse seeone"

"Is there a disease that has this effect?"

"Not&039;s I know of Mind trouble&039;tall about that Mind trouble I&039;d send to the City Y&039;ever see this one, Townently, "I&039;ve just been here a hed and reached for his handkerchief "Yes Old Townman, he was a fine man Kept us well, he did I been here &039;most sixty years, and never saw this fella before Must be from &039;nother town"

Jencus was a plu been born plump, and if to this natural tendency is added the effect of a largely sedentary life, it is not surprising that he tended to punctuate even short speeches by a puff and a rather futile swipe at his gleae red handkerchief

He said, "Don&039;t &039;xactly knohat t&039;say t&039;the patrollers"

The patrollers caht It was impossible to avoid that The boys told their parents; their parents told one another Town life was quiet enough Even this would be unusual enough to be worth the telling in every possible co, the patrollers could not help but hear

The patrollers, so called, were members of the Florinian Patrol They were not natives of Florina and, on the other hand, they were not countrymen of the Squires from the planet Sark They were simply mercenaries who could be counted on to keep order for the sake of the pay they got and never to be led into the h any ties of blood or birth

There were two of them and one of the foremen froet authority

The patrollers were bored and indifferent A ht be part of the day&039;s work but it was scarcely an exciting part One said to the fore does it take you to make an identification? Who is this etically "I never saw him, Officer He&039;s no one around here!"

The patroller turned to Jencus "Any papers on hi &039;bout him Burned it t&039;prevent infection"

"What&039;s wrong with him?"

"No mind, near&039;s I c&039;n make out"

At this point Terens took the patrollers aside Because they were bored they were a the questions put up his notebook and said, "All right, it isn&039;t even worthto do with us Get rid of it somehow"

Then they left

The foree and bristly id principles for five years and that meant his responsibility for the fulfillment of quota in his mill rested heavily upon him

"Look here," he said fiercely "What&039;s to be done about this? The da~

"Send him t&039;City hospital, near&039;s I c&039;nhis handkerchief industriously "Noth&039;n&039; I c&039;n do"

"To the City!" The fore to pay? Who&039;ll stand the fees? He ain&039;t none of us, is he?"

"Not&039;s far&039;s I know," admitted Jencus

"Then why should we pay? Find out who he belongs to Let his town pay"