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. Senator. May I give him that flesh wound?"
"No, no! Not if he behaves. Bill, you're going to behave, aren't you?"
"Ain't I been behaving? Senator, make her put the safety on that thing, at
least!"
"Now, now! Yours didn't even have a safety. And you are in no position to
insist on terms. Bill, what did you do with the proctor you slugged?"
"Huh!"
"Oh, come now. You show up here in a proctor's tunic that does not fit you.
And your pants don't match your coat. I ask to see your credentials and you pull
a gun-a rumble gun, for the love of Pete! And you haven't bathed in-how long?
You tell me. But tell me first what you did with the owner of that tunic. Is he
dead? Or just sapped and stuffed into a closet? Answer quickly or I'll ask
Mistress Hardesty to give you a memory stimulant. Where is he?"
"I don't know! I didn't do it."
"Now, now, dear boy, don't lie to me."
"The truth! On my mother's honor it's the simple truth!'
I had doubts about his mother's honor but it would have been unmannerly to
express them, especially in dealing with so sorry a specimen. "Bill," I said
gently, "you are not a proctor. Must I explain why I am certain?" (Chief Proctor
Franco is a System-class martinet. If one of his stooges had shown up for
morning roll call looking-and stinking-the way this poor slob did, the
delinquent would have been lucky merely to have been shipped dirtside
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