Charles A. Stearns

“ Colonel Glinka sighed prodigiously. "I am afraid that our country is going to be dogs-in-the-manger in this matter," he said. "You see, we are a jealous people by nature, and if we cannot have you, no one shall." And, deliberately, he laid the Malacca cane across his left arm, so that its tip was pointed squarely at Dr. Stefanik and the sinister round hole there clearly revealed to him. ”

“ And it helped the desolation of his mood not at all that upon these same arid ridges scores of silent, burnoosed figures watched him as he stood there, allowing the water to drain from his perforated white oxfords and all unaware that his vast pith helmet, curiously heavy malacca cane and formidable fundament cast a centaur's shadow upon the rocks in the later afternoon sun. ”

“ Colonel Glinka said. "Yet you were our white hope, Comrade Stefanik. We might have led the world, I am told, in organics as we now lead in physics. I have read all of your books upon the fascinating subject of chromosomic change and the morphology of rats. ”

“ The female stopped, knelt in the path.
"What is she doing now?" Dr. Stefanik asked.
"She is taking off her shoes, in order to run faster than me."
"'... And cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind'! And yet you told Glinka I made them!"
"Ah, but not out of what, Sidi," Abdul said.
The female, with a hopeful little bleat, arose and tucked her shoes under her arm, for youth is hope and kids will be kids, and off she went, clip-clop, clip-clop, down the rocky path to the sea. ”

“ Colonel Glinka said regretfully, and he started to press the handle of the cane.
"We are as tall as we stand," said Dr. Stefanik, and, swiftly focusing the nozzle of the irrigation hose to a thin stream, squirted the stinging green fluid in Colonel Glinka's right and left eye. ”

“ They descended, and Abdul Hakkim ben Salazar, with a flourish, produced a great bronze key and unlocked the iron gate. "The Sidi Doctor," he said, "will doubtless be in his conservatory, making flowers."
"A godlike pastime," said Colonel Glinka with heavy irony. "And where may this hotbed of new life be found?"
"Over there," Abdul said, pointing toward a narrow, screened, quonsetlike annex which protruded from the rear of the villa. "Come with me and I will show you."
"You will not," Colonel Glinka said, smiting him upon the thigh once again with the heavy cane. ”

“ I was so ashamed, Comrade, that I cried."
"Nine years," the other corrected. "For one remembers a mad dog. And do not call me 'comrade,' Comrade. You know that I was never anything other than a simple Cossack." ”