"Gordon R. Dickson - The Cloak and the Staff" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

Shane dug into the purse hanging from the rope around his waist, and threw on the counter before him
metal coins issued by the Aalaag for use as an international currency—the gold and silver rectangles with
which his work as an employee of Lyt Ahn was rewarded.

The store owner checked his movement. His eyes moved to the coins, then back to Shane’s face with a
difference. Only humans of great power under the alien authority, or those engaged in the illegal black
market, would ordinarily have such coins with which to pay their bills; and it would be seldom that such
would come into a small shop like this.

He moved toward the coins. Shane covered them with his hand.

“I’ll pick the robe out myself,” he said. “Show me your stock.”

“But of course, of course, signore.”

The proprietor went past the coins and out from behind the counter. He opened a door to a back room
and invited Shane in. Within were tables stacked with clothing and cloth. In one corner, under a kerosene
lamp, was a tailor’s worktable with scraps of cloth, tools, thread, and some pieces of blue or white
chalk.

“Here are the robes, on these two tables,” he said.
“Good,” said Shane, harshly. “Go over to the corner there and turn around. I’ll pick out what I want.”

The man moved swiftly, his shoulders hunched a little. If his visitor was black market, it would be unwise
to argue with or irritate him.

Shane located the reversible robes among the others, and pawed through them, selecting the largest one
he could find that was blue on one side. The other side of it was brown. He pulled it on over his own
robe, the blue side out, and drew the drawstring tight at the waist. Stepping across to the worktable, he
picked up a fragment of the white chalk.

“I’ll leave a hundred lire on the counter,” he said to the back of the proprietor. “Don’t turn around, don’t
come out until I’ve been gone for five minutes. You understand?”

“I understand.”

Shane turned and went. He glanced at the counter as he passed. He had snatched coins from his purse at
random and there was the equivalent of over a hundred and fifty lire in gold and silver on the counter. It
would not do to make the incident look any more important to the storeman than was necessary. Shane
scooped up fifty lire-equivalent and went out the door, heading back toward the square where he had
seen the mounted Aalaag.

He was very conscious of the quick sliding by of time. He could not afford to be missing from the
headquarters more than the hour the officer on duty had allowed him. If the Aalaag had left the square…

But he had not. When Shane, sweating, once more emerged into the square, the massive figure still sat
unmoved, as indifferent as ever.

Shane, because of his duties, was allowed to carry one of the Aalaag’s perpetual timepieces. It lay in his
purse now, but he dared not consult it to see how much time remained. A glimpse of it by the ordinary