"Martin H. Greenberg & Mark Tier - Visions of Liberty" - читать интересную книгу автора (Greenberg Martin H)

assets to his designated beneficiary. Whether it actually does this I couldn't say. And that's the whole
story."

"You didn't report the murder to the police authorities?"

"What police authorities? I just told you—Llayless has got no government. It's got no authorities, police
or any other kind. Who would I report it to?"

"Then a murderer can't be arrested and brought to trial?"

"Who would arrest him, and who would hold his trial? There's no police. There's no court. There's no
judge. There's no jail for wrongdoers. Actually, it was a dirty shame. Dougie was well liked, and Lefory
was a jerk. Everyone was angry about what happened."

"But you let him carry on scot-free as though he hadn't done anything?"

"I wouldn't say that. We shouldered him right out of camp."

"How did you do that?"

"No one would talk with him. No one would work with him. No one would eat with him—we form
teams and take turns cooking. No team would have him. No one would kip with him. After a couple of
days of that, he left. Sneaked out of camp early one morning and walked over the mountain to the
Laughingstock. It was almost a day before anyone missed him."

"That seems like a rather mild punishment for a murderer," Dantler observed dryly. "What happened to
him after that?"

"He got a job at the Laughingstock. Llayless's mines are always short of labor. But we let the
Laughingstock workers know about him, and he didn't stay there long. Probably they shouldered him,
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too."

"But you don't know that for certain."

"No, I don't know it for certain. But I know he didn't stay there long."

"Do you know where he went from there?"

"I never heard him mentioned again after he left the Laughingstock, but you can bet that the workers
there passed the information about him along to workers at the next place he caught on."

Dantler stayed overnight. The men gave him what was, for the Last Hope, a fabulous luxury—a tent all
to himself. The food was rough but filling. The other amenities were just a shade above zero. There was
barely enough hot water—heated over a campfire—to go around. There was plenty of ore soup,
though—a hot, stimulating drink made with local herbs—and it was obvious that no one at the camp