VERSION 0.5 DTD 032600
IN THE QUEUE
Keith Laumer
The old man fell just as Fam Hestler's power wheel was
passing his place in line, on bis way back from the com-
fort station. Hestler, braking, stared down at the twisted
face, a mask of soft, pale leather in which the mouth
writhed as if trying to tear itself free of the dying body.
Then he jumped from the wheel, bent over the victim.
Quick as he was, a lean woman with fingers like gnarled
roots was before him, clutching ait the old man's fleshless
shoulders.
"Tell them me. Millicent Dredgewicke Crump," she
was shrilling into the vacant face. "Oh, if you only knew
what I've been through, how I deserve the help"
Hestler sent her reeling with a deft shove of his foot.
He knelt beside the old man, lifted his head.
"Vultures," he said. "Greedy, snapping at a man. Now,
I care. And you were getting so close to the head of the
line. The tales you could tell, I'll bet. An old-timer. Not
like these line, er, jumpers," he diverted the obscenity. "I
say a man deserves a little dignity at a moment like
this"
"Wasting your time, Jack," a meaty voice said. Hestler
glanced up into the hippopotamine features of the man he
always thought of as Twentieth Back. "The old coot's
dead."
Hestler shook the corpse. "Tell them Argall Y. Hestler!"
he yelled into the dead ear. "Argall, that's A-R-G-A-
L-L "
"Break it up," the brassy voice of a line policeman
sliced through the babble. "You, get back." A sharp prod
lent urgency to the command. Hestler rose reluctantly,
his eyes on the waxy face slackening imto an expression of
horrified astonishment.
"Ghoul," the lean woman 'snarled. "Line!" She
mouthed the unmentionable word.
"I wasn't thinking of myself," Hestier countered holly.
"But my boy Argall, through no fault of his 'own"
"All right, quiet!" the cop snarled. He jerked a thumb
at the dead man. "This guy make any disposition?"
"Yes!" the lean woman cried. "He said, to Millicent
Dredgewicke Crump, that's M, I, L"
"She's lying," Hestier cut in. "I happened to catch the
name Argall Hestierright, 'sir?" He looked brightly at a
slack-jawed lad who was staring down at the corpse.
