I looked at the countryside for a while more, then took out
my paper and pen and wrote all of this down. The sun is
about to sink behind the hill, and I can hear crickets chirp
ing and birds singing, and I can still see a deer across the
field, near some trees.
I stopped after I wrote the last paragraph above and
thought for a while like Ark told me to do. I don’t feel as
upset as I did when I started to write down this report. I’ve
just put my blanket over Cotterpin and left my bag of food
with him after I ate some of it, and I’ve made sure that Axle
has enough grass where she is standing, off to the side of
the road. I am taking my papers and pen and facts machine,
and I am going back to see Ark. I might have something to
write to you about later, but if not, then it won’t matter.
*****
Report Number Five
Same day, after midnight, I think
Hi, Astinus! Its really late, I know, but I had to get one
last report to you about how everything went. Ark doesn’t
know that I’m up or that I found out where he hid the facts
machine after I gave it back to him and he ordered me never
to touch it again or else I’d go to jail for a year, so don’t tell
him, please. He and Widow Muffin are asleep right now,
and I don’t think they could wake up for anything, and I’d
rather not wake them up anyway. It’s been a busy evening.
I went back into town right at sundown and went home
to the shop, though part way there I slowed down a lot and
was worried about what Ark would do when he found that I
had his facts machine and had burned down the town and
all, even if the last part was an accident. I felt bad, too,
because I had failed to find out everything I think you
wanted and Ark would be angry and disappointed in me,
and I was also rather mortified that Ark might find out that I
read Widow Muffin’s letters, but I didn’t read them all, just
the first twelve.
The town was quiet again, though I could smell some
smoke, and I saw candles burning in the window at the back
of the shop where I usually go in. As I got closer, I saw that
the back door was open, and I could hear voices inside the
shop. The light inside was flickering, and at first I thought it
was the stove. As I got even closer, I could tell that one of
the voices was Ark’s and one was Widow Muffin’s, and I
almost stopped, but I kept going anyway, even if my face
was red.
It was when I got even closer still, almost up to the
doorway, that I could hear a third voice in the shop, and
that voice was Goodwife Filster’s.
I stopped right then, holding the satchel and not moving
a muscle. Goodwife Filster was saying something in a loud
voice, growling like the Wylmeens’ mastiff when he
catches scent of me walking through the garden that he
thinks is his territory. After a moment, I edged up to the
door on one side, so no one could see me, and I listened to
them talk, though Ark had once told me to never spy on
anyone, and I never have, except just then and maybe two
other times.
“You have to be reasonable about this,” Ark was
saying. His voice was a little too high and tight. “If you
could just listen to me for a minute and think about – ”
“Shut your dung-eating trap,” shouted Goodwife
Filster. “You brought that wicked little monster into this
good town, and look at me now! My bakery’s burned down,
and I’ve got nothing left to my name except the clothes on
my back. My whole life has been a sewage pit ever since
blessed Istar died, and it’s all because of vermin like that
kender and maggot-brained asses like yourself who feed