he was the meal! Roasted, with a dead rat in his mouth as
a garnish.
I did the only sane thing that occurred to me.
I fainted.
Chapter Eight:
“There’s never a cop around when you need
one!”
—A. CAPONE
“SKEEVE!”
The voice seemed to come from far away.
“C’mon, Skeeve! Snap out of it! We’ve got trouble!”
That caught my attention. I couldn’t seem to get oriented,
but if there was one thing I didn’t need it was more trouble.
More trouble? What . . . later! First, deal with whatever^
going on now!
I forced my eyes open.
The scene which greeted me brought a lot of the situation
back with a rush. I was in a restaurant … on the floor, to
be specific … a Pervish waiter was hovering over me . . .
and so was a policeman!
At first I thought it was the same one we had encountered
earlier, but it wasn’t. The similarities were enough that they
could have come out of the same litter … or hatching.
They both had the same square jaw, broad shoulders and
potbelly, not to mention a very hard glint in their otherwise
bored-looking eyes.
71
72
Robert Asprin
I struggled to sit upright, but wobbled as a wave of diz-
ziness washed over me.
“Steady, Skeeve! You’re going to need your wits about
you for this one!”
Kalvin was hovering, his face-lined with concern.
“W . . . what happened?” I said.
Too late I remembered that I was the only one who could
see or hear the Djin. Ready or not, I had just opened the
conversation with the others.
“It seems you fainted, boyo,” the policeman supplied.
“I theenk he just does not vant to pay for zee food he
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