bound for the same destination and follow them in.
A long range of hills that rolled down to the sea was
split by a wide but crowded inlet. Once through they found
themselves in a spacious bay ringed by lush green slopes
that climbed several hundred feet above the harbor. Still
higher land was visible off in the distance.
Wharves and docks crowded together on the far side of
the bay. These were home to dozens of vessels that docked
here from lands known and alien. Snarken was the princi-
pal port on the Glittergeist’s southwestern shore.
Jon-Tom steered them through the merchantmen, in
search of an empty dock. Many of the wharves were
constructed of stone. The rocks were smooth and rounded,
evidence mat they had been carried down to the beach by
glaciers some time far in the past. The stones were
cemented tightly together and topped with planks.
14O
Alan Dean Foster
They finally located an open slip. Mudge dickered with
the dockmaster until a fee was settled on. This brought up
the matter of their Malderpot-induced impecuniousness. A
solution was found in the form of several stainless steel
hammers taken from the sloop’s toolbox. These the avari-
cious dockmaster eagerly accepted in payment.
“What do you think, Mudge?” Jon-Tom asked the otter
as they walked up the pier. “Will he leave the ship
alone?”
“An ‘onest bloke’s easy enough to spot, bein’ a rare sort
o1 bird. She’ll be safe in our absence. For one thing, the
greedy bugger’s terrified of ‘er.”
Jon-Tom nodded, paused as they stepped off the pier
onto the cobblestone avenue that fronted the harbor. Lizard-