knowing better. “You think you can flatter me into goin’,
is that it? Or did you think I’d forgotten your intentions to
be a solicitor in your own world? Don’t take me for a fool,
mate.”
“I have to have someone along I can trust,” Jon-Tom
went on. The otter’s expression showed that was one ploy
he wasn’t expecting.
“Now that ain’t fair, guv’nor, and you knows it.”
THE DAY OF THE DISSONANCE
31
“There will also,” Jon-Tom added, saving the best for
last, “be a good fee for helping me.”
That piqued the otter’s interest. ” ‘Ere now, why didn’t
you come out and say that t’ begin with instead of goin’ on
with all this twaddle about *ow ‘is poor old ‘ardheaded
curmudgeonly ‘oiiness was ‘aving an attack of the gout or
whatever, or ‘ow badly you need me unique talents.” He
moved nearer and put a comradely arm around Jon-Tom’s
waist, as high as he could comfortably reach.
“You ‘ave a ‘ell of a lot to learn about life, guv’nor.”
He rambled on as the evening fog closed in comfortingly
around them, explaining that though he didn’t know how it
was in Jon-Tom’s world, here it was gold that spoke
clearest and bought one’s trust. Not words.
Jon-Tom allowed as how things indeed were different,
deferring to the otter’s claims while privately disagreeing.
It did not matter who was right, however. All that mattered
was that Mudge had agreed to join him.
Mudge managed to steer them into a tavern in a high-
class district. Having already flashed Clothahump’s gold,
Jon-Tom couldn’t very well claim he didn’t have the
wherewithal to pay. So he went slowly through his own