Galaxy Magazine (March 1954) by Galaxy

Author:Galaxy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 1954-03-08T16:00:00+00:00

in circles around me. I tried to do something with my rifle, but no go. Kittredge must have had cross-eyes or something—couldn't hit the side of a cliff with a howitzer, after that first shot. Damn fool stunt, 'scope-mounting an automatic — somebody should have taught him better— and there I was, passing out from the recoil every time / squeezed. You never saw such a blind man's shooting match in your life. Cott!

"Then, out of this gully that he'd been imitating an elephant wallowing through, up pops Alis! Slaps the old M-l to his scrawny little shoulder, stands up like the man atop a skeet-shoot trophy and starts blasting away at Kit-tredge's tree as if nothing was up there but pigeons! Tell you, the sight of that came nearer killing me than Kittredge's best out of thirty.

"Well, Kittredge might have been crazy, but he wasn't up to ignoring eight 30s. He swings that lunatic T-4 of his for Alis, h( re, and this gives me a chance to steady up and put a lucky shot through a leaf he happ< to be in back of at tile time. He's still out there."

Cott felt his teeth go into his lower lip. Michael Kittredge!

"He shot you from ambush?"

"He wasn't carrying any banners!"

"But that's disgraceful!" Cott's mother exclaimed. She finished wrapping gauze over the patch bandage on Geoffrey's bicep.

/^OTT looked at Alister, who ^ was standing beside Geoffrey, his face still shining. "Was that what happened, Alister?" he asked.

Alister nodded.

"Sure, that's what happened!" Geoffrey said indignantly. "Think this is a mosquito bite?"

"You know what this means, don't you?" Cott asked gravely.

Geoffrey began a shrug and winced. "Fool kid with a bug."

Cott shook his head. "The Kit-tredges may be lax in their training, but Michael knew better. In a sense, that was a declaration of war. f Michael was out there, the rest of his household may not have known about it, but they'll be forced to support his action when they find out."

"So it's a declaration of war." Alister finally found his voice, his tones a conscious imitation of Geoffrey's. "What have we been drilling for?"

Geoffrey's eyes oj and the secretive laughter turned to his expression as he looked at his younger brot I

"Not to start a war—or get involved in one," Cott said. "Their gunnery will be sloppier than ours, but I know that their

IRONCLAD

armor plate's just as thick."

"What do you want to do, Cot-trell?" his mother asked. Her delicate face was anxious, and her hands seemed to be poised for the express purpose of underscoring the question.

"We've got to stop this thing before it snowballs," Geoffrey said. "I didn't get it before, but Cott's right."

Cott nodded. "We'll have to call everybody to a meeting. I don't know what can be done about the Kittredges. Maybe we'll all be able to think of something." He beat the side of his fist lightly against his thigh. "I don't know. It's never been done before. But these aren't Berendt-sen's Militia. We can't handle the problem by simply dropping our shutters and fighting it out as independent units.

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