The Devil's Game by Poul Anderson

Author:Poul Anderson [Anderson, Poul]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
ISBN: 9780671559953
Google: fbZVPgAACAAJ
Amazon: 0671559958
Barnesnoble: 0671559958
Goodreads: 939696
Publisher: Baen
Published: 1980-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

INTERVAL FIVE

Everyone slept late the following day, except Byron. He, who had avoided a turbulent supper table, set his alarm clock in order that a couple of Tanoan youths might take him fishing as arranged earlier. Their boat cast off at dawn. Calm had descended upon the Island, cloudless clarity, dazzling brightness, slow rise of temperature and humidity.

Larry got breakfast about ten and established himself, his pipe, and a copy of Eothen he had found, in a deck chair at the tree-shaded east end of the patio. Flowerbeds blazed to his left. The lawn rolled solid green until it ended in the complex hues and shapes of wild brush. Far downward, glimpsed between several feathery-topped coyal palms, lay a white gleam of sea.

He was chuckling somewhat wistfully over Kinglake’s reminiscences when a slither of sandals, the blotting out of sun flecks on flagstones, caught his attention. Glancing up, he saw Julia. His look remained. She was in her bikini, had obviously been in the lagoon. Drops still gleamed on bosom, flanks, thighs. “Hi,” she said. “Lazy bird. You should’ve come with me.”

“I would’ve, if I’d known,” He half rose. She waved him back and drew another chair alongside his on the right. “But after yesterday,” he said, “frankly, I figure I rate some loafing.”

“Oh, I intend to do likewise.” She lowered herself. “Refreshment first, however.”

“Haven’t you eaten? I’ll holler for service.”

“No, I’m not hungry yet, thanks. A cup of coffee was ample. I’ll have brunch.” She removed her bathing cap (unlike Gayle, she kept her armpits smooth) and shook down the dark-ruddy hair. “It’s taking me a while to get my appetite back—the swim helped me more than any food—after yesterday.”

“That was rough, for sure.” Larry held eyes on her, drew breath, and blurted, “You’ve changed your opinion of him, then?”

She nodded. “Yes. He seemed, he was on the surface, pleasant, cultured, amusing. But what he put us to, well, I doubt his sanity. I honestly do.”

He shrugged. “We survived. Two dropped out, but they weren’t otherwise hurt. The game’s getting stiff.”

“You wouldn’t have let it go that far. You didn’t.”

“I aim to hang on, Julia.”

“Of course. Me too. But we … Let’s say I hope to play my turn your way.” She reached for the book on his lap. “What’re you reading?” When she raised it, her knuckles brushed his legs, which were in shorts. “Oh, yes.”

“Found it in the library here,” he said. “Fun.”

“The whole way through, Larry. I expect a sailor like you will get a real kick out of, oh, what happened in the storm off Cyprus. Have you come to that part?”

“No, I’m uh, still in Servia. Serbia? No, they—”

“Ah, yes. That wonderful line—let me see—” She leafed through the pages. “Here. ‘Endless and endless now on either side the tall oaks closed in their ranks, and stood gloomily lowering over us, as grim as an army of giants with a thousand years’ pay in arrear.’ ” They laughed together.

She returned the book, caught his hand, and said, “Larry, you’re my kind of people.

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