The Universe Against Her by Schmitz James H

Author:Schmitz, James H. [Schmitz, James H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Adventure, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780441845774
Google: vlPmAAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0441845770
Goodreads: 592014
Publisher: ACE
Published: 1964-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

IX

Several hours after Telzey’s departure, Pehanron College’s buildings and grounds, spreading up the sun-soaked hills above the residential town of Beale, were still unusually quiet.

Almost half the student body was struggling with midsummer examinations, and a good proportion of those who had finished had obtained permission to get off to an early start for the holidays. The carports extending, along the backs of the student courts showed a correspondingly large number of vacancies, though enough gleaming vehicles remained to have supplied the exhibits for the average aircar show, a fair percentage running up into the price ranges of small interstellar freighters. Pehanron sometimes was accused of opening its lists only to the sons and daughters of millionaires; and while this wasn’t strictly true, the college did scout assiduously for such of them as might be expected to maintain the pace of its rugged curriculum. Pehanron liked to consider itself a select hatchery from which sprang a continuous line of leaders in many fields of achievement, and as a matter of fact, it did turn out more than its share of imposing names.

There was no one in sight in Court Ninety-two when Senior Counselor Eulate turned into it, arriving from the direction of the managerial offices. Miss Eulate was a plump, brisk little woman whose normal expression when she felt unobserved was a vaguely worried frown. The frown was somewhat pronounced at the moment.

At the gate of the duplex bungalow marked 18-19, the counselor came to an abrupt stop. In the center of the short garden path, head and pointed wolf ears turned in her direction, lay a giant white dog of the type known as Askanam arena hounds—a breed regarded, so Miss Eulate had been told, as the ultimate in reckless canine ferocity and destructiveness when aroused.

The appearance of Chomir—a yellow-eyed, extravagantly muscled hundred-and-fifty-pounder—always brought this information only too vividly back to Miss Eulate’s mind. Not wishing to arouse the silently staring monster now, she continued to hesitate at the gate. Then, hearing the intermittent purr of a tapewriter from beyond the open door at the end of the path, she called out in a carefully moderate tone. “Gonwil?”

The tapewriter stopped. Gonwil’s voice replied, “Yes…is that you, Miss Eulate?”

“It is. Please keep an eye on Chomir while I come in.” “Oh, for goodness sake!” Gonwil appeared laughing in the door. She was eighteen; a good-looking, limber-bodied, sunny-tempered blonde. “Now you know Chomir won’t hurt you! He likes you!”

Miss Eulate’s reply was a skeptical silence. But she proceeded up the path now, giving the giant hound a wary four feet of clearance as she went by. To her relief Chomir didn’t move until she was past; then he merely placed his massive head back on his forelegs and half closed his eyes. Airily ignoring Gonwil’s amused smile, Miss Eulate indicated the closed entrance door on the other side of the duplex as she came up. “Telzey isn’t still asleep?” “No, she left early. Did you want to see her?” Miss Eulate shook her head.

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