Killdozer by Theodore Sturgeon

Author:Theodore Sturgeon [Sturgeon, Theodore]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * * * *

Al Knowles and Harris squatted together near the water cooler.

‘Bad,” said Harris.

‘Nevah saw anythin’ like it,” said Al. “OP Tom come back f in the shop theah jus’ raisin’ Cain. ‘Wean’s

‘at Seven gone? Weah’s ‘at Seven?’ I never heered sech cah’ins on.”

‘Dennis did take it, huh?”

‘Sho’ did.”

Harris said, “He came spoutin’ around to me a while back, Dennis did. Chub’d told him Tom said for everybody to stay off that machine. Dennis was mad as a wet hen. Said Tom was carryin’ that kind o’

business too far. Said there was probably somethin’ about the Seven Tom didn’t want us to find out.

Might incriminate him. Dennis is ready to say Tom killed the kid.”

‘Reckon he did, Harris?”

Harris shook his head. “I’ve known Tom too long to think that. If he won’t tell us what really happened up on the mesa, he has a reason for it. How’d Dennis come to take the dozer?”

‘Blew a front tyre on his pan. Came back heah to git anothah rig—maybe a Dumptor. Saw th’ Seven standin’ theah ready to go. Stood theah lookin’ at it and cussin’ Tom. Said he was tired of bashin’ his kidneys’t’pieces on them othah rigs an’ bedamned if he wouldn’t take suthin’ that rode good fo’ a change.

I tol’ him ol’ Tom’d raise th’ roof when he found him on it. He had a couple mo’ things’t’say ‘bout Tom then.”

‘I didn’t think he had the guts to take the rig.”

‘Aw, he talked hisself blind mad.”

They looked up as Chub Horton trotted up, panting. “Hey, you guys, come on. We better get up there to Dennis.”

‘What’s wrong?” asked Harris, climbing to his feet.

‘Tom passed me a minute ago lookin’ like the wrath o’ God and hightailin’ it for the swamp fill. I asked him what was the matter and he hollered that Dennis had taken the Seven. Said he was always talkin’

about murder and he’d get his fill of it foolin’ around that machine.” Chub went wall-eyed, licked his lips beside his cigar.

‘Oh-oh,” said Harris quietly. “That’s the wrong kind o’ talk for just now.”

‘You don’t suppose he—”

“Come on!”

They saw Tom before they were halfway there. He was walking slowly, with his head down. Harris shouted. Tom raised his face, stopped, stood there waiting with a peculiarly slumped stance.

‘Where’s Dennis?” barked Chub.

Tom waited until they were almost up to him and then weakly raised an arm and thumbed over his shoulder. His face was green.

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