'Can you get along without me?' Gulthilo said. 'We're talking about getting married.'
The bandleader looked surprised, but he nodded, and left. 'Now,' Gulthilo said, 'maybe we can thrash out the obstacles you think exist.'
'We've already gone over...'
He stopped. Two men were standing across from each other at a nearby table and bellowing insults and threats. The apparent cause of this locking of horns, a busty redhead, was trying to calm the two but without success. Suddenly, one of the men, broad-shouldered, black-bearded, and green-eyed, reached across the table and grabbed the other by the robe. This man, taller but slimmer, blond, and blue-eyed, struck the aggressor in the face. The woman shrieked and fell off her chair. The table was overturned as the two males rolled on the floor.
Orme got out of his chair and backed away. A man hurrying to aid one of the fighters, or to break it up, bumped hard into Orme and sent him sprawling. He rolled over and looked up just in time to see Gulthilo kick the man in the ribs. He went sideways, flying further than he would have in Earth's gravity, and collided with the bartender just as he leaped over the bar.
A dark-haired woman, screeching, attacked Gulthilo with clawing hands. The blonde rammed a fist into the pit of the brunette's stomach, and the stricken woman vomited on to Gulthilo. Another woman, undoubtedly one of the brunette's friends, hooked her arm around Gulthilo's neck from the back and, her knee against the blonde's spine, pulled her back.
Orme came off the floor like a grasshopper, soared, landed just behind the brunette, and seized her. Immediately, someone slammed a fist against the side of his head. Stunned, he fell down, but he managed to kick the legs of his attacker from under him. Yowling with pain, the man started to get to his feet. Orme kicked him on the chin, and he was out of the fight for a while. ,
'No violence! No violence!' the bartender shouted. His nose was bleeding; one ear looked as if it had been chewed on. His opponent, just as bloody as he, was crawling on the floor, shaking his head.
Nobody paid any attention to him. It was doubtful that anyone heard him but Orme. The entire place had erupted into a scratch-or-slugfest. Orme got up unsteadily and looked for Gulthilo. It took him a minute to locate her in the melee. She was straddling the chest of the brunette and banging her head on the floor.
Orme started towards her. A woman bit his calf. He drove the butt of his palm against the top of her head and she opened her mouth; he kicked her away.
It wasn't easy to drag Gulthilo off her now half-senseless victim. She screamed and writhed and clawed backward, raking his face, before she realised who he was.
'Let's get out of here!' he shouted, and he started to propel her towards the door. 'Why should I?' she yelled, still struggling. 'This is fun!'
'Somebody's going to get badly hurt or even killed!' he shouted.
She shrilled, 'Yooow!' and reached out and yanked savagely on the ear of a man wrestling with another. The man clapped a hand to his ear, at which the other took advantage of the opening and hit him in the throat with his fist.
Angry, Orme shoved Gulthilo ahead of him. She stumbled and fell on her knees. Two cursing men fell over her. She grabbed one by the testicles and squeezed. He screamed and, writhing, rolled away. The other man lacked gratitude. He slapped her across the face so hard that she crumpled onto one side of the floor. Orme kicked him in the chin.
Gulthilo was knocked half out of her wits, enabling Orme to get her to her feet without protest. He was close to the door when the blast of a trumpet cut through the uproar. This was followed by a rapid ratatatat on a drum. A voice bellowed, 'Stop it! The police are here!'
Silence except for some moans and groans and a whimper.
Whistles were shrilling outside. Then, a banging on the door.
'Open up in the name of the law!'
The bartender, Ah'hab, staggered to the door and shot a massive wooden bolt across it. Turning, he shouted, 'Everybody follow me! Pick up the wounded!'
He ran to the door to one side of the bandstand, paused in the frame, and gestured to the crowd. Orme helped Gulthilo to her feet. Supporting her, he got her to the door. For a minute there was a jam as everybody tried to get through at the same time. Then it broke, and he got her through into a wide but short hallway. The proprietor did something around the edges of the wall at the end, and the wall slid downward. Beyond was a narrow stairway. This led spiralling through a passageway cut out of the stone.
Orme helped Gulthilo down it into a large room. At the other end was the opening to a tunnel.
Ah'hab had not come down. From the top of the staircase, he yelled, 'Follow the tunnel, and when you come out, run! I'm staying! They're probably already at my house, so there's no way I'm going to get out of this! Don't worry! I won't tell them your names!'
Those who were able to do so cheered, feebly. The wall slid back up.
The bandleader said, 'All right. Do as he said. I'll turn the lights off after you're out, and I'll close the tunnel door.'
By now Gulthilo was able to walk on her own. She went ahead of Orme through the lighted tunnel. After about a hundred yards, the tunnel began curving upward. Soon it ended in a trapdoor above a short flight of steps. The big burly man who had started the brawl put his back against the trapdoor and heaved. It rose slowly, dirt falling around it on to him, and then it was open.
Orme came out into the shadow of a big tree. He seemed to be in the middle of a wood. Nearby, a small creek gleamed where the moonlight fell through the branches. An owl hooted, and a tiny creature ran out from the darkness. The owl swooped down, struck, and lifted with the little animal in its talons.
'That's us,' Gulthilo whispered. 'The owl's the police.'
'How'd you get here?' he said. 'In a car or bicycle?'
'In a car with some friends. Fortunately, we took the precaution of wearing gloves so we wouldn't leave fingerprints if there was a raid. But the police will know which lots the cars came from. They'll be questioning everybody in the neighbourhood.'
Orme groaned. 'My prints are on the wheel of my car.'
'Just tell them you stopped off to eat and you knew nobody here. You'll be questioned, but it'll be all right if you stick to your story. Poor Ah'hab! He'll suffer, his family will be so ashamed.'
'He knew what could happen.'
The group, which had at first huddled closely together under the tree, began to disperse. Whistles began sounding. The police were spreading out and would soon be beating the woods. Orme and Gulthilo took a wide curve through the trees, and after some floundering around came out on a road. She said that this was the same road that ran in front of the inn. They walked along it, occasionally trotting, ready to run into the trees if they saw any light.
'Here's where we part,' she said. 'I have to take the left road. You continue ahead until you come to the highway. Go left on it, and you'll soon come to familiar territory.' She paused. 'Unless you want to come home with me.'
'No. It's not that I don't want to. But they'll have my fingerprints. If they should find me with you, they'll know you were at Ah'hab's.'
'Well?'
He didn't have to ask her what she meant.
He took her in her arms and kissed her passionately. Releasing her, he said, 'Very well. We'll get married.'
She smiled, but she said, 'You love me?'
'I either love you or I'm crazy. I'm not sure which.'
'You're crazy with love.'
She kissed him lightly, and said, 'This is a very strange place and situation for a marriage proposal. But I love it. Shalom, Richard.'