I fell to the floor, perspiring a terrible smell, it is how we faint, so to speak. It was death, it was the end, and this man was bullying me without fear.
‘The Fat Boy,’ said Mr. Hagsworth softly, ‘was strong. He could have whipped most of us. But in my last term he got licked. Guile and bluff - when at last the bluff was called he gave up. He was a coward.’
‘I give up, Mr. Hagsworth,’ I wailed, ‘only let me go away from the bombs!’
‘I know you do,’ he nodded, “what else? And - what, the bombs ? There are no bombs. Look out the window.’
In seconds I pulled myself together, no one spoke. I went to window. Cruising up and down outside a white truck, red cross, painted with word Ambulance, siren going. Only that. No air raid warning. Only ambulance.
‘Did you think,’ scolded Hagsworth with voice angry now, ‘that we would let you bluff us? There’s an old maxim - “Give him enough rope” - we gave it to you; and we added a little. You see, we didn’t know you came from a race of cowards.’
‘I Plinglot!’ I sobbed through all my teeth. ‘I am not a coward. I even tied this human woman here, ask her! It was brave, even Mother could not have done more! Why, I sector warden of this whole quadrant of the very Galaxy, indeed, to keep the peace!’
‘That much we know - and we know why,’ nodded Mr. Hagsworth, ‘because you’re afraid; but we needed to know more. Well, now we do; and once M. Duplessin’s associates get a better means of communication with the little Aldebaranians, I expect we’ll know still more. It will be very helpful knowledge,’ he added in thought.
It was all, it was the end. I said sadly: ‘If only Great Mother could know Plinglot did his best! If only she could learn what strange people live here, who, I cannot understand.’
‘Oh,’ said Mr. Hagsworth, gently, ‘We’ll tell her for you, Plinglot,’ he said, ‘very soon, I think.’