"Why?" O'Leary demanded. "Why me?"
"Simply because you are the one intrusive element in all my worlds. You alone do not belong here, and great has been the annoyance of your presence. How dare you, petty creature, thrust your minimal ego, unwanted, into that which I created utterly?" Frumpkin had worked himself up into a state of pink-faced rage as he spoke. When he paused, Lafayette said:
"I didn't dare, if that's any consolation to you: I stumbled into this mess by accident."
"So ..." Frumpkin mused, seeming mollified. "And yet, to do this, to cross over the energy barrier between my evocation and the rest of, shall we say 'natural', creation, you must of necessity possess some secret the which you must divulge to me alone. I command you to speak of it to none other, on pain of pain, I mean on death of death; that is, on pain of death, death utter and final across all the worlds!" Frumpkin stood glaring at Lafayette and breathing heavily.
"That's easy," O'Leary replied insouciantly. "I can't divulge it to anybody. I don't know what you're talking about."
"Pah! You think thus easily to escape the full fruits of your inconceivable audacity?" Frumpkin spat, with plenty of spit.
"Beats me," Lafayette said offhandedly. "What are you talking about, anyway?"
Sheriff Tode's voice occluded Frumpkin's sputtering reply. "Somethin' funny going on in there, feller," he said casually, having come up beside Lafayette. "Big gray room, full of smoke, like. Weird-looking bunch in there—and I seen Cease—and that Doc feller was goin' to put me under arrest, and old Marv is givin' some kinda speech—and funny thing is, they're listenin'."
Ignoring Frumpkin's expostulations, Lafayette moved over to peer in through a ragged opening in the stained tarp which constituted the facade of the improvised structure. Inside, grouped incongruously in the center of the cavernous room, he saw Lord Trog, waist-high and whiskery, thrusting for position between the iron-clad bulk of Duke Bother-Be-Damned and the dumpy form of Mary Ann Gorch. Beyond, he glimpsed her boss Clyde, and Sergeant Dubose, minus his helicopter, as well as Fred and Les, all craning for a better view of Marv, who looked impressive in his scarlet doorman's outfit. He was standing on a box, haranguing them:
"... do like I tole you. Everything's jake. I got him right here, and all you got to do is hang loose and I'll con him right in here into the grabfield just like I conned him alia way from the Big Muddy!"
"Sold out," Lafayette said mournfully to Tode, who nodded portentously. "Never did trust that Marv," he confided. "Too slick, had shifty eyes, and didja ever notice how his eyebrows grows right acrost, all in one piece, like? Sure signs o' the criminal type, never fails."
"Why did you wait until now to mention it?" O'Leary asked dazedly.
"Figgered he was yer sidekick; a feller don't like to hear nothing like that about his sidekick. Remines me: Old Cease is right in there listenin' hard, more'n he ever done when I was talkin'."
"Shhh," O'Leary whispered. "I want to hear the rest."
"... all know yer jobs," Marv was reminding his listeners. "All we got to do is nail him and sit tight. And, you, Troglouse," he addressed the whiskery runt, "none o' yer tricks. This O'Leary, he claims his name is now, he's got more slick ones up his sleeve than you ever hearn on! Now, how about it, folks?" Marv returned his attention to the entire group. "Are we agreed we got to lay this here Allegorus by the heels, onct and fer all? Yeah!" His voice was briefly drowned by an enthusiastic yell from the crowd. "So, come on, let's go an get him!" Marv jumped down from his podium and bulled through the throng which fell in behind him and headed determinedly directly toward Lafayette.
"Better take cover for the nonce," Frumpkin said. "What's that he called you? But you can't—" he broke off and dashed down the steps just as Marv emerged, hand outstretched, crying, "Al, baby, come on inside: I wancha to meet some swell folks here. They got a big welcome laid on fer us. Seems like we're some kinda celebrities, like, and all. By the way," he added, more casually, "grab that skunk." He pointed at the retreating figure of Frumpkin, who had abandoned the catwalk and was making for the rickety, top-heavy structure adjacent to the Palace of Justice. The eager beavers, among whom Lafayette noted Marv's old partner Omar, were hot on the heels of the Man in Black, but as they approached the open framework of battered timbers, their pace slackened and they stood silently in the mud and watched as Frumpkin splattered his way to a fragile-looking ladder and began a cautious ascent. Judge Grossfarb arrived on the scene and took charge:
"Now all you folks stand back there. Form up a circle, like, round this here spook-hole."
"Methinks yon Man in Black clambers to his doom indeed," the bass voice of Bother spoke up at O'Leary's elbow, sounding somewhat winded. "Aroint thee, Sir Lafayette," he went on, "tis a parlous day when gentlefolk are jostled by mean villeins in haste to their demise."
"I always wondered what 'aroint thee' means, Your Grace," Lafayette informed the duke. "Perhaps you'd be so kind as to tell me."
"Beats me, laddy-buck," Bother dismissed the query. "But in sooth it hath a right knightly ring to it. I always like to throw in a 'stap me', or a 'zounds' now and then to impress the yokels. Makes 'em more tractable—or so my old papa tole me afore he croaked."
"Duke," Lafayette said earnestly. "We have to lay that Frumpkin by the heels. He's dangerously insane. He thinks he's God."
"Indeed? Why, the miscreant thinks to outrank me, it doth appear," Bother replied indignantly.
"It's even worse than that," O'Leary said. "He's out to conquer the world—or all the worlds."
"Forsooth, he be no man of war," the duke objected doggedly. "And of liegemen hath he none. And if he should win to the Demon Chamber yonder, and fall not from the scaffold, we'll see him no more; for he'll to the infernal regions instanter, and we'll be well rid of him."
"Your Grace," O'Leary addressed the armored duke solemnly. "We have need to speak in private to him. We can't let him escape. I'm going after him. Will you dare the Demon Chamber with me?"
The duke declined, pointing out that suicide by going voluntarily into the clutch of demons was not required by knightly honor. "... And I urge you, Sir Lafayette, to stay your hand. Together we can yet bring order to this rabble scum, recoup my manor, and live out our days as befits noblemen."
"Sorry," Lafayette said, starting to press his way through the rank of awed yokels gaping at Frumpkin's slow and unsteady progress upward toward his unthinkable doom.
"Hey, Al," Marv's voice came to O'Leary's ears over the babble of the crowd. "Wait up; I'm coming."
Lafayette turned to see his recent denouncer hurrying toward him, face aglow. He turned away, but a moment later Marv was at his side, excitedly recounting his experiences of the last few moments.
"I fooled 'em good, Al," he boasted. "Got 'em all worked up on a wild-goose chase."
"I heard," Lafayette told him tonelessly. "And the wild goose is me. Thanks a lot."
"You don't get it, Al," Marv protested. "None of 'em don't know what you look like, so you're safe as can be, long's you don't let on. I hadda tell 'em sumpin'; they was about to string me up."
"I don't suppose it matters," Lafayette conceded. "I noticed they weren't paying me any attention. But that fellow on the ladder: he's the one we have to nail. I think he's at the bottom of this whole affair."
"He's gettin' away," Marv stated, slowing. He pointed; Frumpkin had reached the relative security of a raftlike platform slung beneath the top-floor room, and was fumbling at something on its underside. Lafayette forged ahead, Marv complaining at his heels.
Reaching the ladder, which at close range looked even less dependable than from a distance, being crudely lashed-up of well-rotted lengths of scrap two-by-four, Lafayette started up without hesitation. Above, Frumpkin looked down at him, his pinched face pale in the shadow.