It was not difficult to catch more roaches. «Once more I shall name mine Gold Top, after my horse,» said Heimdall.
«It is a name of good luck. Did you have no favourite horse?»
«No, but I had a car, a four-wheeled chariot, it was called —» began Shea, and then stopped. What was the name of that car? He tried to reproduce the syllables — nyrose, no — neeloase, no, not that either — neroses, nerosis — something clicked into place in his brain, a series of somethings, like the fragments of a jigsaw puzzle.
«Heimdall!» he cried suddenly, «I believe I know how we can get out of here!»
«That will be the best of news,» said the Sleepless One, doubtfully, «if the deed be equal to the thought. But I have looked, now, deeply into this place, and I do not see how it may be done without outside aid. Nor shall we have help from any giant with the Time so near.»
«Whose side will the trolls be on?»
«It is thought that the trolls will be neuter. Yet strange it would be if we could beguile one of these surly ones to help us.»
«Nevertheless, something you said a little while back gives me an idea. You remember? Something about the skill of the gods at reading the thought that lies behind the lips?»
«Aye.»
«I am — I was — of a profession whose business it is to learn people’s thoughts by questioning them, and by studying what they think today, predict what they will think tomorrow in other circumstances. Even to provoke them to thinking certain things.»
«It could be. It is an unusual art, mortal, and a great skill, but it could be. What then?»
«Well, then, this Stegg, I don’t think we can get far with him, I’ve seen his type before. He’s a — a — a something I can’t remember, but he lives in a world of his own imaginings, where he’s a king and we’re all his slaves. I remember, now— a paranoiac. You can’t establish contact with a mind like that.»
«Most justly and truly reasoned, Harald. From what I am able to catch of his thought this is no more than the truth.»
«But Snögg is something else. We can do something with him.»
«Much though I regret to say it, you do not drown me in an ocean of hope. Snögg is even more hostile than his unattractive brother.»
Shea grinned. At last he was in a position to make use of his specialized knowledge. «That’s what one would think. But I have studied many like him. The only thing that’s wrong with Snögg is that he has a. a feeling of inferiority — a complex we call it — about that nose of his. If somebody could convince him he’s handsome —»
«Snögg handsome! Ho, ho! That is a jest for Loki’s tongue.»
«Sssh! Please, Lord Heimdall. As I say, the thing he wants most is probably good looks. If we could. if we could pretend to work some sort of spell on his nose, tell him it has shrunk and get the other prisoners to corroborate —»
«A plan of wit! It is now to be seen that you have been associating with Uncle Fox. Yet do not sell your bearskin till you have caught the animal. If you can get Snögg sufficiently friendly to propose your plan, then will it be seen whether confinement has really sharpened your wits or only addled them. But, youngling, what is to prevent Snögg feeling his nose and discovering the beguilement for himself?»
«Oh, we don’t have to guarantee to take it all off. He’d be grateful enough for a couple of inches.»
EIGHT
When Snögg came on duty at nightfall, he found the dungeon as usual, except that Shea’s and Heimdall’s cell was noisy with shouts of encouragement to their entries in the great cockroach derby. He went over to the cell to make sure that nothing outside the rules of the prison was going on.
Shea met his suspicious glower with a grin. «Hi, there, friend Snögg! Yesterday I owed Heindall thirty million crowns, but today my luck has turned and it’s down to twenty-three million.»
«What do you mean?» snapped the troll.
Shea explained, and went on: «Why don’t you get in the game? We’ll catch a roach for you. It must be pretty dull, with nothing w do all night but listen to the prisoners snore.»
«Hm-m-m,» said Snögg, then turned abruptly suspicious again. «You make trick to let other prisoner escape, I — zzzzp!» He motioned across his throat again. «Lord Surt, he say.»
«No, nothing like that. You can make your inspection any time. Sssh! There’s one now.»
«One what?» asked Snögg, a little of the hostility leaving his voice. Shea was creeping towards the wall of his cell. He pounced like a cat and came up with another cockroach in his hand. «What’ll his name be?» he asked Snögg.
Snögg thought, his little troll brain trying to grasp the paradox of a friendly prisoner, his eyes moving suspiciously. «I call him Fiörm, after river. That run fast,» he said at last.
«That where you are from?»
«Aye.»
Heimdall spoke up. «It is said, friend Snögg, that Fiörm has the finest fish in all the nine worlds, and I believe it, for I have seen them.»
The troll looked almost pleased. «True word. Me fish there, early morning. Ho, ho! Me wade — snap! Up come trout. Bite him, flop, flop in face. Me remember big one, chase into shallow.»
Shea said: «You and öku-Thor ought to get together. Fjörm may have the best fish, but he has the biggest fish story in the nine worlds.»
Snögg actually emitted a snicker. «Me know that story. Thor no fisher. He use hook and line. Only trolls know how to fish fair. We use hands, like this.» He bent over the floor, his face fixed in intense concentration then made a sudden sweeping motion, quick as a rattlesnake’s lunge. «Ah!» He cried. «Fish! love him! Come, we race.»
The three cockroaches were tossed into the centre of the circle and scuttled away. Snögg’s Fjörm was the first to cross the line to the troll’s unconcealed delight.
They ran race after race, with halts when one of the roaches escaped and another had to be caught. Snögg’s entry showed a tendency to win altogether at variance with the law of probability. The troll did not notice and would hardly have grasped the fact that Heimdall was using his piercing glance on his own and Shea’s roaches and slowing them up, though Snögg was not allowed to win often enough to rouse his sleeping suspicions. By the time Stegg relieved him in the morning he was over twenty million crowns ahead. Shea stretched out on the floor to sleep with the consciousness of a job well done.
When he awoke, just before Snögg came on duty the next night, he found Heimdall impatient and uneasy, complaining of the delay while Surt’s messenger was riding to demand the sword Head as ransom. Yet it speedily became obvious that the Snögg campaign could not be hurried.
«Don’t you ever get homesick for your river Fjörm?» asked Shea, when the troll had joined them.
«Aye,» replied Snögg. «Often. Like ’um fish.»
«Think you’ll be going back?»
«Will not be soon.»
«Why not?»
Snögg squirmed a little. «Lord Surt him hard master.»
«Oh, he’d let you go. Is that the only reason?»
«N-no. Me like troll girl Elvagevu. Haro! Here, what I do, talk privacy life with prisoner? Stop it. We race.»
Shea recognized this as a good place to stop his questioning, but when Snögg was relieved, he remarked to Heimdalclass="underline" «That’s a rich bit of luck. I can’t imagine being in love with a female troll, but he evidently is —»
«Man from another world, you observe well. His thoughts were near enough his lips for me to read. This troll-wife, Elvagevu, has refused him because of the size of his nose.»