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. HePage 179 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlturned to Dors. Do you know it s a serious crime to carry a knife without a permit in thissector? Do you have a permit? No, Officer, I don t. It was clearly with an illegal knife, then, that you assaulted Marron? Do yourealize that that greatly increases the seriousness of the crime? It was no crime, Officer, said Dors. Understand that.Marron had a knifeas well and no permit, I am certain. We have no evidence to that effect and while Marron has knife wounds, neitherof you have any. Of course he had a knife, Officer.If you don t know that every man inBillibotton and most men elsewhere in Dahl carry knives for which theyprobably don t have permits, then you re the only man inDahl who doesn t know.There are shops here wherever you turn that sell knivesopenly.Don t you know that? Russ said, It doesn t matter what I know or don t know in this respect.Nordoes it matter whether other people are breaking the law or how many of themdo.All that matters at this moment is that Mistress Venabili is breaking theanti-knife law.I must ask you to give up those knives to me right now,Mistress, and the two of you must then accompany me to headquarters. Dors said, In that case, take my knives away from me. Russ sighed. You must not think, Mistress, that knives are all the weaponsthere are in Dahl or that I need engage you in a knife fight.Both my partnerand I have blasters that will destroy you in a moment, before you can dropyour hands to your knife hilt-however fast you are.We won t use a blaster, ofcourse, because we are not here to kill you.However, each of us also has aneuronic whip, which we can use on you freely.I hope you won t ask for ademonstration.It won t kill you, do you permanent harm of any kind, or leaveany marks--but the pain is excruciating.My partner is holding a neuronic whipon you right now.And here is mine.-Now, let us have your knives, MistressVenabili. There was a moment s pause and then Seldon said, It s no use, Dors.Give himyour knives. And at that moment, a frantic pounding sounded at the door and they all hearda voice raised in high-pitched expostulation.79.Raych had not entirely left the neighborhood after he had walked them back totheir apartment house.He had eaten well while waiting for the interview with Davan to 6e done andlater had slept a bit after finding a bathroom that more or less worked.Hereally had no place to go now that all that was done.He had a home of sortsand a mother who was not likely to be perturbed if he stayed away for a while.She never was.He did not know who his father was and wondered sometimes if he really hadone.He had been told he had to have one and the reasons for that had beenexplained to him crudely enough.Sometimes he wondered if he ought to believeso peculiar a story, but he did find the details titillating.He thought of that in connection with the lady.She was an old lady, ofcourse, but she was pretty and she could fight like a man better than a man.It filled him with vague notions.And she had offered to let him take a bath.He could swim in the Billibottonpool sometimes when he had some credits he didn t need for anything else orwhen he could sneak in.Those were the only times he got wet all over, but itwas chilly and he had to wait to get dry.Taking a bath was different.There would be hoc water, soap, towels, and warmair.He wasn t sure what it would feel like, except that it would be nice ifshe was there.Page 180 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlHe was walkway-wise enough to know of places where he could park himself in analley off a walkway that would 6e near a bathroom and still be near enough towhere she was, yet where he probably wouldn t be found and made to run away.He spent the night thinking strange thoughts.What if he did learn to read andwrite? Could he do something with that? He wasn t sure what, but maybe thecould cell him.He had vague ideas of being paid money to do things he didn tknow how to do now, but he didn t know what those things might be.He would have to be cold, but how do you get told?If he stayed with the man and the lady, they might help.But why should theywant him to stay with them?He drowsed off, coming to later, not because the light was brightening, butbecause his sharp ears caught the heightening and deepening of sounds from thewalkway as the activities of the day began.He had learned to identify almost every variety of sound, because in theunderground maze ofBillibotton, if you wanted to survive with even a minimum of comfort, you hadto be aware of things before you saw them.And there was something about thesound of a ground-car motor that he now heard that signaled danger to him.Ithad an official sound, a hostile soundHe shook himself awake and stole quietly toward the walkway.He scarcelyneeded to see theSpaceship-and-Sun on the groundcar.Its lines were enough.He knew they had tobe coming for the man and the lady because they had seen Davan.He did notpause to question his thoughts or to analyze them
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