"Dickson, Gordon - Dragon And The George Txt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

"AH right! You tell me, then. What else is there to do?"

"I've been thinking," said Angie, tihoughtfully.

"About what?"

"That magician the other dragon was talking to you about. The magician you were going to open negotiations with, on me."

"Oh, him," Jim said.

"That's right. Now, you know that these georges

-these people they apparently have around here

-are never going to have heard of me. The first thing they'll do when the magician carries word to them about me is look around to see who they know who's missing; and they're going to find no one is. Then, if I'm not one of their own people, why should they get into any negotiations to get me back from the dragons-let alone give the kind of concessions your grand-uncle seems to want-"

"Angie," Jim explained, "he's not my grand-uncle. He's the grand-uncle of this body I'm in."

"Whatever. The point is, once the georges figure out I don't belong to them, they won't have any inter- est in saving me. So, when you go to the magician-"

"Wait a minute! Who said I was leaving you, to go anywhere?"

"You know as well as I do that that's what you have to do," Angie answered. "You know we don't have a chance any other way. But it might be, it just barely might be, that this magician can help us both get back. If nothing else, you could teach him to hyp- notize both of us at once, so that we'd go back together, or something- Oh, I don't know! It's the only chance we've got, and you know it as well as I do. We've got to take it!"

Jim opened his mouth to contest this point and then closed it again. As usual, she had exercised that ver- bal judo of hers to leave them both on her side of the argument.

"But what if the magician doesn't want to help?" he protested feebly. "After all, why should he help us, anyway?"

"I don't know; but maybe we can find some rea- son," said Angie. "We have to."

Jim opened his mouth and once more closed it - again.

"So off you go and find him. And when you do, be honest with him. Simply tell him about our situation with Grottwold. Ask him if there's any way he can help us get back, and any way we can make it worth his while. We've got nothing to lose by being open and straightforward with him."

To Jim's mind this did not ring like the foregone conclusion it apparently was to Angie. But she was winning.

"And leave you here, meanwhile?" was all he could manage to say.

"And leave me here. I'll be just fine," Angie an- swered. "I heard what you said at the end, down in the big cave. I'm a hostage. I'm too valuable to hurt. Besides, the way that old dragon was talking to you, the Tinkling Water must be close. You can probably go there, talk to that magician and get back in an hour or two. It's just about the middle of the day here-hadn't you noticed? You can leam what to do and get back here safely before night."

"No." Jim shook his head. "If I hypnotize you, at least you'll get home. We start playing games like this magician business and maybe neither one of us will. I won't do it."

"Well, I won't let you hypnotize me," said Angie. "I'm not going to leave you here with maybe no way to get back, or something worse, even. So what are you going to do?"

She had, Jim thought, a neat way of sealing up all the exits except the one she wanted him to use.

"All right," he said finally and unhappily.

He walked to the edge of the sheer drop, then caught himself and teetered there.