enough of us here right now. We declare that place annexedforthwith. This will make High Plains the biggest town in the wholestate of Texas."
So Marshal certified them and sent them into Washington. This gave HighPlains the largest percentage increase of any city in the nation, but itwas challenged. There were some soreheads in Houston who said that itwasn't possible. They said High Plains had nowhere near that many peopleand there must have been a miscount.
And in the days that the argument was going on, they cleaned up and fedManuel, if it were he, and tried to get from him a cogent story.
"How do you know it was thirty-five years you were on the treadmill,Manuel?"
"Well, it seemed like thirty-five years."
"It could have only been about three days."
"Then how come I'm so old?"
"We don't know that, Manuel, we sure don't know that. How big were thesepeople?"
"Who knows? A finger long, maybe two?"
"And what is their town?"
"It is an old prairie-dog town that they fixed up. You have to dig downwith a spade to get to the streets."
"Maybe they were really all prairie dogs, Manuel. Maybe the heat got youand you only dreamed that they were little people."
"Prairie dogs can't write as good as on that list. Prairie dogs can'twrite hardly at all."
"That's true. The list is hard to explain. And such odd names on ittoo."
"Where is Mula? I don't see Mula since I came back."
"Mula just lay down and died, Manuel."
"Gave me the slip. Why didn't I think of that? Well, I'll do it too. I'mtoo worn out for anything else."
"Before you do, Manuel, just a couple of last questions."
"Make them real fast then. I'm on my way."
"Did you know these little people were there before?"
"Oh, sure. There a long time."
"Did anybody else ever see them?"
"Oh, sure. Everybody in the Santa Magdalena see them. Eight, nine peoplesee them."
"And Manuel, how do we get to the place? Can you show us on a map?"
Manuel made a grimace, and died quietly as Mula had done. He didn'tunderstand those maps at all, and took the easy way out.
They buried him, not knowing for sure whether he was Manuel come back,or what he was.
There wasn't much of him to bury.
It was the same night, very late and after he had been asleep, thatMarshal was awakened by the ring of an authoritative voice. He was beingharangued by a four-inch tall man on his bedside table, a man ofdominating presence and acid voice.
"Come out of that cot, you clown! Give me your name and station!"
"I'm Marshal, and I suspect that you are a late pig sandwich, or causedby one. I shouldn't eat so late."
"Say 'sir' when you reply to me. I am no pig sandwich and I do notcommonly call on fools. Get on your feet, you clod."
And wonderingly Marshal did.
"I want the list that was stolen. Don't gape! Get it!"
"What list?"
"Don't stall, don't stutter. Get me our tax list that was stolen. Itisn't words that I want from you."
"Listen, you cicada, I'll take you and--"
"You will not. You will notice that you are paralyzed from the neckdown. I suspect that you were always so from there up. Where is thelist?"
"S-sent it to Washington."
"You bug-eyed behemoth! Do you realize what a trip that will be? Yougrandfather of inanities, it will be a pleasure to destroy you!"
"I don't know what you are, or if you are really. I don't believe thatyou even belong on the world."
"Not belong on the world! We own the world. We can show written title tothe world. Can you?"
"I doubt it. Where did you get the title?"
"None of your business. I'd rather not say. Oh, well, we got it from apromoter of sorts. A con man, really. I'll have to admit that we weretaken, but we were in a spot and needed a world. He said that the largerbifurcates were too stupid to be a nuisance. We should have known thatthe stupider a creature, the more of a nuisance it is."
"I had about decided the same thing about the smaller a creature. We mayhave to fumigate that old mountain mess."
"Oh, you can't harm us. We're too powerful. But we can obliterate you inan instant."
"Hah!"
"Say 'Hah, _sir_' when you address me. Do you know the place in themountain that is called Sodom?"
"I know the place. It was caused by a large meteor."
"It was caused by one of these."
What he held up was the size of a grain of sand. Marshal could not seeit in detail.
"There was another city of you bug-eyed beasts there," said the smallmartinet. "You wouldn't know about it. It's been a few hundred years. Wedecided it was too close. Now I have decided that you are too close."
"A thing that size couldn't crack a walnut."
"You floundering fop, it will blast this town flat!"
"What will happen to you?"
"Nothing. I don't even blink for things like that."
"How do you trigger it off."
"You gaping goof, I don't have time to explain that to you. I have toget to Washington."
It may be that Marshal did not believe himself quite awake. He certainlydid not take the threat seriously enough. For the little man did triggerit off.
When the final count was in, High Plains did not have the highestpercentage gain in population in the nation. Actually it showed thesharpest decline, from 7313 to nothing.
They were going to make a forest preserve out of the place, except thatit has no trees worthy of the name. Now it is proposed to make it theSodom and Gomorrah State Park from the two mysterious scenes ofdesolation there, just seven miles apart.
It is an interesting place, as wild a region as you will ever find, andis recommended for the man who has seen everything.
--R. A. LAFFERTY
Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas Page 2