"So far as I'm concerned, the matter is closed."
Wayness merely shrugged and turned away.
Two days later, during the noon recess, Aries emerged from the cafeteria to be met by four Naturalists in military uniform. Aries, turning pale, looked from one to the other.
"What do you want?"
"You are Aries Clattuc?"
"What of it?"
"Come with us."
Aries hung back.
"Just a moment. Where? And why?"
"You are going to Riverview House, where you will be dealt with according to law."
Aries took a step back and tried to bluster.
"This is Araminta Station! Your law is no good around here."
"Society law controls all of Cadwal. Come."
Protesting and struggling, Aries was placed into a power wagon and conveyed to Riverview House. Spanchetta, when apprised of the event, first called Housemaster Fratano, then Bodwyn Wook, only to learn that both had been called to Riverview House.
The two Araminta dignitaries returned during the middle afternoon. Both spoke with Spanchetta and assured her that Aries could consider himself lucky; he had been stopped short of a capital crime.
During the late afternoon Aries was returned to Araminta Station and released into the Quadrangle. He looked pale and crestfallen, and smelled of antiseptic ointments. As chance would have it, a group of Bold Lions came past as Aries was thrust from the power wagon.
Cloyd Diffin called out: "So where have you been, and what did they do to you?"
Kiper said critically: "My word, what a state of Bedragglement!"
Shugart bleated: "And all for waxing a pair of drunken tourists? Hard lines, I call it."
"It's a bit more complicated than that," muttered Aries.
"I
don't want to talk about it now ... It was all bluff, anyway, I'm sure of it. They'd never dare do such a thing to me."
Uther Offaw asked: "You're rambling dreadfully, you know.
Try to be lucid and tell us what happened."
"Nothing: just a misunderstanding. It's bound to be a bluff."
"You smell of hospital," said Kirdy Wook.
"Were doctors there? These drunken tourists that you chastised: were they doctors, by any chance?"
"I've got to go home now," said Aries.
"We'll talk about it later."
CHAPTER 4
In response to a summons from Bodwyn Wook, Glawen presented himself to the Bureau B outer office and was directed to a door at the end of a short corridor. An elderly clerk admitted him to an anteroom and after a question or two allowed him entry into Bodwyn Wook's private office: a tall chamber of irregular dimension, with chest-high wainscoting of green baize rectangles surrounded by dark moldings, and dark paneling to the ceiling. High on the wall at the end of the room a group of stuffed animal heads glared down from the shadows;
another wall was decorated with dozens of old photographs.
Bodwyn Wook turned away from the window and went to his chair. He indicated another chair for Glawen, then, leaning back, clasped his hands over his bald pate and inspected Glawen through half-closed yellow eyes.
"Well, then, Sergeant Clattuc! What are you prepared to tell me?"
An odd question, thought Glawen, and one perhaps calling for a meticulously careful reply. He said: "I have prepared no statement whatever, sir."
"Really? I thought that you had been consorting with the Bold Lions."
"True. I have observed them carefully and listened to their conversations. There is always wild talk which no one takes seriously; in fact, I have learned nothing of any consequence."
"No scurrilous gossip? No defamatory anecdotes? My tastes are catholic."
"Nothing which would justify a report, sir."
"I inquire not just from frivolity," said Bodwyn Wook.
