cried. "Watch where you're going!" Still they ignored him, pressing heedlessly closer. Each creature had a shaggy coat and two stout horns on its head. One of them pressed in close to the bed, almost brushing it.
"What's up, anyway?" Grundy demanded, standing on
the bed.
"Up?" Several nearby creatures swung their heads, for the first time taking note of him. They crowded in closer. "Or down," Grundy cried. "What are you—" "Down!" several creatures cried, horrified. A kind of stampede developed, momentarily abating the press of bodies about the bed.
But this turned out to be no improvement, for now a new kind of creature showed up. This was a hairy, mus- cular entity who lacked horns but had large teeth. Several of these surged toward the bed.
"Who are you?" Grundy cried, newly alarmed. "We are the Bulls," the homed creatures lowed. "We are the Bears," the toothed ones growled. Now Grundy remembered: the creatures the tails belonged to, who aways went up or down. He didn't like either—but he was stuck in their midst.
A Bear scraped by the bed, shoving it to one side. Grundy tumbled, almost falling off. "Hey, watch it!" he yelled, grabbing on to the bar at the foot of it.
But the Bears ignored him as detenninedly as the Bulls had. "Down! Down!" they growled, and indeed they seemed to be traveling downward, for the field was tilted. Grundy realized that this situation was beyond him. Where were Bink and Chester? He had to get the bed out of the field before these animals overturned it, and he
couldn't do that by himself. But there was no sign of his
friends.
More Bears surged down, gaining momentum. The Bulls were almost out of sight. Grundy knew he couldn't affect these blindly charging creatures physically, but remem- bered that he had made a slight impression with his words. They seemed to be very sensitive to references about direction. "Up! Down!" he yelled.
The nearest Bears hesitated, falling back for a moment. But then they resumed their charge, and the bed bumped across the field as their heedless imperative jostled it. It started to tip over, then plumped back. He heard a whim- per from Snortimer, underneath; naturally the monster
was terrified.
"East! West!" Grundy yelled, but this had no discern- ible impression. "North! South!"
The charge continued. The bed moved some more, and a leg hung up in a hole. Again it started to tilt. "We're in trouble!" Grundy cried.
A passing Bear paused. "Who's in trouble?" it
demanded.
"This bed's in trouble!" Grundy replied. "If you'd just
stop shoving—"
"Oh," the Bear said, disappointed. It lost interest and resumed its downward charge.
"Thanks a lot, hairsnout!" Grundy screamed after it. "May a green hornet buzz up your—"
"Up?" another Bear asked, dismayed. "What's going
up?"
"My blood pressure!" Grundy retorted. "What's with
you beasts?"
But this Bear, like the other, had lost interest and re- sumed its charge.
So words had some effect, but not a reliable one. Maybe
he would do better yelling randomly. "Pink moons in the lake!" he called.
It seemed to work. "What stock?" the nearest passing Bear asked.
"Purple comets in the soup!" Grundy responded.
More Bears paused. "That sounds bad," another said.
"It's terrible!" Grundy agreed, pleased with his prog- ress.
But at that they all took off running, faster than before, threatening to sweep the bed right down out of the field, and to flip it over several times on the way.
"Red planets taking a bath!" he screamed.
The charge slowed. "Sell Red Planet!" a Bear growled. Then the motion resumed.
"Consolidated Nonesuch is going nowhere!" Grundy cried.
"Yes! Yes!" the Bears agreed, and accelerated.
"You stupes!" Grundy raged. "Just where do you think nowhere is?"
"Bad news, bad news!" the Bears cried, and pressed on.
Grundy tried again. "Amalgamated Parrot-Ox is buying out Con-Pewter!" That nonsense should make them take notice.
It did. "That's bullish for Con-Pewter!" a Bear groaned.
"Buy
Jean-Marie Blas de Robles