Read Night Walk for Free Online

can't reason a man out of

something he hasn't been reasoned into. So . . ."

"So you're in prison doing life for something that would have got you

the same sentence, or worse, under any other political regime."

Tallon spoke angrily, and there was a long silence when he had finished.

An insect hummed near his face, then drifted away in the warm air.

"I'm surprised to hear you speak like that, son. I thought we'd have

common interests, but I fear I've intruded. I'll go."

Tallon nodded and listened as Winfield struggled heavily to his feet.

Again something flicked lightly against his leg. This time he grabbed

for it and found himself holding the end of a cane.

"My apologies," Winfield said. "The cane is an ancient device for the

members of our fraternity, but it is undeniably useful. Without it

I would have fallen over your legs, with consequent embarrassment to

both parties."

A few seconds passed before Tallon absorbed the full meaning of the

other man's rounded, rolling phrases.

"Hold on a minute, Do you mean that you're -- ?"

" Blind is the word, son. You get used to saying it after a few years."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier? I didn't know. Please sit down again."

Tallon's hand found the man's arm and held on. Winfield seemed to consider

the idea; then he sat down, again with furious grunting. Tallon guessed

he was very fat and out of condition. He found Winfield's pomposity

irritating, especially his use of the word son, but here was a man who

had already explored the road Tallon was destined to walk. They sat in

silence for a while, listening to the rhythmic crunch of gravel as the

rest of the prisoners exercised in another part of the yard.

"I expect you're wondering if I lost my sight in the same manner as you,"

Winfield finally said.

"Well, yes."

"No, son. Nothing quite so dramatic. Eight years ago I tried to escape

from this place- with the idea of working my way back to Earth. I got as

far as the swamp. That's the easy part, of course; anybody can reach the

swamp. It's getting to the other side that counts. There's a rather nasty

species of chigger out there. The gravid females go for your eyes. When

the guards brought me back to the Pavilion I was well on the way to

having a nest of the brutes breeding in each eye.

"Dr. Heck had quite a job to keep them from going a through to the brain.

He was deliriously happy for nearly a week -- whistled Gilbert and Sullivan

the whole time."

Tallon was appalled. "But what were you hoping to do supposing you had

managed to get through the swamp? The space terminal at New Wittenburg

is a thousand miles from here, and even if it were only a thousand yards

away, you could never have passed through the checkpoints."

"Son," Winfield sounded sad, "your mind is too preoccupied with details.

I admire a man who has an eye for detail, but not if he lets it negate

his attitude to the master plan."

" Plan! What plan? All you had was a crazy notion you could get up and

walk a few light-centuries back to Louisiana."

"Progress is the history of crazy notions, Sam. Supraluctic flight itself

was a crazy notion till somebody made it work. I can't believe you are

prepared to rot in this place for the rest of your life."

"I may not be prepared for it, but I'm going to do it."

"Even if I offered to take you with me next time?" Winfield's voice had

sunk to a whisper.

Tallon laughed aloud for the first time since the morning McNulty had limped

into his office and handed him a piece of paper containing the cosmic address

of a new planet. "Go away, old man," he said. "You really had me going for a

minute. Now I want to rest my ears."

Winfield kept talking. "It's going to be entirely different next time.

I was unprepared for the swamp before, but I've been getting ready for it

for eight years. I assure you, I know how to get through."

"But you're blind! You'd have trouble crossing a children's playground."

"Blind," Winfield said mysteriously,