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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas + +Author: Raphael Aloysius Lafferty + +Illustrator: Ritter + +Release Date: October 24, 2007 [EBook #23161] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SODOM AND GOMORRAH, TEXAS *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, V. L. Simpson and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div style='width:393px;margin:0 auto 5%;'> +<img src='images/i-01.png' alt='' width='393' height='550' /></div> + +<blockquote><p><b><i>The place called Sodom was bad enough. But right down +the road was the other town—and that was even +worse!</i></b></p></blockquote> + +<div class='title'> +<h1>Sodom<br /> +and<br /> +Gomorrah,<br /> +Texas</h1> + +<div class='author'><b>By R. A. LAFFERTY</b></div> + +<div class='illustrator'><b>Illustrated by RITTER</b></div> +</div> + +<p class='dropcap'><b>MANUEL</b> shouldn't have been employed as a census taker. He wasn't +qualified. He couldn't read a map. He didn't know what a map was. He +only grinned when they told him that North was at the top.</p> + +<p>He knew better.</p> + +<p>But he did write a nice round hand, like a boy's hand. He knew Spanish, +and enough English. For the sector that was assigned to him he would not +need a map. He knew it better than anyone else, certainly better than +any mapmaker. Besides, he was poor and needed the money.</p> + +<p>They instructed him and sent him out. Or they thought that they had +instructed him. They couldn't be sure.</p> + +<p>"Count everyone? All right. Fill in everyone? I need more papers."</p> + +<p>"We will give you more if you need more. But there aren't so many in +your sector."</p> + +<p>"Lots of them. <i>Lobos</i>, <i>tejones</i>, <i>zorros</i>, even people."</p> + +<p>"Only the <i>people</i>, Manuel! Do not take the animals. How would you write +up the animals? They have no names."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. All have names. Might as well take them all."</p> + +<p>"Only people, Manuel."</p> + +<p>"<i>Mulos?</i>"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"<i>Conejos?</i>"</p> + +<p>"No, Manuel, no. Only the people."</p> + +<p>"No trouble. Might as well take them all."</p> + +<p>"Only people—God give me strength!—only people, Manuel."</p> + +<p>"How about little people?"</p> + +<p>"Children, yes. That has been explained to you."</p> + +<p>"<i>Little</i> people. Not children, little people."</p> + +<p>"If they are people, take them."</p> + +<p>"How big they have to be?"</p> + +<p>"It doesn't make any difference how big they are. If they are people, +take them."</p> + +<p>That is where the damage was done.</p> + +<p>The official had given a snap judgement, and it led to disaster. It was +not his fault. The instructions are not clear. Nowhere in all the +verbiage does it say how big they have to be to be counted as people.</p> + +<hr class='sb' /> + +<p class='dropcap'><b>MANUEL</b> took Mula and went to work. His sector was the Santa Magdalena, a +scrap of bald-headed and desolate mountains, steep but not high, and so +torrid in the afternoons that it was said that the old lava sometimes +began to writhe and flow again from the sun's heat alone.</p> + +<p>In the center valley there were five thousand acres of slag and +vitrified rock from some forgotten old blast that had melted the hills +and destroyed their mantle, reducing all to a terrible flatness. This +was called Sodom. It was strewn with low-lying ghosts as of people and +objects, formed when the granite bubbled like water.</p> + +<p>Away from the dead center the ravines were body-deep in chaparral, and +the hillsides stood gray-green with old cactus. The stunted trees were +lower than the giant bushes and yucca.</p> + +<p>Manuel went with Mula, a round easy man and a sparse gaunt mule. Mula +was a mule, but there were other inhabitants of the Santa Magdalena of a +genus less certain.</p> + +<p>Yet even about Mula there was an oddity in her ancestry. Her paternal +grandfather had been a goat. Manuel once told Mr. Marshal about this, +but Mr. Marshal had not accepted it.</p> + +<p>"She is a mule. Therefore, her father was a jack. Therefore his father +was also a jack, a donkey. It could not be any other way."</p> + +<p>Manuel often wondered about that, for he had raised the whole strain of +animals, and he remembered who had been with whom.</p> + +<p>"A donkey! A jack! Two feet tall and with a beard and horns. I always +thought that he was a goat."</p> + +<p>Manuel and Mula stopped at noon on Lost Soul Creek. There would be no +travel in the hot afternoon. But Manuel had a job to do, and he did it. +He took the forms from one of the packs that he had unslung from Mula, +and counted out nine of them. He wrote down all the data on nine people. +He knew all there was to know about them, their nativities and their +antecedents. He knew that there were only nine regular people in the +nine hundred square miles of the Santa Magdalena.</p> + +<p>But he was systematic, so he checked the list over again and again. +There seemed to be somebody missing. Oh, yes, himself. He got another +form and filled out all the data on himself.</p> + +<p>Now, in one way of looking at it, his part in the census was finished. +If only he had looked at it that way, he would have saved worry and +trouble for everyone, and also ten thousand lives. But the instructions +they had given him were ambiguous, for all that they had tried to make +them clear.</p> + +<p>So very early the next morning he rose and cooked beans, and said, +"Might as well take them all."</p> + +<p>He called Mula from the thorn patch where she was grazing, gave her salt +and loaded her again. Then they went to take the rest of the census, but +in fear. There was a clear duty to get the job done, but there was also +a dread of it that his superiors did not understand. There was reason +also why Mula was loaded so she could hardly walk with packs of census +forms.</p> + +<p>Manuel prayed out loud as they climbed the purgatorial scarp above Lost +Souls Creek, "<i>ruega por nosotros pecadores ahora</i>—" the very gulches +stood angry and stark in the early morning—"<i>y en la hora de neustra +muerte.</i>"</p> + +<hr class='sb' /> + +<p class='dropcap'><b>THREE</b> days later an incredible dwarf staggered into the outskirts of +High Plains, Texas, followed by a dying wolf-sized animal that did not +look like a wolf.</p> + +<p>A lady called the police to save the pair from rock-throwing kids who +might have killed them, and the two as yet unclassified things were +taken to the station house.</p> + +<p>The dwarf was three foot high, a skeleton stretched over with +brown-burnt leather. The other was an un-canine looking dog-sized beast, +so full of burrs and thorns that it might have been a porcupine. It was +a nightmare replica of a shrunken mule.</p> + +<p>The midget was mad. The animal had more presence of mind: she lay down +quietly and died, which was the best she could do, considering the state +that she was in.</p> + +<p>"Who is census chief now?" asked the mad midget. "Is Mr. Marshal's boy +the census chief?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Marshal is, yes. Who are you? How do you know Marshal? And what is +that which you are pulling out of your pants, if they are pants?"</p> + +<p>"Census list. Names of everybody in the Santa Magdalena. I had to steal +it."</p> + +<p>"It looks like microfilm, the writing is so small. And the roll goes on +and on. There must be a million names here."</p> + +<p>"Little bit more, little bit more. I get two bits a name."</p> + +<p>They got Marshal there. He was very busy, but he came. He had been given +a deadline by the mayor and the citizen's group. He had to produce a +population of ten thousand people for High Plains, Texas; and this was +difficult, for there weren't that many people in the town. He had been +working hard on it, though; but he came when the police called him.</p> + +<p>"You Marshal's little boy? You look just like your father," said the +midget.</p> + +<p>"That voice, I should know that voice even if it's cracked to pieces. +That has to be Manuel's voice."</p> + +<p>"Sure, I'm Manuel. Just like I left, thirty-five years ago."</p> + +<p>"You can't be Manuel, shrunk three feet and two hundred pounds and aged +a million."</p> + +<p>"You look here at my census slip. It says I'm Manuel. And here are nine +more of the regular people, and one million of the little people. I +couldn't get them on the right forms, though. I had to steal their +list."</p> + +<p>"You can't be Manuel," said Marshal.</p> + +<p>"He can't be Manuel," said the big policemen and the little policeman.</p> + +<p>"Maybe not, then," the dwarf conceded. "I thought I was, but I wasn't +sure. Who am I then? Let's look at the other papers and see which one I +am."</p> + +<p>"No, you can't be any of them either, Manuel. And you surely can't be +Manuel."</p> + +<p>"Give him a name anyhow and get him counted. We got to get to that ten +thousand mark."</p> + +<p>"Tell us what happened, Manuel—if you are. Which you aren't. But tell +us."</p> + +<p>"After I counted the regular people I went to count the little people. I +took a spade and spaded off the top of their town to get in. But they +put an <i>encanto</i> on me, and made me and Mula run a treadmill for +thirty-five years."</p> + +<p>"Where was this?"</p> + +<p>"At the little people town. Nuevo Danae. But after thirty-five years the +<i>encanto</i> wore off and Mula and I stole the list of names and ran away."</p> + +<p>"But where did you really get this list of so many names written so +small?"</p> + +<p>"Suffering saddle sores, Marshal, don't ask the little bug so many +questions. You got a million names in your hand. Certify them! Send them +in! There's enough of us here right now. We declare that place annexed +forthwith. This will make High Plains the biggest town in the whole +state of Texas."</p> + +<hr class='sb' /> + +<p class='dropcap'><b>SO</b> Marshal certified them and sent them into Washington. This gave High +Plains the largest percentage increase of any city in the nation, but it +was challenged. There were some soreheads in Houston who said that it +wasn't possible. They said High Plains had nowhere near that many people +and there must have been a miscount.</p> + +<p>And in the days that the argument was going on, they cleaned up and fed +Manuel, if it were he, and tried to get from him a cogent story.</p> + +<p>"How do you know it was thirty-five years you were on the treadmill, +Manuel?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it seemed like thirty-five years."</p> + +<p>"It could have only been about three days."</p> + +<p>"Then how come I'm so old?"</p> + +<p>"We don't know that, Manuel, we sure don't know that. How big were these +people?"</p> + +<p>"Who knows? A finger long, maybe two?"</p> + +<p>"And what is their town?"</p> + +<p>"It is an old prairie-dog town that they fixed up. You have to dig down +with a spade to get to the streets."</p> + +<p>"Maybe they were really all prairie dogs, Manuel. Maybe the heat got you +and you only dreamed that they were little people."</p> + +<p>"Prairie dogs can't write as good as on that list. Prairie dogs can't +write hardly at all."</p> + +<p>"That's true. The list is hard to explain. And such odd names on it +too."</p> + +<p>"Where is Mula? I don't see Mula since I came back."</p> + +<p>"Mula just lay down and died, Manuel."</p> + +<p>"Gave me the slip. Why didn't I think of that? Well, I'll do it too. I'm +too worn out for anything else."</p> + +<p>"Before you do, Manuel, just a couple of last questions."</p> + +<p>"Make them real fast then. I'm on my way."</p> + +<p>"Did you know these little people were there before?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, sure. There a long time."</p> + +<p>"Did anybody else ever see them?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, sure. Everybody in the Santa Magdalena see them. Eight, nine people +see them."</p> + +<p>"And Manuel, how do we get to the place? Can you show us on a map?"</p> + +<p>Manuel made a grimace, and died quietly as Mula had done. He didn't +understand those maps at all, and took the easy way out.</p> + +<p>They buried him, not knowing for sure whether he was Manuel come back, +or what he was.</p> + +<p>There wasn't much of him to bury.</p> + +<hr class='sb' /> + +<p class='dropcap'><b>IT</b> was the same night, very late and after he had been asleep, that +Marshal was awakened by the ring of an authoritative voice. He was being +harangued by a four-inch tall man on his bedside table, a man of +dominating presence and acid voice.</p> + +<p>"Come out of that cot, you clown! Give me your name and station!"</p> + +<p>"I'm Marshal, and I suspect that you are a late pig sandwich, or caused +by one. I shouldn't eat so late."</p> + +<p>"Say 'sir' when you reply to me. I am no pig sandwich and I do not +commonly call on fools. Get on your feet, you clod."</p> + +<p>And wonderingly Marshal did.</p> + +<p>"I want the list that was stolen. Don't gape! Get it!"</p> + +<p>"What list?"</p> + +<p>"Don't stall, don't stutter. Get me our tax list that was stolen. It +isn't words that I want from you."</p> + +<p>"Listen, you cicada, I'll take you and—"</p> + +<p>"You will not. You will notice that you are paralyzed from the neck +down. I suspect that you were always so from there up. Where is the +list?"</p> + +<p>"S-sent it to Washington."</p> + +<p>"You bug-eyed behemoth! Do you realize what a trip that will be? You +grandfather of inanities, it will be a pleasure to destroy you!"</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you are, or if you are really. I don't believe that +you even belong on the world."</p> + +<p>"Not belong on the world! We own the world. We can show written title to +the world. Can you?"</p> + +<p>"I doubt it. Where did you get the title?"</p> + +<p>"None of your business. I'd rather not say. Oh, well, we got it from a +promoter of sorts. A con man, really. I'll have to admit that we were +taken, but we were in a spot and needed a world. He said that the larger +bifurcates were too stupid to be a nuisance. We should have known that +the stupider a creature, the more of a nuisance it is."</p> + +<p>"I had about decided the same thing about the smaller a creature. We may +have to fumigate that old mountain mess."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you can't harm us. We're too powerful. But we can obliterate you in +an instant."</p> + +<p>"Hah!"</p> + +<p>"Say 'Hah, <i>sir</i>' when you address me. Do you know the place in the +mountain that is called Sodom?"</p> + +<p>"I know the place. It was caused by a large meteor."</p> + +<p>"It was caused by one of these."</p> + +<p>What he held up was the size of a grain of sand. Marshal could not see +it in detail.</p> + +<p>"There was another city of you bug-eyed beasts there," said the small +martinet. "You wouldn't know about it. It's been a few hundred years. We +decided it was too close. Now I have decided that you are too close."</p> + +<p>"A thing that size couldn't crack a walnut."</p> + +<p>"You floundering fop, it will blast this town flat!"</p> + +<p>"What will happen to you?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing. I don't even blink for things like that."</p> + +<p>"How do you trigger it off."</p> + +<p>"You gaping goof, I don't have time to explain that to you. I have to +get to Washington."</p> + +<p>It may be that Marshal did not believe himself quite awake. He certainly +did not take the threat seriously enough. For the little man did trigger +it off.</p> + +<hr class='sb' /> + +<p class='dropcap'><b>WHEN</b> the final count was in, High Plains did not have the highest +percentage gain in population in the nation. Actually it showed the +sharpest decline, from 7313 to nothing.</p> + +<p>They were going to make a forest preserve out of the place, except that +it has no trees worthy of the name. Now it is proposed to make it the +Sodom and Gomorrah State Park from the two mysterious scenes of +desolation there, just seven miles apart.</p> + +<p>It is an interesting place, as wild a region as you will ever find, and +is recommended for the man who has seen everything.</p> + +<hr class='sb' /> + +<p class='ralign'>—— <b>R. A. LAFFERTY</b></p> + +<div class='tn'> +<p>This etext was produced from <i>Galaxy</i> magazine, December 1962.</p> + +<p>Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. +copyright on this publication was renewed.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas, by +Raphael Aloysius Lafferty + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SODOM AND GOMORRAH, TEXAS *** + +***** This file should be named 23161-h.htm or 23161-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/1/6/23161/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, V. L. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas + +Author: Raphael Aloysius Lafferty + +Illustrator: Ritter + +Release Date: October 24, 2007 [EBook #23161] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SODOM AND GOMORRAH, TEXAS *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, V. L. Simpson and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + [Illustration] + + + _The place called Sodom was bad enough. But right down the + road was the other town--and that was even worse!_ + + + + + Sodom + and + Gomorrah, + Texas + + + By R. A. LAFFERTY + + Illustrated by RITTER + + + + +Manuel shouldn't have been employed as a census taker. He wasn't +qualified. He couldn't read a map. He didn't know what a map was. He +only grinned when they told him that North was at the top. + +He knew better. + +But he did write a nice round hand, like a boy's hand. He knew Spanish, +and enough English. For the sector that was assigned to him he would not +need a map. He knew it better than anyone else, certainly better than +any mapmaker. Besides, he was poor and needed the money. + +They instructed him and sent him out. Or they thought that they had +instructed him. They couldn't be sure. + +"Count everyone? All right. Fill in everyone? I need more papers." + +"We will give you more if you need more. But there aren't so many in +your sector." + +"Lots of them. _Lobos_, _tejones_, _zorros_, even people." + +"Only the _people_, Manuel! Do not take the animals. How would you write +up the animals? They have no names." + +"Oh, yes. All have names. Might as well take them all." + +"Only people, Manuel." + +"_Mulos?_" + +"No." + +"_Conejos?_" + +"No, Manuel, no. Only the people." + +"No trouble. Might as well take them all." + +"Only people--God give me strength!--only people, Manuel." + +"How about little people?" + +"Children, yes. That has been explained to you." + +"_Little_ people. Not children, little people." + +"If they are people, take them." + +"How big they have to be?" + +"It doesn't make any difference how big they are. If they are people, +take them." + +That is where the damage was done. + +The official had given a snap judgement, and it led to disaster. It was +not his fault. The instructions are not clear. Nowhere in all the +verbiage does it say how big they have to be to be counted as people. + + +Manuel took Mula and went to work. His sector was the Santa Magdalena, a +scrap of bald-headed and desolate mountains, steep but not high, and so +torrid in the afternoons that it was said that the old lava sometimes +began to writhe and flow again from the sun's heat alone. + +In the center valley there were five thousand acres of slag and +vitrified rock from some forgotten old blast that had melted the hills +and destroyed their mantle, reducing all to a terrible flatness. This +was called Sodom. It was strewn with low-lying ghosts as of people and +objects, formed when the granite bubbled like water. + +Away from the dead center the ravines were body-deep in chaparral, and +the hillsides stood gray-green with old cactus. The stunted trees were +lower than the giant bushes and yucca. + +Manuel went with Mula, a round easy man and a sparse gaunt mule. Mula +was a mule, but there were other inhabitants of the Santa Magdalena of a +genus less certain. + +Yet even about Mula there was an oddity in her ancestry. Her paternal +grandfather had been a goat. Manuel once told Mr. Marshal about this, +but Mr. Marshal had not accepted it. + +"She is a mule. Therefore, her father was a jack. Therefore his father +was also a jack, a donkey. It could not be any other way." + +Manuel often wondered about that, for he had raised the whole strain of +animals, and he remembered who had been with whom. + +"A donkey! A jack! Two feet tall and with a beard and horns. I always +thought that he was a goat." + +Manuel and Mula stopped at noon on Lost Soul Creek. There would be no +travel in the hot afternoon. But Manuel had a job to do, and he did it. +He took the forms from one of the packs that he had unslung from Mula, +and counted out nine of them. He wrote down all the data on nine people. +He knew all there was to know about them, their nativities and their +antecedents. He knew that there were only nine regular people in the +nine hundred square miles of the Santa Magdalena. + +But he was systematic, so he checked the list over again and again. +There seemed to be somebody missing. Oh, yes, himself. He got another +form and filled out all the data on himself. + +Now, in one way of looking at it, his part in the census was finished. +If only he had looked at it that way, he would have saved worry and +trouble for everyone, and also ten thousand lives. But the instructions +they had given him were ambiguous, for all that they had tried to make +them clear. + +So very early the next morning he rose and cooked beans, and said, +"Might as well take them all." + +He called Mula from the thorn patch where she was grazing, gave her salt +and loaded her again. Then they went to take the rest of the census, but +in fear. There was a clear duty to get the job done, but there was also +a dread of it that his superiors did not understand. There was reason +also why Mula was loaded so she could hardly walk with packs of census +forms. + +Manuel prayed out loud as they climbed the purgatorial scarp above Lost +Souls Creek, "_ruega por nosotros pecadores ahora_--" the very gulches +stood angry and stark in the early morning--"_y en la hora de neustra +muerte._" + + +Three days later an incredible dwarf staggered into the outskirts of +High Plains, Texas, followed by a dying wolf-sized animal that did not +look like a wolf. + +A lady called the police to save the pair from rock-throwing kids who +might have killed them, and the two as yet unclassified things were +taken to the station house. + +The dwarf was three foot high, a skeleton stretched over with +brown-burnt leather. The other was an un-canine looking dog-sized beast, +so full of burrs and thorns that it might have been a porcupine. It was +a nightmare replica of a shrunken mule. + +The midget was mad. The animal had more presence of mind: she lay down +quietly and died, which was the best she could do, considering the state +that she was in. + +"Who is census chief now?" asked the mad midget. "Is Mr. Marshal's boy +the census chief?" + +"Mr. Marshal is, yes. Who are you? How do you know Marshal? And what is +that which you are pulling out of your pants, if they are pants?" + +"Census list. Names of everybody in the Santa Magdalena. I had to steal +it." + +"It looks like microfilm, the writing is so small. And the roll goes on +and on. There must be a million names here." + +"Little bit more, little bit more. I get two bits a name." + +They got Marshal there. He was very busy, but he came. He had been given +a deadline by the mayor and the citizen's group. He had to produce a +population of ten thousand people for High Plains, Texas; and this was +difficult, for there weren't that many people in the town. He had been +working hard on it, though; but he came when the police called him. + +"You Marshal's little boy? You look just like your father," said the +midget. + +"That voice, I should know that voice even if it's cracked to pieces. +That has to be Manuel's voice." + +"Sure, I'm Manuel. Just like I left, thirty-five years ago." + +"You can't be Manuel, shrunk three feet and two hundred pounds and aged +a million." + +"You look here at my census slip. It says I'm Manuel. And here are nine +more of the regular people, and one million of the little people. I +couldn't get them on the right forms, though. I had to steal their +list." + +"You can't be Manuel," said Marshal. + +"He can't be Manuel," said the big policemen and the little policeman. + +"Maybe not, then," the dwarf conceded. "I thought I was, but I wasn't +sure. Who am I then? Let's look at the other papers and see which one I +am." + +"No, you can't be any of them either, Manuel. And you surely can't be +Manuel." + +"Give him a name anyhow and get him counted. We got to get to that ten +thousand mark." + +"Tell us what happened, Manuel--if you are. Which you aren't. But tell +us." + +"After I counted the regular people I went to count the little people. I +took a spade and spaded off the top of their town to get in. But they +put an _encanto_ on me, and made me and Mula run a treadmill for +thirty-five years." + +"Where was this?" + +"At the little people town. Nuevo Danae. But after thirty-five years the +_encanto_ wore off and Mula and I stole the list of names and ran away." + +"But where did you really get this list of so many names written so +small?" + +"Suffering saddle sores, Marshal, don't ask the little bug so many +questions. You got a million names in your hand. Certify them! Send them +in! There's enough of us here right now. We declare that place annexed +forthwith. This will make High Plains the biggest town in the whole +state of Texas." + + +So Marshal certified them and sent them into Washington. This gave High +Plains the largest percentage increase of any city in the nation, but it +was challenged. There were some soreheads in Houston who said that it +wasn't possible. They said High Plains had nowhere near that many people +and there must have been a miscount. + +And in the days that the argument was going on, they cleaned up and fed +Manuel, 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 these +people?" + +"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 down +with a spade to get to the streets." + +"Maybe they were really all prairie dogs, Manuel. Maybe the heat got you +and you only dreamed that they were little people." + +"Prairie dogs can't write as good as on that list. Prairie dogs can't +write hardly at all." + +"That's true. The list is hard to explain. And such odd names on it +too." + +"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'm +too 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 people +see 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't +understand 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, that +Marshal was awakened by the ring of an authoritative voice. He was being +harangued by a four-inch tall man on his bedside table, a man of +dominating 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 caused +by one. I shouldn't eat so late." + +"Say 'sir' when you reply to me. I am no pig sandwich and I do not +commonly 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. It +isn'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 neck +down. I suspect that you were always so from there up. Where is the +list?" + +"S-sent it to Washington." + +"You bug-eyed behemoth! Do you realize what a trip that will be? You +grandfather 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 that +you even belong on the world." + +"Not belong on the world! We own the world. We can show written title to +the 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 a +promoter of sorts. A con man, really. I'll have to admit that we were +taken, but we were in a spot and needed a world. He said that the larger +bifurcates were too stupid to be a nuisance. We should have known that +the stupider a creature, the more of a nuisance it is." + +"I had about decided the same thing about the smaller a creature. We may +have to fumigate that old mountain mess." + +"Oh, you can't harm us. We're too powerful. But we can obliterate you in +an instant." + +"Hah!" + +"Say 'Hah, _sir_' when you address me. Do you know the place in the +mountain 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 see +it in detail. + +"There was another city of you bug-eyed beasts there," said the small +martinet. "You wouldn't know about it. It's been a few hundred years. We +decided 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 to +get to Washington." + +It may be that Marshal did not believe himself quite awake. He certainly +did not take the threat seriously enough. For the little man did trigger +it off. + + +When the final count was in, High Plains did not have the highest +percentage gain in population in the nation. Actually it showed the +sharpest decline, from 7313 to nothing. + +They were going to make a forest preserve out of the place, except that +it has no trees worthy of the name. Now it is proposed to make it the +Sodom and Gomorrah State Park from the two mysterious scenes of +desolation there, just seven miles apart. + +It is an interesting place, as wild a region as you will ever find, and +is recommended for the man who has seen everything. + + + --R. A. LAFFERTY + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas, by +Raphael Aloysius Lafferty + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SODOM AND GOMORRAH, TEXAS *** + +***** This file should be named 23161.txt or 23161.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/1/6/23161/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, V. L. Simpson and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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