Night Lamp by Jack Vance Read Free Book Online

what Hanafer thinks! If you complain to his mother, everyone will laugh at me!”
    Althea knew that he was right. “Then you’ll just have to take Hanafer aside and explain in a nice way that you mean him no harm and that he has no reason to call you names.”
    Jaro nodded. “I may do just that—after punching his head to attract his attention.”
    Althea uttered a cry of indignation. She went to a couch and pulled Jaro down beside her. He became stiff and uncomfortable, and wished that he had guarded his tongue, for now he must listen while Althea explained the tenets of her ethical philosophy. “Jaro, my dear, there is no mystery about violence. It is the reflexive act of brutes, boors and moral defectives. I am surprised that you use such words even as a joke!”
    Jaro moved restlessly and opened his mouth to speak, but Althea seemed not to notice. “As you know, your father and I think of ourselves as crusaders for universal amity. We are contemptuous of violence, and we expect you to live by the same creed.”
    “That is why Hanafer calls me a ‘moop.’ ”
    Althea spoke serenely, “He will stop as soon as he sees how wrong he is. You must make this clear. Peace and happiness are never passive; they are flowers in a garden which must constantly be worked.”
    Jaro jumped to his feet. “I don’t have time to work in Hanafer’s garden; I have other things on my mind.”
    Althea stared at him, all thoughts of Hanafer dismissed, and Jaro saw that he had made another mistake. Althea asked, “What ‘other things’ are these?”
    “Just things.”
    For perhaps half a second Althea wavered, then decided not to pursue the matter. She reached out and hugged him. “Whatever the case, you can always discuss it with me. We can straighten things out and I’ll never urge you to do anything harmful or wrong! Do you believe me, Jaro?”
    “Oh yes. I believe you.”
    Althea relaxed. “I’m glad you’re so sensible! Now then, go make yourself look nice; Mr. Maihac is coming for dinner. As I recall, you and he get along well together.”
    Jaro gave a guarded response. “Yes; well enough.” As a matter of fact he liked Tawn Maihac very much, which caused him to wonder about his parents, since Maihac was not typical of their usual set of acquaintances. Maihac was an off-worlder who had evidently traveled far and wide across the Gaean Reach and had known many odd adventures. He had made an immediate impression upon Jaro though, from the Fath’s point of view, for all the wrong reasons. Maihac was neither a pacifist nor a savant nor yet the exemplar of an avant-garde art form.
    Tawn Maihac’s adventures had not left him unscathed. His face displayed a broken nose and his neck was marked by a scar. Otherwise, Maihac lacked conspicuous characteristics, and on first acquaintance seemed placid and mild. He was younger than Hilyer; lean and strong, with a weathered dark skin and a black mat of hair. Althea thought him almost handsome, since his features were well shaped. Hilyer, who was more critical, found these same features graceless and hard, perhaps by reason of the broken nose, which suggested violence.
    Hilyer took little pleasure in Maihac’s company, suspecting that Maihac might have been a spaceman, which brought him no credit in Hilyer’s eyes. Spacemen were customarily recruited from the ne’er-do-wells and vagabonds at the fringes of society. As a class, their values and patterns of behavior were incompatible with Hilyer’s own, and those which he wished to sponsor in Jaro.
    From the first Hilyer had felt deeply suspicious of Maihac. When Althea scoffed, Hilyer claimed darkly that his instincts were never wrong. He felt that Maihac, if not a blackguard, had much to hide, to which Althea said: “Oh piffle. Everyone has something to hide.”
    Hilyer started to declare, “Not I!” in a decisive voice, then thought of one or two shrouded episodes in his past and merely gave a noncommittal grunt.
    During