Explore "A Rogue's Tragedy" by Bernard Capes on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Bonito, startled out of dreams of immortality, returned to earth with a shock. _Something -- somebody had spoken to him!_
Even so -- taken by surprise, his wits momentarily confounded -- habitual wariness kept him stone-still where he lay, his head dropped back upon the forge, while he strove desperately to excogitate his right answer to the situation. For the instant of his waking had been one with his recognition of the voice -- and of a flaw, moreover, in his own policy. The consequences were facing him at once, and tremendously. He knew that his life at this moment hung upon a word.