hem. But then, nobody he knew would
throw his hat ...

"You mind telling me the name of this place?" Brett said, as he took the
man's arm, pulled. The man rotated toward Brett, leaning heavily against
him. Brett stepped back. The man fell, lay stiffly, his arms moving, his
eyes and mouth open.

"Ahhhhh," he said. "Whum-whum-whum. Awww, jawww ..."

Brett stooped quickly. "I'm sorry," he cried. He looked around. "Help!
This man ..."

Nobody was watching. The next man, a few feet away, stood close against
his neighbor, hatless, his jaw moving.

"This man's sick," said Brett, tugging at the man's arm. "He fell."

The man's eyes moved reluctantly to Brett. "None of my business," he
muttered.

"Won't anybody give me a hand?"

"Probably a drunk."

Behind Brett a voice called in a penetrating whisper: "Quick! You! Get
into the alley...!"

He turned. A gaunt man of about thirty with sparse reddish hair,
perspiration glistening on his upper lip, stood at the mouth of a narrow
way like the one Brett had come through. He wore a grimy pale yellow
shirt with a wide-flaring collar, limp and sweat-stained, dark green
knee-breeches, soft leather boots, scuffed and dirty, with limp tops
that drooped over his ankles. He gestured, drew back into the alley. "In
here."

Brett went toward him. "This man ..."

"Come on, you fool!" The man took Brett's arm, pulled him deeper into
the dark passage. Brett resisted. "Wait a minute. That fellow ..." He
tried to point.

"Don't you know yet?" The red-head spoke with a strange accent. "Golems
... You got to get out of sight before the--"

* * *

The man froze, flattened himself against the wall. Automatically Brett
moved to a place beside him. The man's head was twisted toward the alley
mouth. The tendons in his weathered neck stood out. He had a three-day
stubble of beard. Brett could smell him, standing this close. He edged
away. "What--"

"Don't make a sound! Don't move, you idiot!" His voice was a thin hiss.

Brett followed the other's eyes toward the sunny street. The fallen man
lay on the pavement, moving feebly, eyes open. Something moved up to
him, a translucent brownish shape, like muddy water. It hovered for a
moment, then dropped on the man like a breaking wave, flowed around him.
The body shifted, rotating stiffly, then tilted upright. The sun struck
through the fluid shape that flowed down now, amber highlights
twinkling, to form itself into the