The Project Gutenberg EBook of Thy Rocks and Rills, by Robert Ernest Gilbert

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Title: Thy Rocks and Rills

Author: Robert Ernest Gilbert

Illustrator: Tom Beecham

Release Date: June 18, 2010 [EBook #32878]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THY ROCKS AND RILLS

By Robert Ernest Gilbert

Illustrated by Tom Beecham

[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from If Worlds of Science
Fiction September 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence
that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Sidenote: _They were out of place in the Manly Age--Stonecypher, a man
who loved animals; Moe, a bull who hated men. Together, they marched to
inevitably similar destinies...._]

PRELUDE

M. Stonecypher lifted his reed sun hat with the square brim, and used a
red handkerchief to absorb the perspiration streaking his forehead. He
said, "The pup'll make a good guard, 'especially for thrill parties."

L. Dan's golden curls flickered in July 1 sunlight. The puppy growled
when Dan extended a gloved hand. "I don't want a guard," the hobbyist
said. "I want him for a dogfight."

A startling bellow rattled the windows of the dog house and spilled in
deafening waves across the yard. Dan whirled, clutching his staff. Light
glinted on his plastic cuirass and danced on his red nylon tights. His
flabby face turned white. "What--" he panted.

Stonecypher concealed a smile behind a long corded hand and said, "Just
the bull. Serenades us sometimes."

Dan circled the dog house. Stonecypher followed with a forefinger
pressed to thin lips. In the paddock, the bull's head moved up and down.
It might or might not have been a nod.

The crest of long red and blue-black hairs on the bull's neck and
shoulders created an illusion of purple, but the rest of the animal
matched the black of a duelmaster's tam. Behind large eyes encircled by
a white band, his skull bulged in a swelling d