pushed back and a glint of
twin lenses in the cockpit.

Will appeared at Stonecypher's side. He spat in a long arc and said,
"That's a new one, ain't it, peepin' from a butterfly? I reckon L. Dan
never got kilt in that other duel like I hoped he would. You want us to
git you outa this, Stonecypher?"

"No, Will."

"We can see you git to the Smokies. The Givernment'll never find you
down in there."

"I'll be all right, Will. If he does kill me, take care of Catriona. And
look after the calf records."

"Sure thang."

Stonecypher walked slowly toward Catriona's open-topped sunbathing tent.

DANSE MACABRE

Duelmaster R. Smith adjusted his black tam. "Do not touch your shooting
hand to your weapon until the buzzer sounds," he instructed. "Otherwise,
the weapon may be carried as you wish. At the slightest infringement of
the rules, a robot gun will kill you. If you have any elaborate last
words, say them now; because the pen is soundproof." He laughed an
obviously much rehearsed laugh.

L. Dan wore orange tights today, but no armor, since the rules required
deulists to present naked torsos for probable bullets. Stonecypher faced
the duelmaster. "I reckon this room is the only place a man really has
free speech," he said. "You're deaf, and can't see good enough to read
lips, and me or him will soon be dead.

"I don't believe in this duelin'. It gives a man who's wrong a chance to
kill one who's right. A man shouldn't oughta have to die because he's
right. Just like ever'thing else in this Manly Age. It's painful. That
oughta be our motto, More Pain, just like in the Machine Age it was More
Gadgets At Any Cost."

"Why don't you go on tevee?" Dan jeered. "She'll soon forget you,
farmer."

Stonecypher's words rolled over the hobbyist. "I reckon the Manly Age
came because a man started thinkin' he wasn't much of a man any more. He
was just as fast as his car, and just as strong as his electric lawn
mower. And a loud minority of the women was claimin' they could do
anything a man could, and maybe better. So the men started playin'
football in shorts and huntin' each other on game preserves, and the
women went back to the kitchen and bedroom. Lots of things that went on
undercover come out in the open. Cockfights, dogfights, coon-on-a-log,
duels, stallion fights, bullfights.

"And people like you, L. Dan, went on livin'. You got no right to live.
You don't do any useful work. The Earth is slowly starvin', an