Page:Diamonds To Sit On.pdf/241

 THE INTERPLANETARY CHESS CONGRESS 239

It was a moonlight night. Bender was flying down the street like an angel shaking the dust of this wicked world from his feet. ' Stop him ! Catch him ! ’ yelled the crowd. ‘ Stop thief ! ’ they shouted. ‘ Help 1 Help ! ’ shouted the one-eyed chess-player. Bender ran down to the edge of the river, turned to the right, and feverishly searched for Hippolyte and the boat. Hippolyte was there. Bender jumped into the boat and began to row wildly out from the shore, and a minute later a shower of stones fell on them. The chess-players were pelting them from the shore. A stone hit Hippolyte’s face, just an inch above his boil. He ducked, tried to hide his head, and began to moan. ‘ What a coward ! ’ said Bender. ‘ My head has nearly been torn from my shoulders, but I’m still happy and bright. And if you take into account that we’ve got fifty roubles clear profit then we’ve not done so badly.’ Meanwhile the chess-players had realized that the plan of transforming Vassuki into New Moscow had crashed and that the chess champion was disappearing with fifty roubles belonging to the town. They jumped into a large boat and rapidly pulled out into the middle of the river, shouting threats across the water. There were about thirty of them in the boat, for each of them wanted to have a personal reckoning with the champion. The one-eyed man was in command of the expedition. ' Come on. Pussy; if you don’t pull more rapidly they’ll overtake us, and I shan’t be able to vouch for either of us.’ Both boats were going downstream and the distance between them was rapidly diminishing. Bender’s strength was beginning to give out. ‘ You cheat! ’ the chess-players shouted. ‘ You’re not going to escape us ! ’