Farewell Summer. Ray Bradbury

you hear about Braling?’

      ‘I knew one day he’d get caught without his hourglass.’

      ‘This is no time for levity!’

      ‘Oh, him and his damn clocks; I could hear him ticking across town. When you hold that tight to the edge of the grave, you should just jump in. Some boy with a cap–pistol means nothing. What can you do? Ban cap–pistols?’

      ‘Bleak, I need you!’

      ‘We all need each other.’

      ‘Braling was school board secretary. I’m chairman! The damn town’s teeming with killers in embryo.’

      ‘My dear Quartermain,’ said Bleak dryly, ‘you remind me of the perceptive asylum keeper who claimed that his inmates were mad. You’ve only just discovered that boys are animals?’