Wolf cupped his hands. "Very civilized, your grace! But, you see, when you set fire to a barn
full of wolves, they panic, your grace! But when they"re werewolves, one of them just opens the door! You cannot kill werewolves, Mister Vimes!"
"Tell that to the one in the boathouse!" Vimes shouted, as the current took the boat.
Wolf looked into the shadows for a moment and then cupped his hands again. "He will recover, Mister Vimes!"
Vimes swore under his breath, because despite all his hopes a couple of werewolves had plunged into the water upstream and were swimming strongly towards the opposite bank. But that was a doggy thing, wasn"t it? Leap joyfully into the water outdoors, but fight like hell against a tub.
Wolfgang had started to trot along the bank. The ones in the water emerged on the far bank. Now they were keeping pace with the boat on both sides.
But the current was carrying it along faster now. Vimes started to bail with both hands.
"You can"t outrun the river, Wolf!" he shouted.
"We don" have to, Mister Vimes! That is not the question! The question is, can you outswim the waterfall? See you later, Civilized!"
Vimes looked around. In the distance the river had a foreshortened look. When he concentrated, the inner ear of terror could hear a distant roaring.
He snatched the oars again and tried to row upstream and, yes, it was possible to make headway against the current. But he couldn"t keep rowing faster than wolves could run, and taking on two at once on the shore, when they were ready and waiting for him, was not an option.
If he went over the falls now, he might get to the bottom before they did.
That wasn"t a good sentence, however he tried it.
He took his hands off the oars and pulled in the mooring rope. If I make a couple of loops, he thought, I can strap the axe on to my back-
He had a mental picture of what could happen to a man who plunged into the cauldron below a waterfall with a sharp piece of metal attached to his body -
G OOD MORNING .
Vimes blinked. A tall dark robed figure was now sitting in the boat.
"Are you Death?"
I T"S THE SCYTHE, ISN"T IT? P EOPLE ALWAYS NOTICE THE SCYTHE.
"I"m going to die?"
P OSSIBLY.
"Possibly? You turn up when people are possibly going to die?"
O H, YES. I T"S QUITE THE NEW THING . I T"S BECAUSE OF THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE.
"What"s that?"
I "M NOT SURE.
"That"s very helpful."
I THINK IT MEANS PEOPLE MAY OR MAY NOT DIE. I HAVE TO SAY IT"S PLAYING HOB WITH MY SCHEDULE, BUT I TRY TO KEEP UP WITH MODERN THOUGHT.
The roar was a lot louder now. Vimes lay back in the boat and gripped the sides.
I"m talking to Death, he thought, to take my mind off things.
"Didn"t I see you last month? I was chasing