The Nut Gatherers

A few of the pilots laughed humorlessly. One of them was a teenaged fighterjockey seated next to Luke who bore the unlikely name of Wedge Antilles. ArtooDetoo was there also, seated next to another Artoo unit who emitted a long whistle ofhopelessness. "A two-meter target at maximum speed—with a torpedo, yet," Antilles snorted."That's impossible even for the computer." "But it's not impossible," protested Luke. "I used to bulls-eye womp-rats in myT-17 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters." "Is that so?" the rakishly uniformed youth noted derisively. "Tell me, when youwere going after your particular varmint, were there a thousand other, what did youcall it, 'womp-rats' armed with power rifles firing up at you?" He shook his headsadly. "With all that firepower on the station directed at us, this will take a little morethan barnyard marksmanship, believe me." As if to confirm Antilles' pessimism, Dodonna indicated a string of lights on theever-changing schematic. "Take special not of these emplacements. There's aheavy concentration of firepower on the latitudinal axes, was well as several densecircumpolar clusters. "Also, their field generators will probably create a lot of distortion, especially inand around the trench. I figure that maneuverability in that sector will be less thanpoint three." This produced more murmurs and a few groans from the assembly. "Remember," the General went on, "you must achieve a direct hit. Yellowsquadron will cover for Red on the first run. Green will cover Blue on the second.Any questions?" a muted buzz filled the room. One man stood, lean and handsome—too muchso, it seemed, to be ready to throw away his life for something as abstract as freedom. "What if both runs fail, What happens after that?"

The Nut Gatherers

The summer shone in full prime; and she took such a taste for this solitary rambling that she often contrived to remain out from breakfast till tea; and then the evenings were spent in recounting her fanciful tales. I did not fear her breaking bounds; because the gates were generally locked, and I thought she would scarcely venture forth alone, if they had stood wide open. Unluckily, my confidence proved misplaced. Catherine came to me, one morning, at eight o'clock, and said she was that day an Arabian merchant, going to cross the desert with his caravan; and I must give her plenty of provision for herself and beasts: a horse, and three camels, personated by a large hound and a couple of pointers. I got together good store of dainties, and slung them in a basket on one side of the saddle; and she sprang up as gay as a fairy, sheltered by her wide-brimmed hat and gauze veil from the July sun, and trotted off with a merry laugh, mocking my cautious counsel to avoid galloping, and come back early. The naughty thing never made her appearance at tea. One traveller, the hound, being an old dog and fond of its ease, returned; but neither Cathy, nor the pony, nor the two pointers were visible in any direction: I dispatched emissaries down this path, and that path, and at last went wandering in search of her myself. There was a labourer working at a fence round a plantation, on the borders of the grounds. I inquired of him if he had seen our young lady.
`I saw her at morn,' he replied; `she would have me to cut her a hazel switch, and then she leapt her Galloway over the hedge yonder, where it is lowest, and galloped out of sight.'
You may guess how I felt at hearing this news. It struck me directly she must have started for Penistone Crags. `What will become of her?' I ejaculated, pushing through a gap which the man was repairing, and making straight to the high road. I walked as if for a wager, mile after mile, till a turn brought me in view of the Heights; but no Catherine could I detect far or near. The Crags lie about a mile and a half beyond Mr Heathcliff's place, and that is four from the Grange, so I began to fear night would fall ere I could reach them. `And what if she should have slipped in clambering among them?' I reflected, `and been killed, or broken some of her bones?' My suspense was truly painful; and, at first, it gave me delightful relief to observe, in hurrying by the farmhouse, Charlie, the fiercest of the pointers, lying under a window, with swelled head and bleeding ear. I opened the wicket and ran to the door, knocking