Read Online Araminta Station by Jack Vance - Free Book Online

explain, I was ill during both of the midterm examinations, and did poorly. The instructors in each case refused to make allowances.”
    “Rightly so. The examinations measure your scholastic achievements, not the state of your health.” He looked at Arles’ card. “I see you have opted into Bureau D.”
    “I intend to be an oenologist,” said Arles sullenly.
    “In that case, I advise that you attend summer school and make up your failed work; otherwise you will be cultivating your grapes in very far vineyards.”
    Arles scowled. “I’m already committed to Master Floreste for the summer. I am a member of the Mummers Troupe, as you probably know.”
    “That is irrelevant. I can hardly express myself more succinctly but I will try. Either do your schoolwork or fail to graduate.”
    Arles cried out in pain: “But we will be making an off-world tour to Soum and Dauncy’s world, which I don’t want to miss!”
    Sonorius Offaw rubbed his forehead with the tips of his fingers. You may go. I will communicate with your parents and inform them of your problem.”
    Arles departed the office, and a day later intercepted the official note before it reached Spanchetta: an act of subtle ingenuity, Arles told himself with a grin. If his mother had read the note, she might well have kept him home all summer, with his nose pressed to the scholastic grindstone. What a bore! He desperately wanted to make this particular tour, if only to prevent Kirdy Wook from having a free hand with the girls. Not that Kirdy, a large earnest fresh-faced youth, was all that much of a threat.
    So Arles avoided summer school, and toured off-world with the Mummers, returning to Araminta station a few days before Glawen’s birthday, much too late for summer session. When lyceum started, Arles found himself enrolled at the second-year level.
    How should he best explain the matter to his mother?
    By not explaining at all: that was the answer. The matter would probably evade her notice; then, by one means or another, he would repair the difficulty.
    The final day of the quarter-term was a half day, and the students were allowed a free afternoon. Glawen, Arles and four others took themselves to the dock beside the airport, to oversee the arrival of the ferry from Yipton with a contingent of workers for the grape harvest.
    The group consisted of Glawen, Arles, Kirdy Wook, Uther Offaw, Kiper Laverty and Cloyd Diffin. Kirdy, the oldest and, like Arles, a Mummer, was a large careful young man, somber of manner, with round blue eyes, large features, and a fair, almost pinkish complexion. He used a terse mode of speaking, perhaps to disguise his shyness. In general the girls thought Kirdy dull and a trifle self-righteous. Sessily Veder, whose pretty face and irrepressible personality charmed all who saw her, referred to Kirdy as a “fussy old pussycat.” If he heard her, he gave no sign, but a week later, to the surprise of everyone, he joined the Bold Lions, as if to demonstrate that he wasn’t such a dullard after all.
    Kiper Laverty, who was Glawen’s age, contrasted in every way with Kirdy, in that he was brash, noisy, active, not at all shy, and ready for any and all mischief.
    Uther Offaw, a complicated individual almost as old as Kirdy, performed meticulous work at the lyceum, but in private demonstrated a wry mentality which spun off ideas wild, quaint and sometimes reckless. His hair, a straw-colored ruff, grew back from a high forehead which seemed to funnel directly into a long nose. Uther was also a Bold Lion.
    Cloyd Diffin, another Bold Lion, presented a staid imperturbable face to the world. He was strong and stocky, with dark hair, a heavy hooked nose and massive chin. Cloyd formulated few ideas of his own but could be counted upon to follow the lead of others.
    The six youths strolled up Beach Road to the dock, where the ferry from Lutwen Atoll was about to discharge its cargo of Yips. At the debarkation gate stood Namour, the labor