The old man laughed and handed me a beer. I saw three empty bottles already sweating on the floor next to his chair.
“Fallin’ off the roof was nothing,” he said. “Now falling out of the doggone sky — now that’s a fright.”
I smiled and leaned back. That was all the encouragement he needed.
“This is when I was… overseas, of course. I was on one of them flying boats they had over there, like I told you about. Well, this one was the biggest I’d ever seen. It was like an aircraft carrier — huge! You could have three or four football games going on at the same time on that thing.
“Well, the baroness was holding one of her masked balls on this thing, and of course she invited Slaggorn. Out of courtesy, mind you — I told you about the tussle him and me got into back in the desert — nobody thought he’d show up — but the S.O.B. not only shows up, he brings his full retinue and makes a grand entrance!”
He chuckled to himself and took a long pull on his bottle.
