Moving Pictures

who hadn’t, and Silverfish wouldn’t hesitate to put himself first among that number, there were the old tried-and-tested or, to put it another way, tried-and-repeatedly-failed methods of wealth production. So now he was back home, picking up where he had left off.
    “Any good?” said Peavie, who had dropped in to commiserate.
    “Well, it’s silvery,” said Silverfish doubtfully. “And it’s sort of metallic. And it’s heavier than lead. You have to cook up a ton of ore, too. Funny thing is, I thought I was onto something this time. I really thought that this time we were on the way to a new, clear future…”
    “What are you going to call it?” said Peavie.
    “Oh, I don’t know. It’s probably not worth naming,” said Silverfish.
    “Ankhmorporkery? Silverfishium? Notleadium?” said Peavie.
    “Uselessium, more like,” said Silverfish. “I’m giving up on it and going back to something more sensible.”
    Peavie peered into the furnace.
    “It doesn’t go boom , does it?” he said.
    Silverfish gave him a withering look.
    “This stuff?” he said. “Whatever gave you that idea?”

    Click…
    It was pitch dark under the rubble.
    It had been pitch dark for a long time.
    Gaspode could feel the tons of stone above this little space. You didn’t need any special doggy senses for that.
    He dragged himself over to where a pillar had smashed down into the cellar.
    Laddie raised his head with difficulty, licked Gaspode’s face, and managed the faintest of barks.
    “Good boy Laddie…Good boy Gaspode…”
    “Good boy Laddie,” Gaspode whispered.
    Laddie’s tail thumped once or twice on the stones. Then he whimpered for a while, with longer and longer pauses between the sounds.
    Then there was a faint noise. Just like bone on stone.
    Gaspode’s ears twitched. He looked up at the advancing figure, visible even in utter darkness because it would forever be darker than mere blackness alone could manage.
    He pulled himself upright, the hairs rising along his back, and growled.
    “Another step and I’ll have your leg off and bury it,” he said.
    A skeletal hand reached out and tickled him behind the ears.
    There was a faint barking from the darkness.
    “Good boy Laddie!”
    Gaspode, tears pouring down his face, gave Death an apologetic grin.
    “Pathetic, isn’t it?” he said hoarsely.
    I WOULDN’T KNOW . I’ VE NEVER BEEN THAT MUCH OF A DOG PERSON , said Death.
    “Oh? Come to that, I’ve never liked the idea of dyin’,” said Gaspode. “We are dyin’, ain’t we?”
    Y ES .
    “Not surprised, really. Story of my life, dyin’,” said Gaspode. “It’s just that I fought ,” he added, hopefully, “that there was a special Death for dogs. A big black dog, maybe?”
    No, said Death.
    “Funny that,” said Gaspode. “I heard where every type of animal had its own ghastly dark specter what come for it at the end. No offense meant,” he added quickly. “I fought there was this big dog that trots up to you an’ says, ‘OK, Gaspode, your work is done and so forth, lay down your weary burden, style of fing, and follow me to a land flowin’ with steak and offal.’”
    N O . T HERE ’ S JUST ME , said Death. T HE FINAL FRONTIER .
    “How come I’m seein’ you, if I ain’t dead yet?”
    Y OU ’ RE HALLUCINATING .
    Gaspode looked alert. “Am I? Cor.”
    “Good boy Laddie!” The barking was louder this time.
    Death reached into the mysterious recesses of his robe and produced a small hourglass. There was almost no sand left in the top bulb. The last seconds of Gaspode’s life hissed from the future to the past.
    And then there were none at all.
    Death stood up.
    C OME , G ASPODE .
    There was a faint noise. It sounded like the audible equivalent of a twinkle.
    Golden sparks filled the hourglass.
    The sand flowed backward.
    Death grinned.
    And then, where he had been, there was a triangle of brilliant light.
    “Good boy Laddie!”
    “There he are! Told you I hear barking!” said the voice of Rock. “Good boy! Here, boy!”
    “Cor, am I glad to see you—” Gaspode began. The trolls clustering around the opening paid him no attention at all. Rock heaved the pillar aside and gently lifted Laddie up.
    “Nothing wrong that time won’t heal,” he said.
    “Can we eat it now?” said a troll above him.
    “You defective or something? This one heroic dog!”
    “—’scuse me—”
    “Good boy Laddie!”
    Rock handed up the dog and climbed out of the hole.
    “—’scuse