Bjorn tried again.
The file was as insubstantial as the smoke.
'What?'
AHEM.
The owner of the strange device was staring in horror at something on the floor. Bjorn followed his gaze.
'Oh,' he said. Realization, which had been hovering on the edge of Bjorn's consciousness, finally dawned. That was the thing about death. When it happened to you, you were among the first to know.
His visitor grabbed the device from the bench and rammed it into a cloth bag. Then he looked around wildly, picked up the corpse of Mr Hammerhock, and dragged it through the door towards the river.
There was a distant splash, or as close to a splash as you could get from the Ankh.
'Oh dear,' said Bjorn. 'And I can't swim, either.'
THAT WILL NOT, OF COURSE, BE A PROBLEM, said Death.
Bjorn looked at him.
'You're a lot shorter than I thought you'd be,' he said.
THIS IS BECAUSE I'M KNEELING DOWN, MR HAMMER-HOCK.
'That damn thing killed me!'
YES.
'That's the first time anything like that has ever happened to me.' ,
TO ANYONE. BUT NOT, I SUSPECT, THE LAST TIME.
Death stood up. There was a clicking of knee joints. He no longer cracked his skull on the ceiling. There wasn't a ceiling any more. The room had gently faded away.
There were such things as dwarf gods. Dwarfs were not a naturally religious species, but in a world where pit props could crack without warning and pockets of fire damp could suddenly explode they'd seen the need for gods as the sort of supernatural equivalent of a hard hat. Besides, when you hit your thumb with an eight-pound hammer it's nice to be able to blaspheme. It takes a very special and strong-minded kind of atheist to jump up and down with their hand clasped under their other armpit and shout, 'Oh, random-fluctuations-in-the-space-time-continuum!' or 'Aaargh, primitive-and-out-moded-concept on a crutch!'
Bjorn didn't waste time asking questions. A lot of things become a shade urgent when you're dead.
'I believe in reincarnation,' he said.
I KNOW.
'I tried to live a good life. Does that help?'
THAT IS NOT UP TO ME. Death coughed. OF COURSE . . . SINCE YOU BELIEVE IN REINCARNATION . . . YOU'LL BE BJORN AGAIN.
He waited.
'Yes. That's right,' said Bjorn. Dwarfs are known for their sense of humour, in a way. People point them out and say: 'Those little devils haven't got a sense of humour.'
UM. WAS THERE ANYTHING AMUSING IN THE STATEMENT I JUST MADE?
'Uh. No. No . . . I don't think so.'
IT WAS A PUN, OR PLAY ON WORDS. BJORN AGAIN.
'Yes?'