Figures moved out of the trees. One of them stopped at the door of the first coach and tried the handle.
For a moment the world held its breath. The figures must have sensed it, because the man was already leaping aside when there was a click and the whole door and its surrounding frame blew outwards in a cloud of splinters. t stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled. The townspeople watched in astonishment as Gaspode walked out from between their legs and sat down. Then the laughter started.
It died away after a while, because the faint smile didn"t.
"Is there a problem?" said Carrot.
"It"ll get torn limb from limb!"
"Well? Do you care what happens to a wolf?"
Laughter broke out again. The deputy mayor had a feeling he was being got at.
"It"s your dog, mister," he said, shrugging.
The little dog barked.
"And to make it interesting we"ll wager a pound of steak," said Carrot.
The dog barked again.
"Two pounds of steak," Carrot corrected himself.
"Oh, I reckon it"s going to be interesting enough as it is," said the deputy mayor. The smile was beginning to prey on his nerves. "All right, boys, fetch the wolf!"
The creature was dragged into the ring of hurdles, slavering and snarling.
"No, don"t tie it up," said Carrot, as a man went to wrap the halter around a post.
"It"ll get away if we don"t."
"It won"t have a chance, believe me."
They looked at the smile, dragged the muzzle from the wolf and leapt to safety.
"Now, just in case you were havin" second thoughts about our agreement," said Gaspode to the wolf, "I suggest you look at the face of the bloke on the horse, right?"
The wolf glanced up. It saw the wolverine smile on the face of the rider.
Gaspode barked. The wolf yelped and rolled over.
The crowd waited. And then
"Is that it?"
"Yes, that"s how it normally goes," said Carrot. "It"s a special bark, you see. All the blood in the victim congeals in an instant, out of sheer terror."
"It hasn"t even worried the body!"
"What," said Carrot, "would be the point of that?"
He got down from the horse, pushed his way into the ring, picked up the body of the wolf and flung it across the saddle.
"It grunted! I heard it - " someone began.
"That was probably air being expressed from the corpse," said Carrot. The smile still hadn"t gone, and at that point it suggested very subtly that Carrot had heard the last gasp of hundreds of corpses.
"Yeah, that"s right," said a voice in the crowd. "Everyone knows that. And now what about the steak for the brave little doggie?"