diff --git a/dat/tribute b/dat/tribute index d6b375d08..767032cc5 100644 --- a/dat/tribute +++ b/dat/tribute @@ -3326,7 +3326,7 @@ betray 'em, quick as a wink. 'Cos that's villaining.' %title The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (1) %passage 1 The important thing about adventures, thought Mr Bunnsy, was that they -shouldn't be so long as to make you miss mealtimes. +shouldn't be so long as to make you miss mealtimes. [The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett] %e passage @@ -3334,12 +3334,132 @@ shouldn't be so long as to make you miss mealtimes. # # # -%title Night Watch (1) +%title Night Watch (7) %passage 1 When Mister Safety Catch Is Not On, Mister Crossbow Is Not Your Friend. [Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett] %e passage +# pp. 2-4 (Harper Torch edition; omitted section describes how the student +# assassin, who has fallen off a booby-trapped shed roof into a +# cesspit, is on an assignment to try to get into position to +# target Vimes but not actually attack or try to kill him) +%passage 2 +"You're a bit young to be sent on this contract, aren't you?" said Vimes. + +"Not a contract, sir," said Jocasta, still paddling. + +"Come now, Miss Wiggs. The price on my head is at least--" + +"The Guild council put it in abeyance, sir," said the patient swimmer. +"You're off the register. They're not accepting contracts on you at +present." + +[...] + +"And quite a few of the traps drop you into something deadly," said Vimes. + +"Lucky for me that I fell into this one, eh, sir?" + +"Oh, that one's deadly too," said Vimes. "/Eventually/ deadly." He +sighed. He really wanted to discourage this sort of thing but... they'd +put him off the register? It wasn't that he'd /liked/ being shot at by +hooded figures in the temporary employ of his many and varied enemies, +but he'd always looked at it as some kind of vote of confidence. It +showed that he was annoying the rich and arrogant people who ought to be +annoyed. + +Besides, the Assassin's Guild was easy to outwit. They had strict rules, +which they followed quite honorably, and this was fine by Vimes, who, in +certain practical matters, had no rules whatever. + +Off the register, eh? The only other person not on it anymore, it was +rumored, was Lord Vetinari, the Patrician. The Assassins understood the +political game in the city better than anyone, and if they took you off +the register it was because they felt that your departure would not only +spoil the game but also smash the board. + + [Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 12 (some trainee Watchmen have been taught a marching/running song by +# Sergeant Detritus, a troll; trolls count "one, two, many, lots" +# and evidently can't go any higher) +%passage 3 + "/Now we sing dis stupid song!/ + /Sing it as we run along!/ + /Why we sing dis we don't know!/ + /We can't make der words rhyme prop'ly!/" + "Sound off!" + "/One! Two!/" + "Sound off!" + "/Many! Lots!/" + "Sound off!" + "/Er... what?/" + + [Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 137 +%passage 4 +Everyone was guilty of something. Vimes knew that. Every copper knew it. +That was how you maintained your authority--everyone, talking to a copper, +was secretly afraid you could see their guilty secret written on their +forehead. You couldn't, of course. But neither were you supposed to drag +someone off the street and smash their fingers with a hammer until they +told you what it was. + + [Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 138 (passage starts mid-paragraph) +%passage 5 +[...] Doctor Lawn was wearing a face mask and holding a pair of very long +tweezers in his hand. + +"Yes?" + +"I'm going out," said Vimes. "Trouble?" + +"Not too bad. Slidey Harris was unlucky at cards last night, that's all. +Played the ace of hearts." + +"That's an unlucky card?" + +"It is if Big Tony knows he didn't deal it to you. But I'll soon have it +removed. [...]" + + [Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 141 ('it' is a piece of paper concealed inside one of CMOT Dibbler's +# "meat" pies, partly eaten by Vimes but intended for someone else) +%passage 6 +He unfolded it. In smudged pencil, but still readable, it read: +/Morphic Street, 9 o'clock tonight. Password: Swordfish/. + +Swordfish? Every password was "swordfish"! Whenever anyone tried to +think of a word that no one would ever guess, they /always/ chose +"swordfish." It was just one of those strange quirks of the human mind. + + [Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 345 (text actually has "worth more *that* AM$10,000"--obviously a typo) +%passage 7 +There were rules. When you had a Guild of Assassins, there had to be rules +that everyone knew and that were never, ever broken.(1) + +An Assassin, a real Assassin, had to look like one--black clothes, hood, +boots, and all. If they could wear any clothes, any disguise, then what +could anyone do but spend all day sitting in a small room with a loaded +crossbow pointed at the door? + +And they couldn't kill a man incapable of defending himself (although a +man worth more than AM$10,000 a year was considered automatically capable +of defending himself or at least of employing people who were). + +And they had to give the target a chance. + +(1) Sometimes, admittedly, for a given value of "never." + + [Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage %e title # #