Lord Darcy

by Randall Garrett

Deep inside, the majority of people had the sneaking suspicion that evil was more powerful than good and that evil could be counteracted only by more evil.

And the Empire would continue to endure only so long as every subject realized that it could not endure if the entire burden were left to the King alone. The Empire expects every man to do his duty.

‘It is not my place to suggest; it is my duty to discover facts. When all the facts have been brought to light, there will be no need to make suggestions or innuendoes. The truth, whatever it may be, always points in the right direction.’

give them a nice, juicy, puzzle of murder, and lo! they can speak of nothing else.

You have that touch of the Talent that all the really great detectives of history have had – the ability to leap from an unwarranted assumption to a foregone conclusion without covering the distance between the two.

An un-Talented, psychically blind man would be as useless to the Church as a color-blind man would be to the Artists’ Guild.’

All substances are composed of conglomerates of atoms, d’ye see. They react because each conglomerate is seeking a condition which will impose the least strain upon itself.’ ‘A most natural desire,’ Sergeant Cougair commented.

For nine days, the village would be full of strangers going about their hectic business, disrupting the peace of the local inhabitants, bringing with them a strange sort of excitement. Then they would go, leaving behind acres of ugly rubbish and bushels of beautiful cash. In the meanwhile, a glorious time would be had by all.

‘Indeed; and one of His greatest attributes is that if you ask Him the right question in the right way, He will always give you an answer.’

‘That, yes. But I have found that the best way to ask God about questions like these is to go out and dig up the data yourself.’

He was torn between his natural curiosity to see who these late night riders were and the feeling of lassitude and comfort that made it seem like a terrible effort to get up and go to the window.

‘You know, I have always contended that the true connoisseur is to be pitied, for he has trained his taste to such perfection that he enjoys almost nothing.