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Show •177 "Wait," I said. I rolled away and stood up, my back against the wall. But Carlo had already stopped paying attention to me. He raised the hammer over his head and brought it down; stone-chips flew; the centaur's head cracked. He hammered again; the man-animal's nose disappeared. "Go on," I said. "If it makes you feel better. Go on and beat it to pieces." From the corner of my eye I had seen Morgan, Jacob and Alice in the doorway; I waved them back. Carlo went dancing around the sculpture; at each step he gave it a whack with the hammer; the air in the room filled with stone-dust; bits and pieces hacked off by his furious blows rained on the floor. I waited until he had beaten the centaur down into a block of stone again. Finally he paused, holding the hammer in front of him, breathing hard. The dust made him cough. "All of us Skinners can be violent sometimes." I did my best to keep my voice calm and reasonable. "That's the kind of people we are." While we talked I crept closer to him, sliding my feet forward a little at a time. On the last syllable I leaped and tackled him around the waist; he yelled "Don't" in a funny high voice and we fell to the floor together. A set of Adam's shelves tipped over and showered us with loose tools. Carlo rolled away but I snatched an ankle as he scooted across the floor. He still had the hammer in his hand and he swung it back in a long slow |