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game.
The temporary coach in charge of javelins had been told to just let
Kren do whatever he wanted to do, and Kren spent all of his time on
the tennis singles courts, with a series of hapless opponents.
Kren's thought was that the reason why he always lost at the sport was
that he couldn't know where his opponent was. There was a tall brick
wall cutting the court in half, and any sort of signaling between the
players and anyone else was strictly forbidden.
The wall was too tall for him to jump up and see over it, but a standard
javelin was three and a half yards long, with blunted ends. It was
lightweight, slightly flexible, and very strong. Kren thought that he might
be able to use it to pole-vault himself high enough to see over the wall,
and then, while he was flying up there, to whip the same javelin around
fast and throw it downward at someplace where his opponent wasn't.
What made this maneuver even more difficult was the fact that the rules
required him to return the throw in under two seconds.
By Tuesday evening, he had established that the thing was possible, but
only if everything was perfect. He had to be near the wall, moving in the
right direction, and on his left foot when he caught the javelin very close
to the end, but it was possible.
The Mitchegai have a six-day week. They don't do Wednesday.
By Thursday night, he knew the strategy he had to use. This was to
continue lobbing high, easy throws into the middle of the opposing
court until just the right one came back to him. Then he would
pole-vault, and nail the javelin into the ground.
On Friday, he sequentially beat every single member of the Dren
University javelin team three times each. They all swore themselves to
secrecy and went out to place their bets. So did Kren, Bronki and Dol.
Also, by this point, Kren and Dol had the plans for the outer fence
completed, and had put it out for bids, telling the contractors that the
strange shape had been decided on strictly for aesthetic reasons.
They were about to sign a deal with the low bidder when Bronki then
got into the act, and within an hour managed to get the price reduced
by one fourth, and got a sizeable kickback for herself from the
contractor.
Kren suggested that Bronki use that kickback, when she got it, to buy
more stock in the corporation. She said that she had been planning to.
Dol and Kren nodded to each other and signed the new contract.
On Saturday morning, Kren dutifully went to the opening ceremonies,
and then participated in the fencing tournament. He won without great
difficulty. Actually, losing was more work than winning, since he had to
make losing look realistic. The crowds cheered, but no one came up
and hugged him. The payoff was too small. But Duke Dennon would
be happy, or at least not furious with him.
He did nothing unusual at the team tennis game, and for a change they
won.
All of his cash, a gross, a dozen and four million, had been bet on the
singles javelin tournament, which naturally made him nervous. There
were many things that could go wrong.
It took three points to win a game, and he had to win five times in a
row. One of his opponents could figure out his strategy, and counter it
simply by always playing to the back court. Or, the judges could rule
pole-vaulting to be illegal. Or, he could simply screw up, and lose
before he had a chance to pole-vault. A single loss would wipe out
everything that he had won since he got to the university.
He was beginning to think that betting everything on a single contest
wasn't the best way to go. He swore that from this point forward, he
would never bet more than half of his fortune. But for now, his money
was already down, and he couldn't change that.
Kren won the first game surprisingly easily, before he got a chance to
try his pole-vaulting stunt. He just kept throwing the javelins into the
center of his opponent's court, and three of them didn't come back.
The second went well for the first two points, but then he lost two, and
was beginning to worry before his opponent lobbed one high and near
the barrier. Kren went into pole-vaulting mode and nailed it into the
center of his opponent's field, to win the match. The crowd went wild,
and the judges allowed the point, to Kren's considerable relief.
The third game went as easy as the first one, but on the fourth, he was
up against some real competition. He stayed with the program, lobbing
them back high and easy, and after over two dozen returns, the right
one came in. Kren pole-vaulted for the point.
Someone told him later that it was one of the longest games on record,
but all he could do was stick with his strategy, and eventually he
pole-vaulted twice more and won the game.
The long game was starting to tell on him. Kren was beginning to tire as
the last game started, and when he finally got a chance to pole-vault,
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