(urth) So Where DID the Guard Go?

[Gerry Quinn]

From: William Graham

> Roche indicates, "The guard has gone".
>
> The popular discussion on this page has historically been "Who asks, 'But 
> why
> would the guard leave?' ?"  in the next paragraph.  While that discussion 
> is very
>  useful for introducing us to Wolfe's love of removing the net from 
> underneath
>  his readers' high wire, I cannot seem to find any place where those who 
> have
>  gone before have asked the more basic question:

I always just assumed that either he heard something (Vodalus) and went to 
investigate, or else Hildegrande (most likely) quietly disposed of him and 
moved the corpse (or at least, the inert body).

He was expected to be at the gate, and wasn't there.  But intruders were 
inside.  That's as much of a Checkov's Gunshot as I need, even from Wolfe.

- Gerry Quinn