It is written, repeated Prak, in thirty-foot-high letters of fire on top of the Quentulus Quazgar Mountains in the land of Sevorbeupstry on the planet Preliumtarn, third out from the… Sorry, said Arthur again, which mountains? The Quentulus Quazgar Mountains in the land of Sevorbeupstry on the planet… Which land was that? I didn’t quite catch it. Sevorbeupstry, on the planet… Sevorbe-what? Oh, for heaven’s sake, said Prak and died testily. In the following days Arthur thought a little about this message, but in the end he decided that he was not going to allow himself to be drawn by it, and insisted on following his original plan of finding a nice little world somewhere to settle down and lead a quiet retired life. Having saved the Universe twice in one day he thought that he could take things a little easier from now on. They dropped him off on the planet Krikkit, which was now once again an idyllic pastoral world, even if the songs did occasionally get on his nerves. He spent a lot of time flying. He learnt to communicate with birds and discovered that their conversation was fantastically boring. It was all to do with wind speed, wing spans, power-to-weight ratios and a fair bit about berries. Unfortunately, he discovered, once you have learnt birdspeak you quickly come to realize that the air is full of it the whole time, just inane bird chatter. There is no getting away from it. For that reason Arthur eventually gave up the sport and learnt to live on the ground and love it, despite a lot of the inane chatter he heard down there as well. One day, he was walking through the fields humming a ravishing tune he’d heard recently when a silver spaceship descended from the sky and landed in front of him. A hatchway opened, a ramp extended, and a tall grey-green alien marched out and approached him. Arthur Phili… it said, then glanced sharply at him and down at his clipboard. He frowned. He looked up at him again. I’ve done you before haven’t I? he said. “它是，”普啦刻重複道，“用三十英尺高的火焰字，寫在普列留塔恩星的瑟文畢奧普斯特里大陸上的昆塔勒斯·誇茲加山脈的頂峯，這顆星是……” “抱歉，”阿瑟又道，“什麼山脈？” “昆塔勒斯·誇茲加山脈，它在瑟文畢奧普斯特里大陸，在那顆……” “什麼大陸？還沒聽清……” “瑟文畢奧普斯特里大陸，那顆行星叫……” “瑟文什麼？” “噢，我的天啊。”普啦刻說了這麼一句，便不耐煩地死掉了。 接下來的日子裏，阿瑟就這個問題思考了一段時間，但最後還是決定不再糾纏其中，而是按照原計劃，找個好地方住下來，過着寧靜的退休生活。一天之內拯救了兩次宇宙，他覺得自己應該活得輕鬆點才行。 大家把他擱在版求星上。現在，那兒已恢復了靜謐的田園風貌，雖說有時候那些歌挺煩人的。 他經常練習飛行。 他學會了與鳥兒們交流，然後發現這簡直無聊得要死。它們不外乎說些風速、翼幅、體重-力量的比率，以及關於漿果的問題罷了。不幸的是，阿瑟發現，一旦你學會鳥語，你會覺得周圍全是鳥語。全是那些無聊的談話，躲都沒處躲。 於是，阿瑟終於放棄了飛行運動，試着在地上生活。他還是挺喜歡這樣的。當然，地上偶爾也會聽見那些無聊的話。 一天，他走在鄉間小路上，哼着一首最近聽到的、相當動人的歌兒，一艘銀色的飛船就從天而降，落在他的面前。 艙門打開，舷梯伸了下來，一個高高的灰綠色生物步出，來到了他面前。 “阿瑟·菲利……”它說着，突然懷疑地瞟了他幾眼，又看了看手上的文件夾，皺起了眉頭。它又看了看他。 “我罵過你了對吧？”它問道。
