[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Swift!"
It was almost funny to watch Swift's fury. His hands tightened on the spear
shafts, and he rose to full height on his walking legs, shaking all over with
rage. For several seconds it seemed an even bet whether he would hurl the
spears or charge the door across the scattered coals. Nick was perfectly ready
Page 28
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
for either, but was hoping for the latter; the mental picture of Swift with
burned feet was! a very attractive one.
But the chief did neither. In the midst of his fury he suddenly relaxed, and
the spear points dropped as though he had forgotten them for a moment. Then he
shifted the j weapons backward until he was holding
them near their j centers of gravity, in "carry" position, and turned away
from the hut. Then, seemingly as an afterthought, he turned back and spoke to
Nick.
"Thanks, Chopper. I didn't expect that much help. I'd better say good-bye,
now; and so had you to your i Teacher."
"But you can't travel at night."
"Why not? You did."
"But how about Fagin? How do you know he can?"
"You told me he could do anything you could. You also said he'd agree to do
what we said. If he forgets that, or changes his mind, we can thank you for
showing us what to do. Do you suppose he'll like the touch of fire any better
than we do?" Swift chuckled and strode swiftly back to the main group, bawling
orders as he went. Nick began shouting at least as loudly.
"Fagin! Did you hear that? Fagin! Teacher!" In his anxiety he forgot the tune
it always took the Teacher to answer, and drowned the robot out for a moment.
Then its answer became audible.
"What's the matter, Nick?" It was not possible to tell from the voice that
Raeker was not at the other end;
Cerebration; Transportation; Emigration
51
Nick's people had been given a general idea of the "Teacher" situation, but
not all the details, and they thought inevitably of the robot as an
individual. This was virtually the first time it had made any difference; the
man on watch knew the general picture, of course, having been briefed by
Raeker when the latter had gone off duty, but he had not actually been present
during Swift's initial attack or the subsequent truce. Consequently, Nick's
words did not mean all they might have to him.
"Swift is going to start back for the caves right away; he says he'll use fire
on you if you don't go with him. Can you stand that?"
There was a little more than the usual hesitation. No one had ever measured
the temperature of a Tenebran fire, and the man on watch was not enough of a
physicist to hazard a guess from its radiation output. The main consideration
in his mind was the cost of the robot.
"No," he answered. "I'll go along with him."
"What shall we do?"
Raeker's order for the villagers to stay put was one thing he had not
mentioned to his relief; he had expected to be back on duty long before the
start of the journey. The relief did the best he could under the
Page 29
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
circumstances.
"Use your own judgment. They won't hurt me; I'll get in touch with you again
later."
"All right." Nick carefully refrained from reminding the Teacher of his
earlier command; he liked the new one much better. He watched in silence as
the invaders, under Swift's orders, collected what torches they could from the
nearly spent fires. Then they clustered around the Teacher, leaving an opening
in the crowd on the side they wished him to go. It was all done without words,
but the meaning was plain enough. The robot swung around on its treads and
headed south, the cave dwellers swarming after it.
Nick spent only a few moments wondering whether they'd find more torch wood
before using up what they
52
CLOSE TO CRITICAL
had. He had turned his mind to other matters even before the cavalcade was out
of sight.
He had been given a free hand. Very well, he still felt that leaving the
village was best; they would do so as soon as possible. Of course, it wouldn't
be possible for a few days, until everyone was able to travel again, but the
tune could be spent in planning. There was certainly the question of where to
go, and the corollary one of how to get there Nick began to realize with a
shock just what leaving the village, with its lifetime accumulation of
property and equipment, would mean and how to get back in touch with
Fagin when the move was accomplished. It was easy to tell oneself that the
Teacher could always find them wherever they went; but Nick was mature enough
to doubt the omniscience of anyone, including the robot. That meant, then,
three problems to solve. Since Nick had no desire to resemble Swift in any
way, he postponed solving them until the others would be awake and able to
help in the discussion.
The fire lasted until morning, but only just, and only by virtue of Nick's
running around the hut rapidly on a number of occasions to stir oxygen into an
oncoming mass of dead steam. He got very little sleep after the last of the
outer fires went, and that was pretty early hi the night.
Morning brought no relief. The first task normally accomplished was to put a
guard on the village herd,
which was penned in a hollow near the village. The depression remained full of
water a little later than the surrounding country, so the "cattle" were
normally safe from predators until the guards could arrive; but at the moment
there simply weren't enough people in condition to guard both herd and
village. They suffered several losses that morning as a result, until Nick
could round up the reviving creatures by himself and herd them into the
village. Then there was the problem of firewood for the next night; he had
told the absolute truth to Swift in that respect. Someone had to get it. There
was no choice but for the still battered
Cerebration; Transportation; Emigration
53
Jim and Nancy to do the job together, dragging as best they could the cart on
Page 30
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
which they piled their fuel. They had never succeeded in training their cattle
to pull the conveyance; the creatures stubbornly refused to budge under any
sort of load.
By the second day, most of the others were on their feet if not at full
efficiency, and matters were considerably easier. A consultation was held that
morning, in which Nick proposed and defended vigorously the notion that they
move to the viciously rough country he had crossed during his flight from the
cave village. His chief point was the presence of so many spots which could
only be approached from a single, narrow point, like a canyon or ridge, and
could therefore be defended effectively by a small force. It was Nancy who
answered the suggestion.
"I'm not sure that's a very good plan," she said. "In the first place, we
don't know that any of the places you describe will still be that way when we
get there." A quake lent emphasis and support to her words.
"What if they aren't?" retorted Nick. "There will always be others. I wasn't
suggesting any of the specific spots
I described, only the general area."
"But how is Fagin to find us? Supposing one of us does get to the cave village
and get a message to him, how are we to describe the way to him? We'd have to
guide him directly, which would probably interfere with his own plans you
judged, and I think rightly, that he is planning to take advantage of his
ability to travel at night without fire."
Nick felt a very human surge of annoyance at this opposition, but remembered
Swift in time to keep from yielding to it. He didn't want to be compared with
that savage in anyone's mind, he told himself; besides, there was something to
what Nancy was saying, now that he really gave his mind to it.
"What sort of place would you suggest?" he asked.
54
CLOSE TO CRITICAL
"You're right about getting back in touch with Fagin, but I certainly can't
think of any place which we will ever defend as easily as those canyons in the
west."
"It seems to me that Fagin was right when he said I* was foolish to fight
Swift's people at all," returned
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]