Part 20 (2/2)
”Harl! Harl! If you go off now, dinner will get cold!”
”Let it!” snapped Harl. ”We got to catch that whiskery fella!”
He roared for his followers to march, and march they did in a straggling column behind him. Somebody confusedly searched for and found Link, riding next to Harl, to give him the stun gun which was the only weapon that had been aboard theGlamorgan.He felt it over in the darkness.
”It seems to be in working order,” he told Harl. ”Thanks.”
”What-” Then Harl saw the stun gun. The starlight was moderately bright, but it was not possible to see the details of anything, whether of the armed party or the landscape. ”Oh. You got that thing. I was layin'
off to figure out what it was, but I didn't have time. What's it do, Link?”
”It knocks a man or an animal out,” said Link curtly. ”It shoots an electric charge. But you can set the charge not to stun him, but only sting him up more or less.”
”'Lectric? asked Harl. ”That's interestin'! How far does it throw?”
”That depends,” said Link.
”Mmmmm. Uh, Link, how did you find out that that whiskery fella is makin' a deal with Old Man Addison?”
”Uffts told me,” said Link grimly. ”Old Man Addison is going to pay three thousand bottles of beer for Thistlethwaite's delivery to him. It's a written contract. Thistlethwaite wouldn't promise anything like that if he didn't know his value to Old Man Addison!”
Harl shook his head.
”You spoiled a good hangin' by not tellin' me!” he said reproachfully. ”He got away. But how d'you know he's headin' for the s.h.i.+p?”
”I told you!” said Link. ”He wants pants. He wants a s.h.i.+rt. He wants clothes. He wants to be dressed like a business man when he does business with Old Man Addison!”
Harl considered.
”It looks reasonable,” he admitted. ”Right reasonable!”
”I was offered a deal to escape, too,” said Link sourly. ”The uffts wanted five thousand bottles of beer to take me to Old Man Addison's Household.”
”You wouldn't like him,” said Harl sagely. ”He's hardly got any more manners than an ufft. Anybody who's mannerly like you are couldn't get along with him, Link. You showed sense in stayin' with me.”
”To be hanged!” said Link bitterly. ”But-”
”Hold on!” said Harl in astonishment. ”Didn't I admire that s.h.i.+rt o' yours? An' didn't I accept it as a gift? I could make a gift to a man I was goin' to hang, Link. That'd be just manners! But I couldn't accept a gift an' then hang him! That'd be disgraceful!” He paused and said in an injured tone, ”I've heard of Old Man Addison doin' things like that, but I never thought anybody'd suspect it of me!”
Link waved his hand impatiently. It was remarkable that the discovery that plans for his hanging were changed should make so little difference in this thinking. But right now he was concerned with the prevention of a disaster vastly more important than any concern of his own.
”I doubt,” he said, ”that we'd better go through the ufft city. We'd better circle it. We'd be delayed at best, and Thistlethwaite is in a hurry to settle his bargain with Old Man Addison. He'll hurry.”
Harl cleared his throat and bellowed toward the skies. The trailing cavalcade of ungainly unicorns changed direction to follow him.
The mounted party was probably fifty men and animals strong. In the dimness of starlight alone, it was an extraordinary sight. The men rode in clumps of two or three or half a dozen, on steeds whose gait was camel-like and awkward. The unicorns wobbled as they strode. Their limp and fleshy horns swayed and swung. Link, looking back and observing the total tack of discipline, felt an enormous exasperation.
He didn't like the situation he was in, even when immediate hanging was no longer included. In all his life before he'd been carefree and zestfully concerned only with doing things because they were novel or exciting, and on occasion because they involved some tumult. In anybody his age, that was a completely normal trait. But now he had a responsibility of intolerable importance. The future ofverymany millions of human beings would depend on what he did, but he'd get no thanks for his trouble. It went against the grain of Link's entire nature to dedicate himself to a tedious and exacting task like this. If he were successful it would never be known. In fact, it was a condition of success that it must never be known anywhere off of Sord Three. And it mustn't be understood there!
At least an hour after their starting out a high, shrill clamor set up, very far away.
”That's uffts,” said Harl. ”Somethin's happened an' they feel all happy an' excited.”
”It's Thistlethwaite,” said Link. ”He got to the s.h.i.+p. He probably pa.s.sed out some gifts to the uffts.”
The cavalcade went on. The faint shrill clamor continued.
”Uh, Link,” said Harl, in a tone at once apologetic and depressed, ”I thought of somethin' that might make the uffts feel good. If like you said he gave presents to the uffts, maybe it was unduplied things.
They couldn't use 'em, havin' hoofs instead of hands. But they'd know us humans 'ud have to buy 'em.
They like to bargain. They enjoy makin' humans pay too much. It makes 'em feel smart and superior. He could ha' made a lot of trouble for us humans! A lot o' trouble!”
The long, somehow lumpy line of men and animals went on through the darkness. Harl said unhappily, ”The uffts were tryin' to make me pay 'em for news of where there was a lot of bog-iron. You figure what they'd make me pay for somethin' unduplied! If that fella's pa.s.sin' out that kinda gifts, the uffts feel swell. They feel happy. But I don't!”
Link said nothing. It would be reasonable for Thistlethwaite to feel that he had to get samples of his cargo aground to ensure his deal with Old Man Addison, and then to have a train of armed men and animals come to unload theGlamorganand carry its specially purchased cargo away. If he opened a cargo compartment to get samples, the uffts could well have demanded samples for themselves. Or they could simply take them.
”And,” Harl fumed, ”when they got something they'll ask fifty bottles of beer for, they won't bother bringin' in greenstuff, and how'll I get the beer to pay 'em? They'll bring in knives an' cloth and demand beer! And if I don't have the beer, they'll take the stuff to another Household.”
”Then you'll probably have to pay it.”
”Without greenstuff, I can't,” said Harl bitterly.
There was an addition to the faint, joyous clamor beyond the horizon. Link began to discount any chance of success in this expedition. If Harl was right, Thistlethwaite had gotten to the s.h.i.+p, had gotten more clothing, and had very probably pa.s.sed out in lieu of cash or beer, such objects of virtue as mirrors, cosmetics, cooking pots made of other metals than iron, crockery, small electric appliances like flashlights, pens, pencils, and synthetic fabrics. None of these things could be duplied on Sord Three, because the minerals required as raw materials had been forgotten if they were ever known.
And all this would put Harl in a bad situation, no doubt. Every Householder would need to deal with Old Man Addison for such trinkets, which he must supply to his retainers or seem less than a desirable feudal superior. But to Link the grim fact was that Thistlethwaite must have gotten to the s.h.i.+p before the mounted party. If he suspected pursuit he'd waste no time. He'd go on. And if he had gone on- Dead ahead, now, there were peculiar small sounds. It took Link seconds to realize that it was the hoofs of uffts on metal stair treads and metal floors, the sound coming out of an opened exit port.
”Harl,” said Link in a low tone, ”Thistlethwaite may still be in the s.h.i.+p. There are certainly plenty of uffts rummaging around in there! Can you get your men-”
But Harl did not wait for such advice as a self-appointed chief of staff might give to his commander-in-chief on the eve of battle. He raised his voice.
”There they are, boys!” he bellowed. ”Come along an' get 'em! Get the whiskery fella! If we don't get him there'll be no hangin' tonight!”
Roaring impressively, he urged his awkward mount forward. He was followed by all his undisciplined troop. It was a wild and furious and completely confused charge. Link and Harl led it, of course. They topped a natural rise in the ground and saw the tall shape of theGlamorganagainst the stars.
There was a wild stirring of what seemed to be hordes of uffts, cl.u.s.tered about the exit port and swarming in and swarming out again. A light inside the port cast an inadequate glow outside and in that dim light, rotund, pig-like shapes could be seen squirming and struggling to get into the s.h.i.+p, if they were outside, or to get out if they happened to be in. Link saw the glitter of that light upon metal. Evidently the uffts were making free with at least the contents of one cargo compartment. They were bringing out what small objects they could carry.
Harl bellowed again, and his followers dutifully yelled behind him, and the whole pack of them went sweeping over the hillcrest and down upon the aggregation of uffts. The unicorns were apparently blessed with good night vision, because none of them fell among the boulders that strewed the hillside.
The charge was discovered. Squeals and squeaks of alarm came from the uffts. It was not as much of a tumult as so many small creatures should make, however. Those with aluminum pots and pans, or kitchen appliances, or small tools or other booty, those of them with objects carried in their mouths simply bolted off into the dark, making no outcry because it would have made them drop their loot. Link saw one of them with an especially large pot dive into it and roll over, and pick it up again and run ten paces and then trip and dive into it again before it found a way to hold the pot safely and go galloping madly away.
The other uffts scattered. But there were boulders here. They shrilled defiant slogans from behind them.
<script>