Part 8 (2/2)
”Yes, they have aircraft, have been using them, too. But I think that there's only one of the big ones. And they're fighting a war all right. We didn't see the whole colony, but I'll wager that there are only a handful of them left. They're holed up here, and they need help or the barbarians will finish them off. They talked a lot about that.”
Lablet pulled the ear plugs from his ears. In the lamplight there was an excited expression on his face. ”You were entirely right, Captain!
They were offering us a bargain there at the last! They are offering us the acc.u.mulated scientific knowledge of this world!”
”What?” Hobart sounded bewildered.
”Over there”--Lablet made a sweep with his arm which might indicate any point to the east--”there is a storehouse of the original learning of their race. It's in the heart of the enemy country. But the enemy as yet do not know of it. They've made two trips over to bring back material and their s.h.i.+p can only go once more. They offer us an equal share if we'll make the next trip in their company and help them clean out the storage place--”
Hobart's answer was a whistle. There was an avid hunger on Lablet's lean face. No more potent bribe could have been devised to entice him.
But Raf, remembering the spear-torn body, wondered.
_In the heart of the enemy country_, he repeated to himself.
Lablet added another piece of information. ”After all, the enemy they face is only dangerous because of superior numbers. They are only animals--”
”Animals don't carry spears!” Raf protested.
”Experimental animals that escaped during a world-wide war generations ago,” reported the other. ”It seems that the species have evolved to a semi-intelligent level. I must see them!”
Hobart was not to be hurried. ”We'll think it over,” he decided. ”This needs a little time for consideration.”
7
MANY EYES, MANY EARS
This was not the first time Dalgard had faced the raging fury of a snake-devil thirsting for a kill. The slaying he had done in the arena was an exception to the rule, not the usual hunter's luck. And now that he saw the creature crouched at the far end of the hall he was ready. Sssuri, also, followed their familiar pattern, separating from his companion and slipping along the wall toward the monster, ready to attract its attention at the proper moment.
Only one doubt remained in Dalgard's mind. This devil had not acted in the normal brainless fas.h.i.+on of its kin. What if it was able to a.s.sess the very simple maneuvers, which always before had completely baffled its species, and attacked not the moving merman but the waiting archer?
It was backed against another door, a closed one, as if it had fled for refuge to some aid it had expected and did not find. But as Sssuri moved, its long neck straightened until it was almost at right angles with its narrow shoulders, and from its snake's jaws proceeded a horrific hissing which arose to a scream as its leg muscles tensed for a spring.
At just the right moment Sssuri's arm went back, his spear sang through the air. And the snake-devil, with an incredible twist of its neck, caught the haft of the weapon between its teeth, crunching the iron-hard substance into powder. But with that move it exposed its throat, and the arrow from Dalgard's bow was buried head-deep in the soft inner flesh.
The snake-devil spat out the spear and tried to raise its head. But the muscles were already weakening. It fought the poison long enough to take a single step forward, its small red eyes alight with brainless hate. Then it crashed and lay twisting. Dalgard lowered his bow. There was no need for a second shot.
Sssuri regarded the remains of his spear unhappily. Not only was it the product of long hours of work, but no merman ever felt fully equipped to face the world without such a weapon to hand. He salvaged the barbed head and broke it free of the shred of haft the snake-devil had left. Knotting it at his belt he turned to Dalgard.
”Shall we see what lies beyond?”
Dalgard crossed the hall to test the door. It did not yield to an inward push, but rolled far enough into the wall to allow them through.
On the other side was a room which amazed the scout. The colonists had their laboratory, their workshops, in which they experimented and tried to preserve the remnants of knowledge their forefathers had brought across s.p.a.ce, as well as to discover new. But the extent of this storehouse with its bewildering ma.s.s of odd machines, tanks, bales, and stocked shelves and tables, was too much to be taken in without a careful and minute examination.
”We are not the first to walk here.” Sssuri had given little attention to what was stacked about him. Instead he bent over the disturbed dust in one aisle. Dalgard noted as he went to join the merman that there were gaps on those tables which ran the full length of the room, lines left in the grimy deposit of years which told of things recently moved. And then he saw what had interested Sssuri: tracks, some resembling those which his own bare feet might leave, except that there were only three toes!
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