Part 2 (2/2)
I was hard to live with for three days and then designed a new one On the fast end of the gear train, I put a large dru around it A small wheel attached to the pendulu the way they have to, thisfroo tic-toc-tic It went furandfather clock, so I didn't hear any Polak jokes
I also ca with the base-twelve standard, we had a twelve-hour day, rather than the usual twenty-four hour day The clock was reset occasionally so that zero happened at dawn This was at the nine o'clock position of a modem clock At the equinoxes, three was at noon, with the fat hand pointing up, and six was at sunset Midnight was nine, with the fat hand pointing down
There were four hands on the face, eachtwelve times faster than the one before After the fat hand, which showed hours, there was a longer arrow for dozht hand for twelminutes Or, you could say that the fat hand went around once a day and the skinny hand went around once a minute Just re, and our ot it built, using parts I had made at the brass works, I assembled them in the coffin the carpenters hadsmall, and that coffin was a nice piece of furniture, even though I got sick of looking at it in my bedroom I had a built in closet and a chest of drawers, anyway
It took about a week of TLC (”Tender, Loving Care” in the colorful slang of A reasonably well, and it never was accurate to h It had to be oiled daily (goose grease seeht raised just as often, but what the heck
I set the clock up by the south wall of the dining room, so the fat hand, which had a little sun on it, moved about with the position of the sun People see up the concept of standard time I simply said that ould start hen the fat hand was here, eat dinner when it was there, and stop hen it was over there Krystyanato the clock, and that was that There are advantages to being aangles naturally followed froh the axle of the hands, you called out an angle as though it was a tile was a right angle, and all angles were measured clockwise rather than counterclockwise, as is the ned a calendar, with four thirteen-week quarters and no months at all New Year's Day happened on the winter solstice, and wasn't a day of the week That is to say, it went Saturday, New Year's Day, Sunday On leap years, there were t Year's Days This meant that the calendar for every year was the same, and should reduce confusion considerably But I tabled it because I decided that I couldn't get aith it
I could get aith designing a systehts and measures because there were so many of then a new clock because nobody had ever seen a clock before, not in Poland, anyway But the Church had spent centuries fu with the calendar and it would take soht than I had to push a new systeols
Toward the end of January, I made my monthly visit to Okoitz It was part of ot there early in the , since my mount, Anna, can travel farther in half an hour than a peasant family can walk in two days
There was a coot there, and Count Lambert waved me over to one of the peasant's rooms on the outer wall ”Some trouble here, Sir Conrad Perhaps you should look at it”
An entire fa in the bailey on the usual straw mattresses They were all dead, with not a mark on them A man, his wife, and four children lay peacefully as if asleep, their bodies cold and stiff A fire had burned itself out, but these huts had straw roofs and the walls weren't all that well-sealed I didn't see hoould be possible to asphyxiate in there It hadn't been particularly cold, so I doubt they had all frozen to death
Food poisoning? I'd seen a wo peaceful about it There had been vomit all over the place!
Some disease? That had to be it, but I'd never heard of a disease where the person didn't even knoas dying I caine is some disease Once these people are taken care of, have sulfur burned in there bum all their food stores, on the off chance that they soest that you have all their belongings burned”
”And fire up your sauna After they're buried, and get that done today, everyone who has touched the bodies should clean thehly But all that is simply a precaution I really don't knohat killed them” Since I had touched the corpses, I stooped and washed my hands with snow
”It shall be as you say, Sir Conrad” Count Laements ”There has been a lot of talk about witchcraft lately Do you think?”
”No, my lord, I don't Any so-called 'witches' around are just a bunch of crazy old ladies If they would eat properly, most of them wouldn't be senile”
”But everyone knows about witches!”
”Tell me, my lord, why is it that every witch you hear about is a poor ical powers, wouldn't theywomen?”
”You have a point there I'll keep an eye out for beautiful young grandmothers who are rich”
”Do that, nize theirls that I took withthe store there and was a close friend
”My God It'll be rough telling her Her whole family”
”Not quite Her little sister-Kotcha, I think she's called-had supper and spent the night with one of the other families The poor child is in a very bad state”
I reood friend of Anna's, and together they had hauled logs in the snow ”Perhaps she should come back with me to Three Walls, ht We will ask the child about it after the funeral”
I never did find out what killed those people
Interlude One I hit the STOP button
”So what killed them, Tom?”
”I don't know I can check it out if you wish”
He turned on a keyboard and began typing
”With all our technology, why hasn't sorams? It can't be all that difficult Then you wouldn't have to use that silly keyboard,” I said
”Such programs have been developed I've just forbidden their use Machine intelligence is dehu to the people that use it I like people and I want to live in a hu a bit?”
”I don't think so The ballet they put on last night Did you enjoy it?”
”Sure It was great What does that have to do with co That whole show could have been simulated by a coree of accuracy such that you couldn't tell if it was real or not Would it have been the same?”
”HmmNo, somehow I don't think so, but I'm not sure why”
”Well I am What makes ballet or any other art form hile is the fact that it is done by people When you watched the dancers, you were putting yourself in their place, i or transood, because you would have been farther re it A mere computer display of the same shoould have been absolutely worthless”
”But if you didn't know-”
”Maybe you could have been fooled But you would have been angry when you found out Back to that dead faot them Toxin 8771 from mold 15395, extinct in 1462 The really deadly ones don't last very long Killing your host, or the people who cultivate your host, is bad ecology and not good for your own survival”
He hit the START button
Chapter Three
My monthly two-day visits to Okoitz were used to supervise the construction there, but just then there wasn'tWithout glass or a decent light, the only way you could work indoors was next to an open , a little rough in this weather At that, you could only get in six hours a day in good weather