Gordon Dickson The Right to Arm Bears

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to be moved, and I'm trying, just as much as you are, to move them. That's why
I've been working with the Dilbian women in the village as well as here in the
valley the way I have. I suppose you don't understand that, even yet?"
"Ah no," confessed Bill uncomfortably.
"Then let me tell you," said Anita. "It's because the one person that
atiamuna can listen to in the way of advice, without losing face, is his wife!
That's because he can talk things over with her privately, and then announce
the results in public as if they were his own idea, and she's not going to
contradict him. And, of course, because of his physical and social superiority
over the other male Dilbians, none of them are going to suggest it isn't his
own idea, either."
"Oh," said Bill.
"So you see," Anita wound up, "I know what I'm doing. You don't and that's
why you ought to listen to me when I tell you what to do. And one of the
things you shouldn't have done was come into this valley at night, to find me
and talk to me. Maybe thereis something strange about the way you've been left
alone to face things. But Lafe didn't have anything to do with it you can
believe me!"
Bill said nothing. Anita, evidently willing to carry the point by default,
paused a minute and then went on to other subjects.
"So what you do," she said, "is get back to the village as quickly as you can
andstay there ! Bone Breaker won't come into the village after you that'd be
going too far, even for the Muddy Nosers. And even if Bone Breaker brought all
his fighting men with him, there'd still be more villagers than they could
handle. So as long as you stay in the village, you're safe. Now do it, and
cultivate Flat Fingers as I told you. Now I've got to be getting back to No
Rest and the others, before they think the Cobblies have eaten me up! You
aren't going to waste any time getting out of the valley now, are you?" A
thought seemed to strike her suddenly. "By the way, how did you get in here?"
"Rope," answered Bill absently, still caught up in his new understanding,
"down one of the cliffs."
"Well, you get back to that rope and get up it as fast as you can!" said
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Anita. "Can I trust you to do that?"
" What?" said Bill, coming abruptly back out of the thoughts that had been
occupying him. "Oh, of course. Certainly."
"Well, that's good," said Anita. Her voice softened, unexpectedly. She put
her hand on his arm, and he was abruptly conscious of the light touch of it
there. "Pleasebe careful, now."
She took her hand away with that, turned about, and disappeared into the
shadow. For a moment he stood staring into the darkness where she had been,
strangely still feeling the touch of her hand even through the thickness of
the shirt on his arm. It seemed to him that a little warmth seemed to linger
where she had touched him.
Then he shook himself back to awareness. Of course, he was going to head back
out of the valley as quickly as he could but there was still something yet for
him to do.
He turned and searched for the large building-shape of the mess hall. He
found it and went toward it, keeping in the shadows. Five minutes later he
glided up close to the front steps and paused. Here and there a gleam of light
still showed between the hide curtains that covered the windows on the inside.
But there were no guards standing on either side of the steps leading to the
big doors which were now closed. And the outlaw signal gong hung unguarded.
Bill came up to it and touched it. It was nothing more than a strip of bar
iron, hung by a rope from one of the projecting rafter ends that supported the
eaves above him. But he suddenly realized that he had made a serious mistake
in boasting to the villagers that he would bring this back. For it was at
least five feet long and two inches thick. It would be both too awkward and
too heavy for him to carry while climbing back up the cliff by means of the
rope.
He paused, baffled. If he was right about the Dilbians having their own axes
to grind in the present situation, the fact that Bill should be able to
produce evidence of having been in the valley this night loomed more
importantly than ever. But if he could not carry the gong away with him, as he
had promised, what could he do?
An inspiration struck him. He turned to the mess hall wall of peeled and
weathered logs just behind the gong. His fingers, searching over its surface,
found what he wanted, and unhooked it from the peg that held it by a thong
through a hole in one of its ends. He brought it away from the wall, out a
little toward the moonlight, so he could examine it. It, like the gong, was
simply a length of bar iron. But it was no more than a foot and a half long,
with a hole in one end where the thong attached, and below the thong that end
was wrapped with cloths to provide a grip for an outsized Dilbian hand. It
was, in short, the hammer with which the gong was habitually struck, and
something Bill could easily tuck in his belt and take with him back up the
cliff to the village.
Tucking his prize through his belt, where the rag-wound end kept it from
slipping through, Bill turned and headed back toward the now-visible notch in
the moonlit cliff from which his cord, invisible at this distance, was
dangling.
The moon was round and full over the valley by this time, but an intermittent
cloudiness hid its face from time to time, so that light became dark. This
seemed like a good omen offering a chance for him to cross the relatively open
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area between the last of the buildings and the fringe of brush and trees at
the base of the cliff, without any chance observer from the outlaw buildings
happening to glance out and see him moving. Accordingly, when he reached the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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