Looping hairs around him indicated that his companions found the game
most mirthful. Auckland struggled valiantly, but the mental pace was
beginning to tell. He not only had to bear in mind what rules governed
the hand he was playing now, but which rules carried over from before.
And the shifting of wild cards with the timer, which was brought in
every few deals, virtually had him gibbering.
Syeltan passed the cards to him and he looked at his pile of chips. If
it could be called a pile, he thought. An orthodox hand was his only
hope, yet he felt obliged to introduce something new.
A thought came to him and he smiled as he shuffled the cards. "There
was a town on Earth, many years ago, where they played this variation
with unwary persons," he said, "who thought they understood the game.
Five cards were dealt, nothing was required to open, nothing wild and
everyone was permitted to draw five new cards if he wished.
"Then, when the sucker--a term for a naive person who, I am afraid, was
regarded as one to be cheated if possible--laid down his cards--somehow
he always got a very good hand in these instances--someone else
declared that he had a lallapaloozer, which beat everything. I hereby
introduce the lallapaloozer--the first one counts--which is what some
Earthmen call 2-4-6-8-10, suits irrelevant."
A glance around showed that the party found this interesting, and
Auckland noticed that only one of the Vaec kept a pat hand. He drew
three cards himself and put the last of his chips into the pot when
his turn came to bet. At the showdown, Hcent spread out a perfect
2-4-6-8-10.
Auckland laid down his own hand, a pair of sevens, a three, jack, and
eight, and said, "My lallapaloozer wins, friends."
"But excellent Roy," protested Hcent, "I have 2-4-6-8-10. Is that not
what you called a lallapaloozer?"
"No, Hcent. If you will remember, I said, indeed, that the
lallapaloozer beats everything and that _some_ Earthmen call 2-4-6-8-10
a lallapaloozer." He grinned. "But I didn't say that _I_ called
2-4-6-8-10 that; this is what I call a lallapaloozer." He indicated his
own hand. "You neglected to inquire, just as I forgot to ask exactly
when the timer would be stopped when showdown was called on Syeltan's
deal."
He looked around and saw looping hairs everywhere. "Excellent Roy catch
us all in sticky trap," said Ekem-ve. "Said clearly that naive person
unwisely neglect to obtain necessary information. Lallapaloozer win as
he call it."
It was a good pot, and he was well ahead now. Hcent had raised
considerably on every possible occasion, and no one had dropped. He
noticed that subsequent dealers neither cancelled the lallapaloozer nor
changed its value. A few hands later, Phrecle and Rycur had been wiped
out; but they watched with unabated fascination as the dizzy variations
continued.
At the end of a particularly baffling one, wherein the degrees of
wildness of the down cards in seven-card stud varied with the majority
of suits of picture cards showing, he found that he had somehow managed
to put together a royal flush. Only Syeltan fought it out with him,
and then at the showdown, produced Auckland's own version of the
lallapaloozer.
Auckland grinned and shook his head. "Sorry, Syeltan," he said, "but
I distinctly stated that the first lallapaloozer counts. Only one is
permitted a night."
The looping hairs around him looked as if they were tearing themselves
out of their owners' heads as he gathered in the chips. Apparently
nothing was too tricky or even childish for the Vaec. He remembered
their fondness for that silly game called Red Moustache, and grinned as
the deal came his way again.
He said, as he shuffled, "This is called Happy Dealer. The second rule
in this hand is that you must follow the dealer exactly, or put a white
chip into the pot. The third rule is that it will be played like seven
card stud, eights wild up. The first rule you must deduce for yourself,
but I will give you one hint: it has nothing to do with the cards you
hold."
He then set up a mad system of knocking with different numbers of
fingers and numbers of knocks, scratching his head, clearing his
throat, bending forward to peer at cards at times, shifting his hole
cards from one hand to another, and so on, which resulted in a flow of
penalty chips into the pot. When showdown came, everyone was in to the
hilt.
Auckland laid down his hand and said, "My friends, the pot is mine.
I do not have to show my hand, as I told you that the first rule had
nothing to do with the cards you held. The first rule of Happy Dealer
is that the dealer wins. You should have declined to play."
As he suspected, he had not only won the game, but made a smashing hit
with his tricks.
After the cards were put away, Ekem-ve suggested that some
entertainment be provided for the guest, and he and Syeltan proceeded
to put on a show of legerdemain that would make the finest terrestrial
stage magician weep and tear his hair with envy. Despite his most
skillful watching, through which he had managed to spot a great deal
of stage magician's tricks, Auckland found himself completely baffled
more often than not as to how they managed to make objects appear and
disappear. And the shell game they showed him was magnificent, for the
little white ball under the small raised ovals could not be compressed
and slipped out from beneath a shell. Nor was there anything to make
it adhere to the top of the shell when it was lifted. Nor was there a
double shell. Nor could he see it being abstracted at any time.
Yet, it was never under the shell he lifted. On invitation, he tried
to see if he could stump his hosts, and failed one hundred percent.
Despite the fact that he was positive, at times, which shell contained
the little white ball, there it was under a different shell which a
Vaec lifted after brief scrutiny. And Ekem-ve assured him, when he
asked directly, that none of them could see through the shells; none of
them could smell the ball or hear it rattle, and none of them used any
mechanical devices in order to detect its presence.
It couldn't be mind reading, either, he thought; he'd lost track of the
ball several times when he shuffled the shells. Auckland lay on the
comfortable mattress that Ekem-ve provided for him, and drew the light,
warm blanket given him over him. The texture was something like silk
and would either cling or lie softly upon him as he wished.
Auckland sighed and drifted off to sleep, wondering what the physical
test would be.
* * * * *
In the morning, the party assembled again after a simple breakfast
which Auckland found both palatable and satisfying. The Vaec food,
which Ekem-ve assured him had been found harmless to Earthmen, did not
have much flavor to his taste, but the texture of the little cakes and
fruit which composed it was pleasant. The meal was concluded with a
cube of the liquid he had tried the night before; as his head was quite
clear, he decided that Vaec liquor produced no hangovers.
"Other members of clan meet us at testing place," Ekem-ve said as they
started a leisurely hike along the banks of the stream. The terrain
was gradually uphill, he recalled, and the stream widened as they
proceeded. He noticed different types of fungoid growth in places, and
observed that everyone skirted patches of _dodlig_, the flowers now
spread open flat in the sunlight. They were a light blue in color, and
looked more like flat ovals covered with caterpillar fur. The wild bees
swarmed around them, but paid no attention to the Vaec and their guest.
He had hoped to catch a glimpse of some animal life, too, but there was
none visible.
The stream became a small lake as they came to the top of a bluff, some
thirty feet above the water. They stopped at a point about a hundred
feet from the opposite bluff, where a large crowd of Carolinians
awaited them. Ekem-ve greeted them and explained that the Earthman was
about to try the test of skill. The crowd parted to let Ekem-ve and his
party through, their single hairs swaying gently as if a light breeze
was blowing from several directions at once.
Then Auckland saw the "poles." They crossed the chasm, about ten feet
from each other, and each one was about six inches in diameter. Hcent
stepped up to the farther one and waited. Auckland gulped. Was the test
the old greased-pole ordeal? "Skill" was a most inadequate term for it!
"Test of skill, excellent Roy," said Ekem-ve, "is to cross finish line
before Hcent." He pointed to the other side of the stream then looked
down at Auckland's ripple-soled shoes. "Contestant may wear clothing to
choice."
Auckland removed his shirt and trousers, which Syeltan took, and
noted that the Vaec were interested in the designs on his red and
black shorts. He decided to retain his shoes, which would help give
him purchase, and noticed that Hcent retained hers; the buskin-like
foot-covering that all Vaec wore. His watch was waterproof and
shockproof, and he decided to use the stop-watch section.
He started toward the other pole, then turned as a thought struck him.
"Is it permitted to use other equipment?"
"What would you, excellent Roy?"
"A straight stick, about so long--" he spread his hands apart "--which
assists in keeping balance. Of course," he added, "I would expect Hcent
to have the same advantage."
"This one not desiring stick in hands," said Hcent, "but would not deny
same to excellent Roy."
Ekem-ve blinked, and Nsenol walked away toward a cluster of willow-like
bushes, returning in a little while with a wand the exact length
Auckland had indicated. He'd forgotten to mention the thickness
desired, but it seemed just right. He looked at the end, neatly cut,
and wondered how that had been done--he'd never seen a Vaec carrying a
tool.
Auckland sighed, and stepped up to the pole. "All ready," he said.
"Will there be a signal?"
"May mirth attend your starting," said Ekem-ve. "Begin."
Auckland pressed the start button on his watch, balanced the wand in
his hands and stepped forward. The surface beneath his feet was hard
and slippery like a polished but not waxed, hardwood floor. He breathed
a sigh of relief; it wasn't greased.
Hcent, he saw, was walking slightly bowlegged, with an air of perfect
naturalness, her toes just a trifle more turned out than usual. If she
had toes, that is, Auckland thought. He remembered that he had never
seen a Vaec without buskins.
It was difficult going, in that he knew he must not hurry, but Auckland
found that his shoes compensated for most of the slickness of the
surface beneath him. The morning sun was warm on his head and torso,
and he was grateful that the occasional breezes were light.
For a time, the two remained roughly parallel, but Hcent gradually
began to forge ahead, without stepping up her pace. Each step must be
a light fraction longer than his, he thought, so that the difference
eventually showed up. He tried to increase his own stride, and only the
wand in his hands kept him from disastrous loss of balance. By the time
they were nearing the halfway mark, Hcent was several feet ahead of him.
There was no sound from behind. The Vaec watched in silence, possibly
to avoid distracting their guest, he thought. He tried again to
lengthen his stride and this time was successful, but it still looked
as if there would be no catching up.
Suddenly, Hcent fell. He didn't see her slip, or make an effort to
regain balance; she was just plunging off the pole. The shock almost
made Auckland lose his balance; he stopped momentarily, watching. As
she plunged downward, he saw that she was curling herself up, so that
by the time she hit the water, the Vaec was practically a ball.
A moment later, her head appeared and she was swimming leisurely on
her back. Auckland sighed in relief, gripped his pole and continued,
cautiously. Obviously, the Vaec could not be hurt by a thirty foot fall
into water, but it could be entirely a different story with him.
In a short time, he was ahead of his swimming competitor, and after a
couple more narrow escapes he reached the other end of the pole and
stepped off. Two minutes and seven seconds. As he stood there, looking
down, Hcent, who was nearly at the shore--there was a shelf about two
feet wide before the walls of the bluff started--dived under the water
and came up at the bank itself.
She came out, doffed her buskins--she had toes, he saw--and then began
to climb the nearly sheer sides of the bluff without hesitation.
Auckland watched for a moment, then decided that Hcent would have no
difficulty in joining him. He wondered how the others would get across.
Swim probably. Then he turned, and gasped; the entire company was here,
awaiting him!
"Excellent Roy most skillful," said Ekem-ve, his hair waving. "Few Vaec
cross all the way."
"It was hard," Auckland said, "and I couldn't have made it without this
wand. Even so, she'd have beaten me because I just couldn't have caught
up." He smiled. "But I did win, didn't I?"
"No, excellent Roy, Hcent is winner. Hcent touch finish line. You did
not."
"But, but ..." he sputtered, then remembered something and closed his
eyes in chagrin at his stupidity. He had forgotten to ask one specific
question. "Where is the finish line?" he asked weakly.
"Finish line is bank of stream, under water, excellent Roy."
Well, there was no use complaining. He'd had sufficient warning about
this sort of thing, and had beaten them at their own game in it the
evening before. "Then it wasn't necessary to walk across the poles at
all?"
"No, excellent Roy. Contestant may swim all way, but often like to try
skill at pole."
"Then I've lost," he said tiredly, then straightened as a thought came
to him. The chairs that seemed to be too many for Ekem-ve to have in
his dwelling, the legerdemain and vanishing little white ball, the wand
cut without a tool, the sudden appearance of the company on the other
side of the bluff--it all fell into place.
"Ekem-ve," he said, "you Vaec can all teleport, can't you? Transport
yourselves and objects various distances by some sort of mental power,
without touching them?"
"This is truth, excellent Roy."
Auckland's mind was working furiously. What else had he forgotten to
ask? Nothing could be too elementary, he decided. He smiled and said,
"I told you that among some old-time Earthmen, an outsider must pass
tests before becoming a member of a clan, or a special friend. You told
me that the Vaec had three tests: the test of skill, the test of mind,
and the test of understanding. But you did not say that all three tests
must be passed, and you did not say that I had to beat Hcent in order
to pass the test of skill."
He looked around him and saw signs of pleasure.
"Much wisdom in Earthman's deduction," said Ekem-ve. "We return now and
after refreshment candidate may ask one question about the Vaec. Answer
truthful and complete."
* * * * *
They had given him ample time to think. Roy Auckland ate with them,
drank a cube of Vaec liquid and put his thoughts in order. The test
of skill was over. The test of mind--wasn't the mad poker game of
the night before a test of mind? And the test of understanding....
Understanding what?
It would seem most logical--and the Vaec were quite logical in their
own way--that the "understanding" here referred to understanding the
Vaec themselves. And the Vaec were difficult to understand.
Why? Because they seemed to be two incompatible things. They understood
English perfectly, yet spoke in a caricature of the English like some
old-time fictioneer's idea of how "ignorant" natives spoke to the
superior white man. They lived simply and effortlessly, yet there was
no doubt that they actually had a technology far in advance of Earth--a
power source so simple and efficient that everything resembling
machinery could be kept out of sight.
They were clearly advanced in philosophy, and had a genuine sense
of humor in well-balanced personalities. They were sympathetic and
friendly with the Earthmen, willing to act virtually as servants. Yet
there was nothing servile about them.
Again, like the stories of old-time Earth--a combination of the happy,
ignorant, childlike "natives" who loved practical jokes, and the
dignified "savages" who served the "lords from beyond the seas" with
genuine respect and liking but without losing their own values.
His one question, he was sure, would be crucial. And this, he felt,
would be the only test that really counted.
He set the cube down beside the chair as they sat outside Ekem-ve's
dwelling. The others who had been there the night before sat around
quietly, and he wondered if they were the testing committee. Very
likely.
"Ekem-ve, and excellent testers," he began, "I have been curious about
certain matters for a long time." He told them about the peoples of
Earth which they seemed superficially to resemble. "This," he said, "is
how many, perhaps most, Earthmen see the Vaec. But I think their vision
is mistaken."
He took out a cigarette, and put it in his mouth, and puffed a few
times after the tip started glowing. The hairs around him were
perfectly still.
"I think," he said, "that you have been hoaxing Earthmen, that you are
playing a long joke upon us, and that the villa in the desert plays
some part in that joke. But my question is: Am I the first Earthman to
tell you he had come to this conclusion and ask you about it?"
Now the hairs were in motion as the committee turned to Ekem-ve, and he
saw various blinking.
Ekem-ve arose and held out both hands. "Welcome to fellowship with the
Vaec, Roy Auckland."