Low mumbling ran through the group of natives.
"What are they saying?" the man asked.
"They say you are very brave," Thurwinker replied. "They seem to think
you're a big hero."
The man shook his head and walked away bewildered.
Thurwinker turned back to the natives and all of them were looking at
Goma. Goma glanced from face to face, fingering his shoulder length
hair. He shuddered and looked pleadingly at the others. Faint lines of
what Thurwinker thought was disgust began to appear on the group of
faces.
Thurwinker smiled suddenly. "I think I know what they want," he mumbled
to himself. "Chief," he called. "You want--" He paused trying to find
the words. Then taking a piece of his own hair, he made cutting motions
with his fingers.
Goma's beady eyes dilated and he shook visibly.
"Come," Thurwinker urged, opening the barber shop door.
Hesitantly, Goma took a step forward.
"Come," Thurwinker urged again. "It won't hurt." He pointed to himself
and asked, "I go first?"
"No!" Goma roared. He thrust Thurwinker aside and galloped to the
barber chair. Roy looked questioningly at Thurwinker.
"It's all right," Thurwinker grinned. "Go ahead. This will put them at
ease. Maybe this is just the thing we've been looking for. Yes indeed,
just the thing. But be careful, Roy. Yes, yes, very careful."
* * * * *
Roy nodded and tried to run a comb through the Chief's matted hair.
Each time Goma was touched, he shivered. The other natives watched
through the window and shook whenever Goma did. Roy isolated a small
section of hair and placing his scissors against the comb, he snipped
it off. With a scream of terrible agony, Goma's body convulsed in the
chair. He leaped upright, holding his head with one hand while he
looked wildly about.
[Illustration: _Goma gave a scream of terrible agony._]
Roy started over to Goma to remove the apron but Goma backed away
holding his hands before him as if to ward off a blow. Then he burst
through the door and out into the street, running as though the hounds
of hell were nipping at his heels. He didn't stop until he reached the
brush at the edge of the crater.
The other natives watched him go with disgust. Two of them picked up
rocks and threw them after the retreating figure. When Goma was at last
out of sight, they assembled themselves in a group again and marched
out of town.
Thurwinker watched the procession diminish in the distance. "Well,
that's that," he muttered. He turned on Roy. "I told you to be careful!"
"I _was_ careful!" Roy protested.
"Apparently you weren't careful enough!" Thurwinker snapped. "I don't
know what you did to him, but you sure fixed our chances for getting
any land."
"But I tell you I didn't do anything, Mr. Thurwinker," Roy answered
hotly. "I hardly even touched him!"
"Well, if I were you, I'd cultivate a lighter touch!" Thurwinker
cracked and, without waiting for Roy to reply, he turned and walked out
of the shop.
During the next hour, Thurwinker composed twenty-six messages to send
back home explaining his failure. Twenty-six messages had been thrown
in the wastebasket as unsatisfactory. There really wasn't anything
to say. He knew that none of his excuses would be accepted. He was
a failure and so he wrote out his resignation. It was a foregone
conclusion that the Colonial Office would want it. Thurwinker groaned.
He could see himself being held up before the students in the OCD
schools as the horrible example.
He was halfway through with what was to be message number twenty-seven
when the door opened quietly. Goma stepped in and walked unheard over
to Thurwinker's desk.
"I Goma," he mumbled.
"Yaaaaaaaah!" Thurwinker let out a whoop and leaped to the top of his
desk, quite convinced that Goma had come to destroy him. "Now, now,
now, Chief. Ah--you and I are friends!"
Goma looked at him. "I am not Chief. I am called old female." He looked
away from the amazed Thurwinker and sagged into a chair.
"What's the matter, Chief?" Thurwinker asked, climbing down off his
desk.
"I am not Chief," Goma replied. "I will be Chief again soon when I...."
Goma paused and made cutting motions with his fingers.
"You mean, when you get a haircut?" Thurwinker asked.