They came to the turnoff for a town called Tenochitlan, some forty
miles from Maya City. Calhoun swung off the highway to go through it.
Whoever had chosen the name Maya for this planet had been interested
in the legends of Yucatan, back on Earth. There were many instances of
such hobbies in a Med Ship's list of ports of call. Calhoun touched
ground regularly on planets that had been named for countries and towns
when men first roamed the stars, and nostalgically christened their
discoveries with names suggested by homesickness. There was a Tralee,
and a Dorset, and an Eire. Colonists not infrequently took their
world's given name as a pattern and chose related names for seas and
peninsulas and mountain chains. On Texia the landing-grid rose near a
town called Corral and the principal meat-packing settlement was named
Roundup.
Whatever the name Tenochitlan would have suggested, though, was denied
by the town itself. It was small, with a pleasing local type of
architecture. There were shops and some factories, and many strictly
private homes, some clustered close together and others in the middles
of considerable gardens. In those gardens also there was wilt and decay
among the cannibal plants. There was no grass, because the plants
prevented it, but now the motile plants themselves were dead. Except
for the one class of killed growing things, however, vegetation was
luxuriant.
But the little city was deserted. Its streets were empty, its houses
untenanted. Some houses were apparently locked up here, though, and
Calhoun saw three or four shops whose stock in trade had been covered
over before the owners departed. He guessed that either this town had
been warned earlier than the spaceport city, or else they knew they had
time to get in motion before the highways were filled with the cars
from the west.
Allison looked at the houses with keen, evaluating eyes. He did not
seem to notice the absence of people. When Calhoun swung back on the
great road beyond the little city, Allison regarded the endless fields
of dark-green plants with much the same sort of interest.
"Interesting," he said abruptly when Tenochitlan fell behind and
dwindled to a speck. "Very interesting! I'm interested in land. Real
property, that's my business. I've a land-owning corporation on Thanet
Three. I've some holdings on Dorset, too, and elsewhere. It just
occurred to me: what's all this land and the cities worth, with the
people all run away?"
"What," asked Calhoun, "are the people worth who've run?"
Allison paid no attention. He looked shrewd. Thoughtful.
"I came here to buy land," he said. "I'd arranged to buy some hundreds
of square miles. I'd buy more if the price were right. But--as things
are, it looks like the price of land ought to go down quite a bit.
Quite a bit!"
"It depends," said Calhoun, "on whether there's anybody left alive to
sell it to you, and what sort of thing has happened."
Allison looked at him sharply.
"Ridiculous!" he said authoritatively. "There's no question of their
being alive!"
"They thought there might be," observed Calhoun. "That's why they ran
away. They hoped they'd be safe where they ran to. I hope they are."
Allison ignored the comment. His eyes remained intent and shrewd. He
was not bewildered by the flight of the people of Maya. His mind was
busy with contemplation of that flight from the standpoint of a man of
business.
* * * * *
The car went racing onward. The endless fields of dark green rushed
past to the rear. The highway was deserted, just three strips of
surfaced road, mathematically straight, going on to the horizon. They
went on by tens and scores of miles, each strip wide enough to allow
four ground-cars to run side by side. The highway was intended to
allow all the produce of all these fields to be taken to market or a
processing plant at the highest possible speed and in any imaginable
quantity. The same roads had allowed the cities to be deserted
instantly the warning--whatever the warning was--arrived.
Fifty miles beyond Tenochitlan there was a mile-long strip of sheds
containing agricultural machinery for crop culture and trucks to carry
the crops to market. There was no sign of life about the machinery, nor
in a further hour's run to westward.
Then there was a city visible to the left. But it was not served
by this particular highway, but another. There was no sign of any
movement in its streets. It moved along the horizon to the left and
rear. Presently it disappeared.
Half an hour later still, Murgatroyd said:
"_Chee!_"
He stirred uneasily. A moment later he said "_Chee!_" again.
Calhoun turned his eyes from the road. Murgatroyd looked unhappy.
Calhoun ran his hand over the _tormal's_ furry body. Murgatroyd pressed
against him. The car raced on. Murgatroyd whimpered a little. Calhoun's
hand felt the little animal's muscles tense sharply, and then relax,
and after a little tense again. Murgatroyd said almost hysterically:
"_Chee-chee-chee-chee!_"
Calhoun stopped the car, but Murgatroyd did not seem to be relieved.
Allison said impatiently, "What's the matter?"
"That's what I'm trying to find out," said Calhoun.
He felt Murgatroyd's pulse. The role of Murgatroyd in the Med Ship
_Esclipus Twenty_ was not only that of charming companion in the long,
isolated runs in overdrive. Murgatroyd was a part of the Med Service.
His tribe had been discovered on a planet in the Deneb sector, and
men had made pets of them, to the high satisfaction of the _tormals_.
Presently it was discovered that veterinarians never had _tormals_
for patients. They were invariably in robustuous good health. They
contracted no infections from other animals; they shared no infections
with anybody else. The Med Service discovered that _tormals_ possessed
a dynamic immunity to germ and bacteria-caused diseases. Even
viruses injected into their bloodstreams only provoked an immediate,
overwhelming development of antibodies, so that _tormals_ couldn't be
given any known disease. Which was of infinite value to the Med Service.
Now every Med Ship that could be supplied with a _tormal_ carried a
small, affectionate, whiskered member of the tribe. Men liked them,
and they adored men. And when, as sometimes happened, by mutation or
the simple enmity of nature, a new kind of infection appeared in human
society--why--_tormals_ defeated it. They produced specific antibodies
to destroy it. Men analyzed the antibodies and synthesized them, and
they were available to all the humans who needed them. So a great many
millions of humans stayed alive, because _tormals_ were pleasant little
animals with a precious genetic gift of good health.
* * * * *
Calhoun looked at his sweep-second watch, timing the muscular spasms
that Murgatroyd displayed. They coincided with irregularities in
Murgatroyd's heartbeat, coming at approximately two-second intervals.
The tautening of the muscles lasted just about half a second.
"But I don't feel it!" said Calhoun.