"Kill him?"
"Yes. You brought him into being. Now send him out of being."
"But I can't do that. I have no further control once I make something.
And besides I--I wouldn't kill a human being, even if I could."
Fear was in Chandler's eyes. "Mr. Glaudot, listen ..." he began.
"Listen, hell," Glaudot said. "I brought you back to life. I offered you
a share in the greatest power the worlds have ever known. You turned it
down. I'm sorry, Chandler. I'm really sorry for you. But I can't let you
return to the ship, you see. Not until I learn some more about this
world, not until I understand exactly what the girl's power is, and
consolidate my position."
* * * * *
Without waiting to hear more, Chandler began to run. In three great
bounds he reached the grazing roan stallion and leaped on its back,
digging his heels into its flanks. The stallion moved off at a quick
trot as Glaudot drew his blaster and took dead aim at Chandler's
retreating back.
When he had Chandler squarely in his sights, Glaudot began to squeeze
the trigger. But suddenly the trigger-housing-unit of the blaster became
encumbered with tiny vines. There were hundreds of them writhing and
crawling all over the weapon and getting in the sights too so Glaudot
could no longer aim. By the time he tore the vines clear, cursing
savagely, the roan stallion had taken Chandler out of sight on his
retreat toward the spaceship.
Glaudot whirled on Robin. "You did this!" he accused her. "You did it.
Why--why?"
"You were going to kill him. You shouldn't have."
"But now you've ruined everything. Not just for me. For us, don't you
see? I could have laid the world at your feet. I could have--listen!
Tell me this--is there any place we can hide? Some place they won't find
us if they come looking, while we work on this power of yours and see
exactly what it can do and what it can't do?"
"I want to see the spaceship, please," said Robin.
"Afterwards, I promise you," Glaudot said. "Why, we can make all the
spaceships we want--out of nothing. Can't we?"
"Yes," said Robin. "I guess so. But even if we hide from your friends,
my friend Charlie will find us. He'll be worried about me and he'll find
us. Charlie can do everything I can do, you see."
* * * * *
Glaudot stared at her with anger in his eyes. Then something else
replaced the anger. No, he thought, Charlie couldn't do everything she
could do. She was beautiful. Her half-nude body summoned desire in him.
Tentatively, ready to withdraw his hand at the first indication of
protest, he touched her bare shoulder. She made no response. She merely
stood there, waiting for some kind of an answer from him.
"Then we'll have to hide from Charlie too. Please believe me," Glaudot
said. "I'm a spaceman and you know very little about spacemen. Do you
want to learn?"
"Yes. Yes, I do."
"Then take me some place even Charlie will have difficulty finding us."
"But he'll know."
"What do you mean he'll know? Don't tell me you can read one another's
minds?"
"Oh, goodness, no. Nothing like that. But when we were very little I
once told Charlie if ever I got mad at him I would go to hide in the
country of the Cyclopes and he would never be able to find me because
the Cyclopes would eat him. That was after we read about the Cyclopes in
the Ulysses story in our encyclopedia. You see?"
"Cyclopes, huh? You really mean one-eyed giants?"
"Yes. We made them but they don't obey us."
"Can the two of us hide in their land? Is it far?"
"No. Very close. But I don't know if I want--"
"I'm a spaceman, aren't I? And you want to learn all about spacemen and
the worlds beyond this place, don't you? Then come with me!"
"But--"
"If you say no and I go back to the spaceship we'll blast off and you'll
never see spacemen again the rest of your life," threatened Glaudot.
Robin did not answer. "Well?" Glaudot snapped, as if he was quite
indifferent. "Would you want that to happen?"
"No," Robin admitted after a while.
"Then let's go." They had to hurry, Glaudot knew. Riding that stallion,
that incredible conjured-out-of-nothing stallion, Chandler had probably
reached the spaceship by now. A few words, a few hurried explanations,
and Purcell would lead an armed party out after Glaudot.
Again Robin was silent. Glaudot stood stiffly in front of her, so close
he could reach out and wrap his arms about her. But this wasn't the
time, he told himself. Later ... later ...
"All right," Robin said at last, her eyes looking troubled. "I'll take
you to the land of Cyclopes."
They began to walk, in silence. Half an hour later, the barren terrain
of rocks gave way to a verdant jungle in which the trees were quite the
biggest Glaudot had ever seen and in which even the grass and the
fragrant wild flowers grew over their heads. Glaudot had never felt so
small.
* * * * *
"Wait a minute, Chandler," Captain Purcell said. "I listened in silence
to what you said. All of it, as incredible as it sounded. But you don't
expect me to believe--"
"Look at the horse. Where did I get the horse, sir?"
"So there are horses on this world. So what?"
"But I saw the girl create it out of thin air!"
"Really, Chandler."
"And I saw the corpse. My corpse, Captain. Mine!"
"But hell, man. Glaudot would have come back here with the girl. He
knows his obligation to civilization. He--"
"Glaudot, sir? Does he?"
Purcell scowled and said finally: "Chandler, either you and Glaudot have
made the most astonishing discovery since man first domesticated his
environment and so became more than a reasonably clever animal, or
you're the biggest liar that ever crossed deep space."
Chandler offered his captain a pale smile. "Why don't you find out
which, sir?"
"By God," said Purcell, "I will. McCreedy!" he bawled over the intercom.
"Smith! Wong! I want an armed expedition of twenty-five men ready to
leave the ship in half an hour."
And, exactly half an hour later, the expedition set out with Captain
Purcell and Chandler leading it. Chandler went astride the roan
stallion.
* * * * *
When Charlie and his small Indian band learned that the action had taken
place to the south, where Robin had gone, they set out quickly in that
direction. The further they went, the more worried Charlie became. If
Robin had met with any kind of success, if she had called off the war
party and established some kind of peaceful relations with the spacemen,
a runner would have been sent to tell them. But the desolate rock-strewn
terrain stretched out before them as devoid of life as the Paleozoic
Earth.
Charlie urged his men on relentlessly. He was a tireless hiker and since
the braves lived by hunting they could match almost any pace he set.
Finally Charlie saw the second Indian band ahead of them. Slinging the
Mannlicher Elephant Gun, he began to run.
"Tashtu!" he called. "Tashtu!"
The Indian sprinted to him. "Lord," he said breathlessly, "one sky
critter, him die. Turn out man."
"What are you talking about?" Charlie asked.
Tashtu led him to the group of braves which still clustered about Ensign
Chandler's body. "Why?" Charlie demanded, horror-struck. "Why?"
Tashtu told him all that had happened. How the braves had mistaken the
spacesuited man for a monster. How arrows had been fired before they had
learned otherwise. How Robin had come, and gone off with the spaceman.
"To their spaceship?" Charlie asked.
"Yes, Lord. That is what they spoke of." Tashtu pointed to the top of
the rampart of rock. "From there, Lord, you can see it."
Charlie scrambled up the rock. From his giddy perch on top he could see
the tiny silver gleam of the spaceship--and a band of men, led by a man
on horseback, approaching them. Charlie hurried down the rock, half
climbing, half sliding. "They are coming," he said. "Maybe Robin's with
them." He remembered what had happened last time and said: "The rest of
you return to your homes. Tashtu and I will go on ahead."
"But Lord--" Tashtu began.
"Well?"
"I did not like the man. I did not trust him."
"Then why did you let Robin go?"
"Let her, Lord? But surely Robin, the Lady Robin, does not obey a
mere--"
"All right, all right," Charlie said. "But all the more reason for the
rest of the braves to return to their homes. We can handle this, Tashtu,
you and I. I don't want any more killing."
"Yes, Lord," said Tashtu.
The Indians formed a marching column and moved off. Charlie told Tashtu
what he had seen from the top of the rampart. Then he added: "Let's go
and meet them."
And Charlie and Tashtu set out across the tortuous Wild Country.
* * * * *
"Two men coming!" Chandler cried, reining up the roan stallion.
Captain Purcell signaled his twenty-five men to halt, and their orderly
double file came up short behind him. Pretty soon the two figures could
be seen by all, advancing toward them across the rocks. When they were
close enough, Captain Purcell hailed: "We come in peace!"
"And in peace we come!" Charlie called. A moment later he was shaking
hands gravely with Captain Purcell.
"Tell the captain about--about my corpse," Chandler told Tashtu.
Charlie looked at Chandler. He had seen the dead man. "Did Robin make
you?" he asked in surprise. "We never brought the dead to life before."
"Can you really do it?" Purcell demanded.
"No, not really. But we can copy perfectly--and the copies live."
"You see?" Chandler demanded triumphantly.