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I wonder what that stuff is " "I'd just as soon not know," Raf returned from between set teeth. "If that is one of their pieces of precious knowledge, we're as well off without it " he stopped short. Perhaps he had said too much. But Terra had been racked by the torrid horror of atomic war, until all his kind had been so revolted that it was bred into them not to meddle again with such weapons.
He told his story of the hunt and its ending, the capture of the stranger. Lablet nodded as he finished. "That is the reason for this, you may depend upon it, Captain. One of their own people is at the bottom of it." "Of what?" Raf wanted to ask, but Soriki did it for him. Hobart smiled grimly. "We are all traveling back together. Take off in the early morning.
Now that Soriki mentioned it, Raf remembered that the alien party who had gone into the city had huddled together, and that several of the black-and-white warriors had fanned out ahead as scouts might in enemy territory. "They didn't go any farther than that building to the west either." That Raf had not noticed, but he was willing to accept Soriki's observation.
Once there he would stay. He did not know what Captain Hobart and Lablet thought they could accomplish here. But, as for himself, Raf was sure that he was not going to feel easy again until he was across the northern mountain chain and coming in for a landing close by the RS 10.
One merman stood at the crack of the door at the top of the ramp. He pushed the barrier open and crept in. Meanwhile those who waited poised their spears, all aimed at that door. Raf fingered the button on his gun to "spray" as he had when he had faced the attack of the scavengers in the arena tunnels. There was a cry, a shout with a summons in it.
Raf stared up at the sky in which stars were sprinkled like carelessly flung dust motes. "What is a 'man'?" he returned, repeating the classical question which was a debating point in all the space training centers. For so long his kind had wondered that. Was a "man" a biped with certain easily recognized physical characteristics?
He would find the ship! He laughed aloud at nothing and heard an answering chuckle and then a whoop of triumph from the scout stooping to claw one of their prey out of hiding. It was after they had eaten that Dalgard asked another question, one which did not seem important to Raf. "You have a close friend among the crew of your ship?" Raf hesitated.
And when Raf hesitated, trying to catch Hobart's eye and make some explanation, the alien touched his arm lightly and motioned toward one of the curtained doorways. Conscious that he could not withdraw from the venture now, Raf reluctantly went out. They were in a hall where bold bands of color interwove in patterns impossible for Terran eyes to study.
He says: "I was a-listenin' to all de talk, en I slips into de river en was gwyne to shove for sho' if dey come aboard. Den I was gwyne to swim to de raf' agin when dey was gone. But lawsy, how you did fool 'em, Huck! Dat WUZ de smartes' dodge! I tell you, chile, I'spec it save' ole Jim ole Jim ain't going to forgit you for dat, honey." Then we talked about the money.
After they had gone, Raf opened a compartment in the flitter, the contents of which were his particular care. He squatted on his heels and surveyed the neatly stowed objects inside thoughtfully.