Murray Leinster (Duke Classic SiFi) Read Free Page B

asking
himself if he were awake, and having proved that by pinches, openly
administered, the next query was whether they had gone mad.
    Arthur led Estelle cautiously among the tents.
    The village contained about a dozen wigwams. Most of them were made
of strips of birch-bark, cleverly overlapping each other, the seams
cemented with gum. All had hide flaps for doors, and one or two were
built almost entirely of hides, sewed together with strips of sinew.
    Arthur made only a cursory examination of the village. His principal
motive in taking Estelle there was to give her some mental occupation
to ward off the reaction from the excitement of the cataclysm.
    He looked into one or two of the tents and found merely couches of
hides, with minor domestic utensils scattered about. He brought
from one tent a bow and quiver of arrows. The workmanship was good,
but very evidently the maker had no knowledge of metal tools.
    Arthur's acquaintance with archeological subjects was very slight,
but he observed that the arrow-heads were chipped, and not rubbed
smooth. They were attached to the shafts with strips of gut or
tendon.
    Arthur was still pursuing his investigation when a sob from Estelle
made him stop and look at her.
    "Oh, what are we going to do?" she asked tearfully. "What
are
we going to do? Where are we?"
    "You mean,
when
are we," Arthur corrected with a grim smile. "I
don't know. Way back before the discovery of America, though. You
can see in everything in the village that there isn't a trace
of European civilization. I suspect that we are several thousand
years back. I can't tell, of course, but this pottery makes me
think so. See this bowl?"
    He pointed to a bowl of red clay lying on the ground before one of
the wigwams.
    "If you'll look, you'll see that it isn't really pottery at all. It's
a basket that was woven of reeds and then smeared with clay to
make it fire-resisting. The people who made that didn't know about
baking clay to make it stay put. When America was discovered nearly
all the tribes knew something about pottery."
    "But what are we going to do?" Estelle tearfully insisted.
    "We're going to muddle along as well as we can," answered Arthur
cheerfully, "until we can get back to where we started from. Maybe
the people back in the twentieth century can send a relief party
after us. When the skyscraper vanished it must have left a hole
of some sort, and it may be possible for them to follow us down."
    "If that's so," said Estelle quickly, "why can't we climb up it
without waiting for them to come after us?"
    Arthur scratched his head. He looked across the clearing at the
skyscraper. It seemed to rest very solidly on the ground. He looked
up. The sky seemed normal.
    "To tell the truth," he admitted, "there doesn't seem to be any
hole. I said that more to cheer you up than anything else."
    Estelle clenched her hands tightly and took a grip on herself.
    "Just tell me the truth," she said quietly. "I was rather foolish,
but tell me what you honestly think."
    Arthur eyed her keenly.
    "In that case," he said reluctantly, "I'll admit we're in a pretty
bad fix. I don't know what has happened, how it happened, or anything
about it. I'm just going to keep on going until I see a way clear
to get out of this mess. There are two thousand of us people,
more or less, and among all of us we must be able to find a way out."
    Estelle had turned very pale.
    "We're in no great danger from Indians," went on Arthur thoughtfully,
"or from anything else that I know of—except one thing."
    "What is that?" asked Estelle quickly.
    Arthur shook his head and led her back toward the skyscraper, which
was now thronged with the people from all the floors who had come
down to the ground and were standing excitedly about the concourse
asking each other what had happened.
    Arthur led Estelle to one of the corners.
    "Wait for me here," he ordered. "I'm going to talk to this crowd."
    He pushed his way through until he could reach the confectionery