Planet of Adventure Omnibus Read Free Page B

space-drive
mechanics, electronic repair and improvisation. If he was not killed out of
hand, as had been Paul Waunder, he would live-but to what purpose? His chances
of returning to Earth must be considered infinitesimal, which made the intrinsic
interest of the planet less stimulating.
    A shadow fell
across his face; Reith saw the youth who had saved his life. After peering
through the dark the youth kneeled down, proffered a bowl of coarse gruel.
    “Thanks very
much,” said Reith. “But I don’t think I can eat; I’m constricted by the
splints.”
    The youth
leaned forward, speaking in a rather curt voice. Reith thought his face
strangely stern and intense for a boy who could not be more than sixteen years
old.
    With great
exertion Reith pulled himself up on his elbow and took the gruel. The youth
rose, moved a few paces back, stood watching as Reith tried to feed himself.
Then he turned and called a gruff summons. A small girl came running forward.
She bowed, took the bowl and began to feed Reith with earnest care.
    The boy
watched a moment, evidently mystified by Reith, and Reith was perplexed no
less. Men and women, on a world two hundred and twelve light-years from Earth!
Parallel evolution? Incredible! Spoonful by spoonful the gruel was placed in
his mouth. The girl, about eight years old, wore a ragged pajama-like garment,
not too clean. A half-dozen men of the tribe came to watch; there was a growl
of conversation which the youth ignored.
    The bowl was
empty; the girl held a mug of sour beer to Reith’s mouth. Reith drank because
it was expected of him, though the brew puckered his lips. “Thank you,” he told
the girl, who returned a diffident smile and quickly departed.
    Reith lay
back on the pallet. The youth spoke to him in a brusque voice: evidently a question.
    “Sorry,” said
Reith. “I don’t understand. But don’t be irritated; I need every friend I can
get.”
    The youth
spoke no more and presently departed. Reith leaned back on his pallet and tried
to sleep. The firelight flickered low; activity in the camp dwindled.
    From far off
came a faint call, half howl, half quavering hoot, which was presently answered
by another, and another, to become an almost identical chanting of hundreds of
voices. Raising up on his elbow once more, Reith saw that the two moons, of
equal apparent diameter, one pink, the other pale blue, had appeared in the
east.
    A moment
later a new voice, nearer at hand, joined the far ululation. Reith listened in
wonder; surely this was the voice of a woman? Other voices joined the first,
wailing a wordless dirge, which, joined to the far hooting, produced a colloquy
of vast woe.
    The chant at
last halted; the camp became quiet. Reith became drowsy and fell asleep.
     
    In the
morning Reith saw more of the camp. It lay in a swale between a pair of broad
low hills, among multitudes rolling off to the east. Here for reasons not
immediately apparent to Reith the tribesmen elected to sojourn. Each morning
four young warriors wearing long brown cloaks mounted small electric
motorcycles and set off in different directions across the steppe. Each evening
they returned, to make detailed reports to Traz Onmale the boyruler. Every
morning a great kite was paid out, hoisting aloft a boy of eight or nine, whose
function was evidently that of a lookout. Late in the afternoon the wind tended
to die, dropping the kite more or less easily. The boy usually escaped with no
more than a bump, though the men handling the lines seemed to worry more for
the safety of the kite; a four-winged contraption of black membrane stretched
over wooden splints.
    Each morning,
from beyond the hill to the east, sounded a fearful squealing, which persisted
for almost half an hour. The tumult, Reith presently learned, arose from the
herd of multilegged animals from which the tribe derived meat. Each morning the
tribe butcher, a woman six feet tall and brawny to match, went through the herd
with a knife and a