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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19338-h.zip b/19338-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d1936a --- /dev/null +++ b/19338-h.zip diff --git a/19338-h/19338-h.htm b/19338-h/19338-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7d26be2 --- /dev/null +++ b/19338-h/19338-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1483 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Keeper, by H. Beam Piper + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + .tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: solid black 1px;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .blockquot{margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Keeper, by Henry Beam Piper + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Keeper + +Author: Henry Beam Piper + +Release Date: September 20, 2006 [EBook #19338] +Last updated: January 17, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KEEPER *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p>This etext was produced from Venture Science Fiction, July 1957. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> + +<p> </p> + + +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_01.jpg" alt="Frontispiece" width="600" height="458" /></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="blockquot"> +<i>Evil men had stolen his treasure, and Raud set out with his<br /> +deer rifle and his great dog Brave to catch the thieves<br /> +before they could reach the Starfolk. That the men had<br /> +negatron pistols meant little—Raud was the Keeper....</i><br /></p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h1>THE KEEPER</h1> +<p> </p> +<h2>by H. BEAM PIPER</h2> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<hr style="width:65%" /> + +<p>When he heard the deer crashing through brush and scuffling the dead +leaves, he stopped and stood motionless in the path. He watched them +bolt down the slope from the right and cross in front of him, wishing +he had the rifle, and when the last white tail vanished in the +gray-brown woods he drove the spike of the ice-staff into the +stiffening ground and took both hands to shift the weight of the +pack. If he'd had the rifle, he could have shot only one of them. As +it was, they were unfrightened, and he knew where to find them in the +morning.</p> + +<p>Ahead, to the west and north, low clouds massed; the white front of +the Ice-Father loomed clear and sharp between them and the blue of the +distant forests. It would snow, tonight. If it stopped at daybreak, he +would have good tracking, and in any case, it would be easier to get +the carcasses home over snow. He wrenched loose the ice-staff and +started forward again, following the path that wound between and among +and over the irregular mounds and hillocks. It was still an hour's +walk to Keeper's House, and the daylight was fading rapidly.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, when he was not so weary and in so much haste, he would +loiter here, wondering about the ancient buildings and the +long-vanished people who had raised them. There had been no woods at +all, then; nothing but great houses like mountains, piling up toward +the sky, and the valley where he meant to hunt tomorrow had been an +arm of the sea that was now a three days' foot-journey away. Some said +that the cities had been destroyed and the people killed in wars—big +wars, not squabbles like the fights between sealing-companies from +different villages. He didn't think so, himself. It was more likely +that they had all left their homes and gone away in starships when the +Ice-Father had been born and started pushing down out of the north. +There had been many starships, then. When he had been a boy, the old +men had talked about a long-ago time when there had been hundreds of +them visible in the sky, every morning and evening. But that had been +long ago indeed. Starships came but seldom to this world, now. This +world was old and lonely and poor. Like poor lonely old Raud the +Keeper.</p> + +<p>He felt angry to find himself thinking like that. Never pity yourself, +Raud; be proud. That was what his father had always taught him: "Be +proud, for you are the Keeper's son, and when I am gone, you will be +the Keeper after me. But in your pride, be humble, for what you will +keep is the Crown."</p> + +<p>The thought of the Crown, never entirely absent from his mind, wakened +the anxiety that always slept lightly if at all. He had been away all +day, and there were so many things that could happen. The path seemed +longer, after that; the landmarks farther apart. Finally, he came out +on the edge of the steep bank, and looked down across the brook to the +familiar low windowless walls and sharp-ridged roof of Keeper's House; +and when he came, at last, to the door, and pulled the latchstring, he +heard the dogs inside—the soft, coughing bark of Brave, and the +anxious little whimper of Bold—and he knew that there was nothing +wrong in Keeper's House.</p> + +<p>The room inside was lighted by a fist-sized chunk of lumicon, hung in +a net bag of thongs from the rafter over the table. It was old—cast +off by some rich Southron as past its best brilliance, it had been old +when he had bought it from Yorn Nazvik the Trader, and that had been +years ago. Now its light was as dim and yellow as firelight. He'd have +to replace it soon, but this trip he had needed new cartridges for the +big rifle. A man could live in darkness more easily than he could live +without cartridges.</p> + +<p>The big black dogs were rising from their bed of deerskins on the +stone slab that covered the crypt in the far corner. They did not come +to meet him, but stayed in their place of trust, greeting him with +anxious, eager little sounds.</p> + +<p>"Good boys," he said. "Good dog, Brave; good dog, Bold. Old Keeper's +home again. Hungry?"</p> + +<p>They recognized that word, and whined. He hung up the ice-staff on the +pegs by the door, then squatted and got his arms out of the +pack-straps.</p> + +<p>"Just a little now; wait a little," he told the dogs. "Keeper'll get +something for you."</p> + +<p>He unhooked the net bag that held the lumicon and went to the ladder, +climbing to the loft between the stone ceiling and the steep snow-shed +roof; he cut down two big chunks of smoked wild-ox beef—the dogs +liked that better than smoked venison—and climbed down.</p> + +<p>He tossed one chunk up against the ceiling, at the same time shouting: +"Bold! Catch!" Bold leaped forward, sinking his teeth into the meat as +it was still falling, shaking and mauling it. Brave, still on the +crypt-slab, was quivering with hunger and eagerness, but he remained +in place until the second chunk was tossed and he was ordered to take +it. Then he, too, leaped and caught it, savaging it in mimicry of a +kill. For a while, he stood watching them growl and snarl and tear +their meat, great beasts whose shoulders came above his own waist. +While they lived to guard it, the Crown was safe. Then he crossed to +the hearth, scraped away the covering ashes, piled on kindling and +logs and fanned the fire alight. He lifted the pack to the table and +unlaced the deerskin cover.</p> + +<p>Cartridges in plastic boxes of twenty, long and thick; shot for the +duck-gun, and powder and lead and cartridge-primers; fills for the +fire-lighter; salt; needles; a new file. And the deerskin bag of +trade-tokens. He emptied them on the table and counted them—tokens, +and half-tokens and five-tokens, and even one ten-token. There were +always less in the bag, after each trip to the village. The Southrons +paid less and less, each year, for furs and skins, and asked more and +more for what they had to sell.</p> + +<p>He put away the things he had brought from the village, and was +considering whether to open the crypt now and replace the bag of +tokens, when the dogs stiffened, looking at the door. They got to +their feet, neck-hairs bristling, as the knocking began.</p> + +<p>He tossed the token-bag onto the mantel and went to the door, the dogs +following and standing ready as he opened it.</p> + +<p>The snow had started, and now the ground was white except under the +evergreens. Three men stood outside the door, and over their shoulders +he could see an airboat grounded in the clearing in front of the +house.</p> + +<p>"You are honored, Raud Keeper," one of them began. "Here are strangers +who have come to talk to you. Strangers from the Stars!"</p> + +<p>He recognized the speaker, in sealskin boots and deerskin trousers and +hooded overshirt like his own—Vahr Farg's son, one of the village +people. His father was dead, and his woman was the daughter of Gorth +Sledmaker, and he was a house-dweller with his woman's father. A +worthless youth, lazy and stupid and said to be a coward. Still, +guests were guests, even when brought by the likes of Vahr Farg's son. +He looked again at the airboat, and remembered seeing it, that day, +made fast to the top-deck of Yorn Nazvik's trading-ship, the Issa.</p> + +<p>"Enter and be welcome; the house is yours, and all in it that is mine +to give." He turned to the dogs. "Brave, Bold; go watch."</p> + +<p>Obediently, they trotted over to the crypt and lay down. He stood +aside; Vahr entered, standing aside also, as though he were the host, +inviting his companions in. They wore heavy garments of woven cloth +and boots of tanned leather with hard heels and stiff soles, and as +they came in, each unbuckled and laid aside a belt with a holstered +negatron pistol. One was stocky and broad-shouldered, with red hair; +the other was slender, dark haired and dark eyed, with a face as +smooth as a woman's. Everybody in the village had wondered about them. +They were not of Yorn Nazvik's crew, but passengers on the <i>Issa</i>.</p> + +<p>"These are Empire people, from the Far Stars," Vahr informed him, +naming their names. Long names, which meant nothing; certainly they +were not names the Southrons from the Warm Seas bore. "And this is +Raud the Keeper, with whom your honors wish to speak."</p> + +<p>"Keeper's House is honored. I'm sorry that I have not food prepared; +if you can excuse me while I make some ready...."</p> + +<p>"You think these noblemen from the Stars would eat your swill?" Vahr +hooted. "Crazy old fool, these are—"</p> + +<p>The slim man pivoted on his heel; his open hand caught Vahr just below +the ear and knocked him sprawling. It must have been some kind of +trick-blow. That or else the slim stranger was stronger than he +looked.</p> + +<p>"Hold your miserable tongue!" he told Vahr, who was getting to his +feet. "We're guests of Raud the Keeper, and we'll not have him +insulted in his own house by a cur like you!"</p> + +<p>The man with red hair turned. "I am ashamed. We should not have +brought this into your house; we should have left it outside." He +spoke the Northland language well, "It will honor us to share your +food, Keeper."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and see here," the younger man said, "we didn't know you'd be +alone. Let us help you. Dranigo's a fine cook, and I'm not bad, +myself."</p> + +<p>He started to protest, then let them have their way. After all, a +guest's women helped the woman of the house, and as there was no woman +in Keeper's House, it was not unfitting for them to help him.</p> + +<p>"Your friend's name is Dranigo?" he asked. "I'm sorry, but I didn't +catch yours."</p> + +<p>"I don't wonder; fool mouthed it so badly I couldn't understand it +myself. It's Salvadro."</p> + +<p>They fell to work with him, laying out eating-tools—there were just +enough to go around—and hunting for dishes, of which there were not. +Salvadro saved that situation by going out and bringing some in from +the airboat. He must have realized that the lumicon over the table was +the only light beside the fire in the house, for he was carrying a +globe of the luminous plastic with him when he came in, grumbling +about how dark it had gotten outside. It was new and brilliant, and +the light hurt Raud's eyes, at first.</p> + +<p>"Are you truly from the Stars?" he asked, after the food was on the +table and they had begun to eat. "Neither I nor any in the village +have seen anybody from the Stars before."</p> + +<p>The big man with the red hair nodded. "Yes. We are from Dremna."</p> + +<p>Why, Dremna was the Great World, at the middle of everything! Dremna +was the Empire. People from Dremna came to the cities of Awster and +fabulous Antark as Southron traders from the Warm Seas came to the +villages of the Northfolk. He stammered something about that.</p> + +<p>"Yes. You see, we...." Dranigo began. "I don't know the word for it, +in your language, but we're people whose work it is to learn things. +Not from other people or from books, but new things, that nobody else +knows. We came here to learn about the long-ago times on this world, +like the great city that was here and is now mounds of stone and +earth. Then, when we go back to Dremna, we will tell other people +what we have found out."</p> + +<p>Vahr Farg's son, having eaten his fill, was fidgeting on his stool, +looking contemptuously at the strangers and their host. He thought +they were fools to waste time learning about people who had died long +ago. So he thought the Keeper was a fool, to guard a worthless old +piece of junk.</p> + +<p>Raud hesitated for a moment, then said: "I have a very ancient thing, +here in this house. It was worn, long ago, by great kings. Their +names, and the name of their people, are lost, but the Crown remains. +It was left to me as a trust by my father, who was Keeper before me +and to whom it was left by his father, who was Keeper in his time. +Have you heard of it?"</p> + +<p>Dranigo nodded. "We heard of it, first of all, on Dremna," he said. +"The Empire has a Space Navy base, and observatories and relay +stations, on this planet. Space Navy officers who had been here +brought the story back; they heard it from traders from the Warm Seas, +who must have gotten it from people like Yorn Nazvik. Would you show +it to us, Keeper? It was to see the Crown that we came here."</p> + +<p>Raud got to his feet, and saw, as he unhooked the lumicon, that he was +trembling. "Yes, of course. It is an honor. It is an ancient and +wonderful thing, but I never thought that it was known on Dremna." He +hastened across to the crypt.</p> + +<p>The dogs looked up as he approached. They knew that he wanted to lift +the cover, but they were comfortable and had to be coaxed to leave it. +He laid aside the deerskins. The stone slab was heavy, and he had to +strain to tilt it up. He leaned it against the wall, then picked up +the lumicon and went down the steps into the little room below, +opening the wooden chest and getting out the bundle wrapped in +bearskin. He brought it up again and carried it to the table, from +which Dranigo and Salvadro were clearing the dishes.</p> + +<p>"Here it is," he said, untying the thongs. "I do not know how old it +is. It was old even before the Ice-Father was born."</p> + +<p>That was too much for Vahr. "See, I told you he's crazy!" he cried. +"The Ice-Father has been here forever. Gorth Sledmaker says so," he +added, as though that settled it.</p> + +<p>"Gorth Sledmaker's a fool. He thinks the world began in the time of +his grandfather." He had the thongs untied, and spread the bearskin, +revealing the blackened leather box, flat on the bottom and domed at +the top. "How long ago do you think it was that the Ice-Father was +born?" he asked Salvadro and Dranigo.</p> + +<p>"Not more than two thousand years," Dranigo said. "The glaciation +hadn't started in the time of the Third Empire. There is no record of +this planet during the Fourth, but by the beginning of the Fifth +Empire, less than a thousand years ago, things here were very much as +they are now."</p> + +<p>"There are other worlds which have Ice-Fathers," Salvadro explained. +"They are all worlds having one pole or the other in open water, +surrounded by land. When the polar sea is warmed by water from the +tropics, snow falls on the lands around, and more falls in winter than +melts in summer, and so is an Ice-Father formed. Then, when the polar +sea is all frozen, no more snow falls, and the Ice-Father melts faster +than it grows, and finally vanishes. And then, when warm water comes +into the polar sea again, more snow falls, and it starts over again. +On a world like this, it takes fifteen or twenty thousand years from +one Ice-Father to the next."</p> + +<p>"I never heard that there had been another Ice-Father, before this +one. But then, I only know the stories told by the old men, when I was +a boy. I suppose that was before the first people came in starships to +this world."</p> + +<p>The two men of Dremna looked at one another oddly, and he wondered, as +he unfastened the brass catches on the box, if he had said something +foolish, and then he had the box open, and lifted out the Crown. He +was glad, now, that Salvadro had brought in the new lumicon, as he put +the box aside and set the Crown on the black bearskin. The golden +circlet and the four arches of gold above it were clean and bright, +and the jewels were splendid in the light. Salvadro and Dranigo were +looking at it wide-eyed. Vahr Farg's son was open-mouthed.</p> + +<p>"Great Universe! Will you look at that diamond on the top!" Salvadro +was saying.</p> + +<p>"That's not the work of any Galactic art-period," Dranigo declared. +"That thing goes back to the Pre-Interstellar Era." And for a while he +talked excitedly to Salvadro.</p> + +<p>"Tell me, Keeper," Salvadro said at length, "how much do you know +about the Crown? Where did it come from; who made it; who were the +first Keepers?"</p> + +<p>He shook his head. "I only know what my father told me, when I was a +boy. Now I am an old man, and some things I have forgotten. But my +father was Runch, Raud's son, who was the son of Yorn, the son of +Raud, the son of Runch." He went back six more generations, then +faltered and stopped. "Beyond that, the names have been lost. But I do +know that for a long time the Crown was in a city to the north of +here, and before that it was brought across the sea from another +country, and the name of that country was Brinn."</p> + +<p>Dranigo frowned, as though he had never heard the name before. +"Brinn." Salvadro's eyes widened. "Brinn, Dranigo! Do you think that +might be Britain?"</p> + +<p>Dranigo straightened, staring, "It might be! Britain was a great +nation, once; the last nation to join the Terran Federation, in the +Third Century Pre-Interstellar. And they had a king, and a crown with +a great diamond...."</p> + +<p>"The story of where it was made," Rand offered, "or who made it, has +been lost. I suppose the first people brought it to this world when +they came in starships."</p> + +<p>"It's more wonderful than that, Keeper," Salvadro said. "It was made +on this world, before the first starship was built. This world is +Terra, the Mother-World; didn't you know that, Keeper? This is the +world where Man was born."</p> + +<p>He hadn't known that. Of course, there had to be a world like that, +but a great world in the middle of everything, like Dremna. Not this +old, forgotten world.</p> + +<p>"It's true, Keeper," Dranigo told him. He hesitated slightly, then +cleared his throat. "Keeper, you're young no longer, and some day you +must die, as your father and his father did. Who will care for the +Crown then?"</p> + +<p>Who, indeed? His woman had died long ago, and she had given him no +sons, and the daughters she had given him had gone their own ways with +men of their own choosing and he didn't know what had become of any of +them. And the village people—they would start picking the Crown apart +to sell the jewels, one by one, before the ashes of his pyre stopped +smoking.</p> + +<p>"Let us have it, Keeper," Salvadro said. "We will take it to Dremna, +where armed men will guard it day and night, and it will be a trust +upon the Government of the Empire forever."</p> + +<p>He recoiled in horror. "Man! You don't know what you're saying!" he +cried. "This is the Crown, and I am the Keeper; I cannot part with it +as long as there is life in me."</p> + +<p>"And when there is not, what? Will it be laid on your pyre, so that it +may end with you?" Dranigo asked.</p> + +<p>"Do you think we'd throw it away as soon as we got tired looking at +it?" Salvadro exclaimed. "To show you how we'll value this, we'll give +you ... how much is a thousand imperials in trade-tokens, Dranigo?"</p> + +<p>"I'd guess about twenty thousand."</p> + +<p>"We'll give you twenty thousand Government trade-tokens," Salvadro +said. "If it costs us that much, you'll believe that we'll take care +of it, won't you?"</p> + +<p>Raud rose stiffly. "It is a wrong thing," he said, "to enter a man's +house and eat at his table, and then insult him."</p> + +<p>Dranigo rose also, and Salvadro with him. "We had no mind to insult +you, Keeper, or offer you a bribe to betray your trust. We only offer +to help you fulfill it, so that the Crown will be safe after all of us +are dead. Well, we won't talk any more about it, now. We're going in +Yorn Nazvik's ship, tomorrow; he's trading in the country to the west, +but before he returns to the Warm Seas, he'll stop at Long Valley +Town, and we'll fly over to see you. In the meantime, think about +this; ask yourself if you would not be doing a better thing for the +Crown by selling it to us."</p> + +<p>They wanted to leave the dishes and the new lumicon, and he permitted +it, to show that he was not offended by their offer to buy the Crown. +He knew that it was something very important to them, and he admitted, +grudgingly, that they could care for it better than he. At least, they +would not keep it in a hole under a hut in the wilderness, guarded +only by dogs. But they were not Keepers, and he was. To them, the +Crown would be but one of many important things; to him it was +everything. He could not imagine life without it.</p> + +<p>He lay for a long time among his bed-robes, unable to sleep, thinking +of the Crown and the visitors. Finally, to escape those thoughts, he +began planning tomorrow morning's hunt.</p> + +<p>He would start out as soon as the snow stopped, and go down among the +scrub-pines; he would take Brave with him, and leave Bold on guard at +home. Brave was more obedient, and a better hunter. Bold would jump +for the deer that had been shot, but Brave always tried to catch or +turn the ones that were still running.</p> + +<p>He needed meat badly, and he needed more deerskins, to make new +clothes. He was thinking of the new overshirt he meant to make as he +fell asleep....</p> + +<p>It was past noon when he and Brave turned back toward Keeper's House. +The deer had gone farther than he had expected, but he had found them, +and killed four. The carcasses were cleaned and hung from trees, out +of reach of the foxes and the wolves, and he would take Brave back to +the house and leave him on guard, and return with Bold and the sled to +bring in the meat. He was thinking cheerfully of the fresh meat when +he came out onto the path from the village, a mile from Keeper's +House. Then he stopped short, looking at the tracks.</p> + +<p>Three men—no, four—had come from the direction of the village since +the snow had stopped. One had been wearing sealskin boots, of the sort +worn by all Northfolk. The others had worn Southron boots, with ribbed +plastic soles. That puzzled him. None of the village people wore +Southron boots, and as he had been leaving in the early morning, he +had seen Yorn Nazvik's ship, the <i>Issa</i>, lift out from the village and +pass overhead, vanishing in the west. Possibly these were deserters. +In any case, they were not good people. He slipped the heavy rifle +from its snow-cover, checked the chamber, and hung the empty cover +around his neck like a scarf. He didn't like the looks of it.</p> + +<p>He liked it even less when he saw that the man in sealskin boots had +stopped to examine the tracks he and Brave had made on leaving, and +had then circled the house and come back, to be joined by his +plastic-soled companions. Then they had all put down their packs and +their ice-staffs, and advanced toward the door of the house. They had +stopped there for a moment, and then they had entered, come out again, +gotten their packs and ice-staffs, and gone away, up the slope to the +north.</p> + +<p>"Wait, Brave," he said. "Watch."</p> + +<p>Then he advanced, careful not to step on any of the tracks until he +reached the doorstep, where it could not be avoided.</p> + +<p>"Bold!" he called loudly. "Bold!"</p> + +<p>Silence. No welcoming whimper, no padding of feet, inside. He pulled +the latchstring with his left hand and pushed the door open with his +foot, the rifle ready. There was no need for that. What welcomed him, +within, was a sickening stench of burned flesh and hair.</p> + +<p>The new lumicon lighted the room brilliantly; his first glance was +enough. The slab that had covered the crypt was thrown aside, along +with the pile of deerskins, and between it and the door was a +shapeless black heap that, in a dimmer light, would not have been +instantly recognizable as the body of Bold. Fighting down an impulse +to rush in, he stood in the door, looking about and reading the story +of what had happened. The four men had entered, knowing that they +would find Bold alone. The one in the lead had had a negatron pistol +drawn, and when Bold had leaped at them, he had been blasted. The +blast had caught the dog from in front—the chest-cavity was literally +exploded, and the neck and head burned and smashed unrecognizably. +Even the brass studs on the leather collar had been melted.</p> + +<p>That and the ribbed sole-prints outside meant the same +thing—Southrons. Every Southron who came into the Northland, even the +common crewmen on the trading ships, carried some kind of an +energy-weapon. They were good only for fighting—one look at the body +of Bold showed what they did to meat and skins.</p> + +<p>He entered, then, laying his rifle on the table, and got down the +lumicon and went over to the crypt. After a while, he returned, hung +up the light again, and dropped onto a stool. He sat staring at the +violated crypt and tugging with one hand at a corner of his beard, +trying desperately to think.</p> + +<p>The thieves had known exactly where the Crown was kept and how it was +guarded; after killing Bold, they had gone straight to it, taken it +and gone away—three men in plastic-soled Southron boots and one man +in soft boots of sealskins, each with a pack and an ice-staff, and two +of them with rifles.</p> + +<p>Vahr Farg's son, and three deserters from the crew of Yorn Nazvik's +ship.</p> + +<p>It hadn't been Dranigo and Salvadro. They could have left the ship in +their airboat and come back, flying low, while he had been hunting. +But they would have grounded near the house, they would not have +carried packs, and they would have brought nobody with them.</p> + +<p>He thought he knew what had happened. Vahr Farg's son had seen the +Crown, and he had heard the two Starfolk offer more trade-tokens for +it than everything in the village was worth. But he was a coward; he +would never dare to face the Keeper's rifle and the teeth of Brave and +Bold alone. So, since none of the village folk would have part in so +shameful a crime against the moral code of the Northland, he had +talked three of Yorn Nazvik's airmen into deserting and joining him.</p> + +<p>And he had heard Dranigo say that the <i>Issa</i> would return to Long +Valley Town after the trading voyage to the west. Long Valley was on +the other side of this tongue of the Ice-Father; it was a good fifteen +days' foot-journey around, but by climbing and crossing, they could +easily be there in time to meet Yorn Nazvik's ship and the two +Starfolk. Well, where Vahr Farg's son could take three Southrons, Raud +the Keeper could follow.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Their tracks led up the slope beside the brook, always bearing to the +left, in the direction of the Ice-Father. After an hour, he found +where they had stopped and unslung their packs, and rested long enough +to smoke a cigarette. He read the story they had left in the snow, and +then continued, Brave trotting behind him pulling the sled. A few +snowflakes began dancing in the air, and he quickened his steps. He +knew, generally, where the thieves were going, but he wanted their +tracks unobliterated in front of him. The snow fell thicker and +thicker, and it was growing dark, and he was tiring. Even Brave was +stumbling occasionally before Raud stopped, in a hollow among the +pines, to build his tiny fire and eat and feed the dog. They bedded +down together, covered by the same sleeping robes.</p> + +<p>When he woke, the world was still black and white and gray in the +early dawn-light, and the robe that covered him and Brave was powdered +with snow, and the pine-branches above him were loaded and sagging.</p> + +<p>The snow had completely obliterated the tracks of the four thieves, +and it was still falling. When the sled was packed and the dog +harnessed to it, they set out, keeping close to the flank of the +Ice-Father on their left.</p> + +<p>It stopped snowing toward mid-day, and a little after, he heard a +shot, far ahead, and then two more, one upon the other. The first shot +would be the rifle of Vahr Farg's son; it was a single-loader, like +his own. The other two were from one of the light Southron rifles, +which fired a dozen shots one after another. They had shot, or shot +at, something like a deer, he supposed. That was sensible; it would +save their dried meat for the trip across the back of the Ice-Father. +And it showed that they still didn't know he was following them. He +found their tracks, some hours later.</p> + +<p>Toward dusk, he came to a steep building-mound. It had fared better +than most of the houses of the ancient people; it rose to twenty times +a man's height and on the south-east side it was almost perpendicular. +The other side sloped, and he was able to climb to the top, and far +away, ahead of him, he saw a tiny spark appear and grow. The fire +could not be more than two hours ahead.</p> + +<p>He built no fire that evening, but shared a slab of pemmican with +Brave, and they huddled together under the bearskin robe. The dog fell +asleep at once. For a long time, Raud sat awake, thinking.</p> + +<p>At first, he considered resting for a while, and then pressing forward +and attacking them as they slept. He had to kill all of them to regain +the Crown; that he had taken for granted from the first. He knew what +would happen if the Government Police came into this. They would take +one Southron's word against the word of ten Northfolk, and the thieves +would simply claim the Crown as theirs and accuse him of trying to +steal it. And Dranigo and Salvadro—they seemed like good men, but +they might see this as the only way to get the Crown for +themselves.... He would have to settle the affair for himself, before +the men reached Long Valley town.</p> + +<p>If he could do it here, it would save him and Brave the toil and +danger of climbing the Ice-Father. But could he? They had two rifles, +one an autoloader, and they had in all likelihood three negatron +pistols. After the single shot of the big rifle was fired, he had only +a knife and a hatchet and the spiked and pickaxed ice-staff, and +Brave. One of the thieves would kill him before he and Brave killed +all of them, and then the Crown would be lost. He dropped into sleep, +still thinking of what to do.</p> + +<p>He climbed the mound of the ancient building again in the morning, and +looked long and carefully at the face of the Ice-Father. It would take +the thieves the whole day to reach that place where the two tongues of +the glacier split apart, the easiest spot to climb. They would not try +to climb that evening; Vahr, who knew the most about it, would be the +last to advise such a risk. He was sure that by going up at the +nearest point he could get to the top of the Ice-Father before dark, +and drag Brave up after him. It would be a fearful climb, and he would +have most of a day's journey after that to reach the head of the long +ravine up which the thieves would come, but when they came up, he +could be there waiting for them. He knew what the old rifle could do, +to an inch, and there were places where the thieves would be coming up +where he could stay out of blaster-range and pick them all off, even +with a single-loader.</p> + +<p>He knew about negatron pistols, too. They shot little bullets of +energy; they were very fast, and did not drop, like a real bullet, so +that no judgment of range was needed. But the energy died quickly; the +negatrons lived only long enough to go five hundred paces and no more. +At eight hundred, he could hit a man easily. He almost felt himself +pitying Vahr Farg's son and his companions.</p> + +<p>When he reached the tumble of rocks that had been dragged along with +and pushed out from the Ice-Father, he stopped and made up a +pack—sleeping robes, all his cartridges, as much pemmican as he could +carry, and the bag of trade-tokens. If the chase took him to Long +Valley Town, he would need money. He also coiled about his waist a +long rawhide climbing-rope, and left the sled-harness on Brave, simply +detaching the traces.</p> + +<p>At first, they walked easily on the sloping ice. Then, as it grew +steeper, he fastened the rope to the dog's harness and advanced a +little at a time, dragging Brave up after him. Soon he was forced to +snub the rope with his ice-staff and chop steps with his hatchet. +Toward noon—at least he thought it was noon—it began snowing again, +and the valley below was blotted out in a swirl of white.</p> + +<p>They came to a narrow ledge, where they could rest, with a wall of ice +rising sheerly above them. He would have to climb that alone, and then +pull Brave up with the rope. He started working his way up the +perpendicular face, clinging by the pick of his ice-staff, chopping +footholds with the hatchet; the pack and the slung rifle on his back +pulled at him and threatened to drag him down. At length, he dragged +himself over the edge and drove the ice-staff in.</p> + +<p>"Up, Brave!" he called, tugging on the rope. "Good dog, Brave; come +up!"</p> + +<p>Brave tried to jump and slipped back. He tried again, and this time +Raud snubbed the rope and held him. Below the dog pawed frantically, +until he found a paw-hold on one of the chopped-out steps. Raud hauled +on the rope, and made another snub.</p> + +<p>It seemed like hours. It probably was; his arms were aching, and he +had lost all sense of time, or of the cold, or the danger of the narrow +ledge; he forgot about the Crown and the men who had stolen it; he +even forgot how he had come here, or that he had ever been anywhere +else. All that mattered was to get Brave up on the ledge beside him.</p> + +<p>Finally Brave came up and got first his fore-paws and then his body +over the edge. He lay still, panting proudly, while Raud hugged him +and told him, over and over, that he was a good dog. They rested for a +long time, and Raud got a slab of pemmican from the pack and divided +it with Brave.</p> + +<p>It was while they rested in the snow, munching, that he heard the +sound for the first time. It was faint and far away, and it sounded +like thunder, or like an avalanche beginning, and that puzzled him, +for this was not the time of year for either. As he listened, he heard +it again, and this time he recognized it—negatron pistols. It +frightened him; he wondered if the thieves had met a band of hunters. +No; if they were fighting Northfolk, there would be the reports of +firearms, too. Or might they be fighting among themselves? Remembering +the melted brass studs on Bold's collar, he became more frightened at +the thought of what a negatron-blast could do to the Crown.</p> + +<p>The noise stopped, then started again, and he got to his feet, calling +to Brave. They were on a wide ledge that slanted upward toward the +north. It would take him closer to the top, and closer to where Vahr +and his companions would come up. Together, they started up, Raud +probing cautiously ahead of him with the ice-staff for hidden +crevasses. After a while, he came to a wide gap in the ice beside him, +slanting toward the top, its upper end lost in swirling snow. So he +and Brave began climbing, and after a while he could no longer hear +the negatron pistols.</p> + +<p>When it was almost too dark to go farther, he suddenly found himself +on level snow, and here he made camp, digging a hole and lining it +with the sleeping robes.</p> + +<p>The sky was clear when he woke, and a pale yellow light was glowing in +the east. For a while he lay huddled with the dog, stiff and +miserable, and then he forced himself to his feet. He ate, and fed +Brave, and then checked his rifle and made his pack.</p> + +<p>He was sure, now, that he had a plan that would succeed. He could +reach the place where Vahr and the Southrons would come up long before +they did, and be waiting for them. In his imagination, he could see +them coming up in single file, Vahr Farg's son in the lead, and he +could imagine himself hidden behind a mound of snow, the ice-staff +upright to brace his left hand and the forestock of the rifle resting +on his outthrust thumb and the butt against his shoulder. The first +bullet would be for Vahr. He could shoot all of them, one after +another, that way....</p> + +<p>He stopped, looking in chagrined incredulity at the tracks in front of +him—the tracks he knew so well, of one man in sealskin boots and +three men with ribbed plastic soles. Why, it couldn't be! They should +be no more than half way up the long ravine, between the two tongues +of the Ice-Father, ten miles to the north. But here they were, on the +back of the Ice-Father and crossing to the west ahead of him. They +must have climbed the sheer wall of ice, only a few miles from where +he had dragged himself and Brave to the top. Then he remembered the +negatron-blasts he had heard. While he had been chopping footholds +with a hatchet, they had been smashing tons of ice out of their way.</p> + +<p>"Well, Brave," he said mildly. "Old Keeper wasn't so smart, after all, +was he? Come on, Brave."</p> + +<p>The thieves were making good time. He read that from the tracks +—straight, evenly spaced, no weary heel-dragging. Once or twice, he +saw where they had stopped for a brief rest. He hoped to see their +fire in the evening.</p> + +<p>He didn't. They wouldn't have enough fuel to make a big one, or keep +it burning long. But in the morning, as he was breaking camp, he saw +black smoke ahead.</p> + +<p>A few times, he had been in air-boats, and had looked down on the back +of the Ice-Father, and it had looked flat. Really, it was not. There +were long ridges, sheer on one side and sloping gently on the other, +where the ice had overridden hills and low mountains, or had cracked +and one side had pushed up over the other. And there were deep gullies +where the prevailing winds had scooped away loose snow year after year +for centuries, and drifts where it had piled, many of them higher than +the building-mounds of the ancient cities. But from a distance, as +from above, they all blended into a featureless white monotony.</p> + +<p>At last, leaving a tangle of cliffs and ravines, he looked out across +a broad stretch of nearly level snow and saw, for the first time, the +men he was following. Four tiny dots, so far that they seemed +motionless, strung out in single file. Instantly, he crouched behind a +swell in the surface and dragged Brave down beside him. One of them, +looking back, might see him, as he saw them. When they vanished behind +a snow-hill, he rose and hastened forward, to take cover again. He +kept at this all day; by alternately resting and running, be found +himself gaining on them, and toward evening, he was within +rifle-range. The man in the lead was Vahr Farg's son; even at that +distance he recognized him easily. The others were Southrons, of +course; they wore quilted garments of cloth, and quilted hoods. The +man next to Vahr, in blue, carried a rifle, as Vahr did. The man in +yellow had only an ice-staff, and the man in green, at the rear, had +the Crown on his pack, still in the bearskin bundle.</p> + +<p>He waited, at the end of the day, until he saw the light of their +fire. Then he and Brave circled widely around their camp, and stopped +behind a snow-ridge, on the other side of an open and level stretch a +mile wide. He dug the sleeping-hole on the crest of the ridge, making +it larger than usual, and piled up a snow breastwork in front of it, +with an embrasure through which he could look or fire without being +seen.</p> + +<p>Before daybreak, he was awake and had his pack made, and when he saw +the smoke of the thieves' campfire, he was lying behind his +breastwork, the rifle resting on its folded cover, muzzle toward the +smoke. He lay for a long time, watching, before he saw the file of +tiny dots emerge into the open.</p> + +<p>They came forward steadily, in the same order as on the day before, +Vahr in the lead and the man with the Crown in the rear. The thieves +suspected nothing; they grew larger and larger as they approached, +until they were at the range for which he had set his sights. He +cuddled the butt of the rifle against his cheek. As the man who +carried the Crown walked under the blade of the front sight, he +squeezed the trigger.</p> + +<p>The rifle belched pink flame and roared and pounded his shoulder. As +the muzzle was still rising, he flipped open the breech, and threw out +the empty. He inserted a fresh round.</p> + +<p>There were only three of them, now. The man with the bearskin bundle +was down and motionless. Vahr Farg's son had gotten his rifle unslung +and uncovered. The Southron with the other rifle was slower; he was +only getting off the cover as Vahr, who must have seen the flash, +fired hastily. Too hastily; the bullet kicked up snow twenty feet to +the left. The third man had drawn his negatron pistol and was trying +to use it; thin hairlines of brilliance were jetting out from his +hand, stopping far short of their mark.</p> + +<p>Raud closed his sights on the man with the autoloading rifle; as he +did, the man with the negatron pistol, realizing the limitations of +his weapon, was sweeping it back and forth, aiming at the snow fifty +yards in front of him. Raud couldn't see the effect of his second +shot—between him and his target, blueish light blazed and twinkled, +and dense clouds of steam rose—but he felt sure that he had missed. +He reloaded, and watched for movements on the edge of the rising +steam.</p> + +<p>It cleared, slowly; when it did, there was nothing behind it. Even the +body of the dead man was gone. He blinked, bewildered. He'd picked +that place carefully; there had been no gully or ravine within running +distance. Then he grunted. There hadn't been—but there was now. The +negatron pistol again. The thieves were hidden in a pit they had +blasted, and they had dragged the body in with them.</p> + +<p>He crawled back to reassure Brave, who was guarding the pack, and to +shift the pack back for some distance. Then he returned to his +embrasure in the snow-fort and resumed his watch. For a long time, +nothing happened, and then a head came briefly peeping up out of the +pit. A head under a green hood. Raud chuckled mirthlessly into his +beard. If he'd been doing that, he'd have traded hoods with the dead +man before shoving up his body to draw fire. This kept up, at +intervals, for about an hour. He was wondering if they would stay in +the pit until dark.</p> + +<p>Then Vahr Farg's son leaped out of the pit and began running across +the snow. He had his pack, and his rifle; he ran, zig-zag, almost +directly toward where Raud was lying. Raud laughed, this time in real +amusement. The Southrons had chased Vahr out, as a buck will chase his +does in front of him when he thinks there is danger in front. If Vahr +wasn't shot, it would be safe for them to come out. If he was, it +would be no loss, and the price of the Crown would only have to be +divided in two, rather than three, shares. Vahr came to within two +hundred yards of Raud's unseen rifle, and then dropped his pack and +flung himself down behind it, covering the ridge with his rifle.</p> + +<p>Minutes passed, and then the Southron in yellow came out and ran +forward. He had the bearskin bundle on his pack; he ran to where Vahr +lay, added his pack to Vahr's, and lay down behind it. Raud chewed his +underlip in vexation. This wasn't the way he wanted it; that fellow +had a negatron pistol, and he was close enough to use it effectively. +And he was sheltered behind the Crown; Raud was afraid to shoot. He +didn't miss what he shot at—often. But no man alive could say that he +never missed.</p> + +<p>The other Southron, the one in blue with the autoloading rifle, came +out and advanced slowly, his weapon at the ready. Raud tensed himself +to jump, aimed carefully, and waited. When the man in blue was a +hundred yards from the pit, he shot him dead. The rifle was still +lifting from the recoil when he sprang to his feet, turned, and ran. +Before he was twenty feet away, the place where he had been exploded; +the force of the blast almost knocked him down, and steam blew past +and ahead of him. Ignoring his pack and ice-staff, he ran on, calling +to Brave to follow. The dog obeyed instantly; more negatron-blasts +were thundering and blazing and steaming on the crest of the ridge. He +swerved left, ran up another slope, and slid down the declivity +beyond into the ravine on the other side.</p> + +<p>There he paused to eject the empty, make sure that there was no snow +in the rifle bore, and reload. The blasting had stopped by then; after +a moment, he heard the voice of Vahr Farg's son, and guessed that the +two surviving thieves had advanced to the blasted crest of the other +ridge. They'd find the pack, and his tracks and Brave's. He wondered +whether they'd come hunting for him, or turn around and go the other +way. He knew what he'd do, under the circumstances, but he doubted if +Vahr's mind would work that way. The Southron's might; he wouldn't +want to be caught between blaster-range and rifle-range of Raud the +Keeper again.</p> + +<p>"Come, Brave," he whispered, looking quickly around and then starting +to run.</p> + +<p>Lay a trail down this ravine for them to follow. Then get to the top +of the ridge beside it, double back, and wait for them. Let them pass, +and shoot the Southron first. By now, Vahr would have a negatron +pistol too, taken from the body of the man in blue, but it wasn't a +weapon he was accustomed to, and he'd be more than a little afraid of +it.</p> + +<p>The ravine ended against an upthrust face of ice, at right angles to +the ridge he had just crossed; there was a V-shaped notch between +them. He turned into this; it would be a good place to get to the +top....</p> + +<p>He found himself face to face, at fifteen feet, with Vahr Farg's son +and the Southron in yellow, coming through from the other side. They +had their packs, the Southron had the bearskin bundle, and they had +drawn negatron pistols in their hands.</p> + +<p>Swinging up the rifle, he shot the Southron in the chest, making sure +he hit him low enough to miss the Crown. At the same time, he shouted:</p> + +<p>"<i>Catch, Brave!</i>"</p> + +<p>Brave never jumped for the deer or wild-ox that had been shot; always +for the one still on its feet. He launched himself straight at the +throat of Vahr Farg's son—and into the muzzle of Vahr's blaster. He +died in a blue-white flash.</p> + +<p>Raud had reversed the heavy rifle as Brave leaped; he threw it, +butt-on, like a seal-spear, into Vahr's face. As soon as it was out of +his fingers, he was jumping forward, snatching out his knife. His left +hand found Vahr's right wrist, and he knew that he was driving the +knife into Vahr's body, over and over, trying to keep the blaster +pointed away from him and away from the body of the dead Southron. At +last, the negatron-pistol fell from Vahr's fingers, and the arm that +had been trying to fend off his knife relaxed.</p> + +<p>He straightened and tried to stand—he had been kneeling on Vahr's +body, he found—and reeled giddily. He got to his feet and stumbled to +the other body, kneeling beside it. He tried for a long time before he +was able to detach the bearskin bundle from the dead man's pack. Then +he got the pack open, and found dried venison. He started to divide +it, and realized that there was no Brave with whom to share it. He had +just sent Brave to his death.</p> + +<p>Well, and so? Brave had been the Keeper's dog. He had died for the +Crown, and that had been his duty. If he could have saved the Crown by +giving his own life, Raud would have died too. But he could not—if +Raud died the Crown was lost.</p> + +<p>The sky was darkening rapidly, and the snow was whitening the body in +green. Moving slowly, he started to make camp for the night.</p> + +<p>It was still snowing when he woke. He started to rise, wondering, at +first, where Brave was, and then he huddled back among the robes—his +own and the dead men's—and tried to go to sleep again. Finally, he +got up and ate some of his pemmican, gathered his gear and broke camp. +For a moment, and only a moment, he stood looking to the east, in the +direction he had come from. Then he turned west and started across the +snow toward the edge of the Ice-Father.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The snow stopped before he reached the edge, and the sun was shining +when he found a slanting way down into the valley. Then, out of the +north, a black dot appeared in the sky and grew larger, until he saw +that it was a Government airboat—one of the kind used by the men who +measured the growth of the Ice-Father. It came curving in and down +toward him, and a window slid open and a man put his head out.</p> + +<p>"Want us to lift you down?" he asked. "We're going to Long Valley +Town. If that's where you're going, we can take you the whole way."</p> + +<p>"Yes. That's where I'm going." He said it as though he were revealing, +for the first time, some discovery he had just made. "For your +kindness and help, I thank you."</p> + +<p>In less time than a man could walk two miles with a pack, they were +letting down in front of the Government House in Long Valley Town.</p> + +<p>He had never been in the Government House before. The walls were clear +glass. The floors were plastic, clean and white. Strips of bright new +lumicon ran around every room at the tops of all the walls. There were +no fires, but the great rooms were as warm as though it were a +midsummer afternoon.</p> + +<p>Still carrying his pack and his rifle, Raud went to a desk where a +Southron in a white shirt sat.</p> + +<p>"Has Yorn Nazvik's ship, the <i>Issa</i>, been here lately?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"About six days ago," the Southron said, without looking up from the +papers on his desk. "She's on a trading voyage to the west now, but +Nazvik's coming back here before he goes south. Be here in about ten +days." He looked up. "You have business with Nazvik?"</p> + +<p>Raud shook his head. "Not with Yorn Nazvik, no. My business is with +the two Starfolk who are passengers with him. Dranigo and Salvadro."</p> + +<p>The Southron looked displeased. "Aren't you getting just a little +above yourself, old man, calling the Prince Salsavadran and the Lord +Dranigrastan by their familiar names?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you're talking about. Those were the names they +gave me; I didn't know they had any others."</p> + +<p>The Southron started to laugh, then stopped.</p> + +<p>"And if I may ask, what is your name, and what business have you with +them?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>Raud told him his name. "I have something for them. Something they +want very badly. If I can find a place to stay here, I will wait until +they return—"</p> + +<p>The Southron got to his feet. "Wait here for a moment, Keeper," he +said. "I'll be back soon."</p> + +<p>He left the desk, going into another room. After a while, he came +back. This time he was respectful.</p> + +<p>"I was talking to the Lord Dranigrastan—whom you know as Dranigo—on +the radio. He and the Prince Salsavadran are lifting clear of the +<i>Issa</i> in their airboat and coming back here to see you. They should +be here in about three hours. If, in the meantime, you wish to bathe +and rest, I'll find you a room. And I suppose you'll want something to +eat, too...."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He was waiting at the front of the office, looking out the glass wall, +when the airboat came in and grounded, and Salvadro and Dranigo jumped +out and came hurrying up the walk to the doorway.</p> + +<p>"Well, here you are, Keeper," Dranigo greeted him, clasping his hand. +Then he saw the bearskin bundle under Raud's arm. "You brought it with +you? But didn't you believe that we were coming?"</p> + +<p>"Are you going to let us have it?" Salvadro was asking.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I will sell it to you, for the price you offered. I am not fit +to be Keeper any longer. I lost it. It was stolen from me, the day +after I saw you, and I have only yesterday gotten it back. Both my +dogs were killed, too. I can no longer keep it safe. Better that you +take it with you to Dremna, away from this world where it was made. I +have thought, before, that this world and I are both old and good for +nothing any more."</p> + +<p>"This world may be old, Keeper," Dranigo said, "but it is the +Mother-World, Terra, the world that sent Man to the Stars. And +you—when you lost the Crown, you recovered it again."</p> + +<p>"The next time, I won't be able to. Too many people will know that the +Crown is worth stealing, and the next time, they'll kill me first."</p> + +<p>"Well, we said we'd give you twenty thousand trade-tokens for it," +Salvadro said. "We'll have them for you as soon as we can draw them +from the Government bank, here. Or give you a check and let you draw +them as you want them." Raud didn't understand that, and Salvadro +didn't try to explain. "And then we'll fly you home."</p> + +<p>He shook his head. "No, I have no home. The place where you saw me is +Keeper's House, and I am not the Keeper any more. I will stay here and +find a place to live, and pay somebody to take care of me...."</p> + +<p>With twenty thousand trade-tokens, he could do that. It would buy a +house in which he could live, and he could find some woman who had +lost her man, who would do his work for him. But he must be careful of +the money. Dig a crypt in the corner of his house for it. He wondered +if he could find a pair of good dogs and train them to guard it for +him....</p> + +<hr style="width:65%" /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Keeper, by Henry Beam Piper + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KEEPER *** + +***** This file should be named 19338-h.htm or 19338-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/3/3/19338/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Keeper + +Author: Henry Beam Piper + +Release Date: September 20, 2006 [EBook #19338] +Last updated: January 17, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KEEPER *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Venture Science Fiction, July 1957. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + + [Illustration: Frontispiece] + + + + + _Evil men had stolen his treasure, and Raud set out with his + deer rifle and his great dog Brave to catch the thieves + before they could reach the Starfolk. That the men had + negatron pistols meant little--Raud was the Keeper...._ + + + + + THE KEEPER + + + + by H. BEAM PIPER + + + * * * * * + + + + +When he heard the deer crashing through brush and scuffling the dead +leaves, he stopped and stood motionless in the path. He watched them +bolt down the slope from the right and cross in front of him, wishing +he had the rifle, and when the last white tail vanished in the +gray-brown woods he drove the spike of the ice-staff into the +stiffening ground and took both hands to shift the weight of the +pack. If he'd had the rifle, he could have shot only one of them. As +it was, they were unfrightened, and he knew where to find them in the +morning. + +Ahead, to the west and north, low clouds massed; the white front of +the Ice-Father loomed clear and sharp between them and the blue of the +distant forests. It would snow, tonight. If it stopped at daybreak, he +would have good tracking, and in any case, it would be easier to get +the carcasses home over snow. He wrenched loose the ice-staff and +started forward again, following the path that wound between and among +and over the irregular mounds and hillocks. It was still an hour's +walk to Keeper's House, and the daylight was fading rapidly. + +Sometimes, when he was not so weary and in so much haste, he would +loiter here, wondering about the ancient buildings and the +long-vanished people who had raised them. There had been no woods at +all, then; nothing but great houses like mountains, piling up toward +the sky, and the valley where he meant to hunt tomorrow had been an +arm of the sea that was now a three days' foot-journey away. Some said +that the cities had been destroyed and the people killed in wars--big +wars, not squabbles like the fights between sealing-companies from +different villages. He didn't think so, himself. It was more likely +that they had all left their homes and gone away in starships when the +Ice-Father had been born and started pushing down out of the north. +There had been many starships, then. When he had been a boy, the old +men had talked about a long-ago time when there had been hundreds of +them visible in the sky, every morning and evening. But that had been +long ago indeed. Starships came but seldom to this world, now. This +world was old and lonely and poor. Like poor lonely old Raud the +Keeper. + +He felt angry to find himself thinking like that. Never pity yourself, +Raud; be proud. That was what his father had always taught him: "Be +proud, for you are the Keeper's son, and when I am gone, you will be +the Keeper after me. But in your pride, be humble, for what you will +keep is the Crown." + +The thought of the Crown, never entirely absent from his mind, wakened +the anxiety that always slept lightly if at all. He had been away all +day, and there were so many things that could happen. The path seemed +longer, after that; the landmarks farther apart. Finally, he came out +on the edge of the steep bank, and looked down across the brook to the +familiar low windowless walls and sharp-ridged roof of Keeper's House; +and when he came, at last, to the door, and pulled the latchstring, he +heard the dogs inside--the soft, coughing bark of Brave, and the +anxious little whimper of Bold--and he knew that there was nothing +wrong in Keeper's House. + +The room inside was lighted by a fist-sized chunk of lumicon, hung in +a net bag of thongs from the rafter over the table. It was old--cast +off by some rich Southron as past its best brilliance, it had been old +when he had bought it from Yorn Nazvik the Trader, and that had been +years ago. Now its light was as dim and yellow as firelight. He'd have +to replace it soon, but this trip he had needed new cartridges for the +big rifle. A man could live in darkness more easily than he could live +without cartridges. + +The big black dogs were rising from their bed of deerskins on the +stone slab that covered the crypt in the far corner. They did not come +to meet him, but stayed in their place of trust, greeting him with +anxious, eager little sounds. + +"Good boys," he said. "Good dog, Brave; good dog, Bold. Old Keeper's +home again. Hungry?" + +They recognized that word, and whined. He hung up the ice-staff on the +pegs by the door, then squatted and got his arms out of the +pack-straps. + +"Just a little now; wait a little," he told the dogs. "Keeper'll get +something for you." + +He unhooked the net bag that held the lumicon and went to the ladder, +climbing to the loft between the stone ceiling and the steep snow-shed +roof; he cut down two big chunks of smoked wild-ox beef--the dogs +liked that better than smoked venison--and climbed down. + +He tossed one chunk up against the ceiling, at the same time shouting: +"Bold! Catch!" Bold leaped forward, sinking his teeth into the meat as +it was still falling, shaking and mauling it. Brave, still on the +crypt-slab, was quivering with hunger and eagerness, but he remained +in place until the second chunk was tossed and he was ordered to take +it. Then he, too, leaped and caught it, savaging it in mimicry of a +kill. For a while, he stood watching them growl and snarl and tear +their meat, great beasts whose shoulders came above his own waist. +While they lived to guard it, the Crown was safe. Then he crossed to +the hearth, scraped away the covering ashes, piled on kindling and +logs and fanned the fire alight. He lifted the pack to the table and +unlaced the deerskin cover. + +Cartridges in plastic boxes of twenty, long and thick; shot for the +duck-gun, and powder and lead and cartridge-primers; fills for the +fire-lighter; salt; needles; a new file. And the deerskin bag of +trade-tokens. He emptied them on the table and counted them--tokens, +and half-tokens and five-tokens, and even one ten-token. There were +always less in the bag, after each trip to the village. The Southrons +paid less and less, each year, for furs and skins, and asked more and +more for what they had to sell. + +He put away the things he had brought from the village, and was +considering whether to open the crypt now and replace the bag of +tokens, when the dogs stiffened, looking at the door. They got to +their feet, neck-hairs bristling, as the knocking began. + +He tossed the token-bag onto the mantel and went to the door, the dogs +following and standing ready as he opened it. + +The snow had started, and now the ground was white except under the +evergreens. Three men stood outside the door, and over their shoulders +he could see an airboat grounded in the clearing in front of the +house. + +"You are honored, Raud Keeper," one of them began. "Here are strangers +who have come to talk to you. Strangers from the Stars!" + +He recognized the speaker, in sealskin boots and deerskin trousers and +hooded overshirt like his own--Vahr Farg's son, one of the village +people. His father was dead, and his woman was the daughter of Gorth +Sledmaker, and he was a house-dweller with his woman's father. A +worthless youth, lazy and stupid and said to be a coward. Still, +guests were guests, even when brought by the likes of Vahr Farg's son. +He looked again at the airboat, and remembered seeing it, that day, +made fast to the top-deck of Yorn Nazvik's trading-ship, the Issa. + +"Enter and be welcome; the house is yours, and all in it that is mine +to give." He turned to the dogs. "Brave, Bold; go watch." + +Obediently, they trotted over to the crypt and lay down. He stood +aside; Vahr entered, standing aside also, as though he were the host, +inviting his companions in. They wore heavy garments of woven cloth +and boots of tanned leather with hard heels and stiff soles, and as +they came in, each unbuckled and laid aside a belt with a holstered +negatron pistol. One was stocky and broad-shouldered, with red hair; +the other was slender, dark haired and dark eyed, with a face as +smooth as a woman's. Everybody in the village had wondered about them. +They were not of Yorn Nazvik's crew, but passengers on the _Issa_. + +"These are Empire people, from the Far Stars," Vahr informed him, +naming their names. Long names, which meant nothing; certainly they +were not names the Southrons from the Warm Seas bore. "And this is +Raud the Keeper, with whom your honors wish to speak." + +"Keeper's House is honored. I'm sorry that I have not food prepared; +if you can excuse me while I make some ready...." + +"You think these noblemen from the Stars would eat your swill?" Vahr +hooted. "Crazy old fool, these are--" + +The slim man pivoted on his heel; his open hand caught Vahr just below +the ear and knocked him sprawling. It must have been some kind of +trick-blow. That or else the slim stranger was stronger than he +looked. + +"Hold your miserable tongue!" he told Vahr, who was getting to his +feet. "We're guests of Raud the Keeper, and we'll not have him +insulted in his own house by a cur like you!" + +The man with red hair turned. "I am ashamed. We should not have +brought this into your house; we should have left it outside." He +spoke the Northland language well, "It will honor us to share your +food, Keeper." + +"Yes, and see here," the younger man said, "we didn't know you'd be +alone. Let us help you. Dranigo's a fine cook, and I'm not bad, +myself." + +He started to protest, then let them have their way. After all, a +guest's women helped the woman of the house, and as there was no woman +in Keeper's House, it was not unfitting for them to help him. + +"Your friend's name is Dranigo?" he asked. "I'm sorry, but I didn't +catch yours." + +"I don't wonder; fool mouthed it so badly I couldn't understand it +myself. It's Salvadro." + +They fell to work with him, laying out eating-tools--there were just +enough to go around--and hunting for dishes, of which there were not. +Salvadro saved that situation by going out and bringing some in from +the airboat. He must have realized that the lumicon over the table was +the only light beside the fire in the house, for he was carrying a +globe of the luminous plastic with him when he came in, grumbling +about how dark it had gotten outside. It was new and brilliant, and +the light hurt Raud's eyes, at first. + +"Are you truly from the Stars?" he asked, after the food was on the +table and they had begun to eat. "Neither I nor any in the village +have seen anybody from the Stars before." + +The big man with the red hair nodded. "Yes. We are from Dremna." + +Why, Dremna was the Great World, at the middle of everything! Dremna +was the Empire. People from Dremna came to the cities of Awster and +fabulous Antark as Southron traders from the Warm Seas came to the +villages of the Northfolk. He stammered something about that. + +"Yes. You see, we...." Dranigo began. "I don't know the word for it, +in your language, but we're people whose work it is to learn things. +Not from other people or from books, but new things, that nobody else +knows. We came here to learn about the long-ago times on this world, +like the great city that was here and is now mounds of stone and +earth. Then, when we go back to Dremna, we will tell other people +what we have found out." + +Vahr Farg's son, having eaten his fill, was fidgeting on his stool, +looking contemptuously at the strangers and their host. He thought +they were fools to waste time learning about people who had died long +ago. So he thought the Keeper was a fool, to guard a worthless old +piece of junk. + +Raud hesitated for a moment, then said: "I have a very ancient thing, +here in this house. It was worn, long ago, by great kings. Their +names, and the name of their people, are lost, but the Crown remains. +It was left to me as a trust by my father, who was Keeper before me +and to whom it was left by his father, who was Keeper in his time. +Have you heard of it?" + +Dranigo nodded. "We heard of it, first of all, on Dremna," he said. +"The Empire has a Space Navy base, and observatories and relay +stations, on this planet. Space Navy officers who had been here +brought the story back; they heard it from traders from the Warm Seas, +who must have gotten it from people like Yorn Nazvik. Would you show +it to us, Keeper? It was to see the Crown that we came here." + +Raud got to his feet, and saw, as he unhooked the lumicon, that he was +trembling. "Yes, of course. It is an honor. It is an ancient and +wonderful thing, but I never thought that it was known on Dremna." He +hastened across to the crypt. + +The dogs looked up as he approached. They knew that he wanted to lift +the cover, but they were comfortable and had to be coaxed to leave it. +He laid aside the deerskins. The stone slab was heavy, and he had to +strain to tilt it up. He leaned it against the wall, then picked up +the lumicon and went down the steps into the little room below, +opening the wooden chest and getting out the bundle wrapped in +bearskin. He brought it up again and carried it to the table, from +which Dranigo and Salvadro were clearing the dishes. + +"Here it is," he said, untying the thongs. "I do not know how old it +is. It was old even before the Ice-Father was born." + +That was too much for Vahr. "See, I told you he's crazy!" he cried. +"The Ice-Father has been here forever. Gorth Sledmaker says so," he +added, as though that settled it. + +"Gorth Sledmaker's a fool. He thinks the world began in the time of +his grandfather." He had the thongs untied, and spread the bearskin, +revealing the blackened leather box, flat on the bottom and domed at +the top. "How long ago do you think it was that the Ice-Father was +born?" he asked Salvadro and Dranigo. + +"Not more than two thousand years," Dranigo said. "The glaciation +hadn't started in the time of the Third Empire. There is no record of +this planet during the Fourth, but by the beginning of the Fifth +Empire, less than a thousand years ago, things here were very much as +they are now." + +"There are other worlds which have Ice-Fathers," Salvadro explained. +"They are all worlds having one pole or the other in open water, +surrounded by land. When the polar sea is warmed by water from the +tropics, snow falls on the lands around, and more falls in winter than +melts in summer, and so is an Ice-Father formed. Then, when the polar +sea is all frozen, no more snow falls, and the Ice-Father melts faster +than it grows, and finally vanishes. And then, when warm water comes +into the polar sea again, more snow falls, and it starts over again. +On a world like this, it takes fifteen or twenty thousand years from +one Ice-Father to the next." + +"I never heard that there had been another Ice-Father, before this +one. But then, I only know the stories told by the old men, when I was +a boy. I suppose that was before the first people came in starships to +this world." + +The two men of Dremna looked at one another oddly, and he wondered, as +he unfastened the brass catches on the box, if he had said something +foolish, and then he had the box open, and lifted out the Crown. He +was glad, now, that Salvadro had brought in the new lumicon, as he put +the box aside and set the Crown on the black bearskin. The golden +circlet and the four arches of gold above it were clean and bright, +and the jewels were splendid in the light. Salvadro and Dranigo were +looking at it wide-eyed. Vahr Farg's son was open-mouthed. + +"Great Universe! Will you look at that diamond on the top!" Salvadro +was saying. + +"That's not the work of any Galactic art-period," Dranigo declared. +"That thing goes back to the Pre-Interstellar Era." And for a while he +talked excitedly to Salvadro. + +"Tell me, Keeper," Salvadro said at length, "how much do you know +about the Crown? Where did it come from; who made it; who were the +first Keepers?" + +He shook his head. "I only know what my father told me, when I was a +boy. Now I am an old man, and some things I have forgotten. But my +father was Runch, Raud's son, who was the son of Yorn, the son of +Raud, the son of Runch." He went back six more generations, then +faltered and stopped. "Beyond that, the names have been lost. But I do +know that for a long time the Crown was in a city to the north of +here, and before that it was brought across the sea from another +country, and the name of that country was Brinn." + +Dranigo frowned, as though he had never heard the name before. +"Brinn." Salvadro's eyes widened. "Brinn, Dranigo! Do you think that +might be Britain?" + +Dranigo straightened, staring, "It might be! Britain was a great +nation, once; the last nation to join the Terran Federation, in the +Third Century Pre-Interstellar. And they had a king, and a crown with +a great diamond...." + +"The story of where it was made," Rand offered, "or who made it, has +been lost. I suppose the first people brought it to this world when +they came in starships." + +"It's more wonderful than that, Keeper," Salvadro said. "It was made +on this world, before the first starship was built. This world is +Terra, the Mother-World; didn't you know that, Keeper? This is the +world where Man was born." + +He hadn't known that. Of course, there had to be a world like that, +but a great world in the middle of everything, like Dremna. Not this +old, forgotten world. + +"It's true, Keeper," Dranigo told him. He hesitated slightly, then +cleared his throat. "Keeper, you're young no longer, and some day you +must die, as your father and his father did. Who will care for the +Crown then?" + +Who, indeed? His woman had died long ago, and she had given him no +sons, and the daughters she had given him had gone their own ways with +men of their own choosing and he didn't know what had become of any of +them. And the village people--they would start picking the Crown apart +to sell the jewels, one by one, before the ashes of his pyre stopped +smoking. + +"Let us have it, Keeper," Salvadro said. "We will take it to Dremna, +where armed men will guard it day and night, and it will be a trust +upon the Government of the Empire forever." + +He recoiled in horror. "Man! You don't know what you're saying!" he +cried. "This is the Crown, and I am the Keeper; I cannot part with it +as long as there is life in me." + +"And when there is not, what? Will it be laid on your pyre, so that it +may end with you?" Dranigo asked. + +"Do you think we'd throw it away as soon as we got tired looking at +it?" Salvadro exclaimed. "To show you how we'll value this, we'll give +you ... how much is a thousand imperials in trade-tokens, Dranigo?" + +"I'd guess about twenty thousand." + +"We'll give you twenty thousand Government trade-tokens," Salvadro +said. "If it costs us that much, you'll believe that we'll take care +of it, won't you?" + +Raud rose stiffly. "It is a wrong thing," he said, "to enter a man's +house and eat at his table, and then insult him." + +Dranigo rose also, and Salvadro with him. "We had no mind to insult +you, Keeper, or offer you a bribe to betray your trust. We only offer +to help you fulfill it, so that the Crown will be safe after all of us +are dead. Well, we won't talk any more about it, now. We're going in +Yorn Nazvik's ship, tomorrow; he's trading in the country to the west, +but before he returns to the Warm Seas, he'll stop at Long Valley +Town, and we'll fly over to see you. In the meantime, think about +this; ask yourself if you would not be doing a better thing for the +Crown by selling it to us." + +They wanted to leave the dishes and the new lumicon, and he permitted +it, to show that he was not offended by their offer to buy the Crown. +He knew that it was something very important to them, and he admitted, +grudgingly, that they could care for it better than he. At least, they +would not keep it in a hole under a hut in the wilderness, guarded +only by dogs. But they were not Keepers, and he was. To them, the +Crown would be but one of many important things; to him it was +everything. He could not imagine life without it. + +He lay for a long time among his bed-robes, unable to sleep, thinking +of the Crown and the visitors. Finally, to escape those thoughts, he +began planning tomorrow morning's hunt. + +He would start out as soon as the snow stopped, and go down among the +scrub-pines; he would take Brave with him, and leave Bold on guard at +home. Brave was more obedient, and a better hunter. Bold would jump +for the deer that had been shot, but Brave always tried to catch or +turn the ones that were still running. + +He needed meat badly, and he needed more deerskins, to make new +clothes. He was thinking of the new overshirt he meant to make as he +fell asleep.... + +It was past noon when he and Brave turned back toward Keeper's House. +The deer had gone farther than he had expected, but he had found them, +and killed four. The carcasses were cleaned and hung from trees, out +of reach of the foxes and the wolves, and he would take Brave back to +the house and leave him on guard, and return with Bold and the sled to +bring in the meat. He was thinking cheerfully of the fresh meat when +he came out onto the path from the village, a mile from Keeper's +House. Then he stopped short, looking at the tracks. + +Three men--no, four--had come from the direction of the village since +the snow had stopped. One had been wearing sealskin boots, of the sort +worn by all Northfolk. The others had worn Southron boots, with ribbed +plastic soles. That puzzled him. None of the village people wore +Southron boots, and as he had been leaving in the early morning, he +had seen Yorn Nazvik's ship, the _Issa_, lift out from the village and +pass overhead, vanishing in the west. Possibly these were deserters. +In any case, they were not good people. He slipped the heavy rifle +from its snow-cover, checked the chamber, and hung the empty cover +around his neck like a scarf. He didn't like the looks of it. + +He liked it even less when he saw that the man in sealskin boots had +stopped to examine the tracks he and Brave had made on leaving, and +had then circled the house and come back, to be joined by his +plastic-soled companions. Then they had all put down their packs and +their ice-staffs, and advanced toward the door of the house. They had +stopped there for a moment, and then they had entered, come out again, +gotten their packs and ice-staffs, and gone away, up the slope to the +north. + +"Wait, Brave," he said. "Watch." + +Then he advanced, careful not to step on any of the tracks until he +reached the doorstep, where it could not be avoided. + +"Bold!" he called loudly. "Bold!" + +Silence. No welcoming whimper, no padding of feet, inside. He pulled +the latchstring with his left hand and pushed the door open with his +foot, the rifle ready. There was no need for that. What welcomed him, +within, was a sickening stench of burned flesh and hair. + +The new lumicon lighted the room brilliantly; his first glance was +enough. The slab that had covered the crypt was thrown aside, along +with the pile of deerskins, and between it and the door was a +shapeless black heap that, in a dimmer light, would not have been +instantly recognizable as the body of Bold. Fighting down an impulse +to rush in, he stood in the door, looking about and reading the story +of what had happened. The four men had entered, knowing that they +would find Bold alone. The one in the lead had had a negatron pistol +drawn, and when Bold had leaped at them, he had been blasted. The +blast had caught the dog from in front--the chest-cavity was literally +exploded, and the neck and head burned and smashed unrecognizably. +Even the brass studs on the leather collar had been melted. + +That and the ribbed sole-prints outside meant the same +thing--Southrons. Every Southron who came into the Northland, even the +common crewmen on the trading ships, carried some kind of an +energy-weapon. They were good only for fighting--one look at the body +of Bold showed what they did to meat and skins. + +He entered, then, laying his rifle on the table, and got down the +lumicon and went over to the crypt. After a while, he returned, hung +up the light again, and dropped onto a stool. He sat staring at the +violated crypt and tugging with one hand at a corner of his beard, +trying desperately to think. + +The thieves had known exactly where the Crown was kept and how it was +guarded; after killing Bold, they had gone straight to it, taken it +and gone away--three men in plastic-soled Southron boots and one man +in soft boots of sealskins, each with a pack and an ice-staff, and two +of them with rifles. + +Vahr Farg's son, and three deserters from the crew of Yorn Nazvik's +ship. + +It hadn't been Dranigo and Salvadro. They could have left the ship in +their airboat and come back, flying low, while he had been hunting. +But they would have grounded near the house, they would not have +carried packs, and they would have brought nobody with them. + +He thought he knew what had happened. Vahr Farg's son had seen the +Crown, and he had heard the two Starfolk offer more trade-tokens for +it than everything in the village was worth. But he was a coward; he +would never dare to face the Keeper's rifle and the teeth of Brave and +Bold alone. So, since none of the village folk would have part in so +shameful a crime against the moral code of the Northland, he had +talked three of Yorn Nazvik's airmen into deserting and joining him. + +And he had heard Dranigo say that the _Issa_ would return to Long +Valley Town after the trading voyage to the west. Long Valley was on +the other side of this tongue of the Ice-Father; it was a good fifteen +days' foot-journey around, but by climbing and crossing, they could +easily be there in time to meet Yorn Nazvik's ship and the two +Starfolk. Well, where Vahr Farg's son could take three Southrons, Raud +the Keeper could follow. + + * * * * * + +Their tracks led up the slope beside the brook, always bearing to the +left, in the direction of the Ice-Father. After an hour, he found +where they had stopped and unslung their packs, and rested long enough +to smoke a cigarette. He read the story they had left in the snow, and +then continued, Brave trotting behind him pulling the sled. A few +snowflakes began dancing in the air, and he quickened his steps. He +knew, generally, where the thieves were going, but he wanted their +tracks unobliterated in front of him. The snow fell thicker and +thicker, and it was growing dark, and he was tiring. Even Brave was +stumbling occasionally before Raud stopped, in a hollow among the +pines, to build his tiny fire and eat and feed the dog. They bedded +down together, covered by the same sleeping robes. + +When he woke, the world was still black and white and gray in the +early dawn-light, and the robe that covered him and Brave was powdered +with snow, and the pine-branches above him were loaded and sagging. + +The snow had completely obliterated the tracks of the four thieves, +and it was still falling. When the sled was packed and the dog +harnessed to it, they set out, keeping close to the flank of the +Ice-Father on their left. + +It stopped snowing toward mid-day, and a little after, he heard a +shot, far ahead, and then two more, one upon the other. The first shot +would be the rifle of Vahr Farg's son; it was a single-loader, like +his own. The other two were from one of the light Southron rifles, +which fired a dozen shots one after another. They had shot, or shot +at, something like a deer, he supposed. That was sensible; it would +save their dried meat for the trip across the back of the Ice-Father. +And it showed that they still didn't know he was following them. He +found their tracks, some hours later. + +Toward dusk, he came to a steep building-mound. It had fared better +than most of the houses of the ancient people; it rose to twenty times +a man's height and on the south-east side it was almost perpendicular. +The other side sloped, and he was able to climb to the top, and far +away, ahead of him, he saw a tiny spark appear and grow. The fire +could not be more than two hours ahead. + +He built no fire that evening, but shared a slab of pemmican with +Brave, and they huddled together under the bearskin robe. The dog fell +asleep at once. For a long time, Raud sat awake, thinking. + +At first, he considered resting for a while, and then pressing forward +and attacking them as they slept. He had to kill all of them to regain +the Crown; that he had taken for granted from the first. He knew what +would happen if the Government Police came into this. They would take +one Southron's word against the word of ten Northfolk, and the thieves +would simply claim the Crown as theirs and accuse him of trying to +steal it. And Dranigo and Salvadro--they seemed like good men, but +they might see this as the only way to get the Crown for +themselves.... He would have to settle the affair for himself, before +the men reached Long Valley town. + +If he could do it here, it would save him and Brave the toil and +danger of climbing the Ice-Father. But could he? They had two rifles, +one an autoloader, and they had in all likelihood three negatron +pistols. After the single shot of the big rifle was fired, he had only +a knife and a hatchet and the spiked and pickaxed ice-staff, and +Brave. One of the thieves would kill him before he and Brave killed +all of them, and then the Crown would be lost. He dropped into sleep, +still thinking of what to do. + +He climbed the mound of the ancient building again in the morning, and +looked long and carefully at the face of the Ice-Father. It would take +the thieves the whole day to reach that place where the two tongues of +the glacier split apart, the easiest spot to climb. They would not try +to climb that evening; Vahr, who knew the most about it, would be the +last to advise such a risk. He was sure that by going up at the +nearest point he could get to the top of the Ice-Father before dark, +and drag Brave up after him. It would be a fearful climb, and he would +have most of a day's journey after that to reach the head of the long +ravine up which the thieves would come, but when they came up, he +could be there waiting for them. He knew what the old rifle could do, +to an inch, and there were places where the thieves would be coming up +where he could stay out of blaster-range and pick them all off, even +with a single-loader. + +He knew about negatron pistols, too. They shot little bullets of +energy; they were very fast, and did not drop, like a real bullet, so +that no judgment of range was needed. But the energy died quickly; the +negatrons lived only long enough to go five hundred paces and no more. +At eight hundred, he could hit a man easily. He almost felt himself +pitying Vahr Farg's son and his companions. + +When he reached the tumble of rocks that had been dragged along with +and pushed out from the Ice-Father, he stopped and made up a +pack--sleeping robes, all his cartridges, as much pemmican as he could +carry, and the bag of trade-tokens. If the chase took him to Long +Valley Town, he would need money. He also coiled about his waist a +long rawhide climbing-rope, and left the sled-harness on Brave, simply +detaching the traces. + +At first, they walked easily on the sloping ice. Then, as it grew +steeper, he fastened the rope to the dog's harness and advanced a +little at a time, dragging Brave up after him. Soon he was forced to +snub the rope with his ice-staff and chop steps with his hatchet. +Toward noon--at least he thought it was noon--it began snowing again, +and the valley below was blotted out in a swirl of white. + +They came to a narrow ledge, where they could rest, with a wall of ice +rising sheerly above them. He would have to climb that alone, and then +pull Brave up with the rope. He started working his way up the +perpendicular face, clinging by the pick of his ice-staff, chopping +footholds with the hatchet; the pack and the slung rifle on his back +pulled at him and threatened to drag him down. At length, he dragged +himself over the edge and drove the ice-staff in. + +"Up, Brave!" he called, tugging on the rope. "Good dog, Brave; come +up!" + +Brave tried to jump and slipped back. He tried again, and this time +Raud snubbed the rope and held him. Below the dog pawed frantically, +until he found a paw-hold on one of the chopped-out steps. Raud hauled +on the rope, and made another snub. + +It seemed like hours. It probably was; his arms were aching, and he +had lost all sense of time, or of the cold, or the danger of the narrow +ledge; he forgot about the Crown and the men who had stolen it; he +even forgot how he had come here, or that he had ever been anywhere +else. All that mattered was to get Brave up on the ledge beside him. + +Finally Brave came up and got first his fore-paws and then his body +over the edge. He lay still, panting proudly, while Raud hugged him +and told him, over and over, that he was a good dog. They rested for a +long time, and Raud got a slab of pemmican from the pack and divided +it with Brave. + +It was while they rested in the snow, munching, that he heard the +sound for the first time. It was faint and far away, and it sounded +like thunder, or like an avalanche beginning, and that puzzled him, +for this was not the time of year for either. As he listened, he heard +it again, and this time he recognized it--negatron pistols. It +frightened him; he wondered if the thieves had met a band of hunters. +No; if they were fighting Northfolk, there would be the reports of +firearms, too. Or might they be fighting among themselves? Remembering +the melted brass studs on Bold's collar, he became more frightened at +the thought of what a negatron-blast could do to the Crown. + +The noise stopped, then started again, and he got to his feet, calling +to Brave. They were on a wide ledge that slanted upward toward the +north. It would take him closer to the top, and closer to where Vahr +and his companions would come up. Together, they started up, Raud +probing cautiously ahead of him with the ice-staff for hidden +crevasses. After a while, he came to a wide gap in the ice beside him, +slanting toward the top, its upper end lost in swirling snow. So he +and Brave began climbing, and after a while he could no longer hear +the negatron pistols. + +When it was almost too dark to go farther, he suddenly found himself +on level snow, and here he made camp, digging a hole and lining it +with the sleeping robes. + +The sky was clear when he woke, and a pale yellow light was glowing in +the east. For a while he lay huddled with the dog, stiff and +miserable, and then he forced himself to his feet. He ate, and fed +Brave, and then checked his rifle and made his pack. + +He was sure, now, that he had a plan that would succeed. He could +reach the place where Vahr and the Southrons would come up long before +they did, and be waiting for them. In his imagination, he could see +them coming up in single file, Vahr Farg's son in the lead, and he +could imagine himself hidden behind a mound of snow, the ice-staff +upright to brace his left hand and the forestock of the rifle resting +on his outthrust thumb and the butt against his shoulder. The first +bullet would be for Vahr. He could shoot all of them, one after +another, that way.... + +He stopped, looking in chagrined incredulity at the tracks in front of +him--the tracks he knew so well, of one man in sealskin boots and +three men with ribbed plastic soles. Why, it couldn't be! They should +be no more than half way up the long ravine, between the two tongues +of the Ice-Father, ten miles to the north. But here they were, on the +back of the Ice-Father and crossing to the west ahead of him. They +must have climbed the sheer wall of ice, only a few miles from where +he had dragged himself and Brave to the top. Then he remembered the +negatron-blasts he had heard. While he had been chopping footholds +with a hatchet, they had been smashing tons of ice out of their way. + +"Well, Brave," he said mildly. "Old Keeper wasn't so smart, after all, +was he? Come on, Brave." + +The thieves were making good time. He read that from the tracks +--straight, evenly spaced, no weary heel-dragging. Once or twice, he +saw where they had stopped for a brief rest. He hoped to see their +fire in the evening. + +He didn't. They wouldn't have enough fuel to make a big one, or keep +it burning long. But in the morning, as he was breaking camp, he saw +black smoke ahead. + +A few times, he had been in air-boats, and had looked down on the back +of the Ice-Father, and it had looked flat. Really, it was not. There +were long ridges, sheer on one side and sloping gently on the other, +where the ice had overridden hills and low mountains, or had cracked +and one side had pushed up over the other. And there were deep gullies +where the prevailing winds had scooped away loose snow year after year +for centuries, and drifts where it had piled, many of them higher than +the building-mounds of the ancient cities. But from a distance, as +from above, they all blended into a featureless white monotony. + +At last, leaving a tangle of cliffs and ravines, he looked out across +a broad stretch of nearly level snow and saw, for the first time, the +men he was following. Four tiny dots, so far that they seemed +motionless, strung out in single file. Instantly, he crouched behind a +swell in the surface and dragged Brave down beside him. One of them, +looking back, might see him, as he saw them. When they vanished behind +a snow-hill, he rose and hastened forward, to take cover again. He +kept at this all day; by alternately resting and running, be found +himself gaining on them, and toward evening, he was within +rifle-range. The man in the lead was Vahr Farg's son; even at that +distance he recognized him easily. The others were Southrons, of +course; they wore quilted garments of cloth, and quilted hoods. The +man next to Vahr, in blue, carried a rifle, as Vahr did. The man in +yellow had only an ice-staff, and the man in green, at the rear, had +the Crown on his pack, still in the bearskin bundle. + +He waited, at the end of the day, until he saw the light of their +fire. Then he and Brave circled widely around their camp, and stopped +behind a snow-ridge, on the other side of an open and level stretch a +mile wide. He dug the sleeping-hole on the crest of the ridge, making +it larger than usual, and piled up a snow breastwork in front of it, +with an embrasure through which he could look or fire without being +seen. + +Before daybreak, he was awake and had his pack made, and when he saw +the smoke of the thieves' campfire, he was lying behind his +breastwork, the rifle resting on its folded cover, muzzle toward the +smoke. He lay for a long time, watching, before he saw the file of +tiny dots emerge into the open. + +They came forward steadily, in the same order as on the day before, +Vahr in the lead and the man with the Crown in the rear. The thieves +suspected nothing; they grew larger and larger as they approached, +until they were at the range for which he had set his sights. He +cuddled the butt of the rifle against his cheek. As the man who +carried the Crown walked under the blade of the front sight, he +squeezed the trigger. + +The rifle belched pink flame and roared and pounded his shoulder. As +the muzzle was still rising, he flipped open the breech, and threw out +the empty. He inserted a fresh round. + +There were only three of them, now. The man with the bearskin bundle +was down and motionless. Vahr Farg's son had gotten his rifle unslung +and uncovered. The Southron with the other rifle was slower; he was +only getting off the cover as Vahr, who must have seen the flash, +fired hastily. Too hastily; the bullet kicked up snow twenty feet to +the left. The third man had drawn his negatron pistol and was trying +to use it; thin hairlines of brilliance were jetting out from his +hand, stopping far short of their mark. + +Raud closed his sights on the man with the autoloading rifle; as he +did, the man with the negatron pistol, realizing the limitations of +his weapon, was sweeping it back and forth, aiming at the snow fifty +yards in front of him. Raud couldn't see the effect of his second +shot--between him and his target, blueish light blazed and twinkled, +and dense clouds of steam rose--but he felt sure that he had missed. +He reloaded, and watched for movements on the edge of the rising +steam. + +It cleared, slowly; when it did, there was nothing behind it. Even the +body of the dead man was gone. He blinked, bewildered. He'd picked +that place carefully; there had been no gully or ravine within running +distance. Then he grunted. There hadn't been--but there was now. The +negatron pistol again. The thieves were hidden in a pit they had +blasted, and they had dragged the body in with them. + +He crawled back to reassure Brave, who was guarding the pack, and to +shift the pack back for some distance. Then he returned to his +embrasure in the snow-fort and resumed his watch. For a long time, +nothing happened, and then a head came briefly peeping up out of the +pit. A head under a green hood. Raud chuckled mirthlessly into his +beard. If he'd been doing that, he'd have traded hoods with the dead +man before shoving up his body to draw fire. This kept up, at +intervals, for about an hour. He was wondering if they would stay in +the pit until dark. + +Then Vahr Farg's son leaped out of the pit and began running across +the snow. He had his pack, and his rifle; he ran, zig-zag, almost +directly toward where Raud was lying. Raud laughed, this time in real +amusement. The Southrons had chased Vahr out, as a buck will chase his +does in front of him when he thinks there is danger in front. If Vahr +wasn't shot, it would be safe for them to come out. If he was, it +would be no loss, and the price of the Crown would only have to be +divided in two, rather than three, shares. Vahr came to within two +hundred yards of Raud's unseen rifle, and then dropped his pack and +flung himself down behind it, covering the ridge with his rifle. + +Minutes passed, and then the Southron in yellow came out and ran +forward. He had the bearskin bundle on his pack; he ran to where Vahr +lay, added his pack to Vahr's, and lay down behind it. Raud chewed his +underlip in vexation. This wasn't the way he wanted it; that fellow +had a negatron pistol, and he was close enough to use it effectively. +And he was sheltered behind the Crown; Raud was afraid to shoot. He +didn't miss what he shot at--often. But no man alive could say that he +never missed. + +The other Southron, the one in blue with the autoloading rifle, came +out and advanced slowly, his weapon at the ready. Raud tensed himself +to jump, aimed carefully, and waited. When the man in blue was a +hundred yards from the pit, he shot him dead. The rifle was still +lifting from the recoil when he sprang to his feet, turned, and ran. +Before he was twenty feet away, the place where he had been exploded; +the force of the blast almost knocked him down, and steam blew past +and ahead of him. Ignoring his pack and ice-staff, he ran on, calling +to Brave to follow. The dog obeyed instantly; more negatron-blasts +were thundering and blazing and steaming on the crest of the ridge. He +swerved left, ran up another slope, and slid down the declivity +beyond into the ravine on the other side. + +There he paused to eject the empty, make sure that there was no snow +in the rifle bore, and reload. The blasting had stopped by then; after +a moment, he heard the voice of Vahr Farg's son, and guessed that the +two surviving thieves had advanced to the blasted crest of the other +ridge. They'd find the pack, and his tracks and Brave's. He wondered +whether they'd come hunting for him, or turn around and go the other +way. He knew what he'd do, under the circumstances, but he doubted if +Vahr's mind would work that way. The Southron's might; he wouldn't +want to be caught between blaster-range and rifle-range of Raud the +Keeper again. + +"Come, Brave," he whispered, looking quickly around and then starting +to run. + +Lay a trail down this ravine for them to follow. Then get to the top +of the ridge beside it, double back, and wait for them. Let them pass, +and shoot the Southron first. By now, Vahr would have a negatron +pistol too, taken from the body of the man in blue, but it wasn't a +weapon he was accustomed to, and he'd be more than a little afraid of +it. + +The ravine ended against an upthrust face of ice, at right angles to +the ridge he had just crossed; there was a V-shaped notch between +them. He turned into this; it would be a good place to get to the +top.... + +He found himself face to face, at fifteen feet, with Vahr Farg's son +and the Southron in yellow, coming through from the other side. They +had their packs, the Southron had the bearskin bundle, and they had +drawn negatron pistols in their hands. + +Swinging up the rifle, he shot the Southron in the chest, making sure +he hit him low enough to miss the Crown. At the same time, he shouted: + +"_Catch, Brave!_" + +Brave never jumped for the deer or wild-ox that had been shot; always +for the one still on its feet. He launched himself straight at the +throat of Vahr Farg's son--and into the muzzle of Vahr's blaster. He +died in a blue-white flash. + +Raud had reversed the heavy rifle as Brave leaped; he threw it, +butt-on, like a seal-spear, into Vahr's face. As soon as it was out of +his fingers, he was jumping forward, snatching out his knife. His left +hand found Vahr's right wrist, and he knew that he was driving the +knife into Vahr's body, over and over, trying to keep the blaster +pointed away from him and away from the body of the dead Southron. At +last, the negatron-pistol fell from Vahr's fingers, and the arm that +had been trying to fend off his knife relaxed. + +He straightened and tried to stand--he had been kneeling on Vahr's +body, he found--and reeled giddily. He got to his feet and stumbled to +the other body, kneeling beside it. He tried for a long time before he +was able to detach the bearskin bundle from the dead man's pack. Then +he got the pack open, and found dried venison. He started to divide +it, and realized that there was no Brave with whom to share it. He had +just sent Brave to his death. + +Well, and so? Brave had been the Keeper's dog. He had died for the +Crown, and that had been his duty. If he could have saved the Crown by +giving his own life, Raud would have died too. But he could not--if +Raud died the Crown was lost. + +The sky was darkening rapidly, and the snow was whitening the body in +green. Moving slowly, he started to make camp for the night. + +It was still snowing when he woke. He started to rise, wondering, at +first, where Brave was, and then he huddled back among the robes--his +own and the dead men's--and tried to go to sleep again. Finally, he +got up and ate some of his pemmican, gathered his gear and broke camp. +For a moment, and only a moment, he stood looking to the east, in the +direction he had come from. Then he turned west and started across the +snow toward the edge of the Ice-Father. + + * * * * * + +The snow stopped before he reached the edge, and the sun was shining +when he found a slanting way down into the valley. Then, out of the +north, a black dot appeared in the sky and grew larger, until he saw +that it was a Government airboat--one of the kind used by the men who +measured the growth of the Ice-Father. It came curving in and down +toward him, and a window slid open and a man put his head out. + +"Want us to lift you down?" he asked. "We're going to Long Valley +Town. If that's where you're going, we can take you the whole way." + +"Yes. That's where I'm going." He said it as though he were revealing, +for the first time, some discovery he had just made. "For your +kindness and help, I thank you." + +In less time than a man could walk two miles with a pack, they were +letting down in front of the Government House in Long Valley Town. + +He had never been in the Government House before. The walls were clear +glass. The floors were plastic, clean and white. Strips of bright new +lumicon ran around every room at the tops of all the walls. There were +no fires, but the great rooms were as warm as though it were a +midsummer afternoon. + +Still carrying his pack and his rifle, Raud went to a desk where a +Southron in a white shirt sat. + +"Has Yorn Nazvik's ship, the _Issa_, been here lately?" he asked. + +"About six days ago," the Southron said, without looking up from the +papers on his desk. "She's on a trading voyage to the west now, but +Nazvik's coming back here before he goes south. Be here in about ten +days." He looked up. "You have business with Nazvik?" + +Raud shook his head. "Not with Yorn Nazvik, no. My business is with +the two Starfolk who are passengers with him. Dranigo and Salvadro." + +The Southron looked displeased. "Aren't you getting just a little +above yourself, old man, calling the Prince Salsavadran and the Lord +Dranigrastan by their familiar names?" he asked. + +"I don't know what you're talking about. Those were the names they +gave me; I didn't know they had any others." + +The Southron started to laugh, then stopped. + +"And if I may ask, what is your name, and what business have you with +them?" he inquired. + +Raud told him his name. "I have something for them. Something they +want very badly. If I can find a place to stay here, I will wait until +they return--" + +The Southron got to his feet. "Wait here for a moment, Keeper," he +said. "I'll be back soon." + +He left the desk, going into another room. After a while, he came +back. This time he was respectful. + +"I was talking to the Lord Dranigrastan--whom you know as Dranigo--on +the radio. He and the Prince Salsavadran are lifting clear of the +_Issa_ in their airboat and coming back here to see you. They should +be here in about three hours. If, in the meantime, you wish to bathe +and rest, I'll find you a room. And I suppose you'll want something to +eat, too...." + + * * * * * + +He was waiting at the front of the office, looking out the glass wall, +when the airboat came in and grounded, and Salvadro and Dranigo jumped +out and came hurrying up the walk to the doorway. + +"Well, here you are, Keeper," Dranigo greeted him, clasping his hand. +Then he saw the bearskin bundle under Raud's arm. "You brought it with +you? But didn't you believe that we were coming?" + +"Are you going to let us have it?" Salvadro was asking. + +"Yes; I will sell it to you, for the price you offered. I am not fit +to be Keeper any longer. I lost it. It was stolen from me, the day +after I saw you, and I have only yesterday gotten it back. Both my +dogs were killed, too. I can no longer keep it safe. Better that you +take it with you to Dremna, away from this world where it was made. I +have thought, before, that this world and I are both old and good for +nothing any more." + +"This world may be old, Keeper," Dranigo said, "but it is the +Mother-World, Terra, the world that sent Man to the Stars. And +you--when you lost the Crown, you recovered it again." + +"The next time, I won't be able to. Too many people will know that the +Crown is worth stealing, and the next time, they'll kill me first." + +"Well, we said we'd give you twenty thousand trade-tokens for it," +Salvadro said. "We'll have them for you as soon as we can draw them +from the Government bank, here. Or give you a check and let you draw +them as you want them." Raud didn't understand that, and Salvadro +didn't try to explain. "And then we'll fly you home." + +He shook his head. "No, I have no home. The place where you saw me is +Keeper's House, and I am not the Keeper any more. I will stay here and +find a place to live, and pay somebody to take care of me...." + +With twenty thousand trade-tokens, he could do that. It would buy a +house in which he could live, and he could find some woman who had +lost her man, who would do his work for him. But he must be careful of +the money. Dig a crypt in the corner of his house for it. He wondered +if he could find a pair of good dogs and train them to guard it for +him.... + + * * * * * + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Keeper, by Henry Beam Piper + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KEEPER *** + +***** This file should be named 19338.txt or 19338.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/3/3/19338/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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