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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e7b1d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64199 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64199) diff --git a/old/64199-0.txt b/old/64199-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c34af10..0000000 --- a/old/64199-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1838 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Exile From Venus, by E. Hoffman Price - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Exile From Venus - -Author: E. Hoffman Price - -Release Date: January 02, 2021 [eBook #64199] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXILE FROM VENUS *** - - - - - EXILE FROM VENUS - - By E. HOFFMAN PRICE - - Earth was a world of murdering savages; bleak - and desolate; contaminated by deadly radioactivity. - Only Craig Verrill's atavistic stubbornness--and - a rash promise, made in fury--could have brought - him back to that perilous birthplace of Man.... - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories May 1951. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -The solicitude of Linda's voice, the seductiveness of her perfume, -her very presence as they sat in the artificial twilight of the Domes -of Venus, tempted him to abandon his plan to sail at once for Terra, -venture among the savage Terrestrians, and get possession of that -enormous ruby they called the Fire of Skanderbek. - -Linda was long legged and supple waisted, with dark eyes and -gold-bronze hair, and very white skin. Her cheek bones were just -sufficiently prominent to keep her face from being too regular; and -there was a perceptible dusting of tiny freckles which accented the -irregularity, adding a piquant touch. These were natural, and a -rarity that had existed only in fable for the past six-hundred years, -for the glow-lamps and the occlusive Venusian atmosphere seemed to -combine to make the freckle almost impossible. However, though the -cosmeticians had driven the Board of Science frantic until they had -devised a process for artificially imitating Linda's unique flaw, this -distinction had not spoiled her. - -"Never mind what I said, last night," Linda pleaded. "We were all -angry, you and Gil and I. No sense at all!" - -"But I promised," Verrill said stubbornly. Which helped--a little--to -sustain himself against backing down from the rash venture for which he -had not a bit of taste. - -He had an angular face, narrowish, with the bony structure well -accented. His nose was prominent; his hazel eyes were intent and -impatient. He was lean, muscular, and all in all, just the sort of -Venusian to go on such a crazy venture--yet he didn't like the idea at -all, now that he had had time to consider. - -"Let's forget it all, Craig! Rubies aren't important enough. The one -Gil brought me from that trading-post of Terra isn't--wasn't--" - -Verrill said sourly: "That's what makes me feel so foolish about it. He -brought you a souvenir, and I grabbed it from you, flung it into the -lake, and pasted him. What for?" - -"Oh, Craig, who _cares_! Gil was lording it over you. I was too smug -and pleased with the gift to realize how far he was going. Oh, all -right, of _course_ you were wrong! But what of it?" - -Verrill shook his head. "I fairly shouted myself into it." - -"I don't want you to go." - -"I know you don't. But too many of our friends were within sight and -hearing of the whole mess. Sooner or later their attitude would make -you unhappy about a man who talked big, and then backed down." - - * * * * * - -His insistence widened Linda's eyes. The civilized Venusians were -always ready to take the sensible, the expedient way. Had they been -otherwise, had they not been the descendants of sensible Terrestrian -ancestors, they would have been included in the devastation which had -left all but small and widely scattered patches of Terra uninhabitable -for the past seven-hundred years. Rather, those who today were -Venusians would have been struggling savages, scraping out a living in -some uncontaminated area. - -Verrill's was an almost Terrestrian stubbornness; something primitive -and atavistic, very much like that queer quirk which made some -Venusians return to their native Earth to set up trading-posts, where -they bartered with the barbarian tribesmen for tobacco and wines, -spices and jewels and perfumes, all manner of luxuries which Venus did -not offer. - -Linda made her final appeal: "Leaving all this, to scramble around in -that terrible waste and desolation--oh, do be sensible!" - -Her voice, and the kiss that followed it, made Verrill at once aware of -what generations of Venusians had taken for granted. He looked across -the gardens and the lake, and up at the prodigious span of girders. -The original purpose of the structure had been to house a military -outpost that was to have outflanked a comparable one on Luna. In the -years just before The War, engineers and scientists had been sent from -Terra to build those enormous domes, plastic-sheathed and air-tight, -to exclude the raging dust-storms and the overwhelming concentration -of formaldehyde which made up most of the natural Venusian atmosphere. -Rather than rely on any system depending upon chemically prepared -oxygen, they had established gardens, orchards, fields of plant-life -which liberated sufficient oxygen to maintain the required balance. - -This was to have been simply a garrison. According to plan, it would -have played a decisive part in the final clash for Terrestrian -supremacy. Meanwhile, there had come to be little difference between -the rival dictatorships, except in the wording of their slogans. -The Anglo-Capitalist Bloc had borrowed all the kinds and twists of -regimentation of the rival bloc. The difference finally became one of -flavor rather than principle. - -A cool-headed few, in command of the Venusian garrison, had seen that -neither side could win; that there would be only mutual and total -destruction. The warfare became more and more atrocious; and the -Anglo-Capitalist Bloc drifted further and further from the sort of -organization that the Venus garrison, in no immediate danger, could -contemplate defending with enthusiasm. Thus, when one day the Lunar -Base radio complained of attack by suicide-ships and then went abruptly -silent, the Venusian Base, which might have been expected to cry -"Geronimo!" and leap into the holocaust, instead underwent a short and -violent revolution in which the ardently military were disposed of. -Then, stubbornly intending to survive chaos and idiocy, the Venus Base -folded its hands and sat out the fatal clash that ended The War and -virtually the whole of Terrestrian civilization with it.... - -After several centuries, the Venus Council risked an exploration -party to Terra to see whether the globe was becoming fit for human -habitation again. Large areas had, of course, through natural -processes become decontaminated; there were scattered colonies of -survivors--farmers, herdsmen, hunters, armed with clubs, spears, and -other primitive weapons. Contact was made, communication struck up, -trade--of considerable importance to both--established; and, after the -ten years which this took, the Venusians were left with very little -inclination to colonize Terra. Life under the domes was comfortable, -with controlled climate, law and order, science and art. Comfortable, -civilized, and sensible. While Terra-- - -"_Be a sensible Venusian_," was what Linda meant. "_Don't go looking -for trouble when you can do better without. Don't be a typical -Terrestrian!_" - -The whole clash of the previous night had been silly. Irritated by -Gil Dawson's giving Linda a ruby as a souvenir of his official -inspection-tour of the Council-controlled Terrestrian trading-posts, -Verrill had flung the trinket into the lake. After a brisk fracas in -which Dawson had finally wearied of getting up, only to be knocked down -again, Verrill had shouted to Linda and to most of Venus that he'd -get her a man's-sized ruby, the Fire of Skanderbek. She, thoroughly -outraged, had told him and Dawson that by Heaven she'd not be the -prize, either of a brawl or a souvenir-finding contest. To make it -good, she had concluded by telling Verrill that he'd be far better -occupied if he got the Venus Council to assign him to one of the -committees for improving the living-standards of the Terrestrians, and -won the Fire of Skanderbek as a token of their gratitude. - -But however earnestly she besought him to forget it all, Verrill was -just as unhappily determined to go through with it. "I can't back down. -Dawson will surely take a crack at stealing the Fire himself--and that -would make it tough for me. And for you." - -"Oh, let the fool try!" she cried, desperately. "He'd never come back -from the territory of those wildmen." - -Verrill shook his head. "He might come back. Even though I did give him -a trouncing, he's anything but a clown. You wouldn't accept the Fire -of Skanderbek if he offered it--but he'd give it to someone else, and -then--well, a lot of women do dislike you! There's nothing I can do, -except to beat him to it." - -And so, Verrill went to do as he had to do. - - * * * * * - -The space-freighter veered from her course only a little; instead of -landing in the sun-blasted plain at the foot of the mountains into -which Verrill was to go, she launched a crew-boat which took him to the -trading-post at the foot of barren limestone bulwarks. - -Dawson was not at the post. But while a head start was a happy omen, -Verrill knew that it had its limits, since his plan to ingratiate -himself with the barbarians until he could seize the fetish-ruby and -return to the post involved so much time that the gain of hours or days -meant little. - -Ingratiate himself--steal the Fire of Skanderbek--and get -out--infinitely simpler than Linda's suggestion, probably an utterly -impossible one, of deserving it finally as a gift. His first look at -the bearded mountaineers convinced him that no amount of do-gooding -could ever move them to gratitude. - -Those lounging in the compound of the fortified trading-post wore -homespun pants and sheepskin jackets. They fairly clanked with trade -daggers, trade pistols, and trade hatchets; some carried trade muskets, -and some had the new repeating rifles. Their tanned and hairy faces and -bitter eyes made it plain that looting and robbing, brawling and mayhem -and murder were their very breath of life. - -They spoke the international language which had developed sufficiently -to come into common use around 2200 A.D. English, while a nightmare of -contradictions to baffle a foreigner, had offered these advantages: -next to Chinese, no other language was so free of inflections; and it -could so readily assimilate all manner of foreign words. Thus, since -the tone-deaf Occidental had not been able to master the simplicities -of Chinese or other Mongolian tongues, the Asiatics had taken up -English, with which had been blended Arabic, Urdu, Malay, and a good -deal of Western European; and, while seven centuries of Venusian -isolation had made the speech of the people of the Domes diverge from -the original international Terrestrian, Verrill had not too much -difficulty in making himself understood. - -"This black bag," he told a group of the caravan men, "will interest -Ardelan--that's your chief's name, isn't it? Let me go into the -mountains with you to talk to him." - -"You're crazy," a craggy faced fellow with drooping moustaches and hard -blue eyes told him, levelly. "You think I'm crazy." - -Verrill laid out three daggers. He picked one up, jabbed it into the -top of a table cluttered with heaps of goatskins, dried apricots, -raisins, and bags of coriander seed. He bent the weapon until the grip -touched the table top. He released it. It snapped straight up, with a -fine, high pitched _spang_. He plucked a dagger from the mountaineer's -belt, drew the other weapon from the table, and slashed them edge to -edge. - -He cut shavings from the mountaineer's weapon. Then he stropped his own -blade on the palm of his hand for a couple of strokes, and next ran it -along his arm. The hairs toppled as he cut them free; there was no drag -at all, the edge was so keen. - -"Mine are not trade daggers," he said. "Bet you the three that Ardelan -will listen to me, and not throw me out." - -The Terrestrian's eyes gleamed. "What do I put up for a bet?" - -"A pair of those boots you're wearing. Put my knives in your belt now. -If I lose my bet, they're yours. If I win, you're welcome to them -anyway." - -So the caravan men fitted him out with garments and boots like their -own; and Verrill went into the mountains with them. - - - II - -The trail snaked along precipices and wound past narrow, hidden -valleys. At the foot of a cliff lay the shell of a space-cruiser which -had been telescoped from its original six-hundred feet to a bare -two-hundred, though much of the nose had melted from the impact against -the rocks. Gnarled oaks and junipers reached up from a riven seam of -the shell. The metal had not rusted. It was merely tarnished to a slate -gray. It was a mine of such metal as could have furnished all manner of -implements for the Terrestrians--but they did not know how to exploit -it. - -Finally, Verrill was looking down into narrow, upland meadows where -sheep grazed. There were barley patches. His eyes felt as though they -were full of sand. The snow-white glare from cliffs, and the dust which -rose in yellow puffs at every step, made the way a torment for one -accustomed to the paradisiacal clime of the Venusian Domes. - -Each day's march brought the donkey-caravan within sight of alternate -trails, guarded by mud-brick towers, where armed men were stationed -to watch the moves of hostile neighbors. The return, even without -pursuit, would be dangerous. - -At last they came to Ardelan's mud-walled houses, huddled on a rocky -shelf which overhung a fertile valley. The settlement was surrounded -by a wall of earth and stone, and had escaped contamination because no -one would have bombed a 12,000 foot range of limestone peaks except by -mistake. - -When the trading convoy filed into the tangle of flat-roofed houses -which surrounded a hard-packed central square, women, children, and -dogs came out, each in full voice. The procession kept straight on -toward the entrance of a two-storeyed building. Half the ground-level -was a stable; the rest, a courtyard where Ardelan and a handful of -armed companions lolled under an awning of black goat-hair. - -Terrestrian faces were no novelty to Verrill; but this time, being -a stranger among them--instead of merely a spectator seeing a -handful of them, half defiant and half uneasy in the strangeness -of a trading-post--he saw what he had never before noticed. They -tended toward height and ranginess, prominence of nose, angularity -of face; yet behind this likeness was a shadow-pattern of racial -differentiation. There were differences of flavor, rather than of -outright form. The flare of a nostril, the shape of an eye, the -fullness or thinness of lip--a thick necked one, here and there, -suggested that, generations back, there had been among his ancestors a -blocky Mongol from Central Asia. - -The guards, instead of presenting Verrill, explained him as though he -had been some trade article. Ardelan, listening, studied his visitor -with entire impersonality, as he might have scrutinized a basket of -fresh ripe apricots to see how they had endured being hauled so far. - -"What's in the bag?" he demanded, abruptly. - -"Medicine. I am a doctor." - -"What for? People die anyway." - -"A doctor," Verrill explained, concealing his dismay, "is not to keep -people from dying. He is to make it more agreeable for them until they -finally have to die." - -Ardelan addressed his henchmen. The answers summed up to this: that if -nothing much ailed a man, he'd get well by himself, and if something -really incapacitated him, it would of course be something so serious -that he could not last long at the best. - -Ardelan digested this wisdom, then asked, "Verrill, can you make knives -like these you gave that man?" - -"I am a doctor, not a blacksmith." - -"Can you make guns or cartridges?" - -"No." - -"Can you fight?" - -Verrill glanced uneasily about, as though Ardelan might be on the point -of selecting an opponent to test the stranger's claims. And, having -read Verrill's face, Ardelan snorted, and not waiting for a reply, -demanded, "Then what are you good for?" - -"To treat the sick," Verrill repeated, with growing sense of futility. -"To bind wounds. To set broken bones." - -"Look at us. We've done very well." - -"I can do better." - -"Can't work, can't fight! Good for nothing but doctoring. Bad as a -priest! Lock him up; I want to think this over." - -The guard hustled Verrill and his medical case into an empty granary. -They slammed the door and rolled a boulder against it. It made no -difference whether or not he could shove the door open; there was -nowhere to go if he did get out. He could not find his way back to the -trading-post except over the way which his escort had brought him: a -guarded way. - - * * * * * - -In the half-gloom, Verrill noted that the wall had been cracked by -earthquakes. These cracks gave him hand and toe holds, to climb up -until he could catch the rough-hewn timber which supported the roof -of brush and clay. Lying on the crown of the wall, he could look out -through rifts in the roof. - -Herdsmen were driving their flocks in from distant slopes. Others drove -donkeys laden with brush. Verrill was appalled by the ever present -evidence that Terrestrian life was a matter of digging, scratching, -and enduring the elements. The stark emptiness of the sky worried him; -he was accustomed to the perpetual twilight and impenetrable clouds of -Venus. - -Well away from the settlement, and outside the wall, was a small, -squatty cube with a small tower at each corner. The structure was -backed up against an overhanging cliff, and was unapproachable except -from the walled town. The precipitous ending of the shelf guarded the -whitewashed cube more surely than if it had been within the town wall. - -The open doorway was so large in proportion to the structure itself -that surmise made Verrill's pulse hammer. That must be the shrine where -the Fire of Skanderbek was kept. - -Toward dusk, drums rumbled and trumpets of ram's horns bawled hoarsely. -Men carrying tightly bound bundles of brush marched in procession -toward the whitewashed cube, and chanted as they went. When they came -to the place, they filed in, each coming out with his faggots ablaze. - -They returned to their houses. Before long, Verrill's captors brought -him a bowl of mutton stew, and leathery cakes of bread. "They couldn't -have cooked this stuff so soon," he reasoned. "It must have been -cooking all the while, on fires already lighted. That procession was -fire worship." - -He sat there a long time after he had licked the gravy from his -fingers. A shocking business: meat so plentiful that it was fed to a -prisoner, and yet the barbarians knew nothing at all about cookery. - -The town swarmed with flies. Vultures perched on the walls and -watch-towers, waiting to clean up the garbage and offal flung from the -houses. The community well had a nasty taint from surface drainage from -the stables. Verrill, after a bad night's sleep, spent the morning -deciding that when pestilence did break out, he would need his medical -supplies for himself. - -The women, shapely and graceful, gathered about the well to fill the -earthenware jugs they carried balanced on their heads. They chattered -mainly about the outsider, giving most emphasis to his looks, though -devoting certain speculation to his possible usefulness, and probable -destination. - -"Kwangtan," they all agreed, "wants him killed or sent away." - -From what he could piece together from the various relays of women -he overheard, Verrill concluded that Kwangtan was the keeper of the -shrine; and that medical practice was the monopoly of old women, who -cooked up herbs. These potions, plus Kwangtan's incantations, kept the -community in health. - -The drowsy silence of midafternoon was broken by an hysterical -screeching and screaming. Before Verrill could arouse himself from the -stupor of half suffocation, the door was jerked open and several men -pounced for him. - -"You, with the medicine! Work for you. Bring the black box!" - - * * * * * - -They hustled him to a house where several old women were shaking and -back-slapping a boy of three or four. The kid's mother, one of the -few redheads in the colony, was wailing at a pitch that made Verrill -shiver. A beetle-browed young man with a wiry beard squatted on the -floor, looking helpless. All he did was repeat, "Get Kwangtan!" And no -one paid him any heed at all. - -At the sight of Verrill, one of the old women laid the child on a -sheepskin spread on the floor. The child's face was gray. His lips were -bluish. His eyes bugged out. He wheezed agonizingly. It made Verrill's -skin twitch, just to see the little fellow's losing battle for breath. -He was slowly choking. With all voices suddenly stilled at Verrill's -approach, the sound became all the more ominous. - -In his utter perplexity and dismay, Verrill hoped that what he heard -was the death-rattle which would relieve him of the task about to be -forced upon him. The absence of Kwangtan, the holy man, told him the -story: that wise fellow was not going to lose any prestige by tackling -something he could not handle. - -"What's wrong?" Verrill asked, with a show of assurance. - -"You're a doctor," the kid's father snarled. "Do something." - -"He swallowed an apricot seed," the child's redhaired mother said. -"It's stuck, we can't shake it out, he's choking. Get it out, you -blinking fool!" - -The kid's father drew and cocked his pistol. The dry click chilled -Verrill to the heart. He remembered an old story of an emergency -operation at a trading-post. The yarn had given the Venusians quite a -thrill. - -Ardelan stalked in. He nodded his approval of the man who had a pistol -trained on the doctor. "Stranger, do not make any mistakes. Kwangtan -has warned us." - -Verrill had a raft of Venusian specifics for just about every known -ailment; he had counted, however, on nothing of the sort which now -confronted him--had looked forward simply to giving the savages pills, -and swabbing them with antiseptics. As he knelt, he fumbled helplessly -with the instruments in the case. - -"Do this right," Ardelan said. "Or he shoots." - -Verrill loaded a hypo with a local anaesthetic. The glint of metal, -and the sudden end of the child's gagging as the injection stilled his -struggles, nearly cost Verrill his life. Ardelan's big hand knocked the -pistol out of line as it blazed, and the slug scorched Verrill's cheek -and pounded a chunk out of the wall. - -"He's not dead," the chief said, "Not yet." - -A splash of antiseptic. - -Then, nerving himself, Verrill made a slit in the throat. There was not -much blood. He got the apricot seed free. With haggling jabs, he took a -couple of stitches. He taped and bandaged. - -Then, shoulders sagging, he settled back, trying to keep from toppling -to the floor. The kid's lips were no longer bluish. He was breathing -freely. At last he blinked, cried out, and reached for his throat. - -"He's brought him back to life!" the redhead cried, and snatched up the -boy. - - * * * * * - -Verrill crumpled. He toppled, and sprawled. He was, however, conscious, -and when he heard what the mountaineers were saying he realized that -had he done it intentionally, he could not have done better than -collapse. - -One said, "He's left his body for awhile to fight off the devils, so -they won't come back to hurt the kid." - -Verrill muttered and mumbled until, satisfied that his act had been up -to their expectation, he sat up. Again, he faced a pistol, but this -time it was presented butt foremost. - -"Take it, doctor. It's yours," the kid's father said. - -And now Kwangtan, the fire priest, joined the group. - -His deep-set eyes blazed fiercely. His face was sunken. His hands -were like parchment drawn over bones. He wore white pants and a white -shirt. His beard and his shoulder-length hair were white. For a moment, -Verrill thought that the old fellow was a veteran of The War. His age -made him fantastic in a colony where men over forty were scarce, and -those over fifty, rarities; though old women were more than plentiful. - -Verrill declined the gift of the pistol. "Give it to the holy man," he -said. "I did not come here for pay." - -Then he went with Ardelan to sit under the black awning where the chief -settled disputes, and planned raids on neighboring tribes. - -"Excellency," Verrill pointed out, "holding a pistol at a doctor's head -is no way of making sure he'll help the patient." - -"You are a stranger. You might have killed him with a curse." - -"He was already nearly dead." - -"But he was still alive, and you might have finished him." - -"He must have known I'd do my best." - -"Still, if the boy had died, that clan would have lost a fighting man, -so your clan had to lose. That is our law." - -"Is that why Kwangtan wouldn't help?" - -"Not at all. He's not a stranger. And if the women who were working on -the boy had kept at it until he choked to death, no one would have hurt -them. They're not strangers." - -"The quicker I get out of here, the better!" - -Ardelan permitted himself to smile. "Once you are no longer a stranger, -doctoring will not be so dangerous." - - - III - -As Ardelan's reserve thawed out, Verrill pressed him with questions. -"Your men talk about nothing but raids on your neighbors' flocks, and -about feuds. Haven't you enough sheep?" - -"Doctor, you know how to save lives, but you know nothing at all about -living." - -Ardelan pointed toward the gateway, which opened from courtyard to -the square. Half a dozen women, high-breasted and long-limbed, were -gossiping at the well. Their wild gracefulness was blood-stirring. -Verrill contrasted them with the studiedly elegant ladies of Venus, and -with Linda particularly. - -"We have enough sheep, and enough women," the chief explained. "The -sheep don't make trouble. The women do. If my men are not to cut each -other's throats, they must have outside enemies to keep them busy. Or -the jealousies of their wives would prod them to too much competition -with each other." - -Thinking back to his quarrel with Gil Dawson, Verrill had to concede -Ardelan's point and principle. And then he got back to the perils of -being a stranger. The following day, he proposed, "Let me take part in -the fire ceremony of an evening. In that way, I won't be a stranger so -long." - -The chief got up, presently, and clapped his hands. A retainer came -forward with two horses. They were hammer-headed, shaggy, Roman-nosed, -and with fierce eyes. The saddles were sheepskin pads. There were no -stirrups. - -Verrill said, "Excellency, you ride. I'll walk." - -They set out for the shrine. Meanwhile, half a dozen horsemen came in -from the other end of the shelf. One, overtaking Verrill and the chief, -slowed down enough to exchange a hail, and then pressed on. Before they -came to the shrine, the rider had finished his business with Kwangtan, -and was leaving. - -He circled wide, to avoid an encounter. This made Verrill uneasy. The -man was dust-caked, sweat-drenched, and sagging. - -Ardelan frowned. "More trouble! That's one of the outpost guards. I -wish I could have just the right amount of raiding, and no more." - -"He might have told you what it was about." - -"He will, at the sunset council. But Kwangtan has to dip his long nose -into everything first, or he makes trouble." - -They got the news in a hurry. - -Standing in the entrance of the shrine, Kwangtan cursed his chief and -the doctor as well. "Get that fellow out of here! He's come to steal -the Fire of Skanderbek. And you're a fool for allowing him around here!" - -Ardelan endured the cursing until he had a chance to ask, "Have you had -another vision, Holy One?" - -"The man who just rode up told me what I had already learned from the -fire gods. This Verrill has promised the ruby to one of his women." - -"Who said that?" Verrill demanded. - -"One of your own people who fly down from heaven. One called Dawson. -At the trading-post. Dawson talked about you to our men, and to our -neighbors." - -"You stick to your own business," Ardelan interposed, quietly. "He -will stick to his. He is an outlaw from his own people. Naturally, his -enemies try to harm him." - -The snarling saint listened. He and Ardelan eyed each other. What -unspoken thought passed between them was beyond Verrill's guessing; yet -it must have had force, for Kwangtan offered no objection when Ardelan -said, "Verrill, come in with me and bow to the flame." - - * * * * * - -The interior of the shrine was much larger than the front had -suggested. This was because of a grotto in the overhang of the cliff. -From a rift in the natural shelf of rock came hissing jets of fire. -They wavered, varied, blending into each other and separating again. - -Behind the low barrier of flames was a monstrous ruby, uncut, yet a -perfect hexagonal crystal, with edges clean and sharp. This was not -from any alluvial deposit, else the faces would have been dulled and -the edges chipped. - -Whether or not the stone had been polished, Verrill could not even -surmise. At all events, this was a ruby that had come from the original -matrix, the rocky birthplace of gems. It collected all the wavering -light, transformed it, and poured it back again, transmuted into living -red. The crystal seemed to pulsate with a life of its own. - -The beauty and the splendor made Verrill picture the Fire of -Skanderbek against Linda's white skin--and the wonder of it must have -showed in his face, rather than the resolve to have the gem at any -cost, for Kwangtan's radiant hostility softened perceptibly. Verrill -imitated Ardelan's gesture and bow: and the two withdrew from the -shrine. - -"I don't doubt," said Ardelan, once he was in the saddle, and Verrill -tramping alongside, "that you'd steal it if you could get out of here -with it. Don't try it. Maybe I could--but probably I could not--save -your life." - -"You'd not try any too hard." - -"You are wrong," the chief countered, earnestly. "Slitting that kid's -gullet and not hurting him was something I'd never heard about. Maybe -you can be useful around here." - -"Not with what Kwangtan thinks of me." - -"It really depends on the women--though quite a few of the men believe -in the fire god." - -"You don't," Verrill said, boldly. "Though you do wonder a lot about -fire that comes out of a rock, with no fuel." - -"I don't wonder as much as you think. There's a place, far away from -here, where a blaze like that comes from the ground sometimes when a -camp fire is built too near it. But the wind whisks the flames out and -then there's nothing but a smell." - -Verrill had by now revised somewhat his notions on savages. "Then why -do you put up with that wild-eyed fanatic?" - -Ardelan smiled indulgently. "You people from the outside know many -strange things. How to come down from the stars. How to make guns. But -the few of you I've talked to are dog-ignorant when it comes to people. -The fire god is something our neighbors don't have. It makes us stick -together better, and keeps us from fighting among ourselves. Aren't any -of your people smart enough to have gods?" - -Verrill answered, with feigned humility, "I came to teach you people a -few things but it seems I can learn something. Then it will be a fair -exchange." - -The next day, he had Ardelan send a courier to the trading-post. The -man carried an order for a consignment of medical supplies to be -sent from the Venusian Domes via the next freighter. There was also a -letter for Linda, telling of the success of his first operation, and -of Dawson's first move to make trouble. "_But Gil was a bit late_," -he wrote. "_I'd already got in pretty solid. That won't keep him from -trying something else. He must have talked a good deal before he left. -If you hear any gossip as to what he planned to do or how he intended -to do it, be sure and write me the details. From all I've seen of -Terra so far, they should have bombed it even more than they did. One -well-organized Dome is worth a dozen Earths. But the natives don't seem -to mind a bit...._" - - * * * * * - -Knife and gunshot wounds and fractures, Verrill reasoned, would -make up most of his practice: surgery, that is, in its engineering -aspect, rather than as a corrective of ailments. And the centuries, -fortunately, had worked to keep his task from being utterly beyond -a well-educated layman. Whereas in the twentieth century, there had -not been more than two or three specifics, there were now ten times -as many. It was a matter of taking the proper bottle, just as, in -ancient times, one had reached automatically for quinine, the primitive -specific against malaria. - -Meanwhile, what had been his prison became his home and his dispensary. -During his wait for the shipment from Venus, he instituted a -garbage-disposal program. He condemned the shallow well, and had them -build a wooden flume from a spring high up on the mountainside. Each -radical move, however, had to wait until a cure he had effected assured -him of sufficient momentary popularity to enable him to kick an ancient -unsanitary practice overboard. - -Then one night came a furtive sound at his door, as though someone were -trying to enter by stealth. A cold shiver trickled down his spine. -Though he doubted that the fire priest was coming to dispose of him, -there was all too much chance that Kwangtan had convinced one of the -tribe that carving the stranger would in the long run be beneficial. -Despite the warning, and Verrill's readiness for whatever might be -creeping up, he had his moment of terror. However well he handled -himself, he could not win--for if he killed an intruder, there would be -a blood feud. - -Groping in the dark, he found a length of firewood. He had to end the -matter by knocking the other out before he could come to grips to make -it a finish fight. Stealthily, he skirted the wall. He heard the soft -mumble of the leather-hinged door as it dragged the hard earth. A -sliver of moonlight reached into the darkness. Barefooted, Verrill made -no sound as he evaded the widening streak of light. A patch of shadow -broke it. A dark shape edged into the gloom. Verrill measured the -distance. He gathered himself. - -He had to make sure whether there was only that one, or whether others -had joined. He held his breath until his pulse hammered in his ears. -The motion at the door had stopped. He was afraid to exhale-- - -And then he breathed again. - -The one who approached had long hair which mirrored red glints. She -had shifted enough for the moonlight to outline the curve of cheek and -throat, and hint at the smoothness of shoulder and ripeness of breast. -The arms were white and slender. Her stalking motion was beautiful even -in the obscurity. - -There was a whisper of sandals, and of breath. She was then of a sudden -close against him, and seemingly not at all surprised. It was as though -she had expected him to be precisely where they met in the darkness. -He must have dropped the cudgel, for at the first touch of her, he was -stroking the sleek red hair, and with the other hand tracing the curve -of waist and back. - -She snuggled closer, and he said, "Falana!" as though touch and taste -and smell had identified the girl as surely as sight. She was Falana, -the aunt of his first patient. She wore the shapeless, crude garments -of the tribe, yet it was as though there were neither homespun nor even -a wisp of air between them. - -Falana had no words to waste as she found his mouth in the darkness. -There was nothing to explain. When he stepped back and further into -the gloom, she was close as ever; and, as if seeing in the darkness, -she seemed to know exactly where he spread his sheepskin mat-- - -She did know. Or else he must have remembered. - -When Falana finally got around to talking with words, she did not tell -him how she had admired him from first sight, or that his surgery had -been marvelous. She said, "I'll bring my things over in the morning," -and yawned contentedly, and snuggled closer. - - * * * * * - -Verrill spent a restless night, being intensely occupied in telling -himself, over and over again, that Venus was a long way off, and that -whatever happened on Terra did not really count, unless as a result he -became embroiled in feuds on Falana's account and to such an extent -that he would be unable to make off with the Fire of Skanderbek. - -Well before dawn, Falana went to the door to get a small bundle she had -left lying at the jamb. Before Verrill knew what was happening, he got -his first whiff of breakfast cooked in his own home. - -"Eating with neighbors," Falana observed, "must have been awful. And -you never know who might poison you." - -Watching Falana patting oat cakes into shape, and baking them on a hot -rock, he began to see her as a very pleasant reality, though he could -not help but go long-faced when he considered how he had without doubt -inherited a few dangerous animosities as well. - -She must have read his thought, for she said, "It's much better this -way, Verrill. You haven't more than maybe one-two-three enemies on my -account. But as long as you lived alone, doctoring all day while most -of the men are out with the flocks, they'd all be suspecting and hating -you." - -There was nothing to explain to Ardelan. The chief seemed to have -been expecting something of the sort. "Falana," he said to Verrill, -"probably didn't get around to telling you this, but you can either -send her home, or else take her to the fire temple to get Kwangtan's -blessing. Then you won't be a stranger anymore, and you'll get along -better." - -That very day, Falana and Verrill knelt before the altar of living -flame and passed their joined hands quickly through the fire. This -time, Verrill got a good look at the shrine as Kwangtan blessed them. - -He likewise got a look at the surroundings. He noted Kwangtan's cell, -hewn out of the limestone cliff. He noted the cairns of rock raised -above the grave of each of Kwangtan's predecessors. Having sized up the -situation, he decided that his next move would be to ride a circuit of -Ardelan's territory, to treat those tribesmen who rarely if ever got -to town. By becoming acquainted with all the trails, he would have a -better chance of escaping with the Fire of Skanderbek. - -Too bad he could not take Falana along. She would be a sensation, back -home. The most skilled cosmeticians of the Venusian Domes could not -begin to duplicate Falana's glowing red-bronze hair. - - - IV - -By the time medical supplies and equipment arrived--and also a message -from Linda, who was thrilled from having heard of his good work among -the barbarians--Ardelan's mountaineers had begun to accept Verrill as -a man, and not a mere medico. His efforts to ride their half-tamed -horses, time and again picking himself up from where they had thrown -him, to mount and try again, amused them enormously, and gave them a -comfortable feeling of superiority--and evoked a degree of respect. - -To make his escape with the Fire of Skanderbek, he would have to ride -on a few cattle- and sheep-stealing raids and so acquire sufficient -skill for getting away with his loot. - -It was Falana who explained the monstrous ruby's status as a tribal -fetish. "Ages ago," she said, "the gods destroyed the world with fire, -and after the flames had gone, the ghosts of the dead flames danced -over the earth, and killed whoever came near. They killed without -burning. The ghosts of the fire lived in the earth and air and water. -And there were only small patches where men could live. - -"And there was Skanderbek, a wise man who talked to the ghosts. Maybe -he smelled them. Maybe he could see what others could not. Others say -that he had a talisman that talked to him, and warned him where not to -go. There are many stories. - -"Skanderbek led his people to these mountains in time to keep them -from starving or being poisoned. He made fire come out of the rock. -Everlasting fire. Over it he hung the fire stone you now see. He taught -us to bow to the fire and serve it, so that when the fire gods stopped -hating mankind, the ghosts of the dead flames would go away. The years -passed, and there was always further range for our animals. Other -people came, and then of course there was looting and war. - -"But Skanderbek talked with gods and devils, and so no one could drive -us out of here. One day Skanderbek said, 'I am going back to the gods. -Let such and such a one take my place; I have taught him what to do and -what to say to the holy flame, so that fire will never again destroy -the earth. And one day, wearing a new body, I will come back.' All this -was a long time ago, long before your people came out of the sky with -knives of steel, and with guns, to trade with us. - -"And now tell me about your gods, Verrill." - -There was very little to tell Falana, except that Science had become, -had from the beginning been the god of Venus. He was quite too busy -reflecting that Skanderbek, a man like himself, had undoubtedly used a -Geiger counter and some imagination, and had as a result become a god. - -He was thinking also of Linda's letter. She had not been able to give -him much gossip about Dawson's plans to oppose him, since Dawson had -left without having done much talking. But he inferred from what she -did write, and from stories Ardelan's tribesmen brought from the -disputed frontier, that a Venusian was living with the neighboring -tribe, giving them rifles to take the place of their trade muskets. -This suggested that Dawson was taking the simple and direct approach: -coaching his protectors in the art of more efficient fighting, so that -as the climax of an eventual raid into Ardelan's almost inaccessible -fortress, Dawson could seize the Fire of Skanderbek and make off with -it in the confusion. - -Whatever Verrill intended to do, he would have to do it quickly. - - * * * * * - -He went to the shrine and asked, "Kwangtan, where is the grave of -Skanderbek?" - -"Skanderbek," the priest said, contemptuous of ignorance, "is not -buried. He went back to the gods. Now go, and stay away." - -"I have heard a story like _that_," Verrill retorted. "Among my own -people, there are old books, ancient before Skanderbek was even dreamed -of. And it is written always how one leader or another went back to the -gods, not dying as other men died. But we know better. A man dies, and -his bones remain." - -Kwangtan's eyes sharpened and changed. He seemed to be asking himself -whether this might not be one of those times when the wise thing was to -make an ally of an enemy. And Verrill was at the same time thinking, -"_Lies are the foundation of all priestcraft, and I've got this one -searching the foundations._" - -Verrill said, "If a man found the bones of Skanderbek, he could build a -shrine there for the gods of death. Men serve most what they fear most." - -"Which of us fears death?" the priest challenged. "We are fighting-men." - -"My patients act otherwise," Verrill blandly countered. Then: -"Skanderbek had no wings. His bones can not be far from here. The -bones of Skanderbek will give a light like a glow-worm or a fire-fly. -Wherever they are lying, they will be easily recognized. Any herdsman -would know if he found them." - -Verrill was gambling on the probability that Skanderbek, leading a -group of Terrestrians to safety, had exposed himself overmuch to the -deadly radioactivity, more so than any of those he led. Whether there -had been sufficient to make his bones radioactive until they would -glow, either then or now, was an open question. But Kwangtan was of -the line of priests who create and maintain a tradition: the blend -of knowledge and falsehood that keeps their craft alive and their -privilege secure. Kwangtan would surely have enough of that blend to -set him wondering, and in his own interests. - -It was time to leave; and, nodding contentedly, Verrill left, rightly -assured that the old devil would lose no time hunting the bones of -Skanderbek, lest someone else find them first and set up a rival -shrine. He would have to hunt by night, and alone. The nights were -cold, and the trails dangerous. - -A few nights later, Verrill went out, high on the rimrock, to lurk in -a perilous perch overhanging the shrine. He saw Kwangtan momentarily -outlined by the light that came from the grotto. The priest was making -for the spring, and then climbing higher. Apparently he was going out -by a secret way, for a concealed purpose. Well satisfied, Verrill -climbed down out of the bitter cold wind which whined eternally about -the limestone buttresses. Unobserved, he went down again into the -shelter of the ledge, and to the house where Falana was asleep. - -She no more perceived his return than she had his departure. - - * * * * * - -Before many days had passed, Verrill was busily probing for bullets, -suturing sword slashes, and setting bones. When the fighting-men he had -salvaged were well enough to be about and looking for more trouble, -Ardelan confessed that he had entirely revised his notions on doctors. -And that gave Verrill his chance to say, "I'll go along the next time -there's a raid. I could have saved that one who died on the way." - -Ardelan shook his head. "There is a personal enemy of yours among our -neighbors. I can't take any chance of your being killed or captured." - -"You're making a priest of me!" Verrill said, mockingly. "Living on the -fat of the land, and taking none of the risks." - -"You've made that for yourself," Ardelan retorted. "And speaking of -priests, you'll have one for a patient." - -"How's that?" - -"Kwangtan is coughing a lot. He's failing rapidly. We had always -thought he would live forever." - -Verrill shrugged. "He's old, so old he hasn't much time left. He'd -rather die a little sooner than admit that there is anything I could -possibly do for him. Letting me treat him would be casting serious -reflections on the fire god. How was the raid--did it pay?" - -"Pretty well, all around." - -"A few more sheep, and some more work for me!" - -"More than that," Ardelan corrected. "There's a nice looking valley, -but it's always been deadly. Poisonous from the beginning. We've never -used it. That stranger, that Dawson, must have found out that the curse -is no longer on the soil. They've been using it for their flocks. Well, -it's ours, it always has been, so we ran them out." - -"They'll come back?" - -"Of course they will; but with enough raids, we'll discourage them, and -then we can send some of our own people to hold it permanently. Build a -settlement." - -Verrill had heard talk of all this, but not in such clear terms; now, -having got it from the chief, he could take notice, and he was prepared. - -"Your oldest son will live there," Verrill surmised, "to represent you?" - -Ardelan nodded. "Good experience for him against the day of my death, -when he will rule the tribe." - -"That's been worrying you." - -Ardelan's brows bristled and his eyes went fierce. "Worrying about the -day of my death--what do you mean?" - -"I meant, worrying about your son's taking an exposed outpost." - -"It's good experience for him." - -"It's worrying you. The next son is six years younger." - -The chief grimaced. "He's a reckless young fool and a show-off. Like I -was at his age. And I don't think he has my luck." - -"Next time there's a raid," Verrill promised, "I'll go. It will be good -for all your men, not just for him in case he is wounded. It won't look -as though you're favoring your son." - -Ardelan grumbled something midway between throat and beard, and gave -Verrill a gesture of dismissal. Verrill knew when to stop pressing a -point; and he knew also that further words had not been needed. - -In this he was right. He rode out with others who went to reconnoiter -the dangerous valley, and there was no objection. He rode well. His -presence was good for the morale of the raiders. And while he caught -no sight of Dawson, he won prestige from supposedly having come to the -frontier camps to get a shot at his enemy. Actually, he rather hoped -that he would not have any such chance to settle the feud ... it would -be much more satisfactory to have Dawson witness his return to Venus -with the Fire of Skanderbek. - -And of an evening, when he was at home with Falana, she would sit -with him as he watched Venus hanging low over the rimrock, white and -splendid; she was finishing her term as evening star. And the sight -of that far-off globe made him more than homesick. It accentuated his -feeling of remoteness and of exile, and at the same time made him -uneasy and uncomfortable, as though he and his Terrestrian redhead were -somehow under Linda's eyes. - -And he was afraid lest Falana read his thoughts. The longer he stayed, -the harder it would be to leave; for in spite of his having come with -fraudulent intent, he had done enough good to these barbarians to have -become attached to them. - -Meanwhile, the sooner Venus became the morning star, the better he -would like it. - - - V - -At last came the night when he felt sure that Kwangtan's search for the -bones of Skanderbek had become such a fixed habit that the priest would -be ranging further and further afield, leaving the shrine unguarded for -an ever-lengthening period. The length of Kwangtan's absence was the -measure of Verrill's head start. - -As he set out for his goal, he said to himself, "When the old devil -misses the ruby, and then hears I'm gone, he'll likely play foxy and -cook up a yarn about my having taken it back to the gods. He couldn't -be so dumb as to admit he was out wandering when he should have been -guarding the shrine.... I've done a reasonable number of other miracles -since I brought Falana's nephew back from the dead ... so if he's -smart, he'll invent another miracle, and that will make it nice for -Falana...." - -And so, all at ease, he rode boldly from the walled enclosure. The -guards, assuming he was going out on a case, settled back after -greeting him, and drew their sheepskin coats closer about them. - -Nearing the shrine, he left his horse in the shadow of a limestone -ledge, to proceed afoot. He had to make sure that Kwangtan was actually -away. - -Stealthily, he made the most of rocks and shadows to cover his advance. -The gurgling overflow of the spring combined with the whining of the -wind to make a curtain of sound. He was quite near the spot from which, -unseen, he could look in and see if Kwangtan was there, when he heard a -disturbance which gave him all the answer he needed. - -Kwangtan was not abroad, hunting a dead man's bones. He was instead -choking, gasping for breath; in his struggle, he knocked down some -pottery, judging from the clatter. - -The sounds, and the way the old man had been scrambling about by night, -exploring ravines and caverns, exposing and overtaxing himself, told -the story. He had come to the end of his crooked rope. - -This was perfect. It had worked far better than Verrill had -anticipated. Just sit and wait for silence and the finish. - -But another ingredient took effect. Verrill's own long-sustained -pretense of being a doctor drove him forward against his best -interest. After two paces taken in a helpless daze, he was no longer -compulsion-driven and bewildered; he ran, and with his kit. He had -brought it with him, from force of habit as much as for making a show -for the benefit of whomsoever he might encounter along the way to the -border. - -As he knelt beside his patient, Verrill concluded that Kwangtan's heart -had been cutting up tricks; though with exposure and worry, other -complications might have set in. He got his vials and his hypo and set -to work. - -Of a sudden, he knew that he was not alone with his patient. Startled, -he glanced about. - - * * * * * - -Falana was in the doorway, and with her two of the guards. They held -her by the arms. She had a bundle of something wrapped up in a shawl. -Her face showed only impatience and annoyance at their stupidity. -Their faces were still changing; the growth of understanding and the -accepting of a new idea had not yet erased suspicion. - -The sight of the trio gave Verrill the story, before any could speak: -Falana, sensing what he planned, had packed up a bundle and had set out -after him; and the guards, even though not getting the entire point, -had suspected that the doctor was up to the very trick of which he had -been accused. Falana had from the start been a hostage, at least a bond -sufficiently strong to guarantee his good behavior. Thus the sight of -her apparently preparing to follow him into the night had aroused all -the suspicions which his work had lulled. - -Falana said, "The poor fellow's half starved, Verrill! And shivering -from cold! Let go of me, you blockheads--he's busy and I've got to give -him a hand." - -She plopped her bundle on the floor, brought out a small pot, and set -to work heating water over the sacred flame. - -"If you don't like it, get some brush," she told the guards, "and I'll -stop the sacrilege." - -Blinking owlishly, they obeyed. - -When they returned to kindle a fire on the floor, she had dried meat in -the pot. "Here, hold this!" she directed, and taking a heavy cape from -the bundle, she blanketed the patient. Next she drew the shawl about -his head and shoulders. Whatever else she may have had in the bundle, -Verrill did not know, for she had very deftly wadded the odds and ends -into a shirt and had tucked the lot under the priest's head, for a -pillow. - -When Kwangtan responded to treatment and regained consciousness, he did -not have any idea as to what had happened, or why people were gathered -about him. But he swallowed some of the broth Falana offered him. - -The guards explained, "The doctor knew you were in trouble." - -Falana nodded. "He awakened suddenly and told me to follow when I had -this and that gathered together. The gods talk to him. Now that you've -had your fill of snooping, suppose you go on about your business!" - -They went, leaving Verrill and Falana to sit up with the priest until -he was out of danger. - -Within the hour, Verrill could have ridden off with the Fire of -Skanderbek. Instead, he made apologies to himself; he could not rob a -patient, or even collect his fee before he had really earned it. - - * * * * * - -Several days passed, and word of Verrill's having heard the voice of -the gods and so having gone to the shrine in time to save Kwangtan -gave him an enormous boost in prestige. He had the priest at least -halfway on the road to recovery when a courier brought news of another -outbreak on the border. He hesitated to leave his patient, and decided -to wait until the warring tribesmen made actual contact. As nearly as -he could analyze the report, both sides were still scouting, skulking, -maneuvering into positions suitable for the seizure of, or the defense -of, the valley that Ardelan claimed as his own. - -There would not be a serious clash until both sides had completed -their infiltration whereby each planned to catch the other off guard, -and so precipitate a panic the result of which would be relatively -few casualties and a great deal of loot in the form of stampeded or -abandoned or lost animals. - -These barbarians, Verrill told himself, had a warfare far more -civilized than had been that of The War, and also, a lot more -sensible--there was a result to show for the effort exerted, and a -profit instead of a mutual loss. - -He decided to stay with his patient, and then by dint of hard riding -join Ardelan's son when there was immediately impending need. - -Falana said, "You're making a mistake. Now is your chance." - -Just that way: with no build up at all. And she was right, for he -needed no explanation of her meaning. He knew all of a sudden that she -had tuned in on all his unspoken debates with himself. He and Kwangtan -were supposed to be able to talk with the gods. That was pure nonsense. -The gift was largely a feminine monopoly. Falana undoubtedly knew all -about Linda, instead of merely about the Venusian Domes. - -Verrill answered, "I can't rob a patient. If he dies or gets well, then -it will be different...." - -Falana shrugged, and for no apparent reason, moved a bundle wrapped up -in a cape. "Suit yourself, Verrill, but you are letting your luck wear -thin. If you want it this way, though, I'll be ready whenever you are." - -"You were all ready the other night?" - -"Of course. And when the guardsmen caught me, I was scared silly. I -don't know what would have happened if that old devil hadn't been at -death's door. Now is your chance.... It won't ever be better." - -Falana was right, so very right, yet Verrill balked. He mounted up, -with his medical kit, and with a pair of pistols thrust into his sash. - -He was worried, and worn down. Tending to Kwangtan, and within reaching -distance of the ruby, had been difficult. Worse yet, there was the -problem created by Falana. Whenever he convinced himself that once -back in the Venusian Domes, he would forget the Terrestrian girl, his -argument went into reverse: and he knew that regardless of distance, -the bond could not be broken in fact. Then, pursuing the endless debate -from its other alternative, neither could he remain an exile from -Venus, and stay away from Linda by any choice of his own. - -And all this went with him, oppressing him as he rode toward the new -valley which would so enrich Ardelan's people. - - - VI - -Verrill was still well short of his destination when he heard a rider -behind him: a horse blowing and wheezing, ridden nearly to death, yet -carrying on. He wheeled about. It was Falana who had overtaken him. - -"You little idiot, go back home!" - -"I won't." - -"You will, and now." - -"Yes, if you carry me back." - -"What's the idea? You know I'm coming back, and you know there's a lot -of trouble ahead, where I'm bound for." - -"I'm going anyway." - -And then her horse collapsed. Verrill had no magic to restore it to -life. "Now I can't go back," she announced, contentedly, as though she -had foreseen this decisive detail. - -She mounted up and rode behind him. - -From time to time, Verrill halted, and cocked an ear. Thus far, he had -heard no firing. He had seen no signal fires on the crests that were -dark against the stars. The way became harder, and until moon-rise, -difficult to pick. - -When the first half-glow whitened the limestone slopes and the high -snowcaps, the mountain world became a maze of illusion and shifting -glamour. - -Finally, Verrill's horse sniffed the air, and would have whinnied, -had he not checked him in time. As he paused, he wondered whether -Falana's presence, the night he had saved Kwangtan, would be sufficient -precedent for her accompanying him into the field; or whether instead -suspicion would be aroused. - -He had reined in at the edge of a deep shadow. Before he could make up -his mind, Falana said, "Turn around and see--I've got it." - -As he twisted about, the horse shifted, moving out of the shadow and -into light strong enough for him to see the ruby she had in her hand. -It collected enough of the glow to pulse and flame as though in its own -right. One good look he got, and then she had knotted it again into the -end of her scarf and thrust it securely between her breasts. - -"I'm going with you to the home of the gods," Falana said, "and if -they, your people, don't like me, they can do what they want with me. -But I'm going." - -However she had made away with the gem, there would be the devil to pay -when Kwangtan missed it. His exclamation of dismay made her add, "He -won't make any trouble. He smothered under his sheepskin robe." - -Verrill preferred not to ask whether she meant that the invalid had -himself done this, accidentally, or whether, aroused by her prowling, -his protest had been stifled, quickly and silently, by a solid armful -of a woman who knew precisely what she had to do to save herself. -Instead of being horrified by a very logical suspicion, he dismissed -the query: for in either event, he had no longer any choice concerning -Falana. She had made the bond so strong that wherever he went, he would -take her. There was no more clash between him and Dawson. The bond -that had attached him to Linda had been cut. Whether by smothering the -fire priest, or merely robbing the fire god, Falana had done well for -herself. - -After a silence, he said, "There's someone just ahead. My horse scented -them. Whoever they are, they may have caught some sign of us. You get -down and wait. The sight of you is likely to make the outposts think -I'm leaving the tribe. And now is no time for suspicion!" - -"I know another way around, and out," Falana said. "A hard trail, but -we can make it." - -"Whoever's ahead, up there, might start wondering. All I have to do is -go ahead and identify myself, and then go my way." - -"You can make some excuse for coming back this way," she said, and -slipped to the ground. "I'll wait." - - * * * * * - -He rode on, at a walk. Ten to one, Falana had smothered Kwangtan, not -out of malice, but simply because he would have kept her from following -Verrill. Since Verrill could not reject her, he had to accept the act -as his own, however heavy the burden. He shrank from the very suspicion -of the deed, and at the same time, his eyes were tear-blinded from -realization of her devotion, so much more reckless than any Venusian -woman's could have been. - -A horse whinnied. Verrill's mount answered. And before Verrill could -hail the dimly-discerned rider, revealed when he rounded a sharp curve, -he knew that this was an ambush; the recognition between horses had -come because the animals ahead had been stolen from Ardelan's herd. - -Despite his disadvantage, knowledge came before he had made himself too -good a target. - -That split-second sensing gave him a chance with his pistol. He spurred -in, shooting. A wild shot grazed him. The enemy stampeded, as though -from the sudden fear that they had tricked themselves; it was as though -his boldness had convinced them that he had a large party at his back. - -[Illustration: Verrill spurred in, shooting....] - -In half a dozen hoofbeats, he was through. One horse was down, and -struggling. Something thumped into the ravine, far below. There was a -brief shower of rocks, and the diminishing clatter of hoofs. - -Only two had lain in wait: and one was bound for home. - -Verrill reined in sharply, and called to Falana. She answered, and -knowing it was all over, came toward him at a walk. - -Verrill was badly shaken. Falana, knowing that he would be, was giving -him a welcome moment to himself. This was his first taste of combat. - -The enemy, sprawled among the rocks, groaned and cursed, as though -shock had until that moment held him unable to make a sound. This was -something familiar to Verrill, for in his way, he was now a doctor in -fact--a man was a man, whether friend or enemy. And this one, being a -man he had wounded, evoked his response more readily than had Kwangtan. - -Verrill dismounted. The man in the shadows mumbled and choked; the -man's horse lay dead; and approaching his own handiwork shook Verrill's -composure. Worse yet, he should not dally. No telling who might have -heard the shots, who might be hurrying to the scene. But he could not -abandon a patient, though this might become a dangerous business, with -the Fire of Skanderbek taken from the shrine-- - -Three sounds blended. Verrill understood each, but too late. - -"Now see if you'll get the ruby!" the patient challenged, triumphantly, -and fired. - -Venusian accent and intonation; pistol blast; and then, as Dawson, -unwounded, bound up to take Verrill's horse, came the third sound: -Falana's cry. - -Her approach, afoot, had tricked Dawson. She was on him from the rear -before he sensed his danger. He swayed, he choked, and he would have -flung her aside, but for the knife with which she finished him. Stab -and slash; and he was dead before she could crawl free of him to go to -Verrill. - -Dawson, living with the enemy tribe, had learned raiding tricks, -and had known how to tempt an enemy by offering hope of plunder. -By feigning a mortal wound, he had played the game as his brothers -in raiding would have played it: and at the most he could not have -hoped for more than a horse, and the weapons of the supposedly greedy -and reckless one whose loot hunger had driven out ordinary caution. -Moonlight on Verrill's face had given Dawson his moment of triumphant -recognition--and then, sudden death which he might otherwise have -avoided. - -The irony of all this passed through Verrill's mind during the moments -which elapsed before he could recover sufficiently from shock to speak. -Teeth chattering from the deadly chill which took hold of him, he said, -"Physician, heal thyself." - -He knew he was beyond mending. He knew also that he had long drawn-out -hours of agony ahead of him. Falana knew, without being told, that she -would soon be alone; that she would never board the long gleaming shell -on the take-off ramp of the trading-post to go with him to the home of -the gods. Since he was shivering, she wrapped a shawl about him, and -waited for him to tell her what else to do. - - * * * * * - -The shift of the moon thinned the shadows that had tricked first one -and then another of those who had met in that rocky angle. Verrill -pointed to the kit, and told her how to load the hypo. He had done this -himself, many times, for those he knew he could not save. They lasted -just as long, but avoided consciousness and pain. This had won him -esteem. And now he was to learn how good his work had been. - -His vision began to play tricks, and his memory also, but he was sure -that the white orb shimmering, rising from behind a distant crest, -was Venus, beginning her term as morning star. Seen through that thin -mountain air, Venus was an expanding splendor, and memories danced: -memories of Linda, blurred with the memories of all other Venusian -women, perfumed and sleek and all bejewelled. They were shapes of the -mind, rather than a semblance to the eye; for at the same time, he saw -clearly where he was, and who was beside him. And he was glad that it -was Falana. - -Falana peeled off her jacket and blouse. She cut a long strand of hair, -and despite the biting wind that lashed her from shoulder to hip, she -shaped a loop, using two long hairs to suspend the Fire of Skanderbek -from about her throat. - -She knelt, posed by sure instinct, head flung back, and the monstrous -ruby all ablaze against her white skin. The lower end of the six-sided -crystal barely dipped into the shadow of her breasts. - -The Venusian images of memory were blotted out, and with them, the -great white orb as well. Falana became all women in one, yet remaining -all the while wholly herself. - -Verrill's face, or her own instinct, told her when to end the tableau. -She slipped into her jacket and went into the shadow beside him. She -caught him in her arms, to pillow him better than had the rocks and the -saddle-bags that had softened them. And then Verrill went on his long -road, and entirely content, for he had in his way done with the Fire of -Skanderbek as he had planned. - -Not long after sunrise, a handful of Ardelan's men came along from the -new valley. They had routed the raiders. Somewhere, they told Falana, -there had been several shots, which had alerted them. - -"The shots Verrill fired," they concluded, having seen and understood -from the face of things. - -She gave them no time to wonder about her presence. "He was going to -stay for days and days with the people Ardelan was sending into the new -valley. I made him take me with him. So I was here when he killed his -enemy, the one with whom he had a feud." - -Despite their grief at losing their doctor, the mountaineers forgot -none of their ways. Methodically, they took the gear from the dead -horse, and stripped the dead enemy, leaving nothing but vulture -bait. And among the things they found in his clothes was the Fire of -Skanderbek. - -"The gods told Verrill," Falana said. "But not all, and not in time. -Only enough to send him where he would meet the thief." - -They studied his face, and one said, "It is clear that the gods -welcomed him when he took their road." - -Later, Ardelan himself joined them. He heard, he saw, and then he said, -"We will bury Verrill by those others who have guarded the Fire of -Skanderbek. He saved many lives for us, as Skanderbek did in the old -days." - -And this was done, with no one wondering at Kwangtan's death. Some -said that the spirit of the priest had guided Verrill to overtake the -looter. Falana heard the legend grow, and could not tell what Ardelan -really thought. Whatever his thought, the chief kept it to himself, -until, days later, he said to Falana, "Verrill's son will be a great -man among us, to watch the Fire of Skanderbek, and teach us the way of -the gods." - -Which seemed reasonable enough to Falana, who had command of more -miracles than any man. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXILE FROM VENUS *** - -***** This file should be named 64199-0.txt or 64199-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - https://www.gutenberg.org/6/4/1/9/64199/ - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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Hoffman Price</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Exile From Venus</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: E. Hoffman Price</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: January 02, 2021 [eBook #64199]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXILE FROM VENUS ***</div> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>EXILE FROM VENUS</h1> - -<h2>By E. HOFFMAN PRICE</h2> - -<p>Earth was a world of murdering savages; bleak<br /> -and desolate; contaminated by deadly radioactivity.<br /> -Only Craig Verrill's atavistic stubbornness—and<br /> -a rash promise, made in fury—could have brought<br /> -him back to that perilous birthplace of Man....</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories May 1951.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>The solicitude of Linda's voice, the seductiveness of her perfume, -her very presence as they sat in the artificial twilight of the Domes -of Venus, tempted him to abandon his plan to sail at once for Terra, -venture among the savage Terrestrians, and get possession of that -enormous ruby they called the Fire of Skanderbek.</p> - -<p>Linda was long legged and supple waisted, with dark eyes and -gold-bronze hair, and very white skin. Her cheek bones were just -sufficiently prominent to keep her face from being too regular; and -there was a perceptible dusting of tiny freckles which accented the -irregularity, adding a piquant touch. These were natural, and a -rarity that had existed only in fable for the past six-hundred years, -for the glow-lamps and the occlusive Venusian atmosphere seemed to -combine to make the freckle almost impossible. However, though the -cosmeticians had driven the Board of Science frantic until they had -devised a process for artificially imitating Linda's unique flaw, this -distinction had not spoiled her.</p> - -<p>"Never mind what I said, last night," Linda pleaded. "We were all -angry, you and Gil and I. No sense at all!"</p> - -<p>"But I promised," Verrill said stubbornly. Which helped—a little—to -sustain himself against backing down from the rash venture for which he -had not a bit of taste.</p> - -<p>He had an angular face, narrowish, with the bony structure well -accented. His nose was prominent; his hazel eyes were intent and -impatient. He was lean, muscular, and all in all, just the sort of -Venusian to go on such a crazy venture—yet he didn't like the idea at -all, now that he had had time to consider.</p> - -<p>"Let's forget it all, Craig! Rubies aren't important enough. The one -Gil brought me from that trading-post of Terra isn't—wasn't—"</p> - -<p>Verrill said sourly: "That's what makes me feel so foolish about it. He -brought you a souvenir, and I grabbed it from you, flung it into the -lake, and pasted him. What for?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, Craig, who <i>cares</i>! Gil was lording it over you. I was too smug -and pleased with the gift to realize how far he was going. Oh, all -right, of <i>course</i> you were wrong! But what of it?"</p> - -<p>Verrill shook his head. "I fairly shouted myself into it."</p> - -<p>"I don't want you to go."</p> - -<p>"I know you don't. But too many of our friends were within sight and -hearing of the whole mess. Sooner or later their attitude would make -you unhappy about a man who talked big, and then backed down."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>His insistence widened Linda's eyes. The civilized Venusians were -always ready to take the sensible, the expedient way. Had they been -otherwise, had they not been the descendants of sensible Terrestrian -ancestors, they would have been included in the devastation which had -left all but small and widely scattered patches of Terra uninhabitable -for the past seven-hundred years. Rather, those who today were -Venusians would have been struggling savages, scraping out a living in -some uncontaminated area.</p> - -<p>Verrill's was an almost Terrestrian stubbornness; something primitive -and atavistic, very much like that queer quirk which made some -Venusians return to their native Earth to set up trading-posts, where -they bartered with the barbarian tribesmen for tobacco and wines, -spices and jewels and perfumes, all manner of luxuries which Venus did -not offer.</p> - -<p>Linda made her final appeal: "Leaving all this, to scramble around in -that terrible waste and desolation—oh, do be sensible!"</p> - -<p>Her voice, and the kiss that followed it, made Verrill at once aware of -what generations of Venusians had taken for granted. He looked across -the gardens and the lake, and up at the prodigious span of girders. -The original purpose of the structure had been to house a military -outpost that was to have outflanked a comparable one on Luna. In the -years just before The War, engineers and scientists had been sent from -Terra to build those enormous domes, plastic-sheathed and air-tight, -to exclude the raging dust-storms and the overwhelming concentration -of formaldehyde which made up most of the natural Venusian atmosphere. -Rather than rely on any system depending upon chemically prepared -oxygen, they had established gardens, orchards, fields of plant-life -which liberated sufficient oxygen to maintain the required balance.</p> - -<p>This was to have been simply a garrison. According to plan, it would -have played a decisive part in the final clash for Terrestrian -supremacy. Meanwhile, there had come to be little difference between -the rival dictatorships, except in the wording of their slogans. -The Anglo-Capitalist Bloc had borrowed all the kinds and twists of -regimentation of the rival bloc. The difference finally became one of -flavor rather than principle.</p> - -<p>A cool-headed few, in command of the Venusian garrison, had seen that -neither side could win; that there would be only mutual and total -destruction. The warfare became more and more atrocious; and the -Anglo-Capitalist Bloc drifted further and further from the sort of -organization that the Venus garrison, in no immediate danger, could -contemplate defending with enthusiasm. Thus, when one day the Lunar -Base radio complained of attack by suicide-ships and then went abruptly -silent, the Venusian Base, which might have been expected to cry -"Geronimo!" and leap into the holocaust, instead underwent a short and -violent revolution in which the ardently military were disposed of. -Then, stubbornly intending to survive chaos and idiocy, the Venus Base -folded its hands and sat out the fatal clash that ended The War and -virtually the whole of Terrestrian civilization with it....</p> - -<p>After several centuries, the Venus Council risked an exploration -party to Terra to see whether the globe was becoming fit for human -habitation again. Large areas had, of course, through natural -processes become decontaminated; there were scattered colonies of -survivors—farmers, herdsmen, hunters, armed with clubs, spears, and -other primitive weapons. Contact was made, communication struck up, -trade—of considerable importance to both—established; and, after the -ten years which this took, the Venusians were left with very little -inclination to colonize Terra. Life under the domes was comfortable, -with controlled climate, law and order, science and art. Comfortable, -civilized, and sensible. While Terra—</p> - -<p>"<i>Be a sensible Venusian</i>," was what Linda meant. "<i>Don't go looking -for trouble when you can do better without. Don't be a typical -Terrestrian!</i>"</p> - -<p>The whole clash of the previous night had been silly. Irritated by -Gil Dawson's giving Linda a ruby as a souvenir of his official -inspection-tour of the Council-controlled Terrestrian trading-posts, -Verrill had flung the trinket into the lake. After a brisk fracas in -which Dawson had finally wearied of getting up, only to be knocked down -again, Verrill had shouted to Linda and to most of Venus that he'd -get her a man's-sized ruby, the Fire of Skanderbek. She, thoroughly -outraged, had told him and Dawson that by Heaven she'd not be the -prize, either of a brawl or a souvenir-finding contest. To make it -good, she had concluded by telling Verrill that he'd be far better -occupied if he got the Venus Council to assign him to one of the -committees for improving the living-standards of the Terrestrians, and -won the Fire of Skanderbek as a token of their gratitude.</p> - -<p>But however earnestly she besought him to forget it all, Verrill was -just as unhappily determined to go through with it. "I can't back down. -Dawson will surely take a crack at stealing the Fire himself—and that -would make it tough for me. And for you."</p> - -<p>"Oh, let the fool try!" she cried, desperately. "He'd never come back -from the territory of those wildmen."</p> - -<p>Verrill shook his head. "He might come back. Even though I did give him -a trouncing, he's anything but a clown. You wouldn't accept the Fire -of Skanderbek if he offered it—but he'd give it to someone else, and -then—well, a lot of women do dislike you! There's nothing I can do, -except to beat him to it."</p> - -<p>And so, Verrill went to do as he had to do.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The space-freighter veered from her course only a little; instead of -landing in the sun-blasted plain at the foot of the mountains into -which Verrill was to go, she launched a crew-boat which took him to the -trading-post at the foot of barren limestone bulwarks.</p> - -<p>Dawson was not at the post. But while a head start was a happy omen, -Verrill knew that it had its limits, since his plan to ingratiate -himself with the barbarians until he could seize the fetish-ruby and -return to the post involved so much time that the gain of hours or days -meant little.</p> - -<p>Ingratiate himself—steal the Fire of Skanderbek—and get -out—infinitely simpler than Linda's suggestion, probably an utterly -impossible one, of deserving it finally as a gift. His first look at -the bearded mountaineers convinced him that no amount of do-gooding -could ever move them to gratitude.</p> - -<p>Those lounging in the compound of the fortified trading-post wore -homespun pants and sheepskin jackets. They fairly clanked with trade -daggers, trade pistols, and trade hatchets; some carried trade muskets, -and some had the new repeating rifles. Their tanned and hairy faces and -bitter eyes made it plain that looting and robbing, brawling and mayhem -and murder were their very breath of life.</p> - -<p>They spoke the international language which had developed sufficiently -to come into common use around 2200 A.D. English, while a nightmare of -contradictions to baffle a foreigner, had offered these advantages: -next to Chinese, no other language was so free of inflections; and it -could so readily assimilate all manner of foreign words. Thus, since -the tone-deaf Occidental had not been able to master the simplicities -of Chinese or other Mongolian tongues, the Asiatics had taken up -English, with which had been blended Arabic, Urdu, Malay, and a good -deal of Western European; and, while seven centuries of Venusian -isolation had made the speech of the people of the Domes diverge from -the original international Terrestrian, Verrill had not too much -difficulty in making himself understood.</p> - -<p>"This black bag," he told a group of the caravan men, "will interest -Ardelan—that's your chief's name, isn't it? Let me go into the -mountains with you to talk to him."</p> - -<p>"You're crazy," a craggy faced fellow with drooping moustaches and hard -blue eyes told him, levelly. "You think I'm crazy."</p> - -<p>Verrill laid out three daggers. He picked one up, jabbed it into the -top of a table cluttered with heaps of goatskins, dried apricots, -raisins, and bags of coriander seed. He bent the weapon until the grip -touched the table top. He released it. It snapped straight up, with a -fine, high pitched <i>spang</i>. He plucked a dagger from the mountaineer's -belt, drew the other weapon from the table, and slashed them edge to -edge.</p> - -<p>He cut shavings from the mountaineer's weapon. Then he stropped his own -blade on the palm of his hand for a couple of strokes, and next ran it -along his arm. The hairs toppled as he cut them free; there was no drag -at all, the edge was so keen.</p> - -<p>"Mine are not trade daggers," he said. "Bet you the three that Ardelan -will listen to me, and not throw me out."</p> - -<p>The Terrestrian's eyes gleamed. "What do I put up for a bet?"</p> - -<p>"A pair of those boots you're wearing. Put my knives in your belt now. -If I lose my bet, they're yours. If I win, you're welcome to them -anyway."</p> - -<p>So the caravan men fitted him out with garments and boots like their -own; and Verrill went into the mountains with them.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">II</p> - -<p>The trail snaked along precipices and wound past narrow, hidden -valleys. At the foot of a cliff lay the shell of a space-cruiser which -had been telescoped from its original six-hundred feet to a bare -two-hundred, though much of the nose had melted from the impact against -the rocks. Gnarled oaks and junipers reached up from a riven seam of -the shell. The metal had not rusted. It was merely tarnished to a slate -gray. It was a mine of such metal as could have furnished all manner of -implements for the Terrestrians—but they did not know how to exploit -it.</p> - -<p>Finally, Verrill was looking down into narrow, upland meadows where -sheep grazed. There were barley patches. His eyes felt as though they -were full of sand. The snow-white glare from cliffs, and the dust which -rose in yellow puffs at every step, made the way a torment for one -accustomed to the paradisiacal clime of the Venusian Domes.</p> - -<p>Each day's march brought the donkey-caravan within sight of alternate -trails, guarded by mud-brick towers, where armed men were stationed -to watch the moves of hostile neighbors. The return, even without -pursuit, would be dangerous.</p> - -<p>At last they came to Ardelan's mud-walled houses, huddled on a rocky -shelf which overhung a fertile valley. The settlement was surrounded -by a wall of earth and stone, and had escaped contamination because no -one would have bombed a 12,000 foot range of limestone peaks except by -mistake.</p> - -<p>When the trading convoy filed into the tangle of flat-roofed houses -which surrounded a hard-packed central square, women, children, and -dogs came out, each in full voice. The procession kept straight on -toward the entrance of a two-storeyed building. Half the ground-level -was a stable; the rest, a courtyard where Ardelan and a handful of -armed companions lolled under an awning of black goat-hair.</p> - -<p>Terrestrian faces were no novelty to Verrill; but this time, being -a stranger among them—instead of merely a spectator seeing a -handful of them, half defiant and half uneasy in the strangeness -of a trading-post—he saw what he had never before noticed. They -tended toward height and ranginess, prominence of nose, angularity -of face; yet behind this likeness was a shadow-pattern of racial -differentiation. There were differences of flavor, rather than of -outright form. The flare of a nostril, the shape of an eye, the -fullness or thinness of lip—a thick necked one, here and there, -suggested that, generations back, there had been among his ancestors a -blocky Mongol from Central Asia.</p> - -<p>The guards, instead of presenting Verrill, explained him as though he -had been some trade article. Ardelan, listening, studied his visitor -with entire impersonality, as he might have scrutinized a basket of -fresh ripe apricots to see how they had endured being hauled so far.</p> - -<p>"What's in the bag?" he demanded, abruptly.</p> - -<p>"Medicine. I am a doctor."</p> - -<p>"What for? People die anyway."</p> - -<p>"A doctor," Verrill explained, concealing his dismay, "is not to keep -people from dying. He is to make it more agreeable for them until they -finally have to die."</p> - -<p>Ardelan addressed his henchmen. The answers summed up to this: that if -nothing much ailed a man, he'd get well by himself, and if something -really incapacitated him, it would of course be something so serious -that he could not last long at the best.</p> - -<p>Ardelan digested this wisdom, then asked, "Verrill, can you make knives -like these you gave that man?"</p> - -<p>"I am a doctor, not a blacksmith."</p> - -<p>"Can you make guns or cartridges?"</p> - -<p>"No."</p> - -<p>"Can you fight?"</p> - -<p>Verrill glanced uneasily about, as though Ardelan might be on the point -of selecting an opponent to test the stranger's claims. And, having -read Verrill's face, Ardelan snorted, and not waiting for a reply, -demanded, "Then what are you good for?"</p> - -<p>"To treat the sick," Verrill repeated, with growing sense of futility. -"To bind wounds. To set broken bones."</p> - -<p>"Look at us. We've done very well."</p> - -<p>"I can do better."</p> - -<p>"Can't work, can't fight! Good for nothing but doctoring. Bad as a -priest! Lock him up; I want to think this over."</p> - -<p>The guard hustled Verrill and his medical case into an empty granary. -They slammed the door and rolled a boulder against it. It made no -difference whether or not he could shove the door open; there was -nowhere to go if he did get out. He could not find his way back to the -trading-post except over the way which his escort had brought him: a -guarded way.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>In the half-gloom, Verrill noted that the wall had been cracked by -earthquakes. These cracks gave him hand and toe holds, to climb up -until he could catch the rough-hewn timber which supported the roof -of brush and clay. Lying on the crown of the wall, he could look out -through rifts in the roof.</p> - -<p>Herdsmen were driving their flocks in from distant slopes. Others drove -donkeys laden with brush. Verrill was appalled by the ever present -evidence that Terrestrian life was a matter of digging, scratching, -and enduring the elements. The stark emptiness of the sky worried him; -he was accustomed to the perpetual twilight and impenetrable clouds of -Venus.</p> - -<p>Well away from the settlement, and outside the wall, was a small, -squatty cube with a small tower at each corner. The structure was -backed up against an overhanging cliff, and was unapproachable except -from the walled town. The precipitous ending of the shelf guarded the -whitewashed cube more surely than if it had been within the town wall.</p> - -<p>The open doorway was so large in proportion to the structure itself -that surmise made Verrill's pulse hammer. That must be the shrine where -the Fire of Skanderbek was kept.</p> - -<p>Toward dusk, drums rumbled and trumpets of ram's horns bawled hoarsely. -Men carrying tightly bound bundles of brush marched in procession -toward the whitewashed cube, and chanted as they went. When they came -to the place, they filed in, each coming out with his faggots ablaze.</p> - -<p>They returned to their houses. Before long, Verrill's captors brought -him a bowl of mutton stew, and leathery cakes of bread. "They couldn't -have cooked this stuff so soon," he reasoned. "It must have been -cooking all the while, on fires already lighted. That procession was -fire worship."</p> - -<p>He sat there a long time after he had licked the gravy from his -fingers. A shocking business: meat so plentiful that it was fed to a -prisoner, and yet the barbarians knew nothing at all about cookery.</p> - -<p>The town swarmed with flies. Vultures perched on the walls and -watch-towers, waiting to clean up the garbage and offal flung from the -houses. The community well had a nasty taint from surface drainage from -the stables. Verrill, after a bad night's sleep, spent the morning -deciding that when pestilence did break out, he would need his medical -supplies for himself.</p> - -<p>The women, shapely and graceful, gathered about the well to fill the -earthenware jugs they carried balanced on their heads. They chattered -mainly about the outsider, giving most emphasis to his looks, though -devoting certain speculation to his possible usefulness, and probable -destination.</p> - -<p>"Kwangtan," they all agreed, "wants him killed or sent away."</p> - -<p>From what he could piece together from the various relays of women -he overheard, Verrill concluded that Kwangtan was the keeper of the -shrine; and that medical practice was the monopoly of old women, who -cooked up herbs. These potions, plus Kwangtan's incantations, kept the -community in health.</p> - -<p>The drowsy silence of midafternoon was broken by an hysterical -screeching and screaming. Before Verrill could arouse himself from the -stupor of half suffocation, the door was jerked open and several men -pounced for him.</p> - -<p>"You, with the medicine! Work for you. Bring the black box!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>They hustled him to a house where several old women were shaking and -back-slapping a boy of three or four. The kid's mother, one of the -few redheads in the colony, was wailing at a pitch that made Verrill -shiver. A beetle-browed young man with a wiry beard squatted on the -floor, looking helpless. All he did was repeat, "Get Kwangtan!" And no -one paid him any heed at all.</p> - -<p>At the sight of Verrill, one of the old women laid the child on a -sheepskin spread on the floor. The child's face was gray. His lips were -bluish. His eyes bugged out. He wheezed agonizingly. It made Verrill's -skin twitch, just to see the little fellow's losing battle for breath. -He was slowly choking. With all voices suddenly stilled at Verrill's -approach, the sound became all the more ominous.</p> - -<p>In his utter perplexity and dismay, Verrill hoped that what he heard -was the death-rattle which would relieve him of the task about to be -forced upon him. The absence of Kwangtan, the holy man, told him the -story: that wise fellow was not going to lose any prestige by tackling -something he could not handle.</p> - -<p>"What's wrong?" Verrill asked, with a show of assurance.</p> - -<p>"You're a doctor," the kid's father snarled. "Do something."</p> - -<p>"He swallowed an apricot seed," the child's redhaired mother said. -"It's stuck, we can't shake it out, he's choking. Get it out, you -blinking fool!"</p> - -<p>The kid's father drew and cocked his pistol. The dry click chilled -Verrill to the heart. He remembered an old story of an emergency -operation at a trading-post. The yarn had given the Venusians quite a -thrill.</p> - -<p>Ardelan stalked in. He nodded his approval of the man who had a pistol -trained on the doctor. "Stranger, do not make any mistakes. Kwangtan -has warned us."</p> - -<p>Verrill had a raft of Venusian specifics for just about every known -ailment; he had counted, however, on nothing of the sort which now -confronted him—had looked forward simply to giving the savages pills, -and swabbing them with antiseptics. As he knelt, he fumbled helplessly -with the instruments in the case.</p> - -<p>"Do this right," Ardelan said. "Or he shoots."</p> - -<p>Verrill loaded a hypo with a local anaesthetic. The glint of metal, -and the sudden end of the child's gagging as the injection stilled his -struggles, nearly cost Verrill his life. Ardelan's big hand knocked the -pistol out of line as it blazed, and the slug scorched Verrill's cheek -and pounded a chunk out of the wall.</p> - -<p>"He's not dead," the chief said, "Not yet."</p> - -<p>A splash of antiseptic.</p> - -<p>Then, nerving himself, Verrill made a slit in the throat. There was not -much blood. He got the apricot seed free. With haggling jabs, he took a -couple of stitches. He taped and bandaged.</p> - -<p>Then, shoulders sagging, he settled back, trying to keep from toppling -to the floor. The kid's lips were no longer bluish. He was breathing -freely. At last he blinked, cried out, and reached for his throat.</p> - -<p>"He's brought him back to life!" the redhead cried, and snatched up the -boy.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Verrill crumpled. He toppled, and sprawled. He was, however, conscious, -and when he heard what the mountaineers were saying he realized that -had he done it intentionally, he could not have done better than -collapse.</p> - -<p>One said, "He's left his body for awhile to fight off the devils, so -they won't come back to hurt the kid."</p> - -<p>Verrill muttered and mumbled until, satisfied that his act had been up -to their expectation, he sat up. Again, he faced a pistol, but this -time it was presented butt foremost.</p> - -<p>"Take it, doctor. It's yours," the kid's father said.</p> - -<p>And now Kwangtan, the fire priest, joined the group.</p> - -<p>His deep-set eyes blazed fiercely. His face was sunken. His hands -were like parchment drawn over bones. He wore white pants and a white -shirt. His beard and his shoulder-length hair were white. For a moment, -Verrill thought that the old fellow was a veteran of The War. His age -made him fantastic in a colony where men over forty were scarce, and -those over fifty, rarities; though old women were more than plentiful.</p> - -<p>Verrill declined the gift of the pistol. "Give it to the holy man," he -said. "I did not come here for pay."</p> - -<p>Then he went with Ardelan to sit under the black awning where the chief -settled disputes, and planned raids on neighboring tribes.</p> - -<p>"Excellency," Verrill pointed out, "holding a pistol at a doctor's head -is no way of making sure he'll help the patient."</p> - -<p>"You are a stranger. You might have killed him with a curse."</p> - -<p>"He was already nearly dead."</p> - -<p>"But he was still alive, and you might have finished him."</p> - -<p>"He must have known I'd do my best."</p> - -<p>"Still, if the boy had died, that clan would have lost a fighting man, -so your clan had to lose. That is our law."</p> - -<p>"Is that why Kwangtan wouldn't help?"</p> - -<p>"Not at all. He's not a stranger. And if the women who were working on -the boy had kept at it until he choked to death, no one would have hurt -them. They're not strangers."</p> - -<p>"The quicker I get out of here, the better!"</p> - -<p>Ardelan permitted himself to smile. "Once you are no longer a stranger, -doctoring will not be so dangerous."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">III</p> - -<p>As Ardelan's reserve thawed out, Verrill pressed him with questions. -"Your men talk about nothing but raids on your neighbors' flocks, and -about feuds. Haven't you enough sheep?"</p> - -<p>"Doctor, you know how to save lives, but you know nothing at all about -living."</p> - -<p>Ardelan pointed toward the gateway, which opened from courtyard to -the square. Half a dozen women, high-breasted and long-limbed, were -gossiping at the well. Their wild gracefulness was blood-stirring. -Verrill contrasted them with the studiedly elegant ladies of Venus, and -with Linda particularly.</p> - -<p>"We have enough sheep, and enough women," the chief explained. "The -sheep don't make trouble. The women do. If my men are not to cut each -other's throats, they must have outside enemies to keep them busy. Or -the jealousies of their wives would prod them to too much competition -with each other."</p> - -<p>Thinking back to his quarrel with Gil Dawson, Verrill had to concede -Ardelan's point and principle. And then he got back to the perils of -being a stranger. The following day, he proposed, "Let me take part in -the fire ceremony of an evening. In that way, I won't be a stranger so -long."</p> - -<p>The chief got up, presently, and clapped his hands. A retainer came -forward with two horses. They were hammer-headed, shaggy, Roman-nosed, -and with fierce eyes. The saddles were sheepskin pads. There were no -stirrups.</p> - -<p>Verrill said, "Excellency, you ride. I'll walk."</p> - -<p>They set out for the shrine. Meanwhile, half a dozen horsemen came in -from the other end of the shelf. One, overtaking Verrill and the chief, -slowed down enough to exchange a hail, and then pressed on. Before they -came to the shrine, the rider had finished his business with Kwangtan, -and was leaving.</p> - -<p>He circled wide, to avoid an encounter. This made Verrill uneasy. The -man was dust-caked, sweat-drenched, and sagging.</p> - -<p>Ardelan frowned. "More trouble! That's one of the outpost guards. I -wish I could have just the right amount of raiding, and no more."</p> - -<p>"He might have told you what it was about."</p> - -<p>"He will, at the sunset council. But Kwangtan has to dip his long nose -into everything first, or he makes trouble."</p> - -<p>They got the news in a hurry.</p> - -<p>Standing in the entrance of the shrine, Kwangtan cursed his chief and -the doctor as well. "Get that fellow out of here! He's come to steal -the Fire of Skanderbek. And you're a fool for allowing him around here!"</p> - -<p>Ardelan endured the cursing until he had a chance to ask, "Have you had -another vision, Holy One?"</p> - -<p>"The man who just rode up told me what I had already learned from the -fire gods. This Verrill has promised the ruby to one of his women."</p> - -<p>"Who said that?" Verrill demanded.</p> - -<p>"One of your own people who fly down from heaven. One called Dawson. -At the trading-post. Dawson talked about you to our men, and to our -neighbors."</p> - -<p>"You stick to your own business," Ardelan interposed, quietly. "He -will stick to his. He is an outlaw from his own people. Naturally, his -enemies try to harm him."</p> - -<p>The snarling saint listened. He and Ardelan eyed each other. What -unspoken thought passed between them was beyond Verrill's guessing; yet -it must have had force, for Kwangtan offered no objection when Ardelan -said, "Verrill, come in with me and bow to the flame."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The interior of the shrine was much larger than the front had -suggested. This was because of a grotto in the overhang of the cliff. -From a rift in the natural shelf of rock came hissing jets of fire. -They wavered, varied, blending into each other and separating again.</p> - -<p>Behind the low barrier of flames was a monstrous ruby, uncut, yet a -perfect hexagonal crystal, with edges clean and sharp. This was not -from any alluvial deposit, else the faces would have been dulled and -the edges chipped.</p> - -<p>Whether or not the stone had been polished, Verrill could not even -surmise. At all events, this was a ruby that had come from the original -matrix, the rocky birthplace of gems. It collected all the wavering -light, transformed it, and poured it back again, transmuted into living -red. The crystal seemed to pulsate with a life of its own.</p> - -<p>The beauty and the splendor made Verrill picture the Fire of -Skanderbek against Linda's white skin—and the wonder of it must have -showed in his face, rather than the resolve to have the gem at any -cost, for Kwangtan's radiant hostility softened perceptibly. Verrill -imitated Ardelan's gesture and bow: and the two withdrew from the -shrine.</p> - -<p>"I don't doubt," said Ardelan, once he was in the saddle, and Verrill -tramping alongside, "that you'd steal it if you could get out of here -with it. Don't try it. Maybe I could—but probably I could not—save -your life."</p> - -<p>"You'd not try any too hard."</p> - -<p>"You are wrong," the chief countered, earnestly. "Slitting that kid's -gullet and not hurting him was something I'd never heard about. Maybe -you can be useful around here."</p> - -<p>"Not with what Kwangtan thinks of me."</p> - -<p>"It really depends on the women—though quite a few of the men believe -in the fire god."</p> - -<p>"You don't," Verrill said, boldly. "Though you do wonder a lot about -fire that comes out of a rock, with no fuel."</p> - -<p>"I don't wonder as much as you think. There's a place, far away from -here, where a blaze like that comes from the ground sometimes when a -camp fire is built too near it. But the wind whisks the flames out and -then there's nothing but a smell."</p> - -<p>Verrill had by now revised somewhat his notions on savages. "Then why -do you put up with that wild-eyed fanatic?"</p> - -<p>Ardelan smiled indulgently. "You people from the outside know many -strange things. How to come down from the stars. How to make guns. But -the few of you I've talked to are dog-ignorant when it comes to people. -The fire god is something our neighbors don't have. It makes us stick -together better, and keeps us from fighting among ourselves. Aren't any -of your people smart enough to have gods?"</p> - -<p>Verrill answered, with feigned humility, "I came to teach you people a -few things but it seems I can learn something. Then it will be a fair -exchange."</p> - -<p>The next day, he had Ardelan send a courier to the trading-post. The -man carried an order for a consignment of medical supplies to be -sent from the Venusian Domes via the next freighter. There was also a -letter for Linda, telling of the success of his first operation, and -of Dawson's first move to make trouble. "<i>But Gil was a bit late</i>," -he wrote. "<i>I'd already got in pretty solid. That won't keep him from -trying something else. He must have talked a good deal before he left. -If you hear any gossip as to what he planned to do or how he intended -to do it, be sure and write me the details. From all I've seen of -Terra so far, they should have bombed it even more than they did. One -well-organized Dome is worth a dozen Earths. But the natives don't seem -to mind a bit....</i>"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Knife and gunshot wounds and fractures, Verrill reasoned, would -make up most of his practice: surgery, that is, in its engineering -aspect, rather than as a corrective of ailments. And the centuries, -fortunately, had worked to keep his task from being utterly beyond -a well-educated layman. Whereas in the twentieth century, there had -not been more than two or three specifics, there were now ten times -as many. It was a matter of taking the proper bottle, just as, in -ancient times, one had reached automatically for quinine, the primitive -specific against malaria.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, what had been his prison became his home and his dispensary. -During his wait for the shipment from Venus, he instituted a -garbage-disposal program. He condemned the shallow well, and had them -build a wooden flume from a spring high up on the mountainside. Each -radical move, however, had to wait until a cure he had effected assured -him of sufficient momentary popularity to enable him to kick an ancient -unsanitary practice overboard.</p> - -<p>Then one night came a furtive sound at his door, as though someone were -trying to enter by stealth. A cold shiver trickled down his spine. -Though he doubted that the fire priest was coming to dispose of him, -there was all too much chance that Kwangtan had convinced one of the -tribe that carving the stranger would in the long run be beneficial. -Despite the warning, and Verrill's readiness for whatever might be -creeping up, he had his moment of terror. However well he handled -himself, he could not win—for if he killed an intruder, there would be -a blood feud.</p> - -<p>Groping in the dark, he found a length of firewood. He had to end the -matter by knocking the other out before he could come to grips to make -it a finish fight. Stealthily, he skirted the wall. He heard the soft -mumble of the leather-hinged door as it dragged the hard earth. A -sliver of moonlight reached into the darkness. Barefooted, Verrill made -no sound as he evaded the widening streak of light. A patch of shadow -broke it. A dark shape edged into the gloom. Verrill measured the -distance. He gathered himself.</p> - -<p>He had to make sure whether there was only that one, or whether others -had joined. He held his breath until his pulse hammered in his ears. -The motion at the door had stopped. He was afraid to exhale—</p> - -<p>And then he breathed again.</p> - -<p>The one who approached had long hair which mirrored red glints. She -had shifted enough for the moonlight to outline the curve of cheek and -throat, and hint at the smoothness of shoulder and ripeness of breast. -The arms were white and slender. Her stalking motion was beautiful even -in the obscurity.</p> - -<p>There was a whisper of sandals, and of breath. She was then of a sudden -close against him, and seemingly not at all surprised. It was as though -she had expected him to be precisely where they met in the darkness. -He must have dropped the cudgel, for at the first touch of her, he was -stroking the sleek red hair, and with the other hand tracing the curve -of waist and back.</p> - -<p>She snuggled closer, and he said, "Falana!" as though touch and taste -and smell had identified the girl as surely as sight. She was Falana, -the aunt of his first patient. She wore the shapeless, crude garments -of the tribe, yet it was as though there were neither homespun nor even -a wisp of air between them.</p> - -<p>Falana had no words to waste as she found his mouth in the darkness. -There was nothing to explain. When he stepped back and further into -the gloom, she was close as ever; and, as if seeing in the darkness, -she seemed to know exactly where he spread his sheepskin mat—</p> - -<p>She did know. Or else he must have remembered.</p> - -<p>When Falana finally got around to talking with words, she did not tell -him how she had admired him from first sight, or that his surgery had -been marvelous. She said, "I'll bring my things over in the morning," -and yawned contentedly, and snuggled closer.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Verrill spent a restless night, being intensely occupied in telling -himself, over and over again, that Venus was a long way off, and that -whatever happened on Terra did not really count, unless as a result he -became embroiled in feuds on Falana's account and to such an extent -that he would be unable to make off with the Fire of Skanderbek.</p> - -<p>Well before dawn, Falana went to the door to get a small bundle she had -left lying at the jamb. Before Verrill knew what was happening, he got -his first whiff of breakfast cooked in his own home.</p> - -<p>"Eating with neighbors," Falana observed, "must have been awful. And -you never know who might poison you."</p> - -<p>Watching Falana patting oat cakes into shape, and baking them on a hot -rock, he began to see her as a very pleasant reality, though he could -not help but go long-faced when he considered how he had without doubt -inherited a few dangerous animosities as well.</p> - -<p>She must have read his thought, for she said, "It's much better this -way, Verrill. You haven't more than maybe one-two-three enemies on my -account. But as long as you lived alone, doctoring all day while most -of the men are out with the flocks, they'd all be suspecting and hating -you."</p> - -<p>There was nothing to explain to Ardelan. The chief seemed to have -been expecting something of the sort. "Falana," he said to Verrill, -"probably didn't get around to telling you this, but you can either -send her home, or else take her to the fire temple to get Kwangtan's -blessing. Then you won't be a stranger anymore, and you'll get along -better."</p> - -<p>That very day, Falana and Verrill knelt before the altar of living -flame and passed their joined hands quickly through the fire. This -time, Verrill got a good look at the shrine as Kwangtan blessed them.</p> - -<p>He likewise got a look at the surroundings. He noted Kwangtan's cell, -hewn out of the limestone cliff. He noted the cairns of rock raised -above the grave of each of Kwangtan's predecessors. Having sized up the -situation, he decided that his next move would be to ride a circuit of -Ardelan's territory, to treat those tribesmen who rarely if ever got -to town. By becoming acquainted with all the trails, he would have a -better chance of escaping with the Fire of Skanderbek.</p> - -<p>Too bad he could not take Falana along. She would be a sensation, back -home. The most skilled cosmeticians of the Venusian Domes could not -begin to duplicate Falana's glowing red-bronze hair.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">IV</p> - -<p>By the time medical supplies and equipment arrived—and also a message -from Linda, who was thrilled from having heard of his good work among -the barbarians—Ardelan's mountaineers had begun to accept Verrill as -a man, and not a mere medico. His efforts to ride their half-tamed -horses, time and again picking himself up from where they had thrown -him, to mount and try again, amused them enormously, and gave them a -comfortable feeling of superiority—and evoked a degree of respect.</p> - -<p>To make his escape with the Fire of Skanderbek, he would have to ride -on a few cattle- and sheep-stealing raids and so acquire sufficient -skill for getting away with his loot.</p> - -<p>It was Falana who explained the monstrous ruby's status as a tribal -fetish. "Ages ago," she said, "the gods destroyed the world with fire, -and after the flames had gone, the ghosts of the dead flames danced -over the earth, and killed whoever came near. They killed without -burning. The ghosts of the fire lived in the earth and air and water. -And there were only small patches where men could live.</p> - -<p>"And there was Skanderbek, a wise man who talked to the ghosts. Maybe -he smelled them. Maybe he could see what others could not. Others say -that he had a talisman that talked to him, and warned him where not to -go. There are many stories.</p> - -<p>"Skanderbek led his people to these mountains in time to keep them -from starving or being poisoned. He made fire come out of the rock. -Everlasting fire. Over it he hung the fire stone you now see. He taught -us to bow to the fire and serve it, so that when the fire gods stopped -hating mankind, the ghosts of the dead flames would go away. The years -passed, and there was always further range for our animals. Other -people came, and then of course there was looting and war.</p> - -<p>"But Skanderbek talked with gods and devils, and so no one could drive -us out of here. One day Skanderbek said, 'I am going back to the gods. -Let such and such a one take my place; I have taught him what to do and -what to say to the holy flame, so that fire will never again destroy -the earth. And one day, wearing a new body, I will come back.' All this -was a long time ago, long before your people came out of the sky with -knives of steel, and with guns, to trade with us.</p> - -<p>"And now tell me about your gods, Verrill."</p> - -<p>There was very little to tell Falana, except that Science had become, -had from the beginning been the god of Venus. He was quite too busy -reflecting that Skanderbek, a man like himself, had undoubtedly used a -Geiger counter and some imagination, and had as a result become a god.</p> - -<p>He was thinking also of Linda's letter. She had not been able to give -him much gossip about Dawson's plans to oppose him, since Dawson had -left without having done much talking. But he inferred from what she -did write, and from stories Ardelan's tribesmen brought from the -disputed frontier, that a Venusian was living with the neighboring -tribe, giving them rifles to take the place of their trade muskets. -This suggested that Dawson was taking the simple and direct approach: -coaching his protectors in the art of more efficient fighting, so that -as the climax of an eventual raid into Ardelan's almost inaccessible -fortress, Dawson could seize the Fire of Skanderbek and make off with -it in the confusion.</p> - -<p>Whatever Verrill intended to do, he would have to do it quickly.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He went to the shrine and asked, "Kwangtan, where is the grave of -Skanderbek?"</p> - -<p>"Skanderbek," the priest said, contemptuous of ignorance, "is not -buried. He went back to the gods. Now go, and stay away."</p> - -<p>"I have heard a story like <i>that</i>," Verrill retorted. "Among my own -people, there are old books, ancient before Skanderbek was even dreamed -of. And it is written always how one leader or another went back to the -gods, not dying as other men died. But we know better. A man dies, and -his bones remain."</p> - -<p>Kwangtan's eyes sharpened and changed. He seemed to be asking himself -whether this might not be one of those times when the wise thing was to -make an ally of an enemy. And Verrill was at the same time thinking, -"<i>Lies are the foundation of all priestcraft, and I've got this one -searching the foundations.</i>"</p> - -<p>Verrill said, "If a man found the bones of Skanderbek, he could build a -shrine there for the gods of death. Men serve most what they fear most."</p> - -<p>"Which of us fears death?" the priest challenged. "We are fighting-men."</p> - -<p>"My patients act otherwise," Verrill blandly countered. Then: -"Skanderbek had no wings. His bones can not be far from here. The -bones of Skanderbek will give a light like a glow-worm or a fire-fly. -Wherever they are lying, they will be easily recognized. Any herdsman -would know if he found them."</p> - -<p>Verrill was gambling on the probability that Skanderbek, leading a -group of Terrestrians to safety, had exposed himself overmuch to the -deadly radioactivity, more so than any of those he led. Whether there -had been sufficient to make his bones radioactive until they would -glow, either then or now, was an open question. But Kwangtan was of -the line of priests who create and maintain a tradition: the blend -of knowledge and falsehood that keeps their craft alive and their -privilege secure. Kwangtan would surely have enough of that blend to -set him wondering, and in his own interests.</p> - -<p>It was time to leave; and, nodding contentedly, Verrill left, rightly -assured that the old devil would lose no time hunting the bones of -Skanderbek, lest someone else find them first and set up a rival -shrine. He would have to hunt by night, and alone. The nights were -cold, and the trails dangerous.</p> - -<p>A few nights later, Verrill went out, high on the rimrock, to lurk in -a perilous perch overhanging the shrine. He saw Kwangtan momentarily -outlined by the light that came from the grotto. The priest was making -for the spring, and then climbing higher. Apparently he was going out -by a secret way, for a concealed purpose. Well satisfied, Verrill -climbed down out of the bitter cold wind which whined eternally about -the limestone buttresses. Unobserved, he went down again into the -shelter of the ledge, and to the house where Falana was asleep.</p> - -<p>She no more perceived his return than she had his departure.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Before many days had passed, Verrill was busily probing for bullets, -suturing sword slashes, and setting bones. When the fighting-men he had -salvaged were well enough to be about and looking for more trouble, -Ardelan confessed that he had entirely revised his notions on doctors. -And that gave Verrill his chance to say, "I'll go along the next time -there's a raid. I could have saved that one who died on the way."</p> - -<p>Ardelan shook his head. "There is a personal enemy of yours among our -neighbors. I can't take any chance of your being killed or captured."</p> - -<p>"You're making a priest of me!" Verrill said, mockingly. "Living on the -fat of the land, and taking none of the risks."</p> - -<p>"You've made that for yourself," Ardelan retorted. "And speaking of -priests, you'll have one for a patient."</p> - -<p>"How's that?"</p> - -<p>"Kwangtan is coughing a lot. He's failing rapidly. We had always -thought he would live forever."</p> - -<p>Verrill shrugged. "He's old, so old he hasn't much time left. He'd -rather die a little sooner than admit that there is anything I could -possibly do for him. Letting me treat him would be casting serious -reflections on the fire god. How was the raid—did it pay?"</p> - -<p>"Pretty well, all around."</p> - -<p>"A few more sheep, and some more work for me!"</p> - -<p>"More than that," Ardelan corrected. "There's a nice looking valley, -but it's always been deadly. Poisonous from the beginning. We've never -used it. That stranger, that Dawson, must have found out that the curse -is no longer on the soil. They've been using it for their flocks. Well, -it's ours, it always has been, so we ran them out."</p> - -<p>"They'll come back?"</p> - -<p>"Of course they will; but with enough raids, we'll discourage them, and -then we can send some of our own people to hold it permanently. Build a -settlement."</p> - -<p>Verrill had heard talk of all this, but not in such clear terms; now, -having got it from the chief, he could take notice, and he was prepared.</p> - -<p>"Your oldest son will live there," Verrill surmised, "to represent you?"</p> - -<p>Ardelan nodded. "Good experience for him against the day of my death, -when he will rule the tribe."</p> - -<p>"That's been worrying you."</p> - -<p>Ardelan's brows bristled and his eyes went fierce. "Worrying about the -day of my death—what do you mean?"</p> - -<p>"I meant, worrying about your son's taking an exposed outpost."</p> - -<p>"It's good experience for him."</p> - -<p>"It's worrying you. The next son is six years younger."</p> - -<p>The chief grimaced. "He's a reckless young fool and a show-off. Like I -was at his age. And I don't think he has my luck."</p> - -<p>"Next time there's a raid," Verrill promised, "I'll go. It will be good -for all your men, not just for him in case he is wounded. It won't look -as though you're favoring your son."</p> - -<p>Ardelan grumbled something midway between throat and beard, and gave -Verrill a gesture of dismissal. Verrill knew when to stop pressing a -point; and he knew also that further words had not been needed.</p> - -<p>In this he was right. He rode out with others who went to reconnoiter -the dangerous valley, and there was no objection. He rode well. His -presence was good for the morale of the raiders. And while he caught -no sight of Dawson, he won prestige from supposedly having come to the -frontier camps to get a shot at his enemy. Actually, he rather hoped -that he would not have any such chance to settle the feud ... it would -be much more satisfactory to have Dawson witness his return to Venus -with the Fire of Skanderbek.</p> - -<p>And of an evening, when he was at home with Falana, she would sit -with him as he watched Venus hanging low over the rimrock, white and -splendid; she was finishing her term as evening star. And the sight -of that far-off globe made him more than homesick. It accentuated his -feeling of remoteness and of exile, and at the same time made him -uneasy and uncomfortable, as though he and his Terrestrian redhead were -somehow under Linda's eyes.</p> - -<p>And he was afraid lest Falana read his thoughts. The longer he stayed, -the harder it would be to leave; for in spite of his having come with -fraudulent intent, he had done enough good to these barbarians to have -become attached to them.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, the sooner Venus became the morning star, the better he -would like it.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">V</p> - -<p>At last came the night when he felt sure that Kwangtan's search for the -bones of Skanderbek had become such a fixed habit that the priest would -be ranging further and further afield, leaving the shrine unguarded for -an ever-lengthening period. The length of Kwangtan's absence was the -measure of Verrill's head start.</p> - -<p>As he set out for his goal, he said to himself, "When the old devil -misses the ruby, and then hears I'm gone, he'll likely play foxy and -cook up a yarn about my having taken it back to the gods. He couldn't -be so dumb as to admit he was out wandering when he should have been -guarding the shrine.... I've done a reasonable number of other miracles -since I brought Falana's nephew back from the dead ... so if he's -smart, he'll invent another miracle, and that will make it nice for -Falana...."</p> - -<p>And so, all at ease, he rode boldly from the walled enclosure. The -guards, assuming he was going out on a case, settled back after -greeting him, and drew their sheepskin coats closer about them.</p> - -<p>Nearing the shrine, he left his horse in the shadow of a limestone -ledge, to proceed afoot. He had to make sure that Kwangtan was actually -away.</p> - -<p>Stealthily, he made the most of rocks and shadows to cover his advance. -The gurgling overflow of the spring combined with the whining of the -wind to make a curtain of sound. He was quite near the spot from which, -unseen, he could look in and see if Kwangtan was there, when he heard a -disturbance which gave him all the answer he needed.</p> - -<p>Kwangtan was not abroad, hunting a dead man's bones. He was instead -choking, gasping for breath; in his struggle, he knocked down some -pottery, judging from the clatter.</p> - -<p>The sounds, and the way the old man had been scrambling about by night, -exploring ravines and caverns, exposing and overtaxing himself, told -the story. He had come to the end of his crooked rope.</p> - -<p>This was perfect. It had worked far better than Verrill had -anticipated. Just sit and wait for silence and the finish.</p> - -<p>But another ingredient took effect. Verrill's own long-sustained -pretense of being a doctor drove him forward against his best -interest. After two paces taken in a helpless daze, he was no longer -compulsion-driven and bewildered; he ran, and with his kit. He had -brought it with him, from force of habit as much as for making a show -for the benefit of whomsoever he might encounter along the way to the -border.</p> - -<p>As he knelt beside his patient, Verrill concluded that Kwangtan's heart -had been cutting up tricks; though with exposure and worry, other -complications might have set in. He got his vials and his hypo and set -to work.</p> - -<p>Of a sudden, he knew that he was not alone with his patient. Startled, -he glanced about.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Falana was in the doorway, and with her two of the guards. They held -her by the arms. She had a bundle of something wrapped up in a shawl. -Her face showed only impatience and annoyance at their stupidity. -Their faces were still changing; the growth of understanding and the -accepting of a new idea had not yet erased suspicion.</p> - -<p>The sight of the trio gave Verrill the story, before any could speak: -Falana, sensing what he planned, had packed up a bundle and had set out -after him; and the guards, even though not getting the entire point, -had suspected that the doctor was up to the very trick of which he had -been accused. Falana had from the start been a hostage, at least a bond -sufficiently strong to guarantee his good behavior. Thus the sight of -her apparently preparing to follow him into the night had aroused all -the suspicions which his work had lulled.</p> - -<p>Falana said, "The poor fellow's half starved, Verrill! And shivering -from cold! Let go of me, you blockheads—he's busy and I've got to give -him a hand."</p> - -<p>She plopped her bundle on the floor, brought out a small pot, and set -to work heating water over the sacred flame.</p> - -<p>"If you don't like it, get some brush," she told the guards, "and I'll -stop the sacrilege."</p> - -<p>Blinking owlishly, they obeyed.</p> - -<p>When they returned to kindle a fire on the floor, she had dried meat in -the pot. "Here, hold this!" she directed, and taking a heavy cape from -the bundle, she blanketed the patient. Next she drew the shawl about -his head and shoulders. Whatever else she may have had in the bundle, -Verrill did not know, for she had very deftly wadded the odds and ends -into a shirt and had tucked the lot under the priest's head, for a -pillow.</p> - -<p>When Kwangtan responded to treatment and regained consciousness, he did -not have any idea as to what had happened, or why people were gathered -about him. But he swallowed some of the broth Falana offered him.</p> - -<p>The guards explained, "The doctor knew you were in trouble."</p> - -<p>Falana nodded. "He awakened suddenly and told me to follow when I had -this and that gathered together. The gods talk to him. Now that you've -had your fill of snooping, suppose you go on about your business!"</p> - -<p>They went, leaving Verrill and Falana to sit up with the priest until -he was out of danger.</p> - -<p>Within the hour, Verrill could have ridden off with the Fire of -Skanderbek. Instead, he made apologies to himself; he could not rob a -patient, or even collect his fee before he had really earned it.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Several days passed, and word of Verrill's having heard the voice of -the gods and so having gone to the shrine in time to save Kwangtan -gave him an enormous boost in prestige. He had the priest at least -halfway on the road to recovery when a courier brought news of another -outbreak on the border. He hesitated to leave his patient, and decided -to wait until the warring tribesmen made actual contact. As nearly as -he could analyze the report, both sides were still scouting, skulking, -maneuvering into positions suitable for the seizure of, or the defense -of, the valley that Ardelan claimed as his own.</p> - -<p>There would not be a serious clash until both sides had completed -their infiltration whereby each planned to catch the other off guard, -and so precipitate a panic the result of which would be relatively -few casualties and a great deal of loot in the form of stampeded or -abandoned or lost animals.</p> - -<p>These barbarians, Verrill told himself, had a warfare far more -civilized than had been that of The War, and also, a lot more -sensible—there was a result to show for the effort exerted, and a -profit instead of a mutual loss.</p> - -<p>He decided to stay with his patient, and then by dint of hard riding -join Ardelan's son when there was immediately impending need.</p> - -<p>Falana said, "You're making a mistake. Now is your chance."</p> - -<p>Just that way: with no build up at all. And she was right, for he -needed no explanation of her meaning. He knew all of a sudden that she -had tuned in on all his unspoken debates with himself. He and Kwangtan -were supposed to be able to talk with the gods. That was pure nonsense. -The gift was largely a feminine monopoly. Falana undoubtedly knew all -about Linda, instead of merely about the Venusian Domes.</p> - -<p>Verrill answered, "I can't rob a patient. If he dies or gets well, then -it will be different...."</p> - -<p>Falana shrugged, and for no apparent reason, moved a bundle wrapped up -in a cape. "Suit yourself, Verrill, but you are letting your luck wear -thin. If you want it this way, though, I'll be ready whenever you are."</p> - -<p>"You were all ready the other night?"</p> - -<p>"Of course. And when the guardsmen caught me, I was scared silly. I -don't know what would have happened if that old devil hadn't been at -death's door. Now is your chance.... It won't ever be better."</p> - -<p>Falana was right, so very right, yet Verrill balked. He mounted up, -with his medical kit, and with a pair of pistols thrust into his sash.</p> - -<p>He was worried, and worn down. Tending to Kwangtan, and within reaching -distance of the ruby, had been difficult. Worse yet, there was the -problem created by Falana. Whenever he convinced himself that once -back in the Venusian Domes, he would forget the Terrestrian girl, his -argument went into reverse: and he knew that regardless of distance, -the bond could not be broken in fact. Then, pursuing the endless debate -from its other alternative, neither could he remain an exile from -Venus, and stay away from Linda by any choice of his own.</p> - -<p>And all this went with him, oppressing him as he rode toward the new -valley which would so enrich Ardelan's people.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">VI</p> - -<p>Verrill was still well short of his destination when he heard a rider -behind him: a horse blowing and wheezing, ridden nearly to death, yet -carrying on. He wheeled about. It was Falana who had overtaken him.</p> - -<p>"You little idiot, go back home!"</p> - -<p>"I won't."</p> - -<p>"You will, and now."</p> - -<p>"Yes, if you carry me back."</p> - -<p>"What's the idea? You know I'm coming back, and you know there's a lot -of trouble ahead, where I'm bound for."</p> - -<p>"I'm going anyway."</p> - -<p>And then her horse collapsed. Verrill had no magic to restore it to -life. "Now I can't go back," she announced, contentedly, as though she -had foreseen this decisive detail.</p> - -<p>She mounted up and rode behind him.</p> - -<p>From time to time, Verrill halted, and cocked an ear. Thus far, he had -heard no firing. He had seen no signal fires on the crests that were -dark against the stars. The way became harder, and until moon-rise, -difficult to pick.</p> - -<p>When the first half-glow whitened the limestone slopes and the high -snowcaps, the mountain world became a maze of illusion and shifting -glamour.</p> - -<p>Finally, Verrill's horse sniffed the air, and would have whinnied, -had he not checked him in time. As he paused, he wondered whether -Falana's presence, the night he had saved Kwangtan, would be sufficient -precedent for her accompanying him into the field; or whether instead -suspicion would be aroused.</p> - -<p>He had reined in at the edge of a deep shadow. Before he could make up -his mind, Falana said, "Turn around and see—I've got it."</p> - -<p>As he twisted about, the horse shifted, moving out of the shadow and -into light strong enough for him to see the ruby she had in her hand. -It collected enough of the glow to pulse and flame as though in its own -right. One good look he got, and then she had knotted it again into the -end of her scarf and thrust it securely between her breasts.</p> - -<p>"I'm going with you to the home of the gods," Falana said, "and if -they, your people, don't like me, they can do what they want with me. -But I'm going."</p> - -<p>However she had made away with the gem, there would be the devil to pay -when Kwangtan missed it. His exclamation of dismay made her add, "He -won't make any trouble. He smothered under his sheepskin robe."</p> - -<p>Verrill preferred not to ask whether she meant that the invalid had -himself done this, accidentally, or whether, aroused by her prowling, -his protest had been stifled, quickly and silently, by a solid armful -of a woman who knew precisely what she had to do to save herself. -Instead of being horrified by a very logical suspicion, he dismissed -the query: for in either event, he had no longer any choice concerning -Falana. She had made the bond so strong that wherever he went, he would -take her. There was no more clash between him and Dawson. The bond -that had attached him to Linda had been cut. Whether by smothering the -fire priest, or merely robbing the fire god, Falana had done well for -herself.</p> - -<p>After a silence, he said, "There's someone just ahead. My horse scented -them. Whoever they are, they may have caught some sign of us. You get -down and wait. The sight of you is likely to make the outposts think -I'm leaving the tribe. And now is no time for suspicion!"</p> - -<p>"I know another way around, and out," Falana said. "A hard trail, but -we can make it."</p> - -<p>"Whoever's ahead, up there, might start wondering. All I have to do is -go ahead and identify myself, and then go my way."</p> - -<p>"You can make some excuse for coming back this way," she said, and -slipped to the ground. "I'll wait."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He rode on, at a walk. Ten to one, Falana had smothered Kwangtan, not -out of malice, but simply because he would have kept her from following -Verrill. Since Verrill could not reject her, he had to accept the act -as his own, however heavy the burden. He shrank from the very suspicion -of the deed, and at the same time, his eyes were tear-blinded from -realization of her devotion, so much more reckless than any Venusian -woman's could have been.</p> - -<p>A horse whinnied. Verrill's mount answered. And before Verrill could -hail the dimly-discerned rider, revealed when he rounded a sharp curve, -he knew that this was an ambush; the recognition between horses had -come because the animals ahead had been stolen from Ardelan's herd.</p> - -<p>Despite his disadvantage, knowledge came before he had made himself too -good a target.</p> - -<p>That split-second sensing gave him a chance with his pistol. He spurred -in, shooting. A wild shot grazed him. The enemy stampeded, as though -from the sudden fear that they had tricked themselves; it was as though -his boldness had convinced them that he had a large party at his back.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> - <div class="caption"> - <p>Verrill spurred in, shooting....</p> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>In half a dozen hoofbeats, he was through. One horse was down, and -struggling. Something thumped into the ravine, far below. There was a -brief shower of rocks, and the diminishing clatter of hoofs.</p> - -<p>Only two had lain in wait: and one was bound for home.</p> - -<p>Verrill reined in sharply, and called to Falana. She answered, and -knowing it was all over, came toward him at a walk.</p> - -<p>Verrill was badly shaken. Falana, knowing that he would be, was giving -him a welcome moment to himself. This was his first taste of combat.</p> - -<p>The enemy, sprawled among the rocks, groaned and cursed, as though -shock had until that moment held him unable to make a sound. This was -something familiar to Verrill, for in his way, he was now a doctor in -fact—a man was a man, whether friend or enemy. And this one, being a -man he had wounded, evoked his response more readily than had Kwangtan.</p> - -<p>Verrill dismounted. The man in the shadows mumbled and choked; the -man's horse lay dead; and approaching his own handiwork shook Verrill's -composure. Worse yet, he should not dally. No telling who might have -heard the shots, who might be hurrying to the scene. But he could not -abandon a patient, though this might become a dangerous business, with -the Fire of Skanderbek taken from the shrine—</p> - -<p>Three sounds blended. Verrill understood each, but too late.</p> - -<p>"Now see if you'll get the ruby!" the patient challenged, triumphantly, -and fired.</p> - -<p>Venusian accent and intonation; pistol blast; and then, as Dawson, -unwounded, bound up to take Verrill's horse, came the third sound: -Falana's cry.</p> - -<p>Her approach, afoot, had tricked Dawson. She was on him from the rear -before he sensed his danger. He swayed, he choked, and he would have -flung her aside, but for the knife with which she finished him. Stab -and slash; and he was dead before she could crawl free of him to go to -Verrill.</p> - -<p>Dawson, living with the enemy tribe, had learned raiding tricks, -and had known how to tempt an enemy by offering hope of plunder. -By feigning a mortal wound, he had played the game as his brothers -in raiding would have played it: and at the most he could not have -hoped for more than a horse, and the weapons of the supposedly greedy -and reckless one whose loot hunger had driven out ordinary caution. -Moonlight on Verrill's face had given Dawson his moment of triumphant -recognition—and then, sudden death which he might otherwise have -avoided.</p> - -<p>The irony of all this passed through Verrill's mind during the moments -which elapsed before he could recover sufficiently from shock to speak. -Teeth chattering from the deadly chill which took hold of him, he said, -"Physician, heal thyself."</p> - -<p>He knew he was beyond mending. He knew also that he had long drawn-out -hours of agony ahead of him. Falana knew, without being told, that she -would soon be alone; that she would never board the long gleaming shell -on the take-off ramp of the trading-post to go with him to the home of -the gods. Since he was shivering, she wrapped a shawl about him, and -waited for him to tell her what else to do.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The shift of the moon thinned the shadows that had tricked first one -and then another of those who had met in that rocky angle. Verrill -pointed to the kit, and told her how to load the hypo. He had done this -himself, many times, for those he knew he could not save. They lasted -just as long, but avoided consciousness and pain. This had won him -esteem. And now he was to learn how good his work had been.</p> - -<p>His vision began to play tricks, and his memory also, but he was sure -that the white orb shimmering, rising from behind a distant crest, -was Venus, beginning her term as morning star. Seen through that thin -mountain air, Venus was an expanding splendor, and memories danced: -memories of Linda, blurred with the memories of all other Venusian -women, perfumed and sleek and all bejewelled. They were shapes of the -mind, rather than a semblance to the eye; for at the same time, he saw -clearly where he was, and who was beside him. And he was glad that it -was Falana.</p> - -<p>Falana peeled off her jacket and blouse. She cut a long strand of hair, -and despite the biting wind that lashed her from shoulder to hip, she -shaped a loop, using two long hairs to suspend the Fire of Skanderbek -from about her throat.</p> - -<p>She knelt, posed by sure instinct, head flung back, and the monstrous -ruby all ablaze against her white skin. The lower end of the six-sided -crystal barely dipped into the shadow of her breasts.</p> - -<p>The Venusian images of memory were blotted out, and with them, the -great white orb as well. Falana became all women in one, yet remaining -all the while wholly herself.</p> - -<p>Verrill's face, or her own instinct, told her when to end the tableau. -She slipped into her jacket and went into the shadow beside him. She -caught him in her arms, to pillow him better than had the rocks and the -saddle-bags that had softened them. And then Verrill went on his long -road, and entirely content, for he had in his way done with the Fire of -Skanderbek as he had planned.</p> - -<p>Not long after sunrise, a handful of Ardelan's men came along from the -new valley. They had routed the raiders. Somewhere, they told Falana, -there had been several shots, which had alerted them.</p> - -<p>"The shots Verrill fired," they concluded, having seen and understood -from the face of things.</p> - -<p>She gave them no time to wonder about her presence. "He was going to -stay for days and days with the people Ardelan was sending into the new -valley. I made him take me with him. So I was here when he killed his -enemy, the one with whom he had a feud."</p> - -<p>Despite their grief at losing their doctor, the mountaineers forgot -none of their ways. Methodically, they took the gear from the dead -horse, and stripped the dead enemy, leaving nothing but vulture -bait. And among the things they found in his clothes was the Fire of -Skanderbek.</p> - -<p>"The gods told Verrill," Falana said. "But not all, and not in time. -Only enough to send him where he would meet the thief."</p> - -<p>They studied his face, and one said, "It is clear that the gods -welcomed him when he took their road."</p> - -<p>Later, Ardelan himself joined them. He heard, he saw, and then he said, -"We will bury Verrill by those others who have guarded the Fire of -Skanderbek. He saved many lives for us, as Skanderbek did in the old -days."</p> - -<p>And this was done, with no one wondering at Kwangtan's death. Some -said that the spirit of the priest had guided Verrill to overtake the -looter. Falana heard the legend grow, and could not tell what Ardelan -really thought. Whatever his thought, the chief kept it to himself, -until, days later, he said to Falana, "Verrill's son will be a great -man among us, to watch the Fire of Skanderbek, and teach us the way of -the gods."</p> - -<p>Which seemed reasonable enough to Falana, who had command of more -miracles than any man.</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXILE FROM VENUS ***</div> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>This file should be named 64199-h.htm or 64199-h.zip</div> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in https://www.gutenberg.org/6/4/1/9/64199/</div> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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