We had a camp stove with us, but there was no sense in using up the fuel if we could rustle wood. And there is, as well, something to be said in favor of a campfire as a thing to sit around and talk.
“I can’t get him down,” said Tuck, almost weeping. “He won’t listen to me. He won’t pay attention.”
“What’s the matter with him? Was he hit?”
“I don’t think so, captain. I think he has arrived.”
“You mean the voice...”
“Right here in this building,” said Tuck. “At one time it might have been a temple. It has a religious look to it.”
From the outside, come to think of it, it had had a churchy look but you couldn’t get much idea of how it looked inside. By the door, with the sunlight slanting from the west, there was plenty of light, but other than that the interior was dark.
“We can’t leave him sitting there all night,” I said. “We’ve got to get him down. You and I together can pull him from the saddle.”
“Then what?” asked Tuck.
“What do you mean then what?”
“We take him down tonight. What do we do tomorrow?”
“Why, hell,” I said, “that’s simple. If he doesn’t snap out of it, we boost him in the saddle. Tie him on so he can’t fall off.”
“You mean you’d cart him off again when be finally had arrived? When he had finally reached the place he’s been yearning toward for a great part of his life?”
“What are you trying to say?” I yelled. “That we should hunker down and squat right here and never leave because this blubbering idiot. . .”
“I must remind you, captain,” Tuck said, nastily, “that it was this blubbering idiot who charted the way for us. If it had not been for him. . .”
“Gentlemen,” said Sara, getting to her feet, “please lower your voices. I don’t know if you realize it, captain, but we may not be leaving here as soon as you might think.”
“Not leaving here,” I said, between my teeth. “What is there to stop us?”
She gestured toward the doorway. “Our friend, the tree,” she said, “has us zeroed in. I’ve been watching. All the stuff he’s throwing at us is landing on the ramp. There aren’t any misses. It would be worth your life to step outside that door. Fast as they are moving and little as they are, those seed-gathering animals are taking casualties,”
I saw that the ramp still seemed alive with the bouncing, dancing seeds and here and there upon it lay tiny bodies, limp and motionless.
“The tree will get tired of it,” I said. “It will run out of energy or out of ammunition.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so, captain. How tall would you say that tree might be. Four miles? Five miles? With foliage from a few hundred feet off the ground to its very top. The spread of the foliage at its widest point close to a mile, perhaps. How many seed pods do you think a tree like that might bear?”
I knew that she was right. She had it figured out. If the tree wanted to, it could keep us pinned down for days.
“Dobbin,” I said, “maybe you can tell us what is going on. Why is the tree pegging pods at us?”
“Noble sir,” said Dobbin, “nothing will I tell you. I go with you. I carry your possessions. No further will I do. No information will we give and no help. Most shabbily you have treated us and in my heart I cannot find the reasons for doing further for you.”
Hoot came ambling out of the dark interior of the building, his tentacles waving, the eyes on the end of the two of them shining in the light.
“Mike,” he hooted at me, “a curious feel this place has about it. Of old mysteries. Of much time and strangeness. There be something here, a something that falls minutely short of a someone being.”
“So you think so, too,” I said.
I had another look at Smith. He hadn’t moved a muscle. He still sat bolt upright in the saddle and his face still was frozen with that dreadful happiness. The guy was no longer with us. He was a universe away.
“In many ways,” said Hoot, “there is a comfort in it, but so strange a comfort that one must quail in fear at the concept of it. I speak, you understand, as an observer only. One such as I can take no part in such a comfort. Much better comfort and refuge can I have if I so desire. But it be information I impart most willingly if it be of service.”
“Well,” said Sara, “are you two going to get George down off that hobby or do you plan to leave him there?’
“It looks to me,” I said, “as if it makes no difference to him if he stays up there or not, but let us get him down.”
Tuck and I between us hauled him from the saddle and lugged him across the floor and propped him up against the wall beside the door. He was limp and unresisting and he made no sign to indicate that he was aware of what was going on.
I went over to one of the hobbies and unlashed a pack. Rummaging in it, I found a flashlight.
“Come on, Hoot,” I said. “I’m going to scout around and see if I can find some wood. There must be some old furniture or such.”
