Far down the road Jurgens had turned around and was coming back. He was handling the crutch somewhat better, having learned how to swing his stiffened leg, but his progress was still slow.
The Brigadier said to Lansing, “Did you see what that blighter was the last pass that it made?”
“No, I did not,” Lansing told him. “It was lightning fast. Too fast for one to see.”
The Parson had worked his way back along the wall and was starting down the track that he had made going to the wall, industriously using his pole to probe each inch of the way.
“A good man,” the Brigadier said, approvingly. “He follows orders well.”
They stood and watched the Parson inch his way along. Jurgens finally reached them and stood with them in the roadway. The Parson reached the road. With evident relief, he threw his pole to one side and came over to them.
“And now that it’s all done,” said the Brigadier, “perhaps we should go back to camp and regroup as best we can.”
“It’s not a question of regrouping,” said the Parson. “It’s a question of getting out of here. This place is hazardous. Well guarded, as you have good reason to know,” he said, looking at the Brigadier. “I think that we should leave this place. I have no wish to stay here. I suggest that immediately we move on to the city and see what we find there. A better reception, I would hope, than we have been accorded here.”
“Your sentiments,” said the Brigadier, “are very much my own. I see no profit in our staying here.”
“But the fact that it is so well guarded,” said Mary, “must testify that there is something worth that guarding. I’m not sure we should leave here.”
“Maybe, later on,” said the Brigadier, “we can return, if need be. First we should see the city.”
The Brigadier and the Parson moved off, heading for the camp. Sandra followed them.
Mary moved close to Lansing. “I think they’re wrong,” she said. “I think there’s something here — perhaps what we are supposed to find.”
“The trouble,” Lansing told her, “is that we don’t know what to find or if there’s anything at all that we are supposed to seek. I am very much concerned about the whole proceedings.”
“When it comes right down to that, so am I.”
Jurgens came limping up the road to join them.
“How does it go?” asked Lansing.
“Rather well,” the robot told him, “but I still am slow. I do not know if, with this crutch, I’ll ever achieve the speed and dexterity of my former self.”
“I have not the faith the Brigadier has in the city up ahead,” said Mary. “If, in fact, there is a city.”
“One can never know,” said Jurgens. “We must wait and see.”
“Let’s go back to camp,” said Lansing, “and cook up a pot of coffee. We can talk it over. For my part, I believe the cube may be rather promising. If we look at it hard enough, we may detect a clue that is invisible to us now, unnoticed by us now. As we see it now, it has no significance. It’s misplaced. It’s not the sort of structure one would expect to find sitting out here by itself. There must, however, be some reason for it. It must serve some purpose. Like you, Mary, I’d feel better if we could derive just an inkling of its purpose.”
“So would I,” she said. “I dislike situations that have no meaning.”
“So we’ll go back to camp and talk with the others,” Lansing said.
When they reached the camp, they found that the others had made up their minds.
“We have consulted among ourselves,” said the Brigadier. “Among the three of us. We have decided that we should push on for the city with all possible speed. The robot would hold us back, so we think that he should be left behind to make his own way as best he can. In a matter of time he will catch up with us.”
“That’s a stinking thing to do,” said Mary. “You let him carry a full pack, mostly food — food for you, not for him since he needs none. You allowed him to do camp chores. You sent him to fill canteens with water when he drinks no water. You accepted him, perhaps not as one of us, but as a servant, and now that he’s been damaged you suggest we leave him behind.”
“He’s naught but a robot,” said the Parson. “No human, but a mere machine.”
“And yet worthy to be included in this venture,” said Mary, “whatever this venture may be. And do I need to remind you that he was hand picked, as we were hand picked, by someone who thought he should be with us.”
“How about you, Lansing?” asked the Brigadier. “So far you’ve said not a thing. How do you feel about it?”
“I stay with Jurgens,” said Lansing. “I refuse to desert him. If I were the one who was crippled and unable to keep up with you, he would stay with me. Of that I’m certain.”
“And I as well,” said Mary. “I’m staying with the robot. You are being panicked, foolish if not panicked. In this country we should not divide our forces. Why this great hurry for the city?”
“There’s nothing here,” said the Brigadier. “We may find something in the city.”
“Then go ahead and find it,” Mary said. “Edward and I will stay with Jurgens.”
Jurgens said, “Fair lady, I would not wish to become a point of controversy—”
“You shut up,” said Lansing. “This is our decision. You have no voice in it.”
“Then I guess there is no more to say,” said the Brigadier. “We three go on, you two stay with the robot to follow us.”
“How about it, Sandra?” Mary asked. “Are you throwing in with those two?”
“There seems no reason I should remain behind with you,” said Sandra. “As they say, there is nothing here. Only the beauty of the cube and—”
“We can’t be sure of that. Be sure there’s nothing here.”
“We are sure of it,” said the Parson. “We have talked it over. And now that it is settled, we should make a distribution of the food supply the robot was carrying.”
He took a stride toward Jurgens’s pack, but Lansing moved to get between the Parson and the pack.
“Not so fast,” he said. “That pack belongs to Jurgens and it stays with us.”
“But share and share alike!”
Lansing shook his head. “If you’re deserting us, you manage with the food you have. No more.”
The Brigadier growled and stepped forward. “What do you expect to gain by this?” he asked.
“Assurance that you’ll wait for us at the city. That you won’t go running off. If you want any of the food, you’ll wait for us.”
“You know that we can take it.”
“I’m not sure you can,” said Lansing. “In all my life I’ve never struck a man, but if you force me to it, I’ll fight both of you.”
Jurgens hobbled up to stand beside Lansing. “Nor have I ever struck a human,” he said, “but should you attack my friend, I’ll stand with him.”
Mary spoke to the Brigadier. “I think you had best back off. I imagine a battling robot would prove an ugly customer.”
The Brigadier started to say something, then apparently thought better of it. He walked over to his own pack and hoisted it to a shoulder, slipping his arms through the straps and settling it on his back.
“Come on,” he said to the other two. “We should be on our way.”
The three left behind stood and watched them until the road went over a rise and the three people traveling it disappeared from sight.
12
Once again they made a circuit of the cube, the three of them staying close together; for now, with the others gone, they felt very much alone. They scanned the walls with care, alert to lines of color or other subtle configurations that might tell them something. Certain lines were no more than shadows that either changed or disappeared with the shifting of the light and they were left with nothing. They found three slabs of stone that had gone unnoticed, set flush against the outer circle of the sand, lying flat and so well covered with sand that they had escaped detection. Only by chance were they now detected. Four feet wide, they extended six feet or so into the
