“Why were we not told this before, Mailsh Heelbare?”
“We were ashamed to have you know it. We are ashamed to be people without spirits.”
“Can we help you and your people? Maybe our magic might help.”
“It well might. It would be worth trying. But first, you must help yourselves. You and your people are sinning against the Great Spirit as grievously as did the Terrans of old. Be warned in time, lest you answer it as grievously.”
“What do you mean, Mailsh Heelbare?” Old Shatresh was frightened.
“You are making magic to bring the Sky Fire to the World. Do you know what will happen? The World of People will pass whole into the place of the Gone Ones, and both will be destroyed. The World of People is a world of death; everything that lives on it must die. The Place of the Gone Ones is a world of life; everything in it lives forever. The two will strive against each other, and will destroy one another, and there will be nothing in the Sky Fire or the World but fire. This is wisdom which our oomphel teaches us. We know this secret, and with it we make weapons of great destruction.” He looked over the seated shoonoon, picking out those who wore the flame-colored cloaks of the fire-dance. “You—and you—and you,” he said. “You have been making this dreadful magic, and leading your people in it. And which among the rest of you have not been guilty?”
“We did not know,” one of them said. “Mailsh Heelbare, have we yet time to keep this from happening?”
“Yes. There is only a little time, but there is time. You have until the Always-Same passes across the face of the Sky-Fire.” That would be seven hundred and fifty hours. “If this happens, all is safe. If the Sky Fire blots Out the Always Same, we are all lost together. You must go among your people and tell them what madness they are doing, and command them to stop. You must command them to lay down their arms and cease fighting. And you must tell them of the awful curse that was put upon the Terrans in the long-ago time, for a lesser sin than they are now committing.”
“If we say that Mailsh Heelbare told us this, the people may not believe us. He is not known to all, and some would take no Terran’s word, not even his.”
“Would anybody tell a secret of this sort, about his own people, if it were not real?”
“We had better say nothing about Mailsh Heelbare. We will say that the Gone Ones told us in dreams.”
“Let us say that the Great Spirit sent a dream of warning to each of us,” another shoonoo said. “There has been too much talk about dreams from the Gone Ones already.”
“But the Great Spirit has never sent a dream—”
“Nothing like this has ever happened before, either.”
He rose, and they were silent. “Go to your living-place, now,” he told them. “Talk of how best you may warn your people.” He pointed to the clock. “You have an oomphel like that in your living-place; when the shorter spear has moved three places, I will speak with you again, and then you will be sent in air cars to your people to speak to them.”
They went up the escalator and down the hall to Miles’ office on the third floor without talking. Foxx Travis was singing softly, almost inaudibly:
“You will eeeeaa … in the sweeeet … bye-and-bye,
You’ll get oooom … phel in the sky … when you die!”
Inside, Edith Shaw slumped dispiritedly in a chair. Foxx Travis went to the coffee-maker and started it. Miles snapped on the communication screen and punched the combination of General Maith’s headquarters. As soon as the uniformed girl who appeared in it saw him, her hands moved quickly; the screen flickered, and the general appeared in it.
“We have it made, general. They’re sold; we’re ready to start them out in three hours.”
Maith’s thin, weary face suddenly lighted. “You mean they are going to cooperate?”
He shook his head. “They think they’re saving the world; they think we’re cooperating with them.”
The general laughed. “That’s even better! How do you want them sent out?”
“The ones in the Bluelake area first. Better have some picked K.N.I. in native costume, with pistols, to go with them. They’ll need protection, till they’re able to get a hearing for themselves. After they’re all out, the ones from Gonzales’ area can be started.” He thought for a moment. “I’ll want four or five of them left here to help me when you start bringing more shoonoon in from other areas. How soon do you think you’ll have another class for me?”
“Two or three days, if everything goes all right. We have the villages and plantations in the south under pretty tight control now; we can start gathering them up right away. As soon as we get things stabilized here, we can send reinforcements to the north. We’ll have transport for you in three hours.”
The general blanked out. He turned from the screen. Travis was laughing happily.
“Miles, did anybody ever tell you you were a genius?” he asked. “That last jolt you gave them was perfect. Why didn’t you tell us about it in advance?”
“I didn’t know about it in advance; I didn’t think of
