instant-heat food can. It didn'tlook like a bomb, so nobody did anything. They just kept watchingwhile I came up with my call-radio.
Huey said: "What the hell!" and came for me.
I stood up, spilling the knapsack, and got ready to stand him off; butI didn't need to, not then. Three of the others piled on him, likedogs on a bear, and held him down. Huey's friend was at my side when Iturned. "How come?" he said. "Who are you planning on calling?"
"I said I wanted to help you," I told him. "I meant it."
"Of course," he said smoothly. "Why should I believe it?"
"I know the spot you're in, and I--"
He didn't give me a chance to finish. "Now, you wait a minute," hesaid. "And don't touch that box. We've got some talking to do."
"Such as?"
"Such as how you managed to get here from Ancarta, and why," he said."Such as what all this talk about helping us means, and what theradio's for. Lots of talking."
I decided it was time to show some more independence. "I don't talk topeople I don't know," I said.
He looked me up and down, taking his time about it. Huey had quieteddown some, and our conversation was the main attraction. In the end heshrugged. "I suppose you can't do any harm, not so long as we keep aneye on that box of yours," he said. He gave me his name as if itdidn't matter. "I'm Hollerith," he said. "General RawlinsonHollerith."
* * * * *
I gave him the prepared story automatically; it rolled out but Iwasn't thinking about it. He'd given me my first real surprise; I'dthought Hollerith had been killed at Andrew's Farm, and, as far as Iknew, so did the Government. Instead, here he was, alive and kicking,doing a pretty good job of working with a guerrilla gang. I wonderedwho Huey would turn out to be, but it didn't seem like the time toask.
The story, of course, was a good one. Naturally it wasn't proof ofanything, or even susceptible of proof right then and there; it wasn'tmeant to be. I didn't expect them to buy it sight unseen, but I'dplanned it to give me some time until I could start the next step.
James Carson, I told Hollerith, was a reasonably big wheel aroundAncarta. He wasn't in sympathy with the Government, but he hadn'tfought in the revolutionary armies or been active in any overt way.
"Why not?" he snapped at me.
"I was more valuable where I stood," I said. "There's a lot that canbe done with paper work in the way of sabotage."
He nodded. "I see," he said. "I see what you mean."
"I worked in one of the Government departments," I said. "That enabledme to pass information on to Sergeant's men in the vicinity. It alsogave me a good spot for mixing up orders and shipments."
He nodded again. "That's one of the advantages of a guerrilla outfit,"he said. "The administration end really doesn't exist; we can live offthe country. I should think that, over an area as large as we canrange on Wohlen, we can't be wiped out."
Of course, that was only his opinion; but I wasn't easy about it. Thesight of him had shaken me quite a bit and I began to think I'd haveto get rid of him. That would be unpleasant and dangerous, I toldmyself. But there didn't seem to be any help for it, at the moment.
"About information," he said. "You were closely watched--anyoneworking for the Government would have had to have been. How did youget your information out?"
I nodded toward the radio. "It's not a normal call-radio," I said,with perfect truth. "Its operation is indetectable by the normalmethods. I'm not an expert, so I won't go into technical details; it'senough that the radio works."
"Then why come to us?" Hollerith said. "Aren't there guerrillas in theAncarta vicinity for you to work with?"
I shook my head. "Only a few more or less ... ah ... disaffectedminorities," I said. That was true, too. "They raised hell for a dayor so, then walked in and surrendered. The guerrilla network on theentire planet, sir, is under your command."
He shook his head. "It's not my command," he said. "This is ademocracy. You've met Huey ... my orderly, in the old days. But now hehas as much voice as I have. Except for expert matters."
Crackpots. But I listened. Democracy was the basis of their group;every move was voted on by the entire band, wherever possible. "We'renot a dictatorship," Hollerith said. "We don't intend to become one."
It was nice to hear that; it meant that, maybe, I wouldn't have to getrid of him after all. "Anyway," I said, "your men appear to be theonly ones active on Sergeant's behalf."
He took it without flinching. "Then we need help," he said. "Can youprovide it?"
"I can get you guns," I said. "Volunteers. Supplies."
There was a little pause.
"Who do you think you are?" Hollerith said. "God?"
I didn't tell him that, from his point of view, I was inhabiting theother half of the theological universe. Somehow, it didn't seemnecessary.
* * * * *
The men started to arrive in a week, some of them carrying suppliesand armaments for all the rest. Hollerith was beside himself with joy,and even Huey stopped looking at me with suspicion. In the meantime,I'd been living with the guerrillas, eating and sleeping with them,but I hadn't been exactly trusted. There'd been a picked group of menset to watch over me at all times, and I managed to get a littlefriendly with them, but not very. In case I turned out to be a louse,nobody wanted to have to shed tears over my unmarked grave.
Until the men arrived, there weren't any raids; Hollerith, verysensibly, wanted to wait for my reinforcements, and he carried most ofthe group with him. Huey was all for killing me and getting on withnormal operations; I don't think he had any real faith in me evenafter the reinforcements began to arrive.
I'd made the call on my radio, in Hollerith's hearing. I'd asked forone hundred and fifty men--a force just a bit larger than the entireband Hollerith had commanded until then--three hundred heaters withammunition and supplies to match, a couple of large guns throwingexplosive shells, and some dynamite. I added the dynamite because itsounded like the sort of thing guerrillas ought to have, and Hollerithdidn't seem to mind. On his instructions, I gave them a safe route tocome by, assuming they started near New Didymus; actually, of course,some of my corps brothers were recruiting on other parts of the planetand the Government had been fully instructed not to hold any of themup. I won't say that President Santa Claus understood what I wasdoing, but he trusted me. He had faith--which was handy.
Hollerith was overjoyed when the reinforcements did arrive. "Now wecan really begin to work," he told me. "Now we can begin to fightback in a big way. No more of this sneaking around, doing fiddlinglittle jobs--"
He wanted to start at once. I nearly laughed in his face; it was nowestablished that I didn't have to get rid of the man. If he'd decidedto delay on the big attack ... but he hadn't.
So, of course, I helped him draw up some plans. Good ones, too; thebest I could come up with.
The very best.
* * * * *
"The trouble," Hollerith told me sadly, a day or so later, "is going tobe convincing the others. They want to do something dramatic--blowing upthe planet, most likely."
I said I didn't think they planned to go that far, and, anyhow, I hadan idea that might help. "You want to take the Army armaments depotnear New Didymus," I said. "That would serve as a good show ofstrength, and weaken any reprisals while we get ready to move again."
"Of course," he said.
"Then think of all the fireworks you'll get," I said. "Bombs goingoff, heaters exploding, stacks of arms all going off at once--theFourth of July, the Fourteenth, and Guy Fawkes Day, all at once, witha small touch of Armageddon for flavor. Not to mention the Chinese NewYear."
"But--"
"Sell it that way," I said. "The drama. The great picture. Theexcitement. That, believe me, they'll buy."
He frowned while he thought it over. Then the frown turned into agrin. "By God," he said, "they might."
And they did. The conference and the election were
both pretty stormy.All the new patriots were off to blow up the Government buildings oneafter another, even more enthusiastic than the original members. Itwas only natural; my instructions to the recruiters had been to pickthe most violent, frothing anti-Government men they could find to sendout, and that was what we got. But Hollerith gave them a talk, and thevote, when
The Man Who Played to Lose Page 2
