impatiently:
"All right. Very good. But what is this? A ceremony?"
"Just so," said Aletha, smiling. "Be patient, Mr. Bordman!"
Her cousin said conversationally:
"We built the small grid on the top of the sand. And it tapped theionosphere for power. No lack of power then! And we'd set it to heave upsand instead of ships. Not to heave it out into space, but to give it upto mile a second vertical velocity. Then we turned it on."
"And we rode it down, that little grid," said one of the remainingIndians, grinning. "What a party! Manitou!"
Redfeather frowned at him and took up the narrative.
"It hurled the sand up from its center. As you said it would, the sandswept air with it. It made a whirlwind, bringing more sand from outsidethe grid into its field. It was a whirlwind with fifteen megakilowattsof power to drive it. Some of the sand went twenty miles high. Then itmade a mushroom-head and the winds up yonder blew it to the west. Itcame down a long way off, Mr. Bordman. We've made a new dune-area tenmiles downwind. And the little grid sank as the sand went away fromaround it. We had to stop it three times, because it leaned. We had todig under parts of it to get it straight up again. But it went down intothe valley."
Bordman turned up the power to his heat-suit motors. He feltuncomfortably warm.
"In six days," said Ralph, almost ceremonially, "it had uncovered halfthe original grid we'd built. Then we were able to modify that to heavesand and to let it tap the ionosphere. We were able to use a good manytimes the power the little grid could apply to sand-lifting! In two daysmore the landing grid was clear. The valley bottom was clean. We shiftedsome hundreds of millions of tons of sand by landing grid, and now it ispossible to land the _Warlock_, and receive her supplies, and thesolar-power furnace is already turning out pigs for her loading. Wewanted you to see what we have done. The colony is no longer in danger,and we shall have the grid completely finished for your inspectionbefore the ship is ready to return."
Bordman said uncomfortably:
"That's very good. It's excellent. I'll put it in my survey report."
"But," said Ralph, more ceremonially still, "we have the right to countcoup for the members of our tribe and clan. Now----"
Then there was confusion. Aletha's cousin was saying syllables that didnot mean anything at all. The other Indians joined in at intervals,speaking gibberish. Aletha's eyes were shining and she looked incrediblypleased and satisfied.
"But what ... what's this?" demanded Bordman when they stopped.
Aletha spoke proudly.
"Ralph just formally adopted you into the tribe, Mr. Bordman--and intohis clan and mine! He gave you a name I'll have to write down for you,but it means, 'Man-who-believes-not-his-own-wisdom.' And now----"
Ralph Redfeather--licensed interstellar engineer, graduate of thestiffest technical university in this quarter of the galaxy, wearer ofthree eagle-pinion feathers and clad in a pair of insulated sandals anda breechcloth--whipped out a small paint-pot and a brush from somewhereand began carefully to paint on a section of girder ready for the nexttier of steel. He painted a feather on the metal.
"It's a coup," he told Bordman over his shoulder. "Your coup. Placedwhere it was earned--up here. Aletha is authorized to certify it. Andthe head of the clan will add an eagle-feather to the headdress he wearsin council in the Big Tepee on Algonka, and--your clan-brothers will beproud!"
Then he straightened up and held out his hand.
Chuka said benignly:
"Being civilized men, Mr. Bordman, we Africans do not go in foruncivilized feathers. But we ... ah ... rather approve of you, too. Andwe plan a corroboree at the colony after the _Warlock_ is down, whenthere will be some excellently practiced singing. There is ... ah ... asong, a sort of choral calypso, about this ... ah ... adventure you havebrought to so satisfying a conclusion. It is quite a good calypso. It'slikely to be popular on a good many planets."
Bordman swallowed. He was acutely uncomfortable. He felt that he oughtto say something, and he did not know what.
But just then there was a deep-toned humming in the air. It was avibrant tone, instinct with limitless power. It was theeighteen-hundred-foot landing grid, giving off that profoundly bass andvibrant, note it uttered while operating. Bordman looked up.
The _Warlock_ was coming down.
THE END
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Notes & Errata | | | | This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction | | December 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any | | evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was | | renewed. | | | | Illustrations have been moved to their appropriate places in | | the text. | | | | The following typographical errors have been corrected. | | | | |Error |Correction | | | | | | | | |dessicated |desiccated | | | |Anglo-Anglo-Saxon--girls |Anglo-Saxon girls | | | |carrousel |carousel | | | |dessication |desiccation | | | |derelect |derelict | | | |sand-swept |sand swept | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
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