juniors," he said. "Mortality'sterrific?"
"I might've known," said Orne. He took another sip of the brandy.
Stetson flicked on the switch of a recorder beside him. "O.K. You can goahead any time."
"Where do you want me to start?"
"First, how'd you spot right away where they'd hidden the _Delphinus_?"
"Easy. Tanub's word for his people was _Grazzi_. Most races callthemselves something meaning _The People_. But in his tongue that's_Ocheero_. _Grazzi_ wasn't on the translated list. I started working onit. The most likely answer was that it had been adopted from anotherlanguage, and meant _enemy_."
"And _that_ told you where the _Delphinus_ was?"
"No. But it fitted my hunch about these Gienahns. I'd kind of felt fromthe first minute of meeting them that they had a culture like theIndians of ancient Terra."
"Why?"
"They came in like a primitive raiding party. The leader dropped rightonto the hood of my sled. An act of bravery, no less. Counting coup, yousee?"
"I guess so."
"Then he said he was High Path Chief. That wasn't on the language list,either. But it was easy: _Raider Chief._ There's a word in almost everylanguage in history that means raider and derives from a word for road,path or highway."
"Highwaymen," said Stetson.
"Raid itself," said Orne. "An ancient Terran language corruption ofroad."
"Yeah, yeah. But where'd all this translation griff put--"
"Don't be impatient. Glass-blowing culture meant they were just out ofthe primitive stage. That, we could control. Next, he said their moonwas _Chiranachuruso_, translated as _The Limb of Victory_. After that itjust fell into place."
"How?"
"The vertical-slit pupils of their eyes. Doesn't that mean anything toyou?"
"Maybe. What's it mean to you?"
"Night-hunting predator accustomed to dropping upon its victims fromabove. No other type of creature ever has had the vertical slit. AndTanub said himself that the _Delphinus_ was hidden in the best place inall of their history. History? That'd be a high place. Dark, likewise.Ergo: a high place on the darkside of their moon."
"I'm a pie-eyed greepus," whispered Stetson.
Orne grinned, said: "You probably are ... sir."
THE END
Transcriber's Notes: The table below lists all corrections applied tothe original text.
p. 102: [normalized] ComGo -> ComGOp. 103: net of snakers -> sneakersp. 105: [removed extra quote] "Orne swallowedp. 111: [added closing quote] "A glass-blowing culture,"
Missing Link Page 4
