clothes off, I have asurprise for you."
"Yes, Jason," Ijale said, smiling happily.
"You're going to get a bath. Do you know what a bath is?"
"No," she said, and shuddered. "It sounds evil."
"Over here and off with the clothes," he ordered, poking at a hole inthe floor. "This should serve as a drain, at least the water went awaywhen I poured some into it."
The water was warm from the stove, yet Ijale still crouched againstthe wall and shuddered when he poured it over her. She screamed whenhe rubbed the slippery soap into her hair, and he continued with hishand over her mouth so that she wouldn't bring in the guards. Herubbed the soap into his own head, too, and it tingled delightfully asit soaked through to his scalp. Some of it was in his ears, mufflingthem, so the first intimation he had that the door was opened was thesound of Mikah's hoarse shout. He was standing in the doorway, fingerpointed and shaking with wrath. Narsisi was standing behind him,peering over his shoulder with fascination at this weird religiousrite.
"Degradation!" Mikah thundered. "You force this poor creature to bendto your will, humiliate her, strip her clothes from her and gaze uponher though you are not united in lawful wedlock." He shielded his eyesfrom sight with a raised arm. "You are evil, Jason, a demon of eviland must be brought to justice--"
"_Out!_" Jason roared, and spun Mikah about and started him throughthe door with one of his practiced Ch'aka kicks. "The only evil hereis in your mind, you snooping scut. I'm giving the girl the firstscrubbing of her life and you should be giving me a medal for bringingsanitation to the natives instead of howling like that." He pushedthem both out the door and shouted at Narsisi. "I wanted this slave,but not _now_! Lock him up until morning then bring him back." Heslammed the door and made a mental note to get hold of a bolt to beplaced on this side as well.
* * * * *
There were more _krenoj_ for breakfast but Jason was feeling too goodphysically to mind. He was scrubbed raw and clean and the itching wasgone even from his sprouting beard. The metalcloth of his Pyrrancoverall had dried almost as soon as it had been washed so he waswearing clean clothes as well. Ijale was still recovering from thetraumatic effects of her bath, but she looked positively attractivewith her skin cleaned and her hair washed and combed a bit. He wouldhave to find some of the local cloth for her since it would be a shameto ruin the good work by letting her get back into the badly curedskins she was used to wearing. It was with a sensation of positivegood feeling that he bellowed for the door to be opened and stampedthrough the cool morning to his place of labor. Mikah was alreadythere, looking scruffy and angry as he rattled his chains; Jason gavehim the friendliest of smiles that only rubbed salt into the other'smoral wounds.
"Leg-irons for him, too," Jason ordered, "And do it fast. We have abig job to do today." He turned back to the sealed engine, rubbing hishands together with anticipation.
The concealing hood was made of thin metal that could not hide manysecrets. He carefully scratched away some of the paint and discovereda crimped and soldered joint where the sides met, but no otherrevealing marks. After an hour spent tapping all over with his earpressed to the metal he was sure that the hood was just what he hadthought it was when he first examined the thing--a double-walled metalcontainer filled with liquid. Puncture it and you were dead. It wasthere merely to hide the secrets of the engine, and served no otherfunction. Yet it had to be passed to service the steam engine--or didit? The construction was roughly cubical, and the hood covered onlyfive sides. What about the sixth, the base?
"Now you're thinking, Jason," he chortled to himself, and knelt downto examine it. A wide flange, apparently of cast iron, projected allaround, and was penetrated by four large bolt holes. The protectivecasing seemed to be soldered to the base, but there must be strongerconcealed attachments because it would not move even after hecarefully scratched away some of the solder at the base. Therefore theanswer simply had to be on the sixth side.
"Over here, Mikah," he called, and the man detached himselfreluctantly from the warmth of the stove and shuffled up. "Come closeand look at this medieval motive-power while we talk, as if we arediscussing business. Are you going to co-operate with me?"
"I do not want to, Jason. I am afraid that you will soil me with yourtouch, as you have others."
"Well you're not so clean now--"
"I do not mean physically."
"Well I do. You could certainly do with a bath and a deep shampoo. I'mnot worried about the state of your soul, you can battle that out onyour own time. But if you work with me I'll find a way to get us outof this place and to the city that made this engine, because if thereis a way off this planet we'll find it only in the city."
"I know that, yet I still hesitate--"
"Small sacrifices now for the greater good later. Isn't the entirepurpose of this trip to get me back to justice? You're not going toaccomplish that by rotting out the rest of your life as a slave."
"You are the devil's advocate the way you twist my conscience--yetwhat you say is true. I will help you here so that we can escape."
"Fine. Now get to work. Take Narsisi and have him round up at leastthree good-sized poles, the kind we were chained to in the pumpinggang. Bring them back here along with a couple of shovels."
* * * * *
Slaves carried the poles only as far as the outside of the skin walls,since Edipon would not admit them inside, and it was up to Jason andMikah to drag them laboriously to the site. The D'zertanoj, who neverdid physical labor, thought it was very funny when Jason suggestedthat they help. Once in position by the engine, Jason dug channelsbeneath it and forced the bars under. When this was done he took turnswith Mikah in digging out the sand beneath until the engine stood overa pit supported only by the bars. Jason let himself down and examinedthe bottom of the machine. It was smooth and featureless.
Once more he scratched away the paint with careful precision, until itwas cleared around the edges. Here the solid metal gave way to solderand he picked at this until he discovered that a piece of sheet metalhad been soldered at the edges and fastened to the bedplate. "Verytricky, these Appsalanoj," he chortled and attacked the solder with aknife blade. When one end was loose he slowly pulled the sheet ofmetal away, making positive that there was nothing attached to it, northat it had been booby-trapped in any way. It came off easily enoughand clanged down into the pit. The revealed surface was smooth metal,featureless and hard.
"Enough for one day," Jason said, climbing out of the pit and brushingoff his hands. It was almost dark. "We've accomplished enough for nowand I want to think a bit before I go ahead. So far luck has been onour side, but I don't think it should be this easy. I hope you broughtyour suitcase with you, Mikah, because you're moving in with me."
"Never! A sink of sin, depravity--"
Jason looked him coldly in the eye and with each word he spoke hestabbed him in the chest with his finger to drive home the point. "Youare moving in with me because that is essential to our plans. And ifyou stop referring to my moral weaknesses I'll stop talking aboutyours. Now come on."
Living with Mikah Samon was trying, but barely possible. He made Ijaleand Jason go to the far wall and turn their backs and promise not tolook while he bathed behind a screen of skins. Jason did this butexacted a small revenge by telling Ijale jokes so that they titteredtogether and Mikah would be sure they were laughing at him. The screenof skins remained after the bath, and was reinforced, and Mikahretired behind it to sleep. Their food still consisted only of_krenoj_ and Jason shuddered while he admitted that he was actuallygrowing used to them.
The following morning, under the frightened gaze of his guards, Jasontackled the underside of the baseplate. He had been thinking about ita good part of the night and he put his theories to the test at once.By pressing hard on a knife he could make a good groove in the metal.It was not as soft as the solder, but seemed to be some simple alloycontaining a good percentage of lead. What could it be
concealing?Probing carefully with the point of the knife he covered the bottom ina regular pattern. The depth of the metal was uniformly deep except intwo spots where he found irregularities, they were on the midline ofthe rectangular base, and equidistant from the ends and sides. Pickingand scraping he uncovered two familiar looking shapes each as big ashis head.
"Mikah. Get down in this hole and look at these things. Tell me whatyou think they are."
Mikah scratched his beard. "They're still covered with this metal, Ican't be sure--"
"I'm not asking you to be sure of anything--just tell me what theymake you think of."
"Why ... big nuts of course. Threaded on the
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