This creature opened its mouth, uttered a sharp shriek. "Cheeky!"
gasped Robin. And at the sound of his voice the little monkey leaped
from the Glassie's shoulder in one monstrous Lunar bound and arrived at
Robin's foot. Another jump and it was in Robin's arms, screeching with
joy.
The Glassie chief came forward. It spoke, "Robin! Good see you. Good
see you." It was Korree! Now he too moved forward to grasp Robin
awkwardly but happily ... Korree wearing the marking of the tribal head!
Now other Glassies appeared around them, but they held no weapons
in their hands, no sticky hoops or bindings. They stood around the
newcomers with awe and uncertainty--willing to be guided by Korree's
actions but aware of the possible results of an encounter with
space-suited Earthlings.
Korree turned a moment, waved them on, speaking in their tongue. Peter
came up, nodding, shoving his pistol back into its holster.
"I see your two friends have won the day while we were up above," he
said. "They were indeed friends."
The two brothers were escorted back to the site of the native
settlement in a crowd of bobbing head-stalk lights and jabbering
Glassies. Korree explained as they walked.
It seemed that the explosion of the homemade bomb had completely
disrupted the fear in which Von Borck had held the Glassies.
This was greater magic to them, and it was the mysterious little
being--Cheeky--who had accomplished it. In the first excitement, the
Glassies had fled and hid. That was when the German had come after
Peter and Robin, leaving the Glassies behind.
This, too, was an indication that even the powerful stranger who had
usurped the role of chief by the expedient of his mere existence and
strength had bowed to the power of the little monkey. In Moonman
tribes, the chief never fled the scene of his authority. To do so was
to abdicate it. Von Borck had unknowingly destroyed his authority by
his abrupt chase after Robin and Peter.
When Korree made his way back to the cave-village after giving up his
attempt to follow his Earthling friends, he had arrived to find the
Glassies cowering in fear of the capering Cheeky, who was unhurt by the
blast.
Korree had gathered up Cheeky in his arms and by so doing had made
himself the master of the situation. That was how it came about that
the two brothers had been met by a friendly admiring reception rather
than a hostile one.
"But what happened when Von Borck returned here to get his space suit?"
asked Robin.
Korree waved a hand as if the answer was obvious. "Glassies hide,"
he said simply. "Korree hide. Cheeky hide. Everyone hide." And so
Von Borck arrived to find himself deserted and unwelcome. And he had
promptly left to follow the trail to the surface.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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