It was three days later that a much-rested Green, his skin comfortably,
even glowingly, tight with superb Lespaxian, sat at the table and
waited for the word to come that he could finally leave the cabin.
The first day of inactivity he'd slept and eaten and paced back and
forth, anxious for news of what was going on in the city. At nightfall
Miran had returned with the story that a furious search was organized
in the city itself and the outlying hills. Of course, the Duke would
insist that the 'rollers themselves be turned inside-out, and Miran
was cursing because that would mean a fatal delay. They could not wait
for more than three more days. The fish tanks had been installed;
the provisions were almost all in the hold; his roistering crewmen
were being dragged out of the taverns and sobered up; two days after
tomorrow the great vessel would have to be towed out of the windbreak
and sails set for the perilous and long voyage.
"I wouldn't worry," said Green. "You will find that tomorrow word will
come from the hills that Green has been killed by a wild man of the
Clan Axaquexcan, who will demand money before handing the dead slave's
head over. The Duke will accept this as true and will conveniently
forget all about searching the 'rollers."
Miran rubbed his fat oily palms, while one pale eye glowed. He loved a
good intrigue, the more elaborate the better.
But the second day, even though what Green had predicted came true
Miran became nervous and began to find the big blond man's constant
presence in his cabin irksome. He wanted to send him down into the
hold, but Green firmly refused, reminding the captain of his promise
of haven within these very walls. He then calmly appropriated another
bottle of the merchant's Lespaxian, having located its hiding place,
and drank it. Miran glowered, and his face twitched with repressed
resentment, but he said nothing because of the custom that a guest
could do what he pleased--within reasonable limits.
The third day Miran was positively a tub of nerves, jittery, sweating,
pacing back and forth. At last he left the cabin, only to begin pacing
back and forth on the deck. Green could hear his footsteps for hours.
The fourth day he was up at dawn and bellowing orders to his crewmen. A
little later Green felt the big vessel move and heard the shouts of the
foremen of the towing gangs and the chants of the slaves as they bent
their backs hauling at the huge ropes attached to the 'roller.
Slowly, oh, so slowly it seemed to Green, the craft creaked forward. He
dared open a curtain to look out the square port-hole. Before him was
the rearing side of another 'roller, and just for a second it seemed to
him that it, not his vessel, was the one that was moving. Then he saw
that the 'roller was advancing at a pace of about fifteen or sixteen
feet a minute. It would take them an hour to get past the towering
brick walls of the windbreak.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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