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throng. Maybe they were watching from the sidelines.
Anyhow, they did nothing to help.
I kept at it until I began to feel too much like a man trying to send his dog
home. I had difficulty keeping my face straight. There was nothing to do but
turn away and ignore them, which I did. Like a pied piper in
Argyle socks I stalked down the Malescan street, hearing the rising murmur
behind me as more and more curious bystanders joined my following throng. The
saga of the little wheel was on every tongue. The sparks it shot out acquired
fresh fame with every step I took.
Then it got worse. I heard someone say distinctly, "He's leading us to the
Temple. He's going to teach us all how to make fire jump out of the little
wheel."
I whirled angrily. Whoever had spoken was silent now. The eyes of my followers
met mine eagerly. And what could I do? Shouts hadn't moved them. Denials
wouldn't either. This was sheer determined wishful thinking. It was already
bigger than I was and growing every minute. The starvation of the human mind,
denied process, was a thing I couldn't cope with.
Suddenly I felt sorry for them. And I was aware of a quick, increasing
respect. For all they knew the squads of the Temple guard might swoop down at
any moment and arrest them all. And yet they followed, hypnotized by the
glimpse they'd had of a machine openly used in the street, where every eye
could see and every mind understand how it worked.
So I went on. The rumors spread. They caught up with me and began to run ahead
and they were fantastic.
I was going to teach all Malesco how every miracle in the city was performed.
I was going to overthrow the Hierarch and administer the Alchemic Mysteries
myself.
No, I was hand in glove with the Hierarch and leading them all to their doom.
This latter rumor had no effect whatever. Curiosity was stronger now than fear
and anyhow this crowd was getting too big to punish. Each man took courage
from the number of his neighbors.
By the time I reached the great square in front of the Temple the murmuring of
my followers had swelled into a low insistent roar. Nobody was shouting.
Nobody was really talking loudly.
But the combined voices had their own volume, and there was irresistible
excitement in it.
I saw the astonished faces of priests looking out of the gate and peering over
the painted walls. There were faces at every window on this side of the
Temple, and in the houses we passed women and children peered out with timid
exultation, and men came from every doorway to join our throng.
I crossed the big flood-lighted square slowly, in spite of myself feeing very
important. Common sense told me that I had done nothing very superlative after
all but the awed admiration of the crowd was insidious.
It came to me irresistibly how much more I knew than they did, how deeply they
admired me for my wisdom also, perhaps, for my socks.
I expect I strutted a little. It isn't every man who inspires thousands of
people to follow him, helpless to resist as the children who followed the pied
piper, hypnotized by his ability to spin a small wheel and strike sparks with
it. It isn't every man who
Suddenly it came to me what I was doing. I stopped dead still for a second. I
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
was a hero! I was indubitably leading a vast crowd of inspired followers,
obedient to my every whim. I was advancing on the stronghold of the wicked
High Priest who held the beautiful heroine captive in his toils.
I was on my way to rescue Lorna and force the Hierarch to send us back to
Earth and it was my own skill and knowledge that had made this possible, my
own prowess with a flint and steel. Good heavens, it had happened after all!
"Quartermain, move over!" I murmured to myself and crossed the rest of the
square at a rapid stride. I felt imposingly tall. I thrust my elbows out to
make my cloak billow in the wind. It was a perfect setup. All I
lacked was the long, glittering sword.
True, the cigarette lighter had proved more potent as a weapon, but it lacked
a certain something so far as dash went. Still, you can't have everything.
What I did have was far more than I had ever expected, even in my wildest
dreams.
I came to the flight of steps leading up to the entrance gate. As I set my
foot on the lowest step, a man in a gray tunic and cloak emerged from the
crowd just behind me. Another man in the same uniform appeared suddenly on my
other side. Two . more followed them and two after that. Five in all one
squad, Malescan version. Why they deemed it wise at this particular point to
take off their cloaks of invisibility I
didn't know.
"Where were you?" I demanded of the nearest, remembering his face in the fog
at my door, back there in the Divine Baths. "What happened?"
"Nothing, sir. We followed our orders. We escorted you here."
I looked at him in silence. No reasoning processes naturally. He might well
explain in effect, "I seen my duty and I done it," and that was that. If he'd
dispersed the crowd as any rational policeman should have done when it first
showed signs of getting out of control...
But by now I was very glad he hadn't. He might have explanations to make to
the Hierarch, but I was well satisfied. I knew what I was going to say to the
Hierarch. Now I had force behind my arguments. I was going back to Earth in
style with a send-off suitable to heroes.
Unfortunately for my self-esteem, I paused at the top of the steps to look
back and bid farewell to my faithful followers.
There they seethed in their thousands. It's hard to estimate numbers at night
in such volume. They filled most of the square in front of the Temple.
They stood solidly together, not wavering, not melting away in the back even
though the priests were eyeing them sternly from every window. I had one final
moment of egocentric pride in which I must have looked rather like Mussolini
making chests from his balcony.
Then I caught a familiar eye in the front ranks of the crowd. Coriole was
grinning up at me cheerfully. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]