"We will, if you will keep to your camp during the parley and let our man leave unharmed, whatever the outcome."
"He must come unarmed and alone," said the Cimbrian.
I stuck my spear in the ground, leaned my muskets against a tree, and walked into the camp. As I climbed over the barricade, the Cimbrians swarmed out, pointing guns and twittering. When the leader identified himself, I said:
"About this woman. I must see her to know if she is alive and well."
"This way," he said, and led me through the crowd to the center of the camp, where the big cabin had been built over the hot spring. "Twi-an!" he called.
Adrienne came to the door. She gave a shriek, grabbed me round the neck, and kissed me all over the face. I was so embarrassed I hardly knew what to do.
"You have come!" she cried. "I hoped you would, but I was in despair. Do we go right now, no?"
"Not yet," I said. "This is a parley."
"But if you have a big army ..."
"They still have you." I didn't dare come right out and say this was a bluff, because of the remote chance that some Cimbrian might know French. "First, how have you been?"
"Well enough, though I cowered myself in the wash house all night, hoping that your bullets would not pierce the walls."
"Are you the washerwoman?"
"But yes! Look inside."
I saw piles of plates and other gear around the hot spring. Adrienne's method was to put a lot of these things in a big net-bag and dunk them in the steaming pool. She pointed to a couple of wooden tubs, saying:
"They make me scrub their backs. It's hard to get things really clean, though. These savages have no soap."
"Well, I can fix that, but you'd have to take care — oh-oh, that gives me an idea. Here's a package from the people at Liberté."
I opened the bundle. Adrienne squealed with delight. I handed her the cake of soap and said:
"Let fall this into the hot spring. Then come out and stand close to me while I talk with the chief. Stand by for anything." I turned to the chief. "This woman is no good to us here," I said. "If you are going to keep her till she dies, you might as well kill her now. So, for the last time, will you give her up or must we kill you all?"
"You would not kill us all," he said. It's hard to interpret those feline expressions, but he seemed to have a slight grin.
"Why not?"
"Then whom would there be for you to fight?"
"You mean you think we like fighting with you?"
"Of course. We would not kill you all for the same reason. What is life without an enemy?"
"That is not our feeling. If we want to quarrel, we can do so among ourselves. We want you to let our woman go and never molest us again."
The chief scratched his head fur. "You ask us to die of boredom. We might as well kill you and Twi-an now and defy your army."
I was rambling away from the wash house as if I weren't going anywhere, but winding towards the place where I had entered the camp. Adrienne followed close behind.
"Perhaps," said the chief, "we could agree on a series of challenge battles instead of these raids."
"What do you mean?"
"Every so often each side would choose an equal number of their best fighters. These could slaughter each other while the rest of us looked on."
I was dealing with a psychology like that of a medieval knight or a primitive warrior to whom fighting is worth while for its own sake. I must be very careful ...
A Cimbrian ran up and chittered at the chief. The latter whirled on me. "So! There is no terran army! It was all your doing!"
He yelped to the others, who pointed and cocked their guns with a rattle of clicks.
There was a sound behind us like the cough of some great beast; then a rumble, a swish, and a chorus of chirps from the Cimbrians, who started back towards the wash house.
Adrienne and I turned to see the wash house flying straight up and falling apart into single logs. The hot spring had erupted.
The Cimbrians ran towards the geyser, which rose to a height of more than a hundred feet. They checked their rush and tumbled back as logs and boiling water began to fall upon them. Their shrieking was almost drowned in the roar of the geyser.
I grabbed Adrienne's wrist and pulled her over the barricade. We ran. I snatched up the two muskets, handed one to Adrienne, slung the other, picked up my spear, and ran on.
Some Cimbrians saw us. There was a crackle of musket shots, and some bans clipped the twigs about us. We ran faster, stumbling over roots. I led her around towards the meadow and opened the gate in the fence.
The geyser kept the Cimbrians too disorganized for prompt pursuit. By the time they boiled out of their village in all directions, I had untied the bridles of two horses from their stakes. I handed the bridles to Adrienne, saying: "Hold them tightly!"
She took them in a gingerly manner. The horses were as scared as she was, rolling their eyes and pulling.
"Please, monsieur!" she wailed. "I can't hold them!" They were skidding her along the grass.
I chopped through the other bridles. When I finished, I heard Cimbrians whooping. I took the bridles from Adrienne, hitched them round my arm, and clasped my hands in front of me.
"Put your foot there and mount," I said.
When she had done so, I said: "Hold the mane, grip the animal's body with your legs, duck if you see a branch coming, and don't fall off!"
"I'll t-try not to," she said. "I have never done this before, you know."
I vaulted on to the other horse (since they weren't saddled). The freed horses were milling round. My skittish beast calmed down when he felt my weight. I didn't know the Cimbrians' system of guidance, but by slapping and pulling on the reins I got the animal turned towards the rest of the herd, and a kick sent him bounding in among them. Then I beat the horses with the shaft of my spear until they all bolted through the gate.
My horse and Adrienne's followed. I lost my spear in the crush, but I was running out of hands and could only wish I'd been born a Virunian with four.
The horses streamed out past the Cimbrian camp. Cimbrians flitted about and fired a few shots. The horses ran faster, spreading out into the gloom of the trees. Some tripped and fell but got up again.
Soon the camp was out of sight and sound. The horses spread out and slowed down. Some stopped to nibble. Adrienne was off at the limit of vision.
When I finally got to her I gathered up her reins and led her horse while guiding my own away from the Cimbrian camp. When we were safe, she asked:
"What did you do to the source, monsieur?"
"When I was a boy, my father took me to Yellowstone Park. They warn you not to drop soap in the geysers, because it makes them erupt out of turn."
"How you are marvelous!" she said.
"Aw, Adrienne!" I said. "I'm just lucky."
The horses got so skittish at the sight of a swarm of human beings that we had to get off and lead them into Liberté. The Passivists went wild over us, all but Louis Motta. He hopped up on a stool and harangued the crowd:
"Fools! Do you know what this assassin has done? He has brought the whole mass of the aliens upon us. They will burn; they will massacre; they will utterly destroy us! And you acclaim him!"
"What do you expect us to do?" said a Passivist.
"Arrest him and the Herz and hold them to give to the Cimbrians when they arrive. It's our only hope."
The crowd looked astonished and uncertain.
"Is that so?" said I, unslinging the gun from my back. "Get ready, Adrienne. The first one who touches us —"
"No, no," said Adrienne. "Launch that old miserable from his taboret, and me, I'll manage the crowd."
"Down, poltroon!" I said, pushing Motta so he had to jarap off.
Adrienne leaped up in his place and began orating. (If die dear girl had a fault, it was a tendency, along with most women and especially French-speaking women, to screech when excited.) She yelled at them like one of those bloodthirsty characters out of the French Revolution: