“No,” said Marcia. “He wouldn’t have accepted if he could get a better price from someone else. It’s late now and this bungalow would probably go empty tonight without us. Besides, the economy isn’t strong here right now.”
“Huh?” Steve was surprised. “I thought Kublai Khan was some kind of great benevolent dictator.”
“For his time, he was very enlightened,” said Marcia. “But the Mongol emperors were not good rulers economically. The first issue of paper money from Kublai Khan, made in 1260, was recalled three years ago in 1287, on a one-to-five basis-your money was only worth twenty percent of its face value. Another depreciation of the same magnitude will happen again in less than twenty years-”
“So money is tight for ordinary people,” Steve interrupted quickly. “Okay, I get it.”
“I’m tired after that walk,” said Jane, just as fast. “I’m ready for bed, I think.” She glanced at Marcia warily. “How about you?”
“Well, yes, I am, too. It’s rather late by our schedule, isn’t it?”
I suggest you two take the larger bedroom,” said Hunter. “Steve can have the smaller one. I shall spend the night here in the front room.”
“Always on the lookout for the unforeseen danger.” Steve grinned. He took his change of clothes for the morning out of the bag, then handed the bag to Jane. “Well, I’m ready for a good night’s sleep, too. Good night.”
Dr. Wayne Nystrom landed flat on his back at dusk on the edge of some plowed field. The ground and air temperature were warm; this felt like a summer evening, which was what he expected. Next to him, he could see R. Ishihara sitting up. They both wore the tunics, leggings, and boots that Ishihara had originally designed for their trip to Roman Germany in A.D. 9. Wayne also still wore a long fur cloak that he had acquired, though Ishihara had traded his cloak away on their most recent trip to the area around Moscow in December 1941.
Wayne pushed himself up into a sitting position and saw a group of ten or twelve people standing about ten meters away, staring at them in shock. They wore thin shirts and trousers, and carried hoes, rakes, and scythes over their shoulders. Their faces were shadowed by basketlike hats made of woven grass.
With a sudden chorus of frightened shouts, the entire group turned and ran.
Wayne glanced around in other directions. Only a few meters away, an unpaved road led to a city that was visible in the distance. Many people were on it, going both to and from the city. “What do we do now? They saw us appear like magic.”
“I do not know,” said Ishihara, as he stood up. “Have we arrived in the right location? If not, we can simply move in time again and hope that seeing us arrive will have no serious effect on them.”
“This looks like the right place,” said Wayne, getting to his feet. “At least, I’d say that group is a bunch of Chinese peasants. And the weather feels right.”
“I agree.”
“The measurements I took from the console on the time travel sphere indicated that I should set the controls for the outskirts of Beijing in 1290,” said Wayne. “If that city’s Beijing, then this is where we want to be.”
“The system has always worked correctly before,” said Ishihara. “Apparently it is still reliable.”
Wayne looked down the road. The peasants had stopped running. Now they were talking excitedly among themselves, while still watching Wayne and Ishihara suspiciously. “I don’t know what kind of explanation we can give them. Maybe we better start walking.”
“Set the belt unit for another time,” said Ishihara. “If we have to use it in hurry, it will be ready.”
“Yeah.” Wayne paused and set the unit for the same location three hours later, after dark. Most likely, no one would be out here then. He glanced back at the group of peasants and froze.
They were coming closer, slowly. The men who held long-handled farm implements advanced in the front, holding their tools forward as weapons. Other men and women, holding smaller tools, followed them. Some were shouting angrily.
“Be prepared to trigger the belt unit,” said Ishihara. “It is too late to run from them.”
“All right. But maybe we can communicate somehow. I don’t suppose you know any medieval Chinese, though, huh?”
“No, I do not.”
Wayne forced a smile and held up a hand in greeting. “Hello,” he called out. More softly, he added, “I’m hoping they can understand a friendly tone of voice.”
The peasants stopped, still speaking excitedly among themselves. They kept their tools high, however. None of them looked away.
“I strongly recommend you trigger the belt unit,” said Ishihara.
“They keep saying something like‘guei’ or‘kuai’- something like that,” said Wayne. “Any idea what it means?”
“No,” said Ishihara. “And I must remind you that the First Law will force me to take the belt unit away from you and trigger it myself if they come much closer to us.”
“Well, they stopped when I smiled at them just now and said hello. Maybe we can get through to them. Show them that both your hands are empty. And smile.” Wayne felt more frightened than he sounded.
Ishihara held both his hands out, open, and smiled. “I think this word they keep saying means something negative, from their tone of voice. They fear we are a couple ofgueis.”
“Whatever they are.”
“Yes.”
“The word must mean some kind of supernatural creature-you know, a demon or a fairy or something else that can appear magically.”
“It must mean an evil creature of some type,” said Ishihara. “They would not be as afraid or as hostile toward a good spirit. I surmise that our European appearance has also increased their fear to some degree. Certainly these ancient German tunics and cloak make us look barbaric.”
“Hey! Maybe we can use this. We’re good spirits. We have to tell them we’re good spirits.”
“This will be a difficult distinction to make without a language in common,” said Ishihara.
The peasants had begun approaching them slowly once again.
“Noguei, noguei.” Wayne forced himself to smile even more broadly than before, though he was too scared to feel very friendly. He held his hands up, palms forward.
The peasants stopped again, still talking among themselves. The word“guei, ” was repeated even more than before.
“They understandguei, at least,” said Wayne quietly, slipping one hand back to the belt unit, just in case. “I’m going to try something else.”
“Be extremely careful,” said Ishihara.
Wayne renewed his phony smile and stepped forward, holding one arm high above his head. He knew they would not understand his speech, but he hoped that they would respond to a friendly tone of voice and gestures of greeting. “Hello, whoever you are. Good evening. We are glad to see you.”
The peasants gazed at him. Their eyes were wide with surprise and puzzlement. One of the men in the front, who held a large hoe, shouted to Wayne suspiciously.
“Do what I did,” said Wayne. “I think it’s working.”
“Hello,” Ishihara called out. He also raised one arm in greeting. “Good evening.”
The peasants watched them without speaking. The man in front lowered his hoe slightly.
“We have to convince them we’re good spirits,” Wayne said quietly. “Then they’ll actually help us.”
“If we can prevent them from trying to kill us. I will be satisfied,” said Ishihara.
The peasants began talking to each other again.
“It’s working,” said Wayne. “At least, they aren’t as sure as they were a minute ago that we’re enemies.”
“We have made no aggressive moves,” said Ishihara. “That may have helped. However, I recommend again that we jump forward in time and start over,”
“Not yet,” said Wayne. “This is a populated area, so we might be seen again.”
“After dark, that is very unlikely.”
“We can use their help,” Wayne said eagerly, “We’ll need them. We won’t be able to speak to anyone else here, either. But we could really use some allies. If we can become friends with them, can you start learning their language?”