"Oz," said Matt, "do we have to listen to this tripe?"
"Not any more of it," decided Jensen. "He's had his say. Burke, I'll keep this factual and leave my personal opinions out of it. You can't hire the Patrol, you know that. In-"
"I wasn't offering to hire you, I was just trying to do you a favor, show my appreciation."
"I've got the floor. In the second place, we haven't got a ship, not at present."
"Huh? What's that?" Burke seemed startled. . Oscar gave him a quick resume of the fate of the jeep. Burke looked both amazed and terribly, bitterly disappointed. "Well, of all the gang of stupes! Just forget that offer; you haven't got anything to sell,"
"I've already forgotten it and you had better be glad I have. Let me point out that we wouldn't have been making a jet landing in a jungle if you hadn't made an ass of yourself and then called for help. However, we hope to
recover the jeep if I can manage to smooth out the trouble you've caused- and that's no small job."
"Well, of course if you can square things and get your ship back, the offer stands."
"Stop talking about that clumsy piece of bribery! We can't possibly promise you anything, even if we wanted to. We've got our mission to carry out."
"Okay-your mission is to get me out of here. It comes to the same thing; I was just being generous."
"Our mission isn't anything of the sort. Our prime mission is what the prime mission of the Patrol always is: to keep the peace. Our orders read to investigate a reported native uprising-there isn't any-and keep the peace.' There's not a word about springing Girard Burke from the local jail and giving him a free ride home."
"But-"
"I'm not through. You know how the Patrol works as well as I do. It acts in remote places and a Patrol officer has to use his own judgment, being guided by the Tradition-"
"Well, if it's precedent you're looking for, you've got to-"
"Shut up! Precedent is merely the assumption that somebody else, in the past with less information, nevertheless knows better than die man on the spot. If you had gotten any use out of the time you spent as a cadet, you'd know that the Tradition is something very different. To follow a tradition means to do things in the same grand style as your predecessors; it does not mean to do the same things."
"Okay, okay-you can skip the lecture."
"I need some information from you. Had the Little People here ever seen a man before you came along?"
"Uh . . . why, they knew about men, a little anyhow. Of course there was Stevens."
"Who was Stevens?"
"Mineralogist, working for my old man. He did the quickie survey that caused us to bring the Gary in. Oh, there was his pilot, too."
"And those are the only men these natives have encountered, aside from the crew of the Gary?"
"So far as I know, yes."
"Have they ever heard of the Patrol?"
"I doubt it-yes, they have, too. At least the boss mother seemed to know the native word for it."
"Hmm . . . that rather surprises me. So far as I know the Patrol has never had any occasion to land this near the equator-and if it had I think Captain Yancey would have briefed us about it." .
Burke shrugged. Oscar went on, "It affects what we're to do. You've stirred up a mess, Burke. With the discovery of valuable minerals here, there will be more men coming along. The way you've started things off there could be more and more trouble, until there was nothing but guerrilla warfare between the natives and the men, everywhere you looked. It might even spread to the poles. It's the Patrol's business to stamp out such things before they get started and that's what I construe our mission here to be. I've got to apologize and smooth it over and do my darnedest to correct a first bad impression. Can you give me any more information, anything at all, that might help me when I try it?"
"I don't think so. But go ahead, soft-soap the old girl any way you can. You can even pretend to take me away from here under arrest if it will do any good. Say, that might be a good idea! I'll be agreeable to it just as long as I get out."
Oscar shook his head. "I might take you out under arrest, if she wants it that way. But as far as I can see you are a perfectly legal prisoner here for a crime under the local customs."
"What in the world are you talking about?"
"I might point oat that what you've admitted doing is a crime anywhere. You can be tried for it on Terra if she wants it that way. But it really doesn't matter to me, one-way or the other. It's no business of the Patrol."
"But you can't leave me here!"
Oscar shrugged. "That's the way I see it. Lieutenant Thurlow might snap out of it at any time, then you could take it up with him. As long as I'm in charge I'm not
going to jeopardize the Patrol's mission to try to help you get away with murder-and I do mean murder!"
"But-" Burke looked wildly around him. "Tex! Matt! Are you going to let him side up with those frog-people against a man?"
Matt gave him a stony-eyed stare. Tex said, "Button your lip, Stinky."
Oscar added, "Yes, do. -And go to sleep. My arm hurts and I don't want to be bothered any more with you tonight."
The room quieted .down at once, even though none of them got to sleep quickly. Matt lay awake a long time, worrying out their predicament, wondering whether or not Oscar could convince the frog mother-he thought of her as such-of the innocence of their intentions, and repeatedly blaming himself for the disaster to the jeep. Presently! he fell into an exhausted sleep.
He was awakened by a moaning sound. It brought him wide-awake at once and to the lieutenant's side. He found'] Tex already awake with him. "What is it?" he asked. "Is he worse?" j
"He keeps trying to say something," Tex answered. j
Thurlow's eyes came open and he looked up at Matt. ! "Maman," he said querulously. "Maman-pourquoi fait-il nuit j ainsi?" ' |
Oscar joined them. "What's he saying?"
"Sounds like he's calling for his momma," said Tex. "The rest is just gibberish."
"Where did that bladder get to? We could give him a. j drink." It was found and again the patient drank, then seemed to drop at once to sleep. "You guys go back to sleep," said Oscar. "I want to snag a word with the guard j that brings us our next meal and try to get to see the big. j mother. He's got to have some medical attention, somehow." j
"I'll take the watch, Oz," Matt offered.
"No, I can't sleep very well anyhow. This darn thing! itches." He held up his damaged arm.
"Well-all right."
Matt was still awake when the curtain opened. Oscar had been sitting cross-legged at the door, waiting; as the native shoved inside a platter of food, he thrust his arm into the opening.
"Remove thy arm," said the native emphatically.
"Attend thou me," insisted Oscar. "I must have speech with thy mother."
"Remove thy arm."
"Thou wilt carry my message?"
"Remove thy arm!"
Oscar did so and the curtain was hurriedly secured. Matt said, "Doesn't look as if they intended to powwow with us, does it, Oz?"
"Keep your shirt on," Oscar answered. "Breakfast. Wake up the others."
It was the same dull fodder as before. "Split it five ways, Tex," Oscar directed. "The lieutenant may snap out of it and be hungry."
Burke looked at it and sniffed. "I'm sick of that stuff. I don't want any."
"Okay, split it four ways." Tex nodded and did so.
They ate; presently Matt sat back, burped reflectively, and said, "You know, while I could use some orange juice and coffee, that stuffs not bad."
"Did I ever tell you," asked Tex, "about the time my Uncle Bodie got incarcerated in the jail at Juarez?-by mistake, of course."
"Of course," agreed Oscar. "What happened?"
"Well, they fed him nothing but Mexican jumping beans. He-"
"Didn't they upset him?"
"Not a bit. He ate as many as he could and a week later he jumped over a twelve foot wall and bounced home."
"Having met your Uncle Bodie, I can well believe it. What do you suppose he would do under these circumstances?"