'Curiouser and curiouser,' Rachel said, but she did not look as if she were mocking him.
'But the thorough investigation into our John turned up nothing that could be used against him. And so the investigation was dropped. But then the first experiments with time travel were made. And that strange block which extended from our time back to around 1870 was discovered. Of all the theories advanced - and there were some wild ones - the wildest was, I believe, the true one. You remember my commenting on it last year when we were talking about the early experiments? Perrault said that perhaps someone who had been born in the late seventies still lived. And the structure of Time was such that no object or person could be sent back to a time when anybody living then was still living in our time. He was scoffed at, of course, because that would mean that somewhere in the world was a man two hundred and some years old.'
She nodded and said, 'I know. But with the drugs and techniques we now have, some day people will live as long as that - longer - and yet be young.'
'Yes, but they didn't have those drugs in the nineteenth or twentieth century.'
'Somebody might have. Some backwoods witch doctor perhaps. You can't say it's beyond the bounds of possibility.'
He shook his head and hit his temple with the butt of his palm.
'When Moishe heard this theory of Perrault's, he was the only scientist who didn't pooh-pooh it. At least, he made no statement whatever on it. But that 1872 date rang the gong, you might say. He began thinking about Gribardsun. Yet he didn't want to do anything to antagonize the man. Gribardsun, he was sure, was responsible for time travel. He didn't originate the theory or work out the physical techniques, of course. But if it hadn't been for him, Moishe could never have gotten any place. He was certain of that - though, again, he couldn't prove it.
'But what was Gribardsun's motive? If Gribardsun did have the elixir a hundred years or so before anybody eke, why was he so interested in time travel, why had he worked so hard to bring it about? Especially when it looked as if he wasn't going to enjoy its benefits. He was only sixth in priority, and he had only gotten that high in some unaccountable manner.
'And then, suddenly, he was second. One thing after another had happened to those in line ahead of him. Sickness, a sudden loss of interest or of courage. One man resigned without giving any reasons and took off for Tahiti. Very mysterious.
'Moishe was very sick by this time then. He...'
'Are you suggesting that Gribardsun poisoned him, too?' Rachel said.
'No. Moishe was never intended to go on the expedition. He was too old and besides, he didn't have the qualifications. No, he got one of the rare incurable cancers - as you know - and he was dying. He hoped he'd live long enough to see the expedition off. It was his greatest wish, and he never got it. Moses before the Promised Land, he used to say, when he felt well enough to joke. Which wasn't often. But Gribardsun worried him. He couldn't see what sinister motive the man had, if his motive was sinister. Then de Longnors disappeared, and Moishe was certain that Gribardsun was responsible. But Moishe didn't have long to live, and he did owe Gribardsun a great debt, and he did not want to make accusations which would result in the expedition being held up. A few days'delay would mean he'd die before the launching. As it turned out, he did die before the launching. Anyway, he told me the story. And he asked me not to tell anybody. But I was to keep an eye on Gribardsun, and, after I returned, if I felt it was justified, I was to reveal the whole story. Of course I promised, but I felt like a fool. The whole thing was so fantastic. Or so I thought then. Now I don't think so at all. And when I get back...'
'You still have nothing to tell,' she said. 'Moreover, you have been mentally sick, and your story would be hushed up to protect you more than John.'
'Do you mean that you think it's all nonsense?'
'No, I don't. I think that what you and Moishe suspected is true. But what can any of us do about it? Besides, I can't believe that John would do anything dishonest or in any way evil.'
'That's because you're still in love with him!'
'Probably.'
Drummond clamped his teeth tightly and balled his hands.
Strange sounds came from beneath his teeth.
Rachel said, 'Drummond! Don't! I can't help it! Please don't get sick again! You have to face reality!'
He opened his fists and released the tension on his jaws and breathed out heavily. He said, 'All right. I can face it. But I wish...'
'There's Robert!' she said. 'He looks worried. I wonder if anything's happened to John!'
She ran toward him. Von Billmann said, 'Laminak's very sick. I need your help.'
The girl was lying on furs on the floor of the tent, the walls of which had been rolled up so that the cooling wind could pass over her. Amaga, her mother, and Abinal, her brother, squatted near her. Glamug was not present with his medicine paint, his spirit-scaring mask, his rattles and bull roarer and his baton de commandement. He was out hunting and, since game was scarce near the camp, was probably miles away.
Laminak's skin was flushed but dry, and her fever was 101-6°F. She looked dully at the three as they bent over her, and then she mumbled, 'Koorik?'
'He's not here, but I'm sure he soon will be,' Rachel said.
She patted the girl's hand, and then lifted her head to give her a drink from her canteen.
With Rachel's help, von Billmann took saliva, skin, and blood samples into the little medical analyzer, together with their observations on her fever and other physical symptoms. The analyzer was able to detect every virus and bacterium and germ known to the twenty-first century, to define any type of cancer, and to interpret symptoms.
It took fifteen minutes to run through the samples from Laminak, and the coded result on the tape was: DISEASE UNKNOWN. POSSIBLE PSYCHOSOMATIC ORIGIN. Laminak's fever rose to 102-1°F. and stayed there until late that night. She would drink water but had no desire to eat. She became delirious that evening, and she mumbled and groaned much.
Of the few words they could determine, Koorik was the most frequent.
'She's been pining away ever since Koorik left,' Amaga said. 'Then she brightened up when the time came for him to return. But as the days passed and he did not come, she became sick. Last night, she started to burn, and she will not stop now until she is dead, unless Koorik comes back. And there is not much time for that.'
'I can't believe that she could get so sick just grieving for John,' Rachel said.
'But she can,' von Billmann said. 'The tribe has stories of men and women, and children, who have made themselves sick, killed themselves, with grief at the loss or prolonged absence of a loved one. It's a psychological mechanism, true, but it operates far too effectively.'
'We don't know that that is the cause of her sickness,' Rachel said.
'True. But until we have a better explanation, I'll accept grief.'
Rachel stayed with Laminak even after Glamug returned and began to make the camp hideous with his howlings, shrill chantings, rattlings, bull roarings, and sudden shrieks. She did all she could to help the girl and at the same time stay out of Glamug's way. She also kept a close observation of the progress of the illness for the expedition's records.
The morning of the third day, just as the sun came up, Laminak breathed her death rattle.