diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32447-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 205973 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32447-h/32447-h.htm | 2075 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32447-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 45847 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32447-h/images/illus1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 53197 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32447-h/images/illus2.jpg | bin | 0 -> 68461 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32447.txt | 1858 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32447.zip | bin | 0 -> 36195 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
10 files changed, 3949 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32447-h.zip b/32447-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7cbaa5d --- /dev/null +++ b/32447-h.zip diff --git a/32447-h/32447-h.htm b/32447-h/32447-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee2228b --- /dev/null +++ b/32447-h/32447-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2075 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Thing In The Attic, by James Blish. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +--> +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Thing in the Attic, by James Benjamin Blish + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Thing in the Attic + +Author: James Benjamin Blish + +Illustrator: Paul Orban + +Release Date: May 20, 2010 [EBook #32447] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THING IN THE ATTIC *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + +<h1>THE THING IN THE ATTIC</h1> + +<h2>By James Blish</h2> + +<h3>Illustrated by Paul Orban</h3> + +<p>[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from If Worlds of Science +Fiction July 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that +the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>It is written that after the Giants came to Tellura from the far +stars, they abode a while, and looked upon the surface of the land, +and found it wanting, and of evil omen. Therefore did they make men +to live always in the air and in the sunlight, and in the light of +the stars, that he would be reminded of them. And the Giants abode +yet a while, and taught men to speak, and to write, and to weave, +and to do many things which are needful to do, of which the +writings speak. And thereafter they departed to the far stars, +saying, Take this world as your own, and though we shall return, +fear not, for it is yours.</i></p> + +<p>—THE BOOK OF LAWS</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="sidenote"> <i>Honath and his fellow arch-doubters did not believe in the +Giants, and for this they were cast into Hell. And when survival +depended upon unwavering faith in their beliefs, they saw that there +were Giants, after all....</i></div> + +<p>Honath the Pursemaker was hauled from the nets an hour before the rest +of the prisoners, as befitted his role as the arch-doubter of them all. +It was not yet dawn, but his captors led him in great bounds through the +endless, musky-perfumed orchid gardens, small dark shapes with crooked +legs, hunched shoulders, slim hairless tails carried, like his, in +concentric spirals wound clockwise. Behind them sprang Honath on the end +of a long tether, timing his leaps by theirs, since any slip would hang +him summarily.</p> + +<p>He would of course be on his way to the surface, some 250 feet below the +orchid gardens, shortly after dawn in any event. But not even the +arch-doubter of them all wanted to begin the trip—not even at the +merciful snap-spine end of a tether—a moment before the law said, Go.</p> + +<p>The looping, interwoven network of vines beneath them, each cable as +thick through as a man's body, bellied out and down sharply as the +leapers reached the edge of the fern-tree forest which surrounded the +copse of fan-palms. The whole party stopped before beginning the descent +and looked eastward, across the dim bowl. The stars were paling more and +more rapidly; only the bright constellation of the Parrot could still be +picked out without doubt.</p> + +<p>"A fine day," one of the guards said, conversationally. "Better to go +below on a sunny day than in the rain, pursemaker."</p> + +<p>Honath shuddered and said nothing. Of course it was always raining down +below in Hell, that much could be seen by a child. Even on sunny days, +the endless pinpoint rain of transpiration, from the hundred million +leaves of the eternal trees, hazed the forest air and soaked the black +bog forever.</p> + +<p>He looked around in the brightening, misty morning. The eastern horizon +was black against the limb of the great red sun, which had already risen +about a third of its diameter; it was almost time for the small, +blue-white, furiously hot consort to follow. All the way to that brink, +as to every other horizon, the woven ocean of the treetops flowed gently +in long, unbreaking waves, featureless as some smooth oil. Only nearby +could the eye break that ocean into its details, into the world as it +was: a great, many-tiered network, thickly overgrown with small ferns, +with air-drinking orchids, with a thousand varieties of fungi sprouting +wherever vine crossed vine and collected a little humus for them, with +the vivid parasites sucking sap from the vines, the trees, and even each +other. In the ponds of rain-water collected by the closely fitting +leaves of the bromeliads tree-toads and peepers stopped down their +hoarse songs dubiously as the light grew and fell silent one by one. In +the trees below the world, the tentative morning screeches of the +lizard-birds—the souls of the damned, or the devils who hunted them, no +one was quite sure which—took up the concert.</p> + +<p>A small gust of wind whipped out of the hollow above the glade of +fan-palms, making the network under the party shift slightly, as if in a +loom. Honath gave with it easily, automatically, but one of the smaller +vines toward which he had moved one furless hand hissed at him and went +pouring away into the darkness beneath—a chlorophyll-green snake, come +up out of the dripping aerial pathways in which it hunted in ancestral +gloom, to greet the suns and dry its scales in the quiet morning. +Farther below, an astonished monkey, routed out of its bed by the +disgusted serpent, sprang into another tree, reeling off ten mortal +insults, one after the other, while still in mid-leap. The snake, of +course, paid no attention, since it did not speak the language of men; +but the party on the edge of the glade of fan-palms snickered +appreciatively.</p> + +<p>"Bad language they favor below," another of the guards said. "A fit +place for you and your blasphemers, pursemaker. Come now."</p> + +<p>The tether at Honath's neck twitched, and then his captors were soaring +in zig-zag bounds down into the hollow toward the Judgment Seat. He +followed, since he had no choice, the tether threatening constantly to +foul his arms, legs or tail, and—worse, far worse—making his every +mortifying movement ungraceful. Above, the Parrot's starry plumes +flickered and faded into the general blue.</p> + +<p>Toward the center of the saucer above the grove, the stitched +leaf-and-leather houses clustered thickly, bound to the vines +themselves, or hanging from an occasional branch too high or too slender +to bear the vines. Many of these purses Honath knew well, not only as +visitor but as artisan. The finest of them, the inverted flowers which +opened automatically as the morning dew bathed them, yet which could be +closed tightly and safely around their occupants at dusk by a single +draw-string, were his own design as well as his own handiwork. They had +been widely admired and imitated.</p> + +<p>The reputation that they had given him, too, had helped to bring him to +the end of the snap-spine tether. They had given weight to his words +among others—weight enough to make him, at last, the arch-doubter, the +man who leads the young into blasphemy, the man who questions the Book +of Laws.</p> + +<p>And they had probably helped to win him his passage on the Elevator to +Hell.</p> + +<p>The purses were already opening as the party swung among them. Here and +there, sleepy faces blinked out from amid the exfoliating sections, +criss-crossed by relaxing lengths of dew-soaked rawhide. Some of the +awakening householders recognized Honath, of that he was sure, but none +came out to follow the party—though the villagers should be beginning +to drop from the hearts of their stitched flowers like ripe seed-pods by +this hour of any normal day.</p> + +<p>A Judgment was at hand, and they knew it—and even those who had slept +the night in one of Honath's finest houses would not speak for him now. +Everyone knew, after all, that Honath did not believe in the Giants.</p> + +<p>Honath could see the Judgment Seat itself now, a slung chair of woven +cane crowned along the back with a row of gigantic mottled orchids. +These had supposedly been transplanted there when the chair was made, +but no one could remember how old they were; since there were no +seasons, there was no particular reason why they should not have been +there forever. The Seat itself was at the back of the arena and high +above it, but in the gathering light Honath could make out the +white-furred face of the Tribal Spokesman, like a lone silver-and-black +pansy among the huge vivid blooms.</p> + +<p>At the center of the arena proper was the Elevator itself. Honath had +seen it often enough, and had himself witnessed Judgments where it was +called into use, but he could still hardly believe that he was almost +surely to be its next passenger. It consisted of nothing more than a +large basket, deep enough so that one would have to leap out of it, and +rimmed with thorns to prevent one from leaping back in. Three hempen +ropes were tied to its rim, and were then cunningly interwound on a +single-drum windlass of wood, which could be turned by two men even when +the basket was loaded.</p> + +<p>The procedure was equally simple. The condemned man was forced into the +basket, and the basket lowered out of sight, until the slackening of the +ropes indicated that it had touched the surface. The victim climbed +out—and if he did not, the basket remained below until he starved or +until Hell otherwise took care of its own—and the windlass was rewound.</p> + +<p>The sentences were for varying periods of time, according to the +severity of the crime, but in practical terms this formality was empty. +Although the basket was dutifully lowered when the sentence had expired, +no one had ever been known to get back into it. Of course, in a world +without seasons or moons, and hence without any but an arbitrary year, +long periods of time are not easy to count accurately. The basket could +arrive thirty or forty days to one side or the other of the proper date. +But this was only a technicality, however, for if keeping time was +difficult in the attic world it was probably impossible in Hell.</p> + +<p>Honath's guards tied the free end of his tether to a branch and settled +down around him. One abstractedly passed a pine cone to him and he tried +to occupy his mind with the business of picking the juicy seeds from it, +but somehow they had no flavor.</p> + +<p>More captives were being brought in now, while the Spokesman watched +with glittering black eyes from his high perch. There was Mathild the +Forager, shivering as if with ague, the fur down her left side +glistening and spiky, as though she had inadvertently overturned a tank +plant on herself. After her was brought Alaskon the Navigator, a +middle-aged man only a few years younger than Honath himself; he was +tied up next to Honath, where he settled down at once, chewing at a +joint of cane with apparent indifference.</p> + +<p>Thus far, the gathering had proceeded without more than a few words +being spoken, but that ended when the guards tried to bring Seth the +Needlesmith from the nets. He could be heard at once, over the entire +distance to the glade, alternately chattering and shrieking in a mixture +of tones that might mean either fear or fury. Everyone in the glade but +Alaskon turned to look, and heads emerged from purses like new +butterflies from cocoons.</p> + +<p>A moment later, Seth's guards came over the lip of the glade in a +tangled group, now shouting themselves. Somewhere in the middle of the +knot Seth's voice became still louder; obviously he was clinging with +all five members to any vine or frond he could grasp, and was no sooner +pried loose from one than he would leap by main force, backwards if +possible, to another. Nevertheless he was being brought inexorably down +into the arena, two feet forward, one foot back, three feet forward....</p> + +<p>Honath's guards resumed picking their pine-cones. During the +disturbance, Honath realized Charl the Reader had been brought in +quietly from the same side of the glade. He now sat opposite Alaskon, +looking apathetically down at the vine-web, his shoulders hunched +forward. He exuded despair; even to look at him made Honath feel a +renewed shudder.</p> + +<p>From the High Seat, the Spokesman said: "Honath the Pursemaker, Alaskon +the Navigator, Charl the Reader, Seth the Needlesmith Mathild the +Forager, you are called to answer to justice."</p> + +<p>"Justice!" Seth shouted, springing free of his captors with a tremendous +bound and bringing up with a jerk on the end of his tether. "This is no +justice! I have nothing to do with—"</p> + +<p>The guards caught up with him and clamped brown hands firmly over his +mouth. The Spokesman watched with amused malice.</p> + +<p>"The accusations are three," the Spokesman said. "The first, the telling +of lies to children. Second, the casting into doubt of the divine order +among men. Third, the denial of the Book of Laws. Each of you may speak +in order of age. Honath the Pursemaker, your plea may be heard."</p> + +<p>Honath stood up, trembling a little, but feeling a surprisingly renewed +surge of his old independence.</p> + +<p>"Your charges," he said, "all rest upon the denial of the Book of Laws. +I have taught nothing else that is contrary to what we all believe, and +called nothing else into doubt. And I deny the charge."</p> + +<p>The Spokesman looked down at him with disbelief. "Many men and women +have said that you do not believe in the Giants, pursemaker," he said. +"You will not win mercy by piling up more lies."</p> + +<p>"I deny the charge," Honath insisted. "I believe in the Book of Laws as +a whole, and I believe in the Giants. I have taught only that the Giants +were not real in the sense that we are real. I have taught that they +were intended as symbols of some higher reality and were not meant to be +taken as literal persons."</p> + +<p>"What higher reality is this?" the Spokesman demanded. "Describe it."</p> + +<p>"You ask me to do something the writers of the Book of Laws themselves +couldn't do," Honath said hotly. "If they had to embody the reality in +symbols rather than writing it down directly, how could a mere +pursemaker do better?"</p> + +<p>"This doctrine is wind," the Spokesman said. "And it is plainly intended +to undercut authority and the order established by the Book. Tell me, +pursemaker: if men need not fear the Giants, why should they fear the +law?"</p> + +<p>"Because they are men, and it is to their interest to fear the law. They +aren't children, who need some physical Giant sitting over them with a +whip to make them behave. Furthermore, Spokesman, this archaic belief +<i>itself</i> undermines us. As long as we believe that there are real +Giants, and that some day they'll return and resume teaching us, so long +will we fail to seek answers to our questions for ourselves. Half of +what we know was given to us in the Book, and the other half is supposed +to drop to us from the skies if we wait long enough. In the meantime, we +vegetate."</p> + +<p>"If a part of the Book be untrue, there can be nothing to prevent that +it is all untrue," the Spokesman said heavily. "And we will lose even +what you call the half of our knowledge—which is actually the whole of +it—to those who see with clear eyes."</p> + +<p>Suddenly, Honath lost his temper. "Lose it, then!" he shouted. "Let us +unlearn everything we know only by rote, go back to the beginning, learn +all over again, and <i>continue</i> to learn, from our own experience. +Spokesman, you are an old man, but there are still some of us who +haven't forgotten what curiosity means!"</p> + +<p>"Quiet!" the Spokesman said. "We have heard enough. We call on Alaskon +the Navigator."</p> + +<p>"Much of the Book is clearly untrue," Alaskon said flatly, rising. "As a +handbook of small trades it has served us well. As a guide to how the +universe is made, it is nonsense, in my opinion; Honath is too kind to +it. I've made no secret of what I think, and I still think it."</p> + +<p>"And will pay for it," the Spokesman said, blinking slowly down at +Alaskon. "Charl the Reader."</p> + +<p>"Nothing," Charl said, without standing, or even looking up.</p> + +<p>"You do not deny the charges?"</p> + +<p>"I've nothing to say," Charl said, but then, abruptly, his head jerked +up, and he glared with desperate eyes at the Spokesman. "I can read, +Spokesman. I have seen words in the Book of Laws that contradict each +other. I've pointed them out. They're facts, they exist on the pages. +I've taught nothing, told no lies, preached no unbelief. I've pointed to +the facts. That's all."</p> + +<p>"Seth the Needlesmith, you may speak now."</p> + +<p>The guards took their hands gratefully off Seth's mouth; they had been +bitten several times in the process of keeping him quiet up to now. Seth +resumed shouting at once.</p> + +<p>"I'm no part of this group! I'm the victim of gossip, envious neighbors, +smiths jealous of my skill and my custom! No man can say worse of me +than that I sold needles to this pursemaker—sold them in good faith! +The charges against me are lies, all lies!"</p> + +<p>Honath jumped to his feet in fury, and then sat down again, choking back +the answering shout almost without tasting its bitterness. What did it +matter? Why should he bear witness against the young man? It would not +help the others, and if Seth wanted to lie his way out of Hell, he might +as well be given the chance.</p> + +<p>The Spokesman was looking down at Seth with the identical expression of +outraged disbelief which he had first bent upon Honath. "Who was it cut +the blasphemies into the hardwood tree, by the house of Hosi the +Lawgiver?" he demanded. "Sharp needles were at work there, and there are +witnesses to say that your hands held them."</p> + +<p>"More lies!"</p> + +<p>"Needles found in your house fit the furrows, Seth."</p> + +<p>"They were not mine—or they were stolen! I demand to be freed!"</p> + +<p>"You will be freed," the Spokesman said coldly. There was no possible +doubt as to what he meant. Seth began to weep and to shout at the same +time. Hands closed over his mouth again. "Mathild the Forager, your plea +may be heard."</p> + +<p>The young woman stood up hesitantly. Her fur was nearly dry now, but she +was still shivering.</p> + +<p>"Spokesman," she said, "I saw the things which Charl the Reader showed +me. I doubted, but what Honath said restored my belief. I see no harm in +his teachings. They remove doubt, instead of fostering it as you say +they do. I see no evil in them, and I don't understand why this is a +crime."</p> + +<p>Honath looked over to her with new admiration. The Spokesman sighed +heavily.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry for you," he said, "but as Spokesman we cannot allow +ignorance of the law as a plea. We will be merciful to you all, however. +Renounce your heresy, affirm your belief in the Book as it is written +from bark to bark, and you shall be no more than cast out of the tribe."</p> + +<p>"I renounce it!" Seth cried. "I never shared it! It's all blasphemy and +every word is a lie! I believe in the Book, all of it!"</p> + +<p>"You, needlesmith," the Spokesman said, "have lied before this Judgment, +and are probably lying now. You are not included in the dispensation."</p> + +<p>"Snake-spotted caterpillar! May your—<i>ummulph</i>."</p> + +<p>"Pursemaker, what is your answer?"</p> + +<p>"It is No," Honath said stonily. "I've spoken the truth. The truth can't +be unsaid."</p> + +<p>The Spokesman looked down at the rest of them. "As for you three, +consider your answers carefully. To share the heresy means sharing the +sentence. The penalty will not be lightened only because you did not +invent the heresy."</p> + +<p>There was a long silence.</p> + +<p>Honath swallowed hard. The courage and the faith in that silence made +him feel smaller and more helpless than ever. He realized suddenly that +the other three would have kept that silence, even without Seth's +defection to stiffen their spines. He wondered if he could have done so.</p> + +<p>"Then we pronounce the sentence," the Spokesman said. "You are one and +all condemned to one thousand days in Hell."</p> + +<p>There was a concerted gasp from around the edges of the arena, where, +without Honath's having noticed it before, a silent crowd had gathered. +He did not wonder at the sound. The sentence was the longest in the +history of the tribe.</p> + +<p>Not that it really meant anything. No one had ever come back from as +little as one hundred days in Hell. No one had ever come back from Hell +at all.</p> + +<p>"Unlash the Elevator. All shall go together."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The basket swayed. The last of the attic world that Honath saw was a +circle of faces, not too close to the gap in the vine web, peering down +after them. Then the basket fell another few yards to the next turn of +the windlass and the faces vanished.</p> + +<p>Seth was weeping in the bottom of the Elevator, curled up into a tight +ball, the end of his tail wrapped around his nose and eyes. No one else +could make a sound, least of Honath.</p> + +<p>The gloom closed around them. It seemed extraordinarily still. The +occasional harsh screams of a lizard-bird somehow distended the silence +without breaking it. The light that filtered down into the long aisles +between the trees seemed to be absorbed in a blue-green haze through +which the lianas wove their long curved lines. The columns of +tree-trunks, the pillars of the world, stood all around them, too +distant in the dim light to allow them to gauge their speed of descent. +Only the irregular plunges of the basket proved that it was even in +motion any longer, though it swayed laterally in a complex, overlapping +series of figure-eights.</p> + +<p>Then the basket lurched downward once more, brought up short, and tipped +sidewise, tumbling them all against the hard cane. Mathild cried out in +a thin voice, and Seth uncurled almost instantly, clawing for a +handhold. Another lurch, and the Elevator lay down on its side and was +still.</p> + +<p>They were in Hell.</p> + +<p>Cautiously, Honath began to climb out, picking his way over the long +thorns on the basket's rim. After a moment, Charl the Reader followed, +and then Alaskon took Mathild firmly by the hand and led her out onto +the surface. The footing was wet and spongy, yet not at all resilient, +and it felt cold; Honath's toes curled involuntarily.</p> + +<p>"Come on, Seth," Charl said in a hushed voice. "They won't haul it back +up until we're all out. You know that."</p> + +<p>Alaskon looked around into the chilly mists. "Yes," he said. "And we'll +need a needlesmith down here. With good tools, there's just a chance—"</p> + +<p>Seth's eyes had been darting back and forth from one to the other. With +a sudden chattering scream, he bounded out of the bottom of the basket, +soaring over their heads in a long, flat leap and struck the high knee +at the base of the nearest tree, an immense fan palm. As he hit, his +legs doubled under him, and almost in the same motion he seemed to +rocket straight up into the murky air.</p> + +<p>Gaping, Honath looked up after him. The young needlesmith had timed his +course to the split second. He was already darting up the rope from +which the Elevator was suspended. He did not even bother to look back.</p> + +<p>After a moment, the basket tipped upright. The impact of Seth's weight +hitting the rope evidently had been taken by the windlass team to mean +that the condemned people were all out on the surface; a twitch on the +rope was the usual signal. The basket began to rise, hobbling and +dancing. Its speed of ascent, added to Seth's took his racing, dwindling +figure out of sight quickly. After a while, the basket was gone, too.</p> + +<p>"He'll never get to the top," Mathild whispered. "It's too far, and he's +going too fast. He'll lose strength and fall."</p> + +<p>"I don't think so," Alaskon said heavily. "He's agile and strong. If +anyone could make it, he could."</p> + +<p>"They'll kill him if he does."</p> + +<p>"Of course they will," Alaskon said, shrugging.</p> + +<p>"I won't miss him," Honath said.</p> + +<p>"No more will I. But we could use some sharp needles down here, Honath. +Now we'll have to plan to make our own—if we can identify the different +woods, down here where there aren't any leaves to help us tell them +apart."</p> + +<p>Honath looked at the navigator curiously. Seth's bolt for the sky had +distracted him from the realization that the basket, too, was gone, but +now that desolate fact hit home. "You actually plan to stay alive in +Hell, don't you, Alaskon?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," Alaskon said calmly. "This is no more Hell than—up +there—is Heaven. It's the surface of the planet, no more, no less. We +can stay alive if we don't panic. Were you just going to sit here until +the furies came for you, Honath?"</p> + +<p>"I hadn't thought much about it," Honath confessed. "But if there is any +chance that Seth will lose his grip on that rope—before he reaches the +top and they stab him—shouldn't we wait and see if we can catch him? He +can't weigh more than 35 pounds. Maybe we could contrive some sort of a +net—"</p> + +<p>"He'd just break our bones along with his," Charl said. "I'm for getting +out of here as fast as possible."</p> + +<p>"What for? Do you know a better place?"</p> + +<p>"No, but whether this is Hell or not, there are demons down here. We've +all seen them from up above. They must know that the Elevator always +lands here and empties out free food. This must be a feeding-ground for +them—"</p> + +<p>He had not quite finished speaking when the branches began to sigh and +toss, far above. A gust of stinging droplets poured along the blue air +and thunder rumbled. Mathild whimpered.</p> + +<p>"It's only a squall coming up," Honath said. But the words came out in a +series of short croaks. As the wind had moved through the trees, Honath +had automatically flexed his knees and put his arms out for handholds, +awaiting the long wave of response to pass through the ground beneath +him. But nothing happened. The surface under his feet remained stolidly +where it was, flexing not a fraction of an inch in any direction. And +there was nothing nearby for his hands to grasp.</p> + +<p>He staggered, trying to compensate for the failure of the ground to +move. At the same moment another gust of wind blew through the aisles, a +little stronger than the first, and calling insistently for a new +adjustment of his body to the waves which would be passing among the +treetops. Again the squashy surface beneath him refused to respond. The +familiar give-and-take of the vine-web to the winds, a part of his world +as accustomed as the winds themselves, was gone.</p> + +<p>Honath was forced to sit down, feeling distinctly ill. The damp, cool +earth under his furless buttocks was unpleasant, but he could not have +remained standing any longer without losing his meagre prisoner's +breakfast. One grappling hand caught hold of the ridged, gritting stems +of a clump of horsetail, but the contact failed to allay the uneasiness.</p> + +<p>The others seemed to be bearing it no better than Honath. Mathild in +particular was rocking dizzily, her lips compressed, her hands clasped +to her delicate ears.</p> + +<p>Dizziness. It was unheard of up above, except among those who had +suffered grave head injuries or were otherwise very ill. But on the +motionless ground of Hell, it was evidently going to be with them +constantly.</p> + +<p>Charl squatted, swallowing convulsively. "I—I can't stand," he moaned.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" Alaskon said, though he had remained standing only by +clinging to the huge, mud-colored bulb of a cycadella. "It's just a +disturbance of our sense of balance. We'll get used to it."</p> + +<p>"We'd better," Honath said, relinquishing his grip on the horsetails by +a sheer act of will. "I think Charl's right about this being a +feeding-ground, Alaskon. I hear something moving around in the ferns. +And if this rain lasts long, the water will rise here, too. I've seen +silver flashes from down here many a time after heavy rains."</p> + +<p>"That's right," Mathild said, her voice subdued. "The base of the +fan-palm grove always floods. That's why the treetops are lower there."</p> + +<p>The wind seemed to have let up a little, though the rain was still +falling. Alaskon stood up tentatively and looked around.</p> + +<p>"Then let's move on," he said. "If we try to keep under cover until we +get to higher ground—"</p> + +<p>A faint crackling sound, high above his head, interrupted him. It got +louder. Feeling a sudden spasm of pure fear, Honath looked up.</p> + +<p>Nothing could be seen for an instant but the far-away curtain of +branches and fern fronds. Then, with shocking suddenness, something +plummeted through the blue-green roof and came tumbling toward them. It +was a man, twisting and tumbling through the air with grotesque +slowness, like a child turning in its sleep. They scattered.</p> + +<p>The body hit the ground with a sodden thump, but there were sharp +overtones to the sound, like the bursting of a gourd. For a moment +nobody moved. Then Honath crept forward.</p> + +<p>It had been Seth, as Honath had realized the moment the figurine had +burst through the branches far above. But it had not been the fall that +had killed him. He had been run through by at least a dozen +needles—some of them, beyond doubt, tools from his own shop, their +points edged hair-fine by his own precious strops of leatherwood-bark.</p> + +<p>There would be no reprieve from above. The sentence was one thousand +days. This burst and broken huddle of fur was the only alternative.</p> + +<p>And the first day had barely begun.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>They toiled all the rest of the day to reach higher ground. As they +stole cautiously closer to the foothills of the Great Range and the +ground became firmer, they were able to take to the air for short +stretches, but they were no sooner aloft among the willows than the +lizard-birds came squalling down on them by the dozens, fighting among +each other for the privilege of nipping these plump and incredibly +slow-moving monkeys.</p> + +<p>No man, no matter how confirmed a free-thinker, could have stood up +under such an onslaught by the creatures he had been taught as a child +to think of as his ancestors. The first time it happened, every member +of the party dropped like a pine-cone to the sandy ground and lay +paralyzed under the nearest cover, until the brindle-feathered, +fan-tailed screamers tired of flying in such tight circles and headed +for clearer air. Even after the lizard-birds had given up, they crouched +quietly for a long time, waiting to see what greater demons might have +been attracted by the commotion.</p> + +<p>Luckily, on the higher ground there was much more cover from low-growing +shrubs and trees—palmetto, sassafras, several kinds of laurel, +magnolia, and a great many sedges. Up here, too, the endless jungle +began to break around the bases of the great pink cliffs. Overhead were +welcome vistas of open sky, sketchily crossed by woven bridges leading +from the vine-world to the cliffs themselves. In the intervening columns +of blue air a whole hierarchy of flying creatures ranked themselves, +layer by layer. First, the low-flying beetles, bees and two-winged +insects. Next were the dragonflies which hunted them, some with +wingspreads as wide as two feet. Then the lizard-birds, hunting the +dragonflies and anything else that could he nipped without fighting +back. And at last, far above, the great gliding reptiles coasting along +the brows of the cliffs, riding the rising currents of air, their +long-jawed hunger stalking anything that flew—as they sometimes stalked +the birds of the attic world, and the flying fish along the breast of +the distant sea.</p> + +<p>The party halted in an especially thick clump of sedges. Though the rain +continued to fall, harder than ever, they were all desperately thirsty. +They had yet to find a single bromelaid: evidently the tank-plants did +not grow in Hell. Cupping their hands to the weeping sky accumulated +surprisingly little water; and no puddles large enough to drink from +accumulated on the sand. But at least, here under the open sky, there +was too much fierce struggle in the air to allow the lizard-birds to +congregate and squall about their hiding place.</p> + +<p>The white sun had already set and the red sun's vast arc still bulged +above the horizon. In the lurid glow the rain looked like blood, and the +seamed faces of the pink cliffs had all but vanished. Honath peered +dubiously out from under the sedges at the still distant escarpments.</p> + +<p>"I don't see how we can hope to climb those," he said, in a low voice. +"That kind of limestone crumbles as soon as you touch it, otherwise we'd +have had better luck with our war against the cliff tribe."</p> + +<p>"We could go around the cliffs," Charl said. "The foothills of the Great +Range aren't very steep. If we could last until we get to them, we could +go on up into the Range itself."</p> + +<p>"To the volcanoes!" Mathild protested. "But nothing can live up there, +nothing but the white fire-things. And there are the lava-flows, too, +and the choking smoke—"</p> + +<p>"Well, we can't climb these cliffs. Honath's quite right," Alaskon said. +"And we can't climb the Basalt Steppes, either—there's nothing to eat +along them, let alone any water or cover. I don't see what else we can +do but try to get up into the foothills."</p> + +<p>"Can't we stay here?" Mathild said plaintively.</p> + +<p>"No," Honath said, even more gently than he had intended. Mathild's four +words were, he knew, the most dangerous words in Hell—he knew it quite +surely, because of the imprisoned creature inside him that cried out to +say "Yes" instead. "We have to get out of the country of the demons. And +maybe—just maybe—if we can cross the Great Range, we can join a tribe +that hasn't heard about our being condemned to Hell. There are supposed +to be tribes on the other side of the Range, but the cliff people would +never let our folk get through to them. That's on our side now."</p> + +<p>"That's true," Alaskon said, brightening a little. "And from the top of +the Range, we could come <i>down</i> into another tribe—instead of trying to +climb up into their village out of Hell. Honath, I think it might work."</p> + +<p>"Then we'd better try to sleep right here and now," Charl said. "It +seems safe enough. If we're going to skirt the cliffs and climb those +foothills, we'll need all the strength we've got left."</p> + +<p>Honath was about to protest, but he was suddenly too tired to care. Why +not sleep it over? And if in the night they were found and taken—well, +that would at least put an end to the struggle.</p> + +<p>It was a cheerless and bone-damp bed to sleep in, but there was no +alternative. They curled up as best they could. Just before he was about +to drop off at last, Honath heard Mathild whimpering to herself and, on +impulse, crawled over to her and began to smooth down her fur with his +tongue. To his astonishment each separate, silky hair was loaded with +dew. Long before the girl had curled herself more tightly and her +complaints had dwindled into sleepy murmurs, Honath's thirst was +assuaged. He reminded himself to mention the method in the morning.</p> + +<p>But when the white sun finally came up, there was no time to think of +thirst. Charl the Reader was gone. Something had plucked him from their +huddled midst as neatly as a fallen breadfruit—and had dropped his +cleaned ivory skull just as negligently, some two hundred feet farther +on up the slope which led toward the pink cliffs.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Late that afternoon, the three found the blue, turbulent stream flowing +out of the foothills of the Great Range. Not even Alaskon knew quite +what to make of it. It looked like water, but it flowed like the rivers +of lava that crept downward from the volcanoes. Whatever else it could +be, obviously it wasn't water; water stood, it never flowed. It was +possible to imagine a still body of water as big as this, but only in a +moment of fancy, an exaggeration derived from the known bodies of water +in the tank-plants. But this much water in motion? It suggested pythons; +it was probably poisonous. It did not occur to any of them to drink from +it. They were afraid even to touch it, let alone cross it, for it was +almost surely as hot as the other kinds of lava-rivers. They followed +its course cautiously into the foothills, their throats as dry and +gritty as the hollow stems of horsetails.</p> + +<p>Except for the thirst—which was in an inverted sense their friend, +insofar as it overrode the hunger—the climbing was not difficult. It +was only circuitous, because of the need to stay under cover, to +reconnoiter every few yards, to choose the most sheltered course rather +than the most direct. By an unspoken consent, none of the three +mentioned Charl, but their eyes were constantly darting from side to +side, searching for a glimpse of the thing that had taken him.</p> + +<p>That was perhaps the worst, the most terrifying part of the tragedy: not +once, since they had been in Hell, had they actually seen a demon—or +even any animal as large as a man. The enormous, three-taloned footprint +they had found in the sand beside their previous night's bed—the spot +where the thing had stood, looking down at the four sleepers from above, +coldly deciding which of them to seize—was the only evidence they had +that they were now really in the same world with the demons. The world +of the demons they had sometimes looked down upon from the remote +vine-webs.</p> + +<p>The footprint—and the skull.</p> + +<p>By nightfall, they had ascended perhaps a hundred and fifty feet. It was +difficult to judge distances in the twilight, and the token vine bridges +from the attic world to the pink cliffs were now cut off from sight by +the intervening masses of the cliffs themselves. But there was no +possibility that they could climb higher today. Although Mathild had +born the climb surprisingly well, and Honath himself still felt almost +fresh, Alaskon was completely winded. He had taken a bad cut on one hip +from a serrated spike of volcanic glass against which he had stumbled. +The wound, bound with leaves to prevent its leaving a spoor which might +be followed, evidently was becoming steadily more painful.</p> + +<p>Honath finally called a halt as soon as they reached the little ridge +with the cave in back of it. Helping Alaskon over the last boulders, he +was astonished to discover how hot the navigator's hands were. He took +him back into the cave and then came out onto the ledge again.</p> + +<p>"He's really sick," he told Mathild in a low voice. "He needs water, and +another dressing for that cut. And we've got to get both for him +somehow. If we ever get to the jungle on the other side of the Range, +we'll need a navigator even worse than we need a needlesmith."</p> + +<p>"But how? I could dress the cut if I had the materials, Honath. But +there's no water up here. It's a desert; we'll never get across it."</p> + +<p>"We've got to try. I can get him water, I think. There was a big +cycladella on the slope we came up, just before we passed that obsidian +spur that hurt Alaskon. Gourds that size usually have a fair amount of +water inside them and I can use a piece of the spur to rip it open—"</p> + +<p>A small hand came out of the darkness and took him tightly by the elbow. +"Honath, you can't go back down there. Suppose the demon that—that took +Charl is still following us? They hunt at night—and this country is all +so strange...."</p> + +<p>"I can find my way. I'll follow the sound of the stream of blue lava or +whatever it is. You pull some fresh leaves for Alaskon and try to make +him comfortable. Better loosen those vines around the dressing a little. +I'll be back."</p> + +<p>He touched her hand and pried it loose gently. Then, without stopping to +think about it any further, he slipped off the ledge and edged toward +the sound of the stream, travelling crabwise on all fours.</p> + +<p>But he was swiftly lost. The night was thick and completely +impenetrable, and he found that the noise of the stream seemed to come +from all sides, providing him no guide at all. Furthermore, his memory +of the ridge which led up to the cave appeared to be faulty, for he +could feel it turning sharply to the right beneath him, though he +remembered distinctly that it had been straight past the first +side-branch, and then had gone to the left. Or had he passed the first +side-branch in the dark without seeing it? He probed the darkness +cautiously with one hand.</p> + +<p>At the same instant, a brisk, staccato gust of wind came whirling up out +of the night across the ridge. Instinctively, Honath shifted his weight +to take up the flexing of the ground beneath him.</p> + +<p>He realized his error instantly and tried to arrest the complex set of +motions, but a habit-pattern so deeply ingrained could not be frustrated +completely. Overwhelmed with vertigo, Honath grappled at the empty air +with hands, feet and tail and went toppling.</p> + +<p>An instant later, with a familiar noise and an equally familiar cold +shock that seemed to reach throughout his body, he was sitting in the +midst of—</p> + +<p>Water. Icy water. Water that rushed by him improbably with a menacing, +monkeylike chattering, but water all the same.</p> + +<p>It was all he could do to repress a hoot of hysteria. He hunkered down +into the stream and soaked himself. Things nibbled delicately at his +calves as he bathed, but he had no reason to fear fish, small species of +which often showed up in the tanks of the bromelaids. After lowering his +muzzle to the rushing, invisible surface and drinking his fill, he +dunked himself completely and then clambered out onto the banks, +carefully neglecting to shake himself.</p> + +<p>Getting back to the ledge was much less difficult. "Mathild?" he called +in a hoarse whisper. "Mathild, we've got water."</p> + +<p>"Come in here quick then. Alaskon's worse. I'm afraid, Honath."</p> + +<p>Dripping, Honath felt his way into the cave. "I don't have any +container. I just got myself wet—you'll have to sit him up and let him +lick my fur."</p> + +<p>"I'm not sure he can."</p> + +<p>But Alaskon could, feebly, but sufficiently. Even the coldness of the +water—a totally new experience for a man who had never drunk anything +but the soup-warm contents of the bromelaids—seemed to help him. He lay +back at last, and said in a weak but otherwise normal voice: "So the +stream was water after all."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Honath said. "And there are fish in it, too."</p> + +<p>"Don't talk," Mathild said. "Rest, Alaskon."</p> + +<p>"I'm resting. Honath, if we stick to the course of the stream.... Where +was I? Oh. We can follow the stream through the Range, now that we know +it's water. How did you find that out?"</p> + +<p>"I lost my balance and fell into it."</p> + +<p>Alaskon chuckled. "Hell's not so bad, is it?" he said. Then he sighed, +and rushes creaked under him.</p> + +<p>"Mathild! What's the matter? Is he—did he die?"</p> + +<p>"No ... no. He's breathing. He's still sicker than he realizes, that's +all.... Honath—if they'd known, up above, how much courage you have—"</p> + +<p>"I was scared white," Honath said grimly. "I'm still scared."</p> + +<p>But her hand touched his again in the solid blackness, and after he had +taken it, he felt irrationally cheerful. With Alaskon breathing so +raggedly behind them, there was little chance that either of them would +be able to sleep that night; but they sat silently together on the hard +stone in a kind of temporary peace. When the mouth of the cave began to +outline itself with the first glow of the red sun, they looked at each +other in a conspiracy of light all their own.</p> + +<p><i>Let us unlearn everything we knew only by rote, go back to the +beginning, learn all over again, and continue to learn....</i></p> + +<p>With the first light of the white sun, a half-grown megatherium cub rose +slowly from its crouch at the mouth of the cave and stretched +luxuriously, showing a full set of saber-like teeth. It looked at them +steadily for a moment, its ears alert, then turned and loped away down +the slope.</p> + +<p>How long it had been crouched there listening to them, it was impossible +to know. They had been lucky that they had stumbled into the lair of a +youngster. A full-grown animal would have killed them all, within a few +seconds after its cat's-eyes had collected enough dawn to identify them +positively. The cub, since it had no family of its own, evidently had +only been puzzled to find its den occupied and didn't want to quarrel +about it.</p> + +<p>The departure of the big cat left Honath frozen, not so much frightened +as simply stunned by so unexpected an end to the vigil. At the first +moan from Alaskon, however, Mathild was up and walking softly to the +navigator, speaking in a low voice, sentences which made no particular +sense and perhaps were not intended to. Honath stirred and followed her.</p> + +<p>Halfway back into the cave, his foot struck something and he looked +down. It was the thigh-bone of some medium-large animal, imperfectly +cleaned and not very recent. It looked like a keepsake the megatherium +had hoped to save from the usurpers of its lair. Along a curved inner +surface there was a patch of thick grey mold. Honath squatted and peeled +it off carefully.</p> + +<p>"Mathild, we can put this over the wound," he said. "Some molds help +prevent wounds from festering.... How is he?"</p> + +<p>"Better, I think," Mathild murmured. "But he's still feverish. I don't +think we'll be able to move on today."</p> + +<p>Honath was unsure whether to be pleased or disturbed. Certainly he was +far from anxious to leave the cave, where they seemed at least to be +reasonably comfortable. Possibly they would also be reasonably safe, for +the low-roofed hole almost surely still smelt of megatherium, and +intruders would recognize the smell—as the men from the attic world +could not—and keep their distance. They would have no way of knowing +that the cat had only been a cub and that it had vacated the premises, +though of course the odor would fade before long.</p> + +<p>Yet it was important to move on, to cross the Great Range if possible, +and in the end to wind their way back to the world where they belonged. +And to win vindication, no matter how long it took. Even should it prove +relatively easy to survive in Hell—and there were few signs of that, +thus far—the only proper course was to fight until the attic world was +totally regained. After all, it would have been the easy and the +comfortable thing, back there at the very beginning, to have kept one's +incipient heresies to oneself and remained on comfortable terms with +one's neighbors. But Honath had spoken up, and so had the rest of them, +in their fashions.</p> + +<p>It was the ancient internal battle between what Honath wanted to do, and +what he knew he ought to do. He had never heard of Kant and the +Categorical Imperative, but he knew well enough which side of his nature +would win in the long run. But it had been a cruel joke of heredity +which had fastened a sense of duty onto a lazy nature. It made even +small decisions egregiously painful.</p> + +<p>But for the moment at least, the decision was out of his hands. Alaskon +was too sick to be moved. In addition, the strong beams of sunlight +which had been glaring in across the floor of the cave were dimming by +the instant, and there was a distant, premonitory growl of thunder.</p> + +<p>"Then we'll stay here," he said. "It's going to rain again, and hard +this time. Once it's falling in earnest, I can go out and pick us some +fruit—it'll screen me even if anything is prowling around in it. And I +won't have to go as far as the stream for water, as long as the rain +keeps up."</p> + +<p>The rain, as it turned out, kept up all day, in a growing downpour which +completely curtained the mouth of the cave by early afternoon. The +chattering of the nearby stream grew quickly to a roar.</p> + +<p>By evening, Alaskon's fever seemed to have dropped almost to normal, and +his strength nearly returned as well. The wound, thanks more to the +encrusted matte of mold than to any complications within the flesh +itself, was still ugly-looking, but it was now painful only when the +navigator moved carelessly, and Mathild was convinced that it was +mending. Alaskon himself, having been deprived of activity all day, was +unusually talkative.</p> + +<p>"Has it occurred to either of you," he said in the gathering gloom, +"that since that stream is water, it can't possibly be coming from the +Great Range? All the peaks over there are just cones of ashes and lava. +We've seen young volcanoes in the process of building themselves, so +we're sure of that. What's more, they're usually hot. I don't see how +there could possibly be any source of water in the Range—not even +run-off from the rains."</p> + +<p>"It can't just come up out of the ground," Honath said. "It must be fed +by rain. By the way it sounds now, it could even be the first part of a +flood."</p> + +<p>"As you say, it's probably rain-water," Alaskon said cheerfully. "But +not off the Great Range, that's out of the question. Most likely it +collects on the cliffs."</p> + +<p>"I hope you're wrong," Honath said. "The cliffs may be a little easier +to climb from this side, but there's still the cliff tribe to think +about."</p> + +<p>"Maybe, maybe. But the cliffs are big. The tribes on this side may never +have heard of the war with our tree-top folk. No, Honath, I think that's +our only course."</p> + +<p>"If it is," Honath said grimly, "we're going to wish more than ever that +we had some stout, sharp needles among us."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Alaskon's judgment was quickly borne out. The three left the cave at +dawn the next morning, Alaskon moving somewhat stiffly but not otherwise +noticeably incommoded, and resumed following the stream bed upwards—a +stream now swollen by the rains to a roaring rapids. After winding its +way upwards for about a mile in the general direction of the Great +Range, the stream turned on itself and climbed rapidly back toward the +basalt cliffs, falling toward the three over successively steeper +shelves of jutting rock.</p> + +<p>Then it turned again, at right angles, and the three found themselves at +the exit of a dark gorge, little more than thirty feet high, but both +narrow and long. Here the stream was almost perfectly smooth, and the +thin strip of land on each side of it was covered with low shrubs. They +paused and looked dubiously into the canyon. It was singularly gloomy.</p> + +<p>"There's plenty of cover, at least," Honath said in a low voice. "But +almost anything could live in a place like that."</p> + +<p>"Nothing very big could hide in it," Alaskon pointed out. "It should be +safe. Anyhow it's the only way to go."</p> + +<p>"All right. Let's go ahead, then. But keep your head down, and be ready +to jump!"</p> + +<p>Honath lost the other two by sight as soon as they crept into the dark +shrubbery, but he could hear their cautious movements nearby. Nothing +else in the gorge seemed to move at all, not even the water, which +flowed without a ripple over an invisible bed. There was not even any +wind, for which Honath was grateful, although he had begun to develop an +immunity to the motionless ground beneath them.</p> + +<p>After a few moments, Honath heard a low whistle. Creeping sidewise +toward the source of the sound, he nearly bumped into Alaskon, who was +crouched beneath a thickly-spreading magnolia. An instant later, +Mathilda's face peered out of the dim greenery.</p> + +<p>"Look," Alaskon whispered. "What do you make of this?"</p> + +<p>'This' was a hollow in the sandy soil, about four feet across and rimmed +with a low parapet of earth—evidently the same earth that had been +scooped out of its center. Occupying most of it were three grey, +ellipsoidal objects, smooth and featureless.</p> + +<p>"Eggs," Mathild said wonderingly.</p> + +<p>"Obviously. But look at the size of them! Whatever laid them must be +gigantic. I think we're trespassing in something's private valley."</p> + +<p>Mathild drew in her breath. Honath thought fast, as much to prevent +panic in himself as in the girl. A sharp-edged stone lying nearby +provided the answer. He seized it and struck.</p> + +<p>The outer surface of the egg was leathery rather than brittle; it tore +raggedly. Deliberately, Honath bent and put his mouth to the oozing +surface.</p> + +<p>It was excellent. The flavor was decidedly stronger than that of birds' +eggs, but he was far too hungry to be squeamish. After a moment's +amazement, Alaskon and Mathild attacked the other two ovoids with a +will. It was the first really satisfying meal they had had in Hell. When +they finally moved away from the devastated nest, Honath felt better +than he had since the day he was arrested.</p> + +<p>As they moved on down the gorge, they began again to hear the roar of +water, though the stream looked as placid as ever. Here, too, they saw +the first sign of active life in the valley: a flight of giant +dragonflies skimming over the water. The insects took fright as soon as +Honath showed himself, but quickly came back, their nearly non-existent +brains already convinced that there had always been men in the valley.</p> + +<p>The roar got louder very rapidly. When the three rounded the long, +gentle turn which had cut off their view from the exit, the source of +the roar came into view. It was a sheet of falling water as tall as the +depth of the gorge itself, which came arcing out from between two +pillars of basalt and fell to a roiling, frothing pool.</p> + +<p>"This is as far as we go!" Alaskon said, shouting to make himself heard +over the tumult. "We'll never be able to get up these walls!"</p> + +<p>Stunned, Honath looked from side to side. What Alaskon had said was all +too obviously true. The gorge evidently had begun life as a layer of +soft, partly soluble stone in the cliffs, tilted upright by some +volcanic upheaval, and then worn completely away by the rushing stream. +Both cliff faces were of the harder rock, and were sheer and as smooth +as if they had been polished by hand. Here and there a network of tough +vines had begun to climb them, but nowhere did such a network even come +close to reaching the top.</p> + + + +<p>Honath turned and looked once more at the great arc of water and spray. +If there were only some way to prevent their being forced to retrace +their steps—</p> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + + + +<p>Abruptly, over the riot of the falls, there was a piercing, hissing +shriek. Echoes picked it up and sounded it again and again, all the way +up the battlements of the cliffs. Honath sprang straight up in the air +and came down trembling, facing away from the pool.</p> + +<p>At first he could see nothing. Then, down at the open end of the turn, +there was a huge flurry of motion.</p> + +<p>A second later, a two-legged, blue-green reptile half as tall as the +gorge itself came around the turn in a single bound and lunged violently +into the far wall of the valley. It stopped as if momentarily stunned, +and the great grinning head turned toward them a face of sinister and +furious idiocy.</p> + +<p>The shriek set the air to boiling again. Balancing itself with its heavy +tail, the beast lowered its head and looked redly toward the falls.</p> + +<p>The owner of the robbed nest had come home. They had met a demon of Hell +at last.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Honath's mind at that instant went as white and blank as the under-bark +of a poplar. He acted without thinking, without even knowing what he +did. When thought began to creep back into his head again, the three of +them were standing shivering in semidarkness, watching the blurred +shadow of the demon lurching back and forth upon the screen of shining +water.</p> + +<p>It had been nothing but luck, not foreplanning, to find that there was a +considerable space between the back of the falls proper and the blind +wall of the canyon. It had been luck, too, which had forced Honath to +skirt the pool in order to reach the falls at all, and thus had taken +them all behind the silver curtain at the point where the weight of the +falling water was too low to hammer them down for good. And it had been +the blindest stroke of all that the demon had charged after them +directly into the pool, where the deep, boiling water had slowed its +thrashing hind legs enough to halt it before it went under the falls, as +it had earlier blundered into the hard wall of the gorge.</p> + +<p>Not an iota of all this had been in Honath's mind before he had +discovered it to be true. At the moment that the huge reptile had +screamed for the second time, he had simply grasped Mathild's hand and +broken for the falls, leaping from low tree to shrub to fern faster than +he had ever leapt before. He did not stop to see how well Mathild was +keeping up with him, or whether or not Alaskon was following. He only +ran. He might have screamed, too; he could not remember.</p> + +<p>They stood now, all three of them, wet through, behind the curtain until +the shadow of the demon faded and vanished. Finally Honath felt a hand +thumping his shoulder, and turned slowly.</p> + +<p>Speech was impossible here, but Alaskon's pointing finger was eloquent +enough. Along the back wall of the falls, where centuries of erosion had +failed to wear away completely the original soft limestone, there was a +sort of serrated chimney, open toward the gorge, which looked as though +it could be climbed. At the top of the falls, the water shot out from +between the basalt pillars in a smooth, almost solid-looking tube, +arching at least six feet before beginning to break into the fan of +spray and rainbows which poured down into the gorge. Once the chimney +had been climbed, it should be possible to climb out from under the +falls without passing through the water again.</p> + +<p>And after that—?</p> + +<p>Abruptly, Honath grinned. He felt weak all through with reaction, and +the face of the demon would probably be grinning in his dreams for a +long time to come. But at the same time he could not repress a surge of +irrational confidence. He gestured upward jauntily, shook himself, and +loped forward into the throat of the chimney.</p> + +<p>Hardly more than an hour later they were all standing on a ledge +overlooking the gorge, with the waterfall creaming over the brink next +to them, only a few yards away. From here, it was evident that the gorge +itself was only the bottom of a far greater cleft, a split in the +pink-and-grey cliffs as sharp as though it had been riven in the rock by +a bolt of sheet lightning. Beyond the basalt pillars from which the fall +issued, however, the stream foamed over a long ladder of rock shelves +which seemed to lead straight up into the sky.</p> + +<p>"That way?" Mathild said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and as fast as possible," Alaskon said, shading his eyes. "It must +be late. I don't think the light will last much longer."</p> + +<p>"We'll have to go single file," Honath added. "And we'd better keep hold +of each other's hands. One slip on those wet steps and—it's a long way +down again."</p> + +<p>Mathild shuddered and took Honath's hand convulsively. To his +astonishment, the next instant she was tugging him toward the basalt +pillars.</p> + +<p>The irregular patch of deepening violet sky grew slowly as they climbed. +They paused often, clinging to the jagged escarpments until their breath +came back, and snatching icy water in cupped palms from the stream that +fell down the ladder beside them. There was no way to tell how far up +into the dusk the way had taken them, but Honath suspected that they +were already somewhat above the level of their own vine-web world. The +air smelled colder and sharper than it ever had above the jungle.</p> + +<p>The final cut in the cliffs through which the stream fell was another +chimney. It was steeper and more smooth-walled than the one which had +taken them out of the gorge under the waterfall, but narrow enough to be +climbed by bracing one's back against one side, and one's hands and feet +against the other. The column of air inside the chimney was filled with +spray, but in Hell that was too minor a discomfort to bother about.</p> + +<p>At long last Honath heaved himself over the edge of the chimney onto +flat rock, drenched and exhausted, but filled with an elation he could +not suppress and did not want to. They were above the attic jungle; they +had beaten Hell itself. He looked around to make sure that Mathild was +safe, and then reached a hand down to Alaskon. The navigator's bad leg +had been giving him trouble. Honath heaved mightily and Alaskon came +heavily over the edge and lit sprawling on the high mesa.</p> + +<p>The stars were out. For a while they simply sat and gasped for breath. +Then they turned, one by one, to see where they were.</p> + +<p>There was not a great deal to see. There was the mesa, domed with stars +on all sides and a shining, finned spindle, like a gigantic minnow, +pointing skyward in the center of the rocky plateau. And around the +spindle, indistinct in the starlight....</p> + +<p>... Around the shining minnow, tending it, were Giants.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>This, then, was the end of the battle to do what was right, whatever the +odds. All the show of courage against superstition, all the black +battles against Hell itself, came down to this: <i>The Giants were real!</i></p> + +<p>They were unarguably real. Though they were twice as tall as men, stood +straighter, had broader shoulders, were heavier across the seat and had +no visible tails, their fellowship with men was clear. Even their +voices, as they shouted to each other around their towering metal +minnow, were the voices of men made into gods, voices as remote from +those of men as the voices of men were remote from those of monkeys, yet +just as clearly of the same family.</p> + +<p>These were the Giants of the Book of Laws. They were not only real, but +they had come back to Tellura as they had promised to do.</p> + +<p>And they would know what to do with unbelievers, and with fugitives from +Hell. It had all been for nothing—not only the physical struggle, but +the fight to be allowed to think for oneself as well. The gods existed, +literally, actually. This belief was the real hell from which Honath had +been trying to fight free all his life—but now it was no longer just a +belief. It was a fact, a fact that he was seeing with his own eyes.</p> + +<p>The Giants had returned to judge their handiwork. And the first of the +people they would meet would be three outcasts, three condemned and +degraded criminals, three jail-breakers—the worst possible detritus of +the attic world.</p> + +<p>All this went searing through Honath's mind in less than a second, but +nevertheless Alaskon's mind evidently had worked still faster. Always +the most outspoken unbeliever of the entire little group of rebels, the +one among them whose whole world was founded upon the existence of +rational explanations for everything, his was the point of view most +completely challenged by the sight before them now. With a deep, sharply +indrawn breath, he turned abruptly and walked away from them.</p> + +<p>Mathild uttered a cry of protest, which she choked off in the middle; +but it was already too late. A round eye on the great silver minnow came +alight, bathing them all in an oval patch of brilliance.</p> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<p>Honath darted after the navigator. Without looking back, Alaskon +suddenly was running. For an instant longer Honath saw his figure, +poised delicately against the black sky. Then he dropped silently out of +sight, as suddenly and completely as if he had never been.</p> + +<p>Alaskon had borne every hardship and every terror of the ascent from +Hell with courage and even with cheerfulness but he had been unable to +face being told that it had all been meaningless.</p> + +<p>Sick at heart, Honath turned back, shielding his eyes from the +miraculous light. There was a clear call in some unknown language from +near the spindle.</p> + +<p>Then there were footsteps, several pairs of them, coming closer.</p> + +<p>It was time for the Second Judgment.</p> + +<p>After a long moment, a big voice from the darkness said: "Don't be +afraid. We mean you no harm. We're men, just as you are."</p> + +<p>The language had the archaic flavor of the Book of Laws, but it was +otherwise perfectly understandable. A second voice said: "What are you +called?"</p> + +<p>Honath's tongue seemed to be stuck to the roof of his mouth. While he +was struggling with it, Mathild's voice came clearly from beside him:</p> + +<p>"He is Honath the Pursemaker, and I am Mathild the Forager."</p> + +<p>"You are a long distance from the place we left your people," the first +Giant said. "Don't you still live in the vine-webs above the jungles?"</p> + +<p>"Lord—"</p> + +<p>"My name is Jarl Eleven. This man is Gerhardt Adler."</p> + +<p>This seemed to stop Mathild completely. Honath could understand why. The +very notion of addressing Giants by name was nearly paralyzing. But +since they were already as good as cast down into Hell again, nothing +could be lost by it.</p> + +<p>"Jarl Eleven," he said, "the people still live among the vines. The +floor of the jungle is forbidden. Only criminals are sent there. We are +criminals."</p> + +<p>"Oh?" Jarl Eleven said. "And you've come all the way from the surface to +this mesa? Gerhardt, this is prodigious. You have no idea what the +surface of this planet is like—it's a place where evolution has never +managed to leave the tooth-and-nail stage. Dinosaurs from every period +of the Mesozoic, primitive mammals all the way up the scale to the +ancient cats the works. That's why the original seeding team put these +people in the treetops instead."</p> + +<p>"Honath, what was your crime?" Gerhardt Adler said.</p> + +<p>Honath was almost relieved to have the questioning come so quickly to +this point. Jarl Eleven's aside, with its many terms he could not +understand, had been frightening in its very meaninglessness.</p> + +<p>"There were five of us," Honath said in a low voice. "We said we—that +we did not believe in the Giants."</p> + +<p>There was a brief silence. Then, shockingly, both Jarl Eleven and +Gerhardt Adler burst into enormous laughter.</p> + +<p>Mathild cowered, her hands over her ears. Even Honath flinched and took +a step backward. Instantly, the laughter stopped, and the Giant called +Jarl Eleven stepped into the oval of light and sat down beside them. In +the light, it could be seen that his face and hands were hairless, +although there was hair on his crown; the rest of his body was covered +by a kind of cloth. Seated, he was no taller than Honath, and did not +seem quite so fearsome.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," he said. "It was unkind of us to laugh, but what +you said was highly unexpected. Gerhardt, come over here and squat down, +so that you don't look so much like a statue of some general. Tell me, +Honath, in what way did you not believe in the Giants?"</p> + +<p>Honath could hardly believe his ears. A Giant had begged his pardon! Was +this still some joke even more cruel? But whatever the reason, Jarl +Eleven had asked him a question.</p> + +<p>"Each of the five of us differed," he said. "I held that you were +not—not real except as symbols of some abstract truth. One of us, the +wisest, believed that you did not exist in any sense at all. But we all +agreed that you were not gods."</p> + +<p>"And of course we aren't," Jarl Eleven said. "We're men. We come from +the same stock as you. We're not your rulers, but your brothers. Do you +understand what I say?"</p> + +<p>"No," Honath admitted.</p> + +<p>"Then let me tell you about it. There are men on many worlds, Honath. +They differ from one another, because the worlds differ, and different +kinds of men are needed to people each one. Gerhardt and I are the kind +of men who live on a world called Earth, and many other worlds like it. +We are two very minor members of a huge project called a 'seeding +program', which has been going on for thousands of years now. It's the +job of the seeding program to survey newly discovered worlds, and then +to make men suitable to live on each new world."</p> + +<p>"To make men? But only gods—"</p> + +<p>"No, no. Be patient and listen," said Jarl Eleven. "We don't make men. +We make them suitable. There's a great deal of difference between the +two. We take the living germ plasm, the sperm and the egg, and we modify +it. When the modified man emerges, we help him to settle down in his new +world. That's what we did on Tellura—it happened long ago, before +Gerhardt and I were even born. Now we've come back to see how you people +are getting along, and to lend a hand if necessary."</p> + +<p>He looked from Honath to Mathild, and back again. "Do you understand?" +he said.</p> + +<p>"I'm trying." Honath said. "But you should go down to the jungle-top, +then. We're not like the others; they are the people you want to see."</p> + +<p>"We shall, in the morning. We just landed here. But, just because you're +not like the others, we're more interested in you now. Tell me, has any +condemned man ever escaped from the jungle floor before you people?"</p> + +<p>"No, never. That's not surprising. There are monsters down there."</p> + +<p>Jarl Eleven looked sidewise at the other Giant. He seemed to be smiling. +"When you see the films," he remarked, "you'll call that the +understatement of the century. Honath, how did you three manage to +escape, then?"</p> + +<p>Haltingly at first, and then with more confidence as the memories came +crowding vividly back, Honath told him. When he mentioned the feast at +the demon's nest, Jarl Eleven again looked significantly at Adler, but +he did not interrupt.</p> + +<p>"And finally we got to the top of the chimney and came out on this flat +space," Honath said. "Alaskon was still with us then, but when he saw +you and the metal thing he threw himself back down the cleft. He was a +criminal like us, but he should not have died. He was a brave man, and a +wise one."</p> + +<p>"Not wise enough to wait until all the evidence was in," Adler said +enigmatically. "All in all, Jarl, I'd say 'prodigious' is the word for +it. This is easily the most successful seeding job any team has ever +done, at least in this limb of the galaxy. And what a stroke of luck, to +be on the spot just as it came to term, and with a couple at that!"</p> + +<p>"What does he mean?" Honath said.</p> + +<p>"Just this, Honath. When the seeding team set your people up in business +on Tellura, they didn't mean for you to live forever in the treetops. +They knew that, sooner or later, you'd have to come down to the ground +and learn to fight this planet on its own terms. Otherwise, you'd go +stale and die out."</p> + +<p>"Live on the ground all the time?" Mathild said in a faint voice.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mathild. The life in the treetops was to have been only an interim +period, while you gathered knowledge you needed about Tellura and put it +to use. But to be the real masters of the world, you will have to +conquer the surface, too.</p> + +<p>"The device your people worked out, that of sending criminals to the +surface, was the best way of conquering the planet that they could have +picked. It takes a strong will and courage to go against custom, and +both those qualities are needed to lick Tellura. Your people exiled just +such fighting spirits to the surface, year after year after year.</p> + +<p>"Sooner or later, some of those exiles were going to discover how to +live successfully on the ground and make it possible for the rest of +your people to leave the trees. You and Honath have done just that."</p> + +<p>"Observe please, Jarl," Adler said. "The crime in this first successful +case was ideological. That was the crucial turn in the criminal policy +of these people. A spirit of revolt is not quite enough, but couple it +with brains and—<i>ecce homo</i>!"</p> + +<p>Honath's head was swimming. "But what does all this mean?" he said. "Are +we—not condemned to Hell any more?"</p> + +<p>"No, you're still condemned, if you still want to call it that," Jarl +Eleven said soberly. "You've learned how to live down there, and you've +found out something even more valuable: how to stay alive while cutting +down your enemies. Do you know that you killed three demons with your +bare hands, you and Mathild and Alaskon?"</p> + +<p>"Killed—"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," Jarl Eleven said. "You ate three eggs. That is the +classical way, and indeed the only way, to wipe out monsters like the +dinosaurs. You can't kill the adults with anything short of an anti-tank +gun, but they're helpless in embryo—and the adults haven't the sense to +guard their nests."</p> + +<p>Honath heard, but only distantly. Even his awareness of Mathild's warmth +next to him did not seem to help much.</p> + +<p>"Then we have to go back down there," he said dully. "And this time +forever."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Jarl Eleven said, his voice gentle. "But you wont be alone, +Honath. Beginning tomorrow, you'll have all your people with you."</p> + +<p>"<i>All</i> our people? But you're going to drive them out?"</p> + +<p>"All of them. Oh, we won't prohibit the use of the vine-webs too, but +from now on your race will have to fight it out on the surface as well. +You and Mathild have proven that it can be done. It's high time the rest +of you learned, too."</p> + +<p>"Jarl, you think too little of these young people themselves," Adler +said. "Tell them what is in store for them. They are frightened."</p> + +<p>"Of course, of course. It's obvious. Honath, you and Mathild are the +only living individuals of your race who know how to survive down there +on the surface. And we're not going to tell your people how to do that. +We aren't even going to drop them so much as a hint. That part of it is +up to you."</p> + +<p>Honath's jaw dropped.</p> + +<p>"It's up to you," Jarl Eleven repeated firmly. "We'll return you to your +tribe tomorrow, and we'll tell your people that you two know the rules +for successful life on the ground—and that everyone else has to go down +and live there too. We'll tell them nothing else but that. What do you +think they'll do then?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," Honath said dazedly. "Anything could happen. They might +even make us Spokesman and Spokeswoman—except that we're just common +criminals."</p> + +<p>"Uncommon pioneers, Honath. The man and the woman to lead the humanity +of Tellura out of the attic, into the wide world." Jarl Eleven got to +his feet, the great light playing over him. Looking up after him, Honath +saw that there were at least a dozen other Giants standing just outside +the oval of light, listening intently to every word.</p> + +<p>"But there's a little time to be passed before we begin," Jarl Eleven +said. "Perhaps you two would like to look over our ship."</p> + +<p>Humbly, but with a soundless emotion much like music inside him, Honath +took Mathild's hand. Together they walked away from the chimney to Hell, +following the footsteps of the Giants.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Thing in the Attic, by James Benjamin Blish + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THING IN THE ATTIC *** + +***** This file should be named 32447-h.htm or 32447-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/4/4/32447/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/32447-h/images/cover.jpg b/32447-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a42427e --- /dev/null +++ b/32447-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/32447-h/images/illus1.jpg b/32447-h/images/illus1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef1b659 --- /dev/null +++ b/32447-h/images/illus1.jpg diff --git a/32447-h/images/illus2.jpg b/32447-h/images/illus2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9b7a15a --- /dev/null +++ b/32447-h/images/illus2.jpg diff --git a/32447.txt b/32447.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f5909a --- /dev/null +++ b/32447.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1858 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Thing in the Attic, by James Benjamin Blish + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Thing in the Attic + +Author: James Benjamin Blish + +Illustrator: Paul Orban + +Release Date: May 20, 2010 [EBook #32447] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THING IN THE ATTIC *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + THE THING IN THE ATTIC + + By James Blish + + Illustrated by Paul Orban + +[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from If Worlds of Science +Fiction July 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that +the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] + + +[Sidenote: _Honath and his fellow arch-doubters did not believe in the +Giants, and for this they were cast into Hell. And when survival +depended upon unwavering faith in their beliefs, they saw that there +were Giants, after all...._] + + + _It is written that after the Giants came to Tellura from the far + stars, they abode a while, and looked upon the surface of the land, + and found it wanting, and of evil omen. Therefore did they make men + to live always in the air and in the sunlight, and in the light of + the stars, that he would be reminded of them. And the Giants abode + yet a while, and taught men to speak, and to write, and to weave, + and to do many things which are needful to do, of which the + writings speak. And thereafter they departed to the far stars, + saying, Take this world as your own, and though we shall return, + fear not, for it is yours._ + + --THE BOOK OF LAWS + + +Honath the Pursemaker was hauled from the nets an hour before the rest +of the prisoners, as befitted his role as the arch-doubter of them all. +It was not yet dawn, but his captors led him in great bounds through the +endless, musky-perfumed orchid gardens, small dark shapes with crooked +legs, hunched shoulders, slim hairless tails carried, like his, in +concentric spirals wound clockwise. Behind them sprang Honath on the end +of a long tether, timing his leaps by theirs, since any slip would hang +him summarily. + +He would of course be on his way to the surface, some 250 feet below the +orchid gardens, shortly after dawn in any event. But not even the +arch-doubter of them all wanted to begin the trip--not even at the +merciful snap-spine end of a tether--a moment before the law said, Go. + +The looping, interwoven network of vines beneath them, each cable as +thick through as a man's body, bellied out and down sharply as the +leapers reached the edge of the fern-tree forest which surrounded the +copse of fan-palms. The whole party stopped before beginning the descent +and looked eastward, across the dim bowl. The stars were paling more and +more rapidly; only the bright constellation of the Parrot could still be +picked out without doubt. + +"A fine day," one of the guards said, conversationally. "Better to go +below on a sunny day than in the rain, pursemaker." + +Honath shuddered and said nothing. Of course it was always raining down +below in Hell, that much could be seen by a child. Even on sunny days, +the endless pinpoint rain of transpiration, from the hundred million +leaves of the eternal trees, hazed the forest air and soaked the black +bog forever. + +He looked around in the brightening, misty morning. The eastern horizon +was black against the limb of the great red sun, which had already risen +about a third of its diameter; it was almost time for the small, +blue-white, furiously hot consort to follow. All the way to that brink, +as to every other horizon, the woven ocean of the treetops flowed gently +in long, unbreaking waves, featureless as some smooth oil. Only nearby +could the eye break that ocean into its details, into the world as it +was: a great, many-tiered network, thickly overgrown with small ferns, +with air-drinking orchids, with a thousand varieties of fungi sprouting +wherever vine crossed vine and collected a little humus for them, with +the vivid parasites sucking sap from the vines, the trees, and even each +other. In the ponds of rain-water collected by the closely fitting +leaves of the bromeliads tree-toads and peepers stopped down their +hoarse songs dubiously as the light grew and fell silent one by one. In +the trees below the world, the tentative morning screeches of the +lizard-birds--the souls of the damned, or the devils who hunted them, no +one was quite sure which--took up the concert. + +A small gust of wind whipped out of the hollow above the glade of +fan-palms, making the network under the party shift slightly, as if in a +loom. Honath gave with it easily, automatically, but one of the smaller +vines toward which he had moved one furless hand hissed at him and went +pouring away into the darkness beneath--a chlorophyll-green snake, come +up out of the dripping aerial pathways in which it hunted in ancestral +gloom, to greet the suns and dry its scales in the quiet morning. +Farther below, an astonished monkey, routed out of its bed by the +disgusted serpent, sprang into another tree, reeling off ten mortal +insults, one after the other, while still in mid-leap. The snake, of +course, paid no attention, since it did not speak the language of men; +but the party on the edge of the glade of fan-palms snickered +appreciatively. + +"Bad language they favor below," another of the guards said. "A fit +place for you and your blasphemers, pursemaker. Come now." + +The tether at Honath's neck twitched, and then his captors were soaring +in zig-zag bounds down into the hollow toward the Judgment Seat. He +followed, since he had no choice, the tether threatening constantly to +foul his arms, legs or tail, and--worse, far worse--making his every +mortifying movement ungraceful. Above, the Parrot's starry plumes +flickered and faded into the general blue. + +Toward the center of the saucer above the grove, the stitched +leaf-and-leather houses clustered thickly, bound to the vines +themselves, or hanging from an occasional branch too high or too slender +to bear the vines. Many of these purses Honath knew well, not only as +visitor but as artisan. The finest of them, the inverted flowers which +opened automatically as the morning dew bathed them, yet which could be +closed tightly and safely around their occupants at dusk by a single +draw-string, were his own design as well as his own handiwork. They had +been widely admired and imitated. + +The reputation that they had given him, too, had helped to bring him to +the end of the snap-spine tether. They had given weight to his words +among others--weight enough to make him, at last, the arch-doubter, the +man who leads the young into blasphemy, the man who questions the Book +of Laws. + +And they had probably helped to win him his passage on the Elevator to +Hell. + +The purses were already opening as the party swung among them. Here and +there, sleepy faces blinked out from amid the exfoliating sections, +criss-crossed by relaxing lengths of dew-soaked rawhide. Some of the +awakening householders recognized Honath, of that he was sure, but none +came out to follow the party--though the villagers should be beginning +to drop from the hearts of their stitched flowers like ripe seed-pods by +this hour of any normal day. + +A Judgment was at hand, and they knew it--and even those who had slept +the night in one of Honath's finest houses would not speak for him now. +Everyone knew, after all, that Honath did not believe in the Giants. + +Honath could see the Judgment Seat itself now, a slung chair of woven +cane crowned along the back with a row of gigantic mottled orchids. +These had supposedly been transplanted there when the chair was made, +but no one could remember how old they were; since there were no +seasons, there was no particular reason why they should not have been +there forever. The Seat itself was at the back of the arena and high +above it, but in the gathering light Honath could make out the +white-furred face of the Tribal Spokesman, like a lone silver-and-black +pansy among the huge vivid blooms. + +At the center of the arena proper was the Elevator itself. Honath had +seen it often enough, and had himself witnessed Judgments where it was +called into use, but he could still hardly believe that he was almost +surely to be its next passenger. It consisted of nothing more than a +large basket, deep enough so that one would have to leap out of it, and +rimmed with thorns to prevent one from leaping back in. Three hempen +ropes were tied to its rim, and were then cunningly interwound on a +single-drum windlass of wood, which could be turned by two men even when +the basket was loaded. + +The procedure was equally simple. The condemned man was forced into the +basket, and the basket lowered out of sight, until the slackening of the +ropes indicated that it had touched the surface. The victim climbed +out--and if he did not, the basket remained below until he starved or +until Hell otherwise took care of its own--and the windlass was rewound. + +The sentences were for varying periods of time, according to the +severity of the crime, but in practical terms this formality was empty. +Although the basket was dutifully lowered when the sentence had expired, +no one had ever been known to get back into it. Of course, in a world +without seasons or moons, and hence without any but an arbitrary year, +long periods of time are not easy to count accurately. The basket could +arrive thirty or forty days to one side or the other of the proper date. +But this was only a technicality, however, for if keeping time was +difficult in the attic world it was probably impossible in Hell. + +Honath's guards tied the free end of his tether to a branch and settled +down around him. One abstractedly passed a pine cone to him and he tried +to occupy his mind with the business of picking the juicy seeds from it, +but somehow they had no flavor. + +More captives were being brought in now, while the Spokesman watched +with glittering black eyes from his high perch. There was Mathild the +Forager, shivering as if with ague, the fur down her left side +glistening and spiky, as though she had inadvertently overturned a tank +plant on herself. After her was brought Alaskon the Navigator, a +middle-aged man only a few years younger than Honath himself; he was +tied up next to Honath, where he settled down at once, chewing at a +joint of cane with apparent indifference. + +Thus far, the gathering had proceeded without more than a few words +being spoken, but that ended when the guards tried to bring Seth the +Needlesmith from the nets. He could be heard at once, over the entire +distance to the glade, alternately chattering and shrieking in a mixture +of tones that might mean either fear or fury. Everyone in the glade but +Alaskon turned to look, and heads emerged from purses like new +butterflies from cocoons. + +A moment later, Seth's guards came over the lip of the glade in a +tangled group, now shouting themselves. Somewhere in the middle of the +knot Seth's voice became still louder; obviously he was clinging with +all five members to any vine or frond he could grasp, and was no sooner +pried loose from one than he would leap by main force, backwards if +possible, to another. Nevertheless he was being brought inexorably down +into the arena, two feet forward, one foot back, three feet forward.... + +Honath's guards resumed picking their pine-cones. During the +disturbance, Honath realized Charl the Reader had been brought in +quietly from the same side of the glade. He now sat opposite Alaskon, +looking apathetically down at the vine-web, his shoulders hunched +forward. He exuded despair; even to look at him made Honath feel a +renewed shudder. + +From the High Seat, the Spokesman said: "Honath the Pursemaker, Alaskon +the Navigator, Charl the Reader, Seth the Needlesmith Mathild the +Forager, you are called to answer to justice." + +"Justice!" Seth shouted, springing free of his captors with a tremendous +bound and bringing up with a jerk on the end of his tether. "This is no +justice! I have nothing to do with--" + +The guards caught up with him and clamped brown hands firmly over his +mouth. The Spokesman watched with amused malice. + +"The accusations are three," the Spokesman said. "The first, the telling +of lies to children. Second, the casting into doubt of the divine order +among men. Third, the denial of the Book of Laws. Each of you may speak +in order of age. Honath the Pursemaker, your plea may be heard." + +Honath stood up, trembling a little, but feeling a surprisingly renewed +surge of his old independence. + +"Your charges," he said, "all rest upon the denial of the Book of Laws. +I have taught nothing else that is contrary to what we all believe, and +called nothing else into doubt. And I deny the charge." + +The Spokesman looked down at him with disbelief. "Many men and women +have said that you do not believe in the Giants, pursemaker," he said. +"You will not win mercy by piling up more lies." + +"I deny the charge," Honath insisted. "I believe in the Book of Laws as +a whole, and I believe in the Giants. I have taught only that the Giants +were not real in the sense that we are real. I have taught that they +were intended as symbols of some higher reality and were not meant to be +taken as literal persons." + +"What higher reality is this?" the Spokesman demanded. "Describe it." + +"You ask me to do something the writers of the Book of Laws themselves +couldn't do," Honath said hotly. "If they had to embody the reality in +symbols rather than writing it down directly, how could a mere +pursemaker do better?" + +"This doctrine is wind," the Spokesman said. "And it is plainly intended +to undercut authority and the order established by the Book. Tell me, +pursemaker: if men need not fear the Giants, why should they fear the +law?" + +"Because they are men, and it is to their interest to fear the law. They +aren't children, who need some physical Giant sitting over them with a +whip to make them behave. Furthermore, Spokesman, this archaic belief +_itself_ undermines us. As long as we believe that there are real +Giants, and that some day they'll return and resume teaching us, so long +will we fail to seek answers to our questions for ourselves. Half of +what we know was given to us in the Book, and the other half is supposed +to drop to us from the skies if we wait long enough. In the meantime, we +vegetate." + +"If a part of the Book be untrue, there can be nothing to prevent that +it is all untrue," the Spokesman said heavily. "And we will lose even +what you call the half of our knowledge--which is actually the whole of +it--to those who see with clear eyes." + +Suddenly, Honath lost his temper. "Lose it, then!" he shouted. "Let us +unlearn everything we know only by rote, go back to the beginning, learn +all over again, and _continue_ to learn, from our own experience. +Spokesman, you are an old man, but there are still some of us who +haven't forgotten what curiosity means!" + +"Quiet!" the Spokesman said. "We have heard enough. We call on Alaskon +the Navigator." + +"Much of the Book is clearly untrue," Alaskon said flatly, rising. "As a +handbook of small trades it has served us well. As a guide to how the +universe is made, it is nonsense, in my opinion; Honath is too kind to +it. I've made no secret of what I think, and I still think it." + +"And will pay for it," the Spokesman said, blinking slowly down at +Alaskon. "Charl the Reader." + +"Nothing," Charl said, without standing, or even looking up. + +"You do not deny the charges?" + +"I've nothing to say," Charl said, but then, abruptly, his head jerked +up, and he glared with desperate eyes at the Spokesman. "I can read, +Spokesman. I have seen words in the Book of Laws that contradict each +other. I've pointed them out. They're facts, they exist on the pages. +I've taught nothing, told no lies, preached no unbelief. I've pointed to +the facts. That's all." + +"Seth the Needlesmith, you may speak now." + +The guards took their hands gratefully off Seth's mouth; they had been +bitten several times in the process of keeping him quiet up to now. Seth +resumed shouting at once. + +"I'm no part of this group! I'm the victim of gossip, envious neighbors, +smiths jealous of my skill and my custom! No man can say worse of me +than that I sold needles to this pursemaker--sold them in good faith! +The charges against me are lies, all lies!" + +Honath jumped to his feet in fury, and then sat down again, choking back +the answering shout almost without tasting its bitterness. What did it +matter? Why should he bear witness against the young man? It would not +help the others, and if Seth wanted to lie his way out of Hell, he might +as well be given the chance. + +The Spokesman was looking down at Seth with the identical expression of +outraged disbelief which he had first bent upon Honath. "Who was it cut +the blasphemies into the hardwood tree, by the house of Hosi the +Lawgiver?" he demanded. "Sharp needles were at work there, and there are +witnesses to say that your hands held them." + +"More lies!" + +"Needles found in your house fit the furrows, Seth." + +"They were not mine--or they were stolen! I demand to be freed!" + +"You will be freed," the Spokesman said coldly. There was no possible +doubt as to what he meant. Seth began to weep and to shout at the same +time. Hands closed over his mouth again. "Mathild the Forager, your plea +may be heard." + +The young woman stood up hesitantly. Her fur was nearly dry now, but she +was still shivering. + +"Spokesman," she said, "I saw the things which Charl the Reader showed +me. I doubted, but what Honath said restored my belief. I see no harm in +his teachings. They remove doubt, instead of fostering it as you say +they do. I see no evil in them, and I don't understand why this is a +crime." + +Honath looked over to her with new admiration. The Spokesman sighed +heavily. + +"I am sorry for you," he said, "but as Spokesman we cannot allow +ignorance of the law as a plea. We will be merciful to you all, however. +Renounce your heresy, affirm your belief in the Book as it is written +from bark to bark, and you shall be no more than cast out of the tribe." + +"I renounce it!" Seth cried. "I never shared it! It's all blasphemy and +every word is a lie! I believe in the Book, all of it!" + +"You, needlesmith," the Spokesman said, "have lied before this Judgment, +and are probably lying now. You are not included in the dispensation." + +"Snake-spotted caterpillar! May your--_ummulph_." + +"Pursemaker, what is your answer?" + +"It is No," Honath said stonily. "I've spoken the truth. The truth can't +be unsaid." + +The Spokesman looked down at the rest of them. "As for you three, +consider your answers carefully. To share the heresy means sharing the +sentence. The penalty will not be lightened only because you did not +invent the heresy." + +There was a long silence. + +Honath swallowed hard. The courage and the faith in that silence made +him feel smaller and more helpless than ever. He realized suddenly that +the other three would have kept that silence, even without Seth's +defection to stiffen their spines. He wondered if he could have done so. + +"Then we pronounce the sentence," the Spokesman said. "You are one and +all condemned to one thousand days in Hell." + +There was a concerted gasp from around the edges of the arena, where, +without Honath's having noticed it before, a silent crowd had gathered. +He did not wonder at the sound. The sentence was the longest in the +history of the tribe. + +Not that it really meant anything. No one had ever come back from as +little as one hundred days in Hell. No one had ever come back from Hell +at all. + +"Unlash the Elevator. All shall go together." + + * * * * * + +The basket swayed. The last of the attic world that Honath saw was a +circle of faces, not too close to the gap in the vine web, peering down +after them. Then the basket fell another few yards to the next turn of +the windlass and the faces vanished. + +Seth was weeping in the bottom of the Elevator, curled up into a tight +ball, the end of his tail wrapped around his nose and eyes. No one else +could make a sound, least of Honath. + +The gloom closed around them. It seemed extraordinarily still. The +occasional harsh screams of a lizard-bird somehow distended the silence +without breaking it. The light that filtered down into the long aisles +between the trees seemed to be absorbed in a blue-green haze through +which the lianas wove their long curved lines. The columns of +tree-trunks, the pillars of the world, stood all around them, too +distant in the dim light to allow them to gauge their speed of descent. +Only the irregular plunges of the basket proved that it was even in +motion any longer, though it swayed laterally in a complex, overlapping +series of figure-eights. + +Then the basket lurched downward once more, brought up short, and tipped +sidewise, tumbling them all against the hard cane. Mathild cried out in +a thin voice, and Seth uncurled almost instantly, clawing for a +handhold. Another lurch, and the Elevator lay down on its side and was +still. + +They were in Hell. + +Cautiously, Honath began to climb out, picking his way over the long +thorns on the basket's rim. After a moment, Charl the Reader followed, +and then Alaskon took Mathild firmly by the hand and led her out onto +the surface. The footing was wet and spongy, yet not at all resilient, +and it felt cold; Honath's toes curled involuntarily. + +"Come on, Seth," Charl said in a hushed voice. "They won't haul it back +up until we're all out. You know that." + +Alaskon looked around into the chilly mists. "Yes," he said. "And we'll +need a needlesmith down here. With good tools, there's just a chance--" + +Seth's eyes had been darting back and forth from one to the other. With +a sudden chattering scream, he bounded out of the bottom of the basket, +soaring over their heads in a long, flat leap and struck the high knee +at the base of the nearest tree, an immense fan palm. As he hit, his +legs doubled under him, and almost in the same motion he seemed to +rocket straight up into the murky air. + +Gaping, Honath looked up after him. The young needlesmith had timed his +course to the split second. He was already darting up the rope from +which the Elevator was suspended. He did not even bother to look back. + +After a moment, the basket tipped upright. The impact of Seth's weight +hitting the rope evidently had been taken by the windlass team to mean +that the condemned people were all out on the surface; a twitch on the +rope was the usual signal. The basket began to rise, hobbling and +dancing. Its speed of ascent, added to Seth's took his racing, dwindling +figure out of sight quickly. After a while, the basket was gone, too. + +"He'll never get to the top," Mathild whispered. "It's too far, and he's +going too fast. He'll lose strength and fall." + +"I don't think so," Alaskon said heavily. "He's agile and strong. If +anyone could make it, he could." + +"They'll kill him if he does." + +"Of course they will," Alaskon said, shrugging. + +"I won't miss him," Honath said. + +"No more will I. But we could use some sharp needles down here, Honath. +Now we'll have to plan to make our own--if we can identify the different +woods, down here where there aren't any leaves to help us tell them +apart." + +Honath looked at the navigator curiously. Seth's bolt for the sky had +distracted him from the realization that the basket, too, was gone, but +now that desolate fact hit home. "You actually plan to stay alive in +Hell, don't you, Alaskon?" + +"Certainly," Alaskon said calmly. "This is no more Hell than--up +there--is Heaven. It's the surface of the planet, no more, no less. We +can stay alive if we don't panic. Were you just going to sit here until +the furies came for you, Honath?" + +"I hadn't thought much about it," Honath confessed. "But if there is any +chance that Seth will lose his grip on that rope--before he reaches the +top and they stab him--shouldn't we wait and see if we can catch him? He +can't weigh more than 35 pounds. Maybe we could contrive some sort of a +net--" + +"He'd just break our bones along with his," Charl said. "I'm for getting +out of here as fast as possible." + +"What for? Do you know a better place?" + +"No, but whether this is Hell or not, there are demons down here. We've +all seen them from up above. They must know that the Elevator always +lands here and empties out free food. This must be a feeding-ground for +them--" + +He had not quite finished speaking when the branches began to sigh and +toss, far above. A gust of stinging droplets poured along the blue air +and thunder rumbled. Mathild whimpered. + +"It's only a squall coming up," Honath said. But the words came out in a +series of short croaks. As the wind had moved through the trees, Honath +had automatically flexed his knees and put his arms out for handholds, +awaiting the long wave of response to pass through the ground beneath +him. But nothing happened. The surface under his feet remained stolidly +where it was, flexing not a fraction of an inch in any direction. And +there was nothing nearby for his hands to grasp. + +He staggered, trying to compensate for the failure of the ground to +move. At the same moment another gust of wind blew through the aisles, a +little stronger than the first, and calling insistently for a new +adjustment of his body to the waves which would be passing among the +treetops. Again the squashy surface beneath him refused to respond. The +familiar give-and-take of the vine-web to the winds, a part of his world +as accustomed as the winds themselves, was gone. + +Honath was forced to sit down, feeling distinctly ill. The damp, cool +earth under his furless buttocks was unpleasant, but he could not have +remained standing any longer without losing his meagre prisoner's +breakfast. One grappling hand caught hold of the ridged, gritting stems +of a clump of horsetail, but the contact failed to allay the uneasiness. + +The others seemed to be bearing it no better than Honath. Mathild in +particular was rocking dizzily, her lips compressed, her hands clasped +to her delicate ears. + +Dizziness. It was unheard of up above, except among those who had +suffered grave head injuries or were otherwise very ill. But on the +motionless ground of Hell, it was evidently going to be with them +constantly. + +Charl squatted, swallowing convulsively. "I--I can't stand," he moaned. + +"Nonsense!" Alaskon said, though he had remained standing only by +clinging to the huge, mud-colored bulb of a cycadella. "It's just a +disturbance of our sense of balance. We'll get used to it." + +"We'd better," Honath said, relinquishing his grip on the horsetails by +a sheer act of will. "I think Charl's right about this being a +feeding-ground, Alaskon. I hear something moving around in the ferns. +And if this rain lasts long, the water will rise here, too. I've seen +silver flashes from down here many a time after heavy rains." + +"That's right," Mathild said, her voice subdued. "The base of the +fan-palm grove always floods. That's why the treetops are lower there." + +The wind seemed to have let up a little, though the rain was still +falling. Alaskon stood up tentatively and looked around. + +"Then let's move on," he said. "If we try to keep under cover until we +get to higher ground--" + +A faint crackling sound, high above his head, interrupted him. It got +louder. Feeling a sudden spasm of pure fear, Honath looked up. + +Nothing could be seen for an instant but the far-away curtain of +branches and fern fronds. Then, with shocking suddenness, something +plummeted through the blue-green roof and came tumbling toward them. It +was a man, twisting and tumbling through the air with grotesque +slowness, like a child turning in its sleep. They scattered. + +The body hit the ground with a sodden thump, but there were sharp +overtones to the sound, like the bursting of a gourd. For a moment +nobody moved. Then Honath crept forward. + +It had been Seth, as Honath had realized the moment the figurine had +burst through the branches far above. But it had not been the fall that +had killed him. He had been run through by at least a dozen +needles--some of them, beyond doubt, tools from his own shop, their +points edged hair-fine by his own precious strops of leatherwood-bark. + +There would be no reprieve from above. The sentence was one thousand +days. This burst and broken huddle of fur was the only alternative. + +And the first day had barely begun. + + * * * * * + +They toiled all the rest of the day to reach higher ground. As they +stole cautiously closer to the foothills of the Great Range and the +ground became firmer, they were able to take to the air for short +stretches, but they were no sooner aloft among the willows than the +lizard-birds came squalling down on them by the dozens, fighting among +each other for the privilege of nipping these plump and incredibly +slow-moving monkeys. + +No man, no matter how confirmed a free-thinker, could have stood up +under such an onslaught by the creatures he had been taught as a child +to think of as his ancestors. The first time it happened, every member +of the party dropped like a pine-cone to the sandy ground and lay +paralyzed under the nearest cover, until the brindle-feathered, +fan-tailed screamers tired of flying in such tight circles and headed +for clearer air. Even after the lizard-birds had given up, they crouched +quietly for a long time, waiting to see what greater demons might have +been attracted by the commotion. + +Luckily, on the higher ground there was much more cover from low-growing +shrubs and trees--palmetto, sassafras, several kinds of laurel, +magnolia, and a great many sedges. Up here, too, the endless jungle +began to break around the bases of the great pink cliffs. Overhead were +welcome vistas of open sky, sketchily crossed by woven bridges leading +from the vine-world to the cliffs themselves. In the intervening columns +of blue air a whole hierarchy of flying creatures ranked themselves, +layer by layer. First, the low-flying beetles, bees and two-winged +insects. Next were the dragonflies which hunted them, some with +wingspreads as wide as two feet. Then the lizard-birds, hunting the +dragonflies and anything else that could he nipped without fighting +back. And at last, far above, the great gliding reptiles coasting along +the brows of the cliffs, riding the rising currents of air, their +long-jawed hunger stalking anything that flew--as they sometimes stalked +the birds of the attic world, and the flying fish along the breast of +the distant sea. + +The party halted in an especially thick clump of sedges. Though the rain +continued to fall, harder than ever, they were all desperately thirsty. +They had yet to find a single bromelaid: evidently the tank-plants did +not grow in Hell. Cupping their hands to the weeping sky accumulated +surprisingly little water; and no puddles large enough to drink from +accumulated on the sand. But at least, here under the open sky, there +was too much fierce struggle in the air to allow the lizard-birds to +congregate and squall about their hiding place. + +The white sun had already set and the red sun's vast arc still bulged +above the horizon. In the lurid glow the rain looked like blood, and the +seamed faces of the pink cliffs had all but vanished. Honath peered +dubiously out from under the sedges at the still distant escarpments. + +"I don't see how we can hope to climb those," he said, in a low voice. +"That kind of limestone crumbles as soon as you touch it, otherwise we'd +have had better luck with our war against the cliff tribe." + +"We could go around the cliffs," Charl said. "The foothills of the Great +Range aren't very steep. If we could last until we get to them, we could +go on up into the Range itself." + +"To the volcanoes!" Mathild protested. "But nothing can live up there, +nothing but the white fire-things. And there are the lava-flows, too, +and the choking smoke--" + +"Well, we can't climb these cliffs. Honath's quite right," Alaskon said. +"And we can't climb the Basalt Steppes, either--there's nothing to eat +along them, let alone any water or cover. I don't see what else we can +do but try to get up into the foothills." + +"Can't we stay here?" Mathild said plaintively. + +"No," Honath said, even more gently than he had intended. Mathild's four +words were, he knew, the most dangerous words in Hell--he knew it quite +surely, because of the imprisoned creature inside him that cried out to +say "Yes" instead. "We have to get out of the country of the demons. And +maybe--just maybe--if we can cross the Great Range, we can join a tribe +that hasn't heard about our being condemned to Hell. There are supposed +to be tribes on the other side of the Range, but the cliff people would +never let our folk get through to them. That's on our side now." + +"That's true," Alaskon said, brightening a little. "And from the top of +the Range, we could come _down_ into another tribe--instead of trying to +climb up into their village out of Hell. Honath, I think it might work." + +"Then we'd better try to sleep right here and now," Charl said. "It +seems safe enough. If we're going to skirt the cliffs and climb those +foothills, we'll need all the strength we've got left." + +Honath was about to protest, but he was suddenly too tired to care. Why +not sleep it over? And if in the night they were found and taken--well, +that would at least put an end to the struggle. + +It was a cheerless and bone-damp bed to sleep in, but there was no +alternative. They curled up as best they could. Just before he was about +to drop off at last, Honath heard Mathild whimpering to herself and, on +impulse, crawled over to her and began to smooth down her fur with his +tongue. To his astonishment each separate, silky hair was loaded with +dew. Long before the girl had curled herself more tightly and her +complaints had dwindled into sleepy murmurs, Honath's thirst was +assuaged. He reminded himself to mention the method in the morning. + +But when the white sun finally came up, there was no time to think of +thirst. Charl the Reader was gone. Something had plucked him from their +huddled midst as neatly as a fallen breadfruit--and had dropped his +cleaned ivory skull just as negligently, some two hundred feet farther +on up the slope which led toward the pink cliffs. + + * * * * * + +Late that afternoon, the three found the blue, turbulent stream flowing +out of the foothills of the Great Range. Not even Alaskon knew quite +what to make of it. It looked like water, but it flowed like the rivers +of lava that crept downward from the volcanoes. Whatever else it could +be, obviously it wasn't water; water stood, it never flowed. It was +possible to imagine a still body of water as big as this, but only in a +moment of fancy, an exaggeration derived from the known bodies of water +in the tank-plants. But this much water in motion? It suggested pythons; +it was probably poisonous. It did not occur to any of them to drink from +it. They were afraid even to touch it, let alone cross it, for it was +almost surely as hot as the other kinds of lava-rivers. They followed +its course cautiously into the foothills, their throats as dry and +gritty as the hollow stems of horsetails. + +Except for the thirst--which was in an inverted sense their friend, +insofar as it overrode the hunger--the climbing was not difficult. It +was only circuitous, because of the need to stay under cover, to +reconnoiter every few yards, to choose the most sheltered course rather +than the most direct. By an unspoken consent, none of the three +mentioned Charl, but their eyes were constantly darting from side to +side, searching for a glimpse of the thing that had taken him. + +That was perhaps the worst, the most terrifying part of the tragedy: not +once, since they had been in Hell, had they actually seen a demon--or +even any animal as large as a man. The enormous, three-taloned footprint +they had found in the sand beside their previous night's bed--the spot +where the thing had stood, looking down at the four sleepers from above, +coldly deciding which of them to seize--was the only evidence they had +that they were now really in the same world with the demons. The world +of the demons they had sometimes looked down upon from the remote +vine-webs. + +The footprint--and the skull. + +By nightfall, they had ascended perhaps a hundred and fifty feet. It was +difficult to judge distances in the twilight, and the token vine bridges +from the attic world to the pink cliffs were now cut off from sight by +the intervening masses of the cliffs themselves. But there was no +possibility that they could climb higher today. Although Mathild had +born the climb surprisingly well, and Honath himself still felt almost +fresh, Alaskon was completely winded. He had taken a bad cut on one hip +from a serrated spike of volcanic glass against which he had stumbled. +The wound, bound with leaves to prevent its leaving a spoor which might +be followed, evidently was becoming steadily more painful. + +Honath finally called a halt as soon as they reached the little ridge +with the cave in back of it. Helping Alaskon over the last boulders, he +was astonished to discover how hot the navigator's hands were. He took +him back into the cave and then came out onto the ledge again. + +"He's really sick," he told Mathild in a low voice. "He needs water, and +another dressing for that cut. And we've got to get both for him +somehow. If we ever get to the jungle on the other side of the Range, +we'll need a navigator even worse than we need a needlesmith." + +"But how? I could dress the cut if I had the materials, Honath. But +there's no water up here. It's a desert; we'll never get across it." + +"We've got to try. I can get him water, I think. There was a big +cycladella on the slope we came up, just before we passed that obsidian +spur that hurt Alaskon. Gourds that size usually have a fair amount of +water inside them and I can use a piece of the spur to rip it open--" + +A small hand came out of the darkness and took him tightly by the elbow. +"Honath, you can't go back down there. Suppose the demon that--that took +Charl is still following us? They hunt at night--and this country is all +so strange...." + +"I can find my way. I'll follow the sound of the stream of blue lava or +whatever it is. You pull some fresh leaves for Alaskon and try to make +him comfortable. Better loosen those vines around the dressing a little. +I'll be back." + +He touched her hand and pried it loose gently. Then, without stopping to +think about it any further, he slipped off the ledge and edged toward +the sound of the stream, travelling crabwise on all fours. + +But he was swiftly lost. The night was thick and completely +impenetrable, and he found that the noise of the stream seemed to come +from all sides, providing him no guide at all. Furthermore, his memory +of the ridge which led up to the cave appeared to be faulty, for he +could feel it turning sharply to the right beneath him, though he +remembered distinctly that it had been straight past the first +side-branch, and then had gone to the left. Or had he passed the first +side-branch in the dark without seeing it? He probed the darkness +cautiously with one hand. + +At the same instant, a brisk, staccato gust of wind came whirling up out +of the night across the ridge. Instinctively, Honath shifted his weight +to take up the flexing of the ground beneath him. + +He realized his error instantly and tried to arrest the complex set of +motions, but a habit-pattern so deeply ingrained could not be frustrated +completely. Overwhelmed with vertigo, Honath grappled at the empty air +with hands, feet and tail and went toppling. + +An instant later, with a familiar noise and an equally familiar cold +shock that seemed to reach throughout his body, he was sitting in the +midst of-- + +Water. Icy water. Water that rushed by him improbably with a menacing, +monkeylike chattering, but water all the same. + +It was all he could do to repress a hoot of hysteria. He hunkered down +into the stream and soaked himself. Things nibbled delicately at his +calves as he bathed, but he had no reason to fear fish, small species of +which often showed up in the tanks of the bromelaids. After lowering his +muzzle to the rushing, invisible surface and drinking his fill, he +dunked himself completely and then clambered out onto the banks, +carefully neglecting to shake himself. + +Getting back to the ledge was much less difficult. "Mathild?" he called +in a hoarse whisper. "Mathild, we've got water." + +"Come in here quick then. Alaskon's worse. I'm afraid, Honath." + +Dripping, Honath felt his way into the cave. "I don't have any +container. I just got myself wet--you'll have to sit him up and let him +lick my fur." + +"I'm not sure he can." + +But Alaskon could, feebly, but sufficiently. Even the coldness of the +water--a totally new experience for a man who had never drunk anything +but the soup-warm contents of the bromelaids--seemed to help him. He lay +back at last, and said in a weak but otherwise normal voice: "So the +stream was water after all." + +"Yes," Honath said. "And there are fish in it, too." + +"Don't talk," Mathild said. "Rest, Alaskon." + +"I'm resting. Honath, if we stick to the course of the stream.... Where +was I? Oh. We can follow the stream through the Range, now that we know +it's water. How did you find that out?" + +"I lost my balance and fell into it." + +Alaskon chuckled. "Hell's not so bad, is it?" he said. Then he sighed, +and rushes creaked under him. + +"Mathild! What's the matter? Is he--did he die?" + +"No ... no. He's breathing. He's still sicker than he realizes, that's +all.... Honath--if they'd known, up above, how much courage you have--" + +"I was scared white," Honath said grimly. "I'm still scared." + +But her hand touched his again in the solid blackness, and after he had +taken it, he felt irrationally cheerful. With Alaskon breathing so +raggedly behind them, there was little chance that either of them would +be able to sleep that night; but they sat silently together on the hard +stone in a kind of temporary peace. When the mouth of the cave began to +outline itself with the first glow of the red sun, they looked at each +other in a conspiracy of light all their own. + +_Let us unlearn everything we knew only by rote, go back to the +beginning, learn all over again, and continue to learn...._ + +With the first light of the white sun, a half-grown megatherium cub rose +slowly from its crouch at the mouth of the cave and stretched +luxuriously, showing a full set of saber-like teeth. It looked at them +steadily for a moment, its ears alert, then turned and loped away down +the slope. + +How long it had been crouched there listening to them, it was impossible +to know. They had been lucky that they had stumbled into the lair of a +youngster. A full-grown animal would have killed them all, within a few +seconds after its cat's-eyes had collected enough dawn to identify them +positively. The cub, since it had no family of its own, evidently had +only been puzzled to find its den occupied and didn't want to quarrel +about it. + +The departure of the big cat left Honath frozen, not so much frightened +as simply stunned by so unexpected an end to the vigil. At the first +moan from Alaskon, however, Mathild was up and walking softly to the +navigator, speaking in a low voice, sentences which made no particular +sense and perhaps were not intended to. Honath stirred and followed her. + +Halfway back into the cave, his foot struck something and he looked +down. It was the thigh-bone of some medium-large animal, imperfectly +cleaned and not very recent. It looked like a keepsake the megatherium +had hoped to save from the usurpers of its lair. Along a curved inner +surface there was a patch of thick grey mold. Honath squatted and peeled +it off carefully. + +"Mathild, we can put this over the wound," he said. "Some molds help +prevent wounds from festering.... How is he?" + +"Better, I think," Mathild murmured. "But he's still feverish. I don't +think we'll be able to move on today." + +Honath was unsure whether to be pleased or disturbed. Certainly he was +far from anxious to leave the cave, where they seemed at least to be +reasonably comfortable. Possibly they would also be reasonably safe, for +the low-roofed hole almost surely still smelt of megatherium, and +intruders would recognize the smell--as the men from the attic world +could not--and keep their distance. They would have no way of knowing +that the cat had only been a cub and that it had vacated the premises, +though of course the odor would fade before long. + +Yet it was important to move on, to cross the Great Range if possible, +and in the end to wind their way back to the world where they belonged. +And to win vindication, no matter how long it took. Even should it prove +relatively easy to survive in Hell--and there were few signs of that, +thus far--the only proper course was to fight until the attic world was +totally regained. After all, it would have been the easy and the +comfortable thing, back there at the very beginning, to have kept one's +incipient heresies to oneself and remained on comfortable terms with +one's neighbors. But Honath had spoken up, and so had the rest of them, +in their fashions. + +It was the ancient internal battle between what Honath wanted to do, and +what he knew he ought to do. He had never heard of Kant and the +Categorical Imperative, but he knew well enough which side of his nature +would win in the long run. But it had been a cruel joke of heredity +which had fastened a sense of duty onto a lazy nature. It made even +small decisions egregiously painful. + +But for the moment at least, the decision was out of his hands. Alaskon +was too sick to be moved. In addition, the strong beams of sunlight +which had been glaring in across the floor of the cave were dimming by +the instant, and there was a distant, premonitory growl of thunder. + +"Then we'll stay here," he said. "It's going to rain again, and hard +this time. Once it's falling in earnest, I can go out and pick us some +fruit--it'll screen me even if anything is prowling around in it. And I +won't have to go as far as the stream for water, as long as the rain +keeps up." + +The rain, as it turned out, kept up all day, in a growing downpour which +completely curtained the mouth of the cave by early afternoon. The +chattering of the nearby stream grew quickly to a roar. + +By evening, Alaskon's fever seemed to have dropped almost to normal, and +his strength nearly returned as well. The wound, thanks more to the +encrusted matte of mold than to any complications within the flesh +itself, was still ugly-looking, but it was now painful only when the +navigator moved carelessly, and Mathild was convinced that it was +mending. Alaskon himself, having been deprived of activity all day, was +unusually talkative. + +"Has it occurred to either of you," he said in the gathering gloom, +"that since that stream is water, it can't possibly be coming from the +Great Range? All the peaks over there are just cones of ashes and lava. +We've seen young volcanoes in the process of building themselves, so +we're sure of that. What's more, they're usually hot. I don't see how +there could possibly be any source of water in the Range--not even +run-off from the rains." + +"It can't just come up out of the ground," Honath said. "It must be fed +by rain. By the way it sounds now, it could even be the first part of a +flood." + +"As you say, it's probably rain-water," Alaskon said cheerfully. "But +not off the Great Range, that's out of the question. Most likely it +collects on the cliffs." + +"I hope you're wrong," Honath said. "The cliffs may be a little easier +to climb from this side, but there's still the cliff tribe to think +about." + +"Maybe, maybe. But the cliffs are big. The tribes on this side may never +have heard of the war with our tree-top folk. No, Honath, I think that's +our only course." + +"If it is," Honath said grimly, "we're going to wish more than ever that +we had some stout, sharp needles among us." + + * * * * * + +Alaskon's judgment was quickly borne out. The three left the cave at +dawn the next morning, Alaskon moving somewhat stiffly but not otherwise +noticeably incommoded, and resumed following the stream bed upwards--a +stream now swollen by the rains to a roaring rapids. After winding its +way upwards for about a mile in the general direction of the Great +Range, the stream turned on itself and climbed rapidly back toward the +basalt cliffs, falling toward the three over successively steeper +shelves of jutting rock. + +Then it turned again, at right angles, and the three found themselves at +the exit of a dark gorge, little more than thirty feet high, but both +narrow and long. Here the stream was almost perfectly smooth, and the +thin strip of land on each side of it was covered with low shrubs. They +paused and looked dubiously into the canyon. It was singularly gloomy. + +"There's plenty of cover, at least," Honath said in a low voice. "But +almost anything could live in a place like that." + +"Nothing very big could hide in it," Alaskon pointed out. "It should be +safe. Anyhow it's the only way to go." + +"All right. Let's go ahead, then. But keep your head down, and be ready +to jump!" + +Honath lost the other two by sight as soon as they crept into the dark +shrubbery, but he could hear their cautious movements nearby. Nothing +else in the gorge seemed to move at all, not even the water, which +flowed without a ripple over an invisible bed. There was not even any +wind, for which Honath was grateful, although he had begun to develop an +immunity to the motionless ground beneath them. + +After a few moments, Honath heard a low whistle. Creeping sidewise +toward the source of the sound, he nearly bumped into Alaskon, who was +crouched beneath a thickly-spreading magnolia. An instant later, +Mathilda's face peered out of the dim greenery. + +"Look," Alaskon whispered. "What do you make of this?" + +'This' was a hollow in the sandy soil, about four feet across and rimmed +with a low parapet of earth--evidently the same earth that had been +scooped out of its center. Occupying most of it were three grey, +ellipsoidal objects, smooth and featureless. + +"Eggs," Mathild said wonderingly. + +"Obviously. But look at the size of them! Whatever laid them must be +gigantic. I think we're trespassing in something's private valley." + +Mathild drew in her breath. Honath thought fast, as much to prevent +panic in himself as in the girl. A sharp-edged stone lying nearby +provided the answer. He seized it and struck. + +The outer surface of the egg was leathery rather than brittle; it tore +raggedly. Deliberately, Honath bent and put his mouth to the oozing +surface. + +It was excellent. The flavor was decidedly stronger than that of birds' +eggs, but he was far too hungry to be squeamish. After a moment's +amazement, Alaskon and Mathild attacked the other two ovoids with a +will. It was the first really satisfying meal they had had in Hell. When +they finally moved away from the devastated nest, Honath felt better +than he had since the day he was arrested. + +As they moved on down the gorge, they began again to hear the roar of +water, though the stream looked as placid as ever. Here, too, they saw +the first sign of active life in the valley: a flight of giant +dragonflies skimming over the water. The insects took fright as soon as +Honath showed himself, but quickly came back, their nearly non-existent +brains already convinced that there had always been men in the valley. + +The roar got louder very rapidly. When the three rounded the long, +gentle turn which had cut off their view from the exit, the source of +the roar came into view. It was a sheet of falling water as tall as the +depth of the gorge itself, which came arcing out from between two +pillars of basalt and fell to a roiling, frothing pool. + +"This is as far as we go!" Alaskon said, shouting to make himself heard +over the tumult. "We'll never be able to get up these walls!" + +Stunned, Honath looked from side to side. What Alaskon had said was all +too obviously true. The gorge evidently had begun life as a layer of +soft, partly soluble stone in the cliffs, tilted upright by some +volcanic upheaval, and then worn completely away by the rushing stream. +Both cliff faces were of the harder rock, and were sheer and as smooth +as if they had been polished by hand. Here and there a network of tough +vines had begun to climb them, but nowhere did such a network even come +close to reaching the top. + +Honath turned and looked once more at the great arc of water and spray. +If there were only some way to prevent their being forced to retrace +their steps-- + +Abruptly, over the riot of the falls, there was a piercing, hissing +shriek. Echoes picked it up and sounded it again and again, all the way +up the battlements of the cliffs. Honath sprang straight up in the air +and came down trembling, facing away from the pool. + +At first he could see nothing. Then, down at the open end of the turn, +there was a huge flurry of motion. + +A second later, a two-legged, blue-green reptile half as tall as the +gorge itself came around the turn in a single bound and lunged violently +into the far wall of the valley. It stopped as if momentarily stunned, +and the great grinning head turned toward them a face of sinister and +furious idiocy. + +[Illustration] [2] + +The shriek set the air to boiling again. Balancing itself with its heavy +tail, the beast lowered its head and looked redly toward the falls. + +The owner of the robbed nest had come home. They had met a demon of Hell +at last. + + * * * * * + +Honath's mind at that instant went as white and blank as the under-bark +of a poplar. He acted without thinking, without even knowing what he +did. When thought began to creep back into his head again, the three of +them were standing shivering in semidarkness, watching the blurred +shadow of the demon lurching back and forth upon the screen of shining +water. + +It had been nothing but luck, not foreplanning, to find that there was a +considerable space between the back of the falls proper and the blind +wall of the canyon. It had been luck, too, which had forced Honath to +skirt the pool in order to reach the falls at all, and thus had taken +them all behind the silver curtain at the point where the weight of the +falling water was too low to hammer them down for good. And it had been +the blindest stroke of all that the demon had charged after them +directly into the pool, where the deep, boiling water had slowed its +thrashing hind legs enough to halt it before it went under the falls, as +it had earlier blundered into the hard wall of the gorge. + +Not an iota of all this had been in Honath's mind before he had +discovered it to be true. At the moment that the huge reptile had +screamed for the second time, he had simply grasped Mathild's hand and +broken for the falls, leaping from low tree to shrub to fern faster than +he had ever leapt before. He did not stop to see how well Mathild was +keeping up with him, or whether or not Alaskon was following. He only +ran. He might have screamed, too; he could not remember. + +They stood now, all three of them, wet through, behind the curtain until +the shadow of the demon faded and vanished. Finally Honath felt a hand +thumping his shoulder, and turned slowly. + +Speech was impossible here, but Alaskon's pointing finger was eloquent +enough. Along the back wall of the falls, where centuries of erosion had +failed to wear away completely the original soft limestone, there was a +sort of serrated chimney, open toward the gorge, which looked as though +it could be climbed. At the top of the falls, the water shot out from +between the basalt pillars in a smooth, almost solid-looking tube, +arching at least six feet before beginning to break into the fan of +spray and rainbows which poured down into the gorge. Once the chimney +had been climbed, it should be possible to climb out from under the +falls without passing through the water again. + +And after that--? + +Abruptly, Honath grinned. He felt weak all through with reaction, and +the face of the demon would probably be grinning in his dreams for a +long time to come. But at the same time he could not repress a surge of +irrational confidence. He gestured upward jauntily, shook himself, and +loped forward into the throat of the chimney. + +Hardly more than an hour later they were all standing on a ledge +overlooking the gorge, with the waterfall creaming over the brink next +to them, only a few yards away. From here, it was evident that the gorge +itself was only the bottom of a far greater cleft, a split in the +pink-and-grey cliffs as sharp as though it had been riven in the rock by +a bolt of sheet lightning. Beyond the basalt pillars from which the fall +issued, however, the stream foamed over a long ladder of rock shelves +which seemed to lead straight up into the sky. + +"That way?" Mathild said. + +"Yes, and as fast as possible," Alaskon said, shading his eyes. "It must +be late. I don't think the light will last much longer." + +"We'll have to go single file," Honath added. "And we'd better keep hold +of each other's hands. One slip on those wet steps and--it's a long way +down again." + +Mathild shuddered and took Honath's hand convulsively. To his +astonishment, the next instant she was tugging him toward the basalt +pillars. + +The irregular patch of deepening violet sky grew slowly as they climbed. +They paused often, clinging to the jagged escarpments until their breath +came back, and snatching icy water in cupped palms from the stream that +fell down the ladder beside them. There was no way to tell how far up +into the dusk the way had taken them, but Honath suspected that they +were already somewhat above the level of their own vine-web world. The +air smelled colder and sharper than it ever had above the jungle. + +The final cut in the cliffs through which the stream fell was another +chimney. It was steeper and more smooth-walled than the one which had +taken them out of the gorge under the waterfall, but narrow enough to be +climbed by bracing one's back against one side, and one's hands and feet +against the other. The column of air inside the chimney was filled with +spray, but in Hell that was too minor a discomfort to bother about. + +At long last Honath heaved himself over the edge of the chimney onto +flat rock, drenched and exhausted, but filled with an elation he could +not suppress and did not want to. They were above the attic jungle; they +had beaten Hell itself. He looked around to make sure that Mathild was +safe, and then reached a hand down to Alaskon. The navigator's bad leg +had been giving him trouble. Honath heaved mightily and Alaskon came +heavily over the edge and lit sprawling on the high mesa. + +The stars were out. For a while they simply sat and gasped for breath. +Then they turned, one by one, to see where they were. + +There was not a great deal to see. There was the mesa, domed with stars +on all sides and a shining, finned spindle, like a gigantic minnow, +pointing skyward in the center of the rocky plateau. And around the +spindle, indistinct in the starlight.... + +... Around the shining minnow, tending it, were Giants. + + * * * * * + +This, then, was the end of the battle to do what was right, whatever the +odds. All the show of courage against superstition, all the black +battles against Hell itself, came down to this: _The Giants were real!_ + +They were unarguably real. Though they were twice as tall as men, stood +straighter, had broader shoulders, were heavier across the seat and had +no visible tails, their fellowship with men was clear. Even their +voices, as they shouted to each other around their towering metal +minnow, were the voices of men made into gods, voices as remote from +those of men as the voices of men were remote from those of monkeys, yet +just as clearly of the same family. + +These were the Giants of the Book of Laws. They were not only real, but +they had come back to Tellura as they had promised to do. + +And they would know what to do with unbelievers, and with fugitives from +Hell. It had all been for nothing--not only the physical struggle, but +the fight to be allowed to think for oneself as well. The gods existed, +literally, actually. This belief was the real hell from which Honath had +been trying to fight free all his life--but now it was no longer just a +belief. It was a fact, a fact that he was seeing with his own eyes. + +The Giants had returned to judge their handiwork. And the first of the +people they would meet would be three outcasts, three condemned and +degraded criminals, three jail-breakers--the worst possible detritus of +the attic world. + +All this went searing through Honath's mind in less than a second, but +nevertheless Alaskon's mind evidently had worked still faster. Always +the most outspoken unbeliever of the entire little group of rebels, the +one among them whose whole world was founded upon the existence of +rational explanations for everything, his was the point of view most +completely challenged by the sight before them now. With a deep, sharply +indrawn breath, he turned abruptly and walked away from them. + +Mathild uttered a cry of protest, which she choked off in the middle; +but it was already too late. A round eye on the great silver minnow came +alight, bathing them all in an oval patch of brilliance. + +[Illustration] + +Honath darted after the navigator. Without looking back, Alaskon +suddenly was running. For an instant longer Honath saw his figure, +poised delicately against the black sky. Then he dropped silently out of +sight, as suddenly and completely as if he had never been. + +Alaskon had borne every hardship and every terror of the ascent from +Hell with courage and even with cheerfulness but he had been unable to +face being told that it had all been meaningless. + +Sick at heart, Honath turned back, shielding his eyes from the +miraculous light. There was a clear call in some unknown language from +near the spindle. + +Then there were footsteps, several pairs of them, coming closer. + +It was time for the Second Judgment. + +After a long moment, a big voice from the darkness said: "Don't be +afraid. We mean you no harm. We're men, just as you are." + +The language had the archaic flavor of the Book of Laws, but it was +otherwise perfectly understandable. A second voice said: "What are you +called?" + +Honath's tongue seemed to be stuck to the roof of his mouth. While he +was struggling with it, Mathild's voice came clearly from beside him: + +"He is Honath the Pursemaker, and I am Mathild the Forager." + +"You are a long distance from the place we left your people," the first +Giant said. "Don't you still live in the vine-webs above the jungles?" + +"Lord--" + +"My name is Jarl Eleven. This man is Gerhardt Adler." + +This seemed to stop Mathild completely. Honath could understand why. The +very notion of addressing Giants by name was nearly paralyzing. But +since they were already as good as cast down into Hell again, nothing +could be lost by it. + +"Jarl Eleven," he said, "the people still live among the vines. The +floor of the jungle is forbidden. Only criminals are sent there. We are +criminals." + +"Oh?" Jarl Eleven said. "And you've come all the way from the surface to +this mesa? Gerhardt, this is prodigious. You have no idea what the +surface of this planet is like--it's a place where evolution has never +managed to leave the tooth-and-nail stage. Dinosaurs from every period +of the Mesozoic, primitive mammals all the way up the scale to the +ancient cats the works. That's why the original seeding team put these +people in the treetops instead." + +"Honath, what was your crime?" Gerhardt Adler said. + +Honath was almost relieved to have the questioning come so quickly to +this point. Jarl Eleven's aside, with its many terms he could not +understand, had been frightening in its very meaninglessness. + +"There were five of us," Honath said in a low voice. "We said we--that +we did not believe in the Giants." + +There was a brief silence. Then, shockingly, both Jarl Eleven and +Gerhardt Adler burst into enormous laughter. + +Mathild cowered, her hands over her ears. Even Honath flinched and took +a step backward. Instantly, the laughter stopped, and the Giant called +Jarl Eleven stepped into the oval of light and sat down beside them. In +the light, it could be seen that his face and hands were hairless, +although there was hair on his crown; the rest of his body was covered +by a kind of cloth. Seated, he was no taller than Honath, and did not +seem quite so fearsome. + +"I beg your pardon," he said. "It was unkind of us to laugh, but what +you said was highly unexpected. Gerhardt, come over here and squat down, +so that you don't look so much like a statue of some general. Tell me, +Honath, in what way did you not believe in the Giants?" + +Honath could hardly believe his ears. A Giant had begged his pardon! Was +this still some joke even more cruel? But whatever the reason, Jarl +Eleven had asked him a question. + +"Each of the five of us differed," he said. "I held that you were +not--not real except as symbols of some abstract truth. One of us, the +wisest, believed that you did not exist in any sense at all. But we all +agreed that you were not gods." + +"And of course we aren't," Jarl Eleven said. "We're men. We come from +the same stock as you. We're not your rulers, but your brothers. Do you +understand what I say?" + +"No," Honath admitted. + +"Then let me tell you about it. There are men on many worlds, Honath. +They differ from one another, because the worlds differ, and different +kinds of men are needed to people each one. Gerhardt and I are the kind +of men who live on a world called Earth, and many other worlds like it. +We are two very minor members of a huge project called a 'seeding +program', which has been going on for thousands of years now. It's the +job of the seeding program to survey newly discovered worlds, and then +to make men suitable to live on each new world." + +"To make men? But only gods--" + +"No, no. Be patient and listen," said Jarl Eleven. "We don't make men. +We make them suitable. There's a great deal of difference between the +two. We take the living germ plasm, the sperm and the egg, and we modify +it. When the modified man emerges, we help him to settle down in his new +world. That's what we did on Tellura--it happened long ago, before +Gerhardt and I were even born. Now we've come back to see how you people +are getting along, and to lend a hand if necessary." + +He looked from Honath to Mathild, and back again. "Do you understand?" +he said. + +"I'm trying." Honath said. "But you should go down to the jungle-top, +then. We're not like the others; they are the people you want to see." + +"We shall, in the morning. We just landed here. But, just because you're +not like the others, we're more interested in you now. Tell me, has any +condemned man ever escaped from the jungle floor before you people?" + +"No, never. That's not surprising. There are monsters down there." + +Jarl Eleven looked sidewise at the other Giant. He seemed to be smiling. +"When you see the films," he remarked, "you'll call that the +understatement of the century. Honath, how did you three manage to +escape, then?" + +Haltingly at first, and then with more confidence as the memories came +crowding vividly back, Honath told him. When he mentioned the feast at +the demon's nest, Jarl Eleven again looked significantly at Adler, but +he did not interrupt. + +"And finally we got to the top of the chimney and came out on this flat +space," Honath said. "Alaskon was still with us then, but when he saw +you and the metal thing he threw himself back down the cleft. He was a +criminal like us, but he should not have died. He was a brave man, and a +wise one." + +"Not wise enough to wait until all the evidence was in," Adler said +enigmatically. "All in all, Jarl, I'd say 'prodigious' is the word for +it. This is easily the most successful seeding job any team has ever +done, at least in this limb of the galaxy. And what a stroke of luck, to +be on the spot just as it came to term, and with a couple at that!" + +"What does he mean?" Honath said. + +"Just this, Honath. When the seeding team set your people up in business +on Tellura, they didn't mean for you to live forever in the treetops. +They knew that, sooner or later, you'd have to come down to the ground +and learn to fight this planet on its own terms. Otherwise, you'd go +stale and die out." + +"Live on the ground all the time?" Mathild said in a faint voice. + +"Yes, Mathild. The life in the treetops was to have been only an interim +period, while you gathered knowledge you needed about Tellura and put it +to use. But to be the real masters of the world, you will have to +conquer the surface, too. + +"The device your people worked out, that of sending criminals to the +surface, was the best way of conquering the planet that they could have +picked. It takes a strong will and courage to go against custom, and +both those qualities are needed to lick Tellura. Your people exiled just +such fighting spirits to the surface, year after year after year. + +"Sooner or later, some of those exiles were going to discover how to +live successfully on the ground and make it possible for the rest of +your people to leave the trees. You and Honath have done just that." + +"Observe please, Jarl," Adler said. "The crime in this first successful +case was ideological. That was the crucial turn in the criminal policy +of these people. A spirit of revolt is not quite enough, but couple it +with brains and--_ecce homo_!" + +Honath's head was swimming. "But what does all this mean?" he said. "Are +we--not condemned to Hell any more?" + +"No, you're still condemned, if you still want to call it that," Jarl +Eleven said soberly. "You've learned how to live down there, and you've +found out something even more valuable: how to stay alive while cutting +down your enemies. Do you know that you killed three demons with your +bare hands, you and Mathild and Alaskon?" + +"Killed--" + +"Certainly," Jarl Eleven said. "You ate three eggs. That is the +classical way, and indeed the only way, to wipe out monsters like the +dinosaurs. You can't kill the adults with anything short of an anti-tank +gun, but they're helpless in embryo--and the adults haven't the sense to +guard their nests." + +Honath heard, but only distantly. Even his awareness of Mathild's warmth +next to him did not seem to help much. + +"Then we have to go back down there," he said dully. "And this time +forever." + +"Yes," Jarl Eleven said, his voice gentle. "But you wont be alone, +Honath. Beginning tomorrow, you'll have all your people with you." + +"_All_ our people? But you're going to drive them out?" + +"All of them. Oh, we won't prohibit the use of the vine-webs too, but +from now on your race will have to fight it out on the surface as well. +You and Mathild have proven that it can be done. It's high time the rest +of you learned, too." + +"Jarl, you think too little of these young people themselves," Adler +said. "Tell them what is in store for them. They are frightened." + +"Of course, of course. It's obvious. Honath, you and Mathild are the +only living individuals of your race who know how to survive down there +on the surface. And we're not going to tell your people how to do that. +We aren't even going to drop them so much as a hint. That part of it is +up to you." + +Honath's jaw dropped. + +"It's up to you," Jarl Eleven repeated firmly. "We'll return you to your +tribe tomorrow, and we'll tell your people that you two know the rules +for successful life on the ground--and that everyone else has to go down +and live there too. We'll tell them nothing else but that. What do you +think they'll do then?" + +"I don't know," Honath said dazedly. "Anything could happen. They might +even make us Spokesman and Spokeswoman--except that we're just common +criminals." + +"Uncommon pioneers, Honath. The man and the woman to lead the humanity +of Tellura out of the attic, into the wide world." Jarl Eleven got to +his feet, the great light playing over him. Looking up after him, Honath +saw that there were at least a dozen other Giants standing just outside +the oval of light, listening intently to every word. + +"But there's a little time to be passed before we begin," Jarl Eleven +said. "Perhaps you two would like to look over our ship." + +Humbly, but with a soundless emotion much like music inside him, Honath +took Mathild's hand. Together they walked away from the chimney to Hell, +following the footsteps of the Giants. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Thing in the Attic, by James Benjamin Blish + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THING IN THE ATTIC *** + +***** This file should be named 32447.txt or 32447.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/4/4/32447/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/32447.zip b/32447.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a4add2 --- /dev/null +++ b/32447.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b588646 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #32447 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32447) |
