Oric smiled reassuringly. “Oh, he’s all right. Just one of the boys-a friend of mine.”
“But can he be trusted? I don’t remember seeing him around campaign headquarters.”
“Oh, sure! By the way, you boys are to be congratulated on the job of work you’ve done here. Well, I must be running on — I’ll drop in on you again.”
“Just a minute, Oric. Are you all set on the apportation?”
“Oh, yes. Yes indeed. They’ll all be distributed around to the polling places in plenty of time-every statue.”
“When are you going to do it?”
“Why don’t you let me worry about those details, Robar?”
“Well…you are the boss, but I still think I ought to know when to be ready for the apportation.”
“Oh, well, if you feel that way, shall we say, ah, midnight before election day?”
“That’s fine. We’ll be ready.”
ROBAR watched the approach of the midnight before election with a feeling of relief. Kondor’s work was all complete, the ludicrous statues were lined up, row on row, two for every polling place in the province of Lac, and Kondor himself was busy getting reacquainted with the wine jug. He had almost sobered up during the sustained effort of creating the statues.
Robar gazed with satisfaction at the images. “I wish I could see the Governor’s face when he first catches sight of one of these babies. Nobody could possibly mistake who they werfe. Dolph, you’re a genius; I never saw anything sillier looking in my life.”
“That’s high praise, pal,” Dolph answered. “Isn’t it about time the priest was getting here? I’ll feel easier when we see our little dollies flying through the air on their way to the polling places.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry. Oric told me positively that the priest would be here in plenty of time. Besides, apportation is fast. Even the images intended for the back country and the far northern peninsula will get there in a few minutes-once he gets to work.”
But as the night wore on it became increasingly evident that something was wrong. Robar returned from his thirteenth trip to the highway with a report of no one in sight on the road from the city.
“What’ll we do?” Clevum asked.
“I don’t know. Something’s gone wrong; that’s sure.”
“Well, we’ve got to do something. Let’s go back to the temple and try to locate him.”
“We can’t do that; we don’t know what priest Oric hired. We’ll have to find Oric.”
They left Kondor to guard the statues and hurried back into town. They found Oric just leaving campaign headquarters. With him was the visitor he had brought with him two days before. He seemed surprised to see them. “Hello, boys. Finished with the job so soon?”
“He never showed up,” Robar panted.
“Never showed up? Well, imagine that! Are you sure?”
“Of course we’re sure; we were there!”
“Look,” put in Dolph, “what is the name of the priest you hired to do this job? We want to go up to the temple and find him.”
“His name? Oh, no, don’t do that. You might cause all sorts of complications. I’ll go to the temple myself.”
“We’ll go with you.”
“That isn’t necessary,” he told them testily. “You go on back to the gravel pit, and be sure everything is ready.”
“Good grief, Oric, everything has been ready for hours. Why not take Clevum along with you to show the priest the way?”
“I’ll see to that. Now get along with you.”
Reluctantly they did as they were ordered. They made the trip back in moody silence. As they approached their destination Clevum spoke up, “You know, fellows — ”
“Well? Spill it.”
“That fellow that was with Oric-wasn’t he the guy he had out here, showing him around?”
“Yes; why?”
“I’ve been trying to place him. I remember now — I saw him two weeks ago, coming out of Governor Vortus’ campaign office.”
AFTER a moment of stunned silence Robar said bitterly, “Sold out. There’s no doubt about it; Oric has sold us out.”
“Well, what do we do about it?”
“What can we do?”
“Blamed if I know.”
.”Wait a minute, fellows,”‘ came Clevum’s pleading voice, “Kondor used to be a priest. Maybe he can do apportation.”