“Say! There’s a chance! Let’s get going.”
But Kondor was dead to the world.
They shook him. They poured water in his face. They walked him up and down. Finally they got him sober enough to answer questions.
Robar tackled him. “Listen, pop, this is important; Can you perform apportation?”
“Huh? Me? Why, of course. How else did we build the pyramids?”
“Never mind the pyramids. Can you move these statues here tonight?”
Kondor fixed his interrogator with a bloodshot eye. “My son, the great Arcane laws are the same for all time and space. What was done in Egypt in the Golden Age can be done in Mu tonight.”
Dolph put in a word. “Good grief, pop, why didn’t you tell us this before.”
The reply was dignified and logical. “No one asked me.”
KONDOR set about his task at once, but with such slowness that the boys felt they would scream just to watch him. First, he drew a large circle in the dust. “This is the house of darkness,” he announced solemnly, and added the crescent of Astarte. Then he drew another large circle tangent to the first. “And this is the house of light.” He added the sign of the sun god.
When he was done, he walked widdershins about the whole three times the wrong way. His feet nearly betrayed him twice, but he recovered, and continued his progress. At the end of the third lap he hopped to the center of the house of darkness and stood facing the house of light.
The first statue on the left in the front row quivered on its base, then rose into the air and shot over the horizon to the east.
The three young men burst out with a single cheer, and tears streamed down Robar’s face.
Another statue rose up. It was just poised for flight when old Kondor hiccoughed. It fell, a dead weight, back to its base, and broke into two pieces. Kondor turned his head.
“I am truly sorry,” he announced; “I shall be more careful with the others.”
And try he did-but the liquor was regaining its hold. He wove to and fro on his feet, his aim with the images growing more and more erratic. Stone figures flew in every direction, but none travelled any great distance. One group of six flew off together and landed with a high splash in the harbor. At last, with more than three fourths of the images still untouched he sank gently to his knees, keeled over, and remained motionless.
Dolph ran up to him, and shook him. There was no response. He peeled back one of Kondor’s eyelids and examined the pupil. “It’s no good,” he admitted. “He won’t come to for hours.”
Robar gazed heartbrokenly at the shambles around him. There they are, he thought, worthless! Nobody will ever see them-just so much left over campaign material, wasted 1 My biggest idea!
Clevum broke the uncomfortable silence. “Sometimes,” he said, “I think what this country needs is a good earthquake.”
“…the worship of their major deity.
Beyond doubt, while errors are sometimes made in archeology, this is one case in which no chance of error exists. The statues are clearly religious in significance. With that sure footing on which to rest the careful scientist may deduce with assurance the purpose of…”