“You know what it is, Fletch?” Elmer asked.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “Thorney had one that was almost like it. A very ancient piece. He named the planet and the people, but I can’t recall the names. He was always telling me the planet and the people.”
“The food is hot,” said Cynthia. “Why don’t we eat it now? We can talk about it while we eat.”
I realized, when she spoke of it, that I was ravenous. I had not tasted food since the noon before.
She led the way to the fire and dished up the food from the pan in which she’d heated it. It was a thick, rich soup, almost a stew, with vegetables and chunks of meat in it. In my haste, I burned my mouth with the first spoonful.
Elmer squatted down beside us. He picked up a stick and idly poked the fire.
“It seems to me,” he said, “that we have here some of those missing items that you told me Professor Thorndyke often talked about. Stuff from archaeological sites looted by treasure hunters who spirited all their findings away so they could not be studied, probably to be sold at a later time, at tremendous profit, to collectors.”
“I think you are right,” I said, “and now I think I know where at least some of them are hidden out.”
“In the Cemetery,” Cynthia said.
“Nothing would be simpler,” I said. “A casket would make an excellent hiding place. No one would think of digging it up-no one, that is, other than a gang of outland metal seekers who figured out where they could get good metal at no more than the cost of a little work.”
“It would have been the metal at first,” said Cynthia, “and then one day they found a casket that held no body, but was filled with treasure. Maybe there was a way in which the graves that held the treasure would be marked. Perhaps a simple little design you would never see unless you knew where to look on the tombstone or the marker.” “They wouldn’t have found that mark to start with,” said Elmer. “It might have taken them quite a while to get it figured out.”
“They probably had a long time to get it figured out,” said Cynthia. “These ghouls of ours may have been at this metal business for hundreds of years.” “There may have been no mark,” I said. “Why, there must have been,” said Cynthia. “How else would they know where to dig?”
“How about someone in the Cemetery working with them? Some insider who would know which graves to dig?” “You are both forgetting something,” Elmer said. “Maybe our ghoulish friends aren’t really interested in those trinkets in the boxes …” “But they took them,” Cynthia said. “Sure, they’d take them. They may be interesting and amusing. They might even have some trade value. But it seems to me it is the metal they really would be after. Metal, after all these years, would be hard to come by. At first it could be picked up in the cities, but after a time much of the cities-metal would be badly corroded and you’d have to mine for it. But in the Cemetery there is more recent metal, perhaps much better metal. The artifacts they find in some-of the graves have value for us because we have been told by Professor Thorndyke they are significant, but I doubt they have value for these robbers. Toys for the children, geegaws for the women, perhaps minor trading stock-but it’s the metal they are after.”
“This business explains one thing,” I said. “It sheds some light on why Cemetery wants to keep control of visitors. They wouldn’t want to take a chance of someone finding out about the artifacts.”
“It’s not illegal,” Cynthia said.
“No, of course it’s not. The archaeologists have tried for years to get legislation halting the trade in artifacts, but they’ve been unable to.”
“It’s sneaky, though,” said Elmer, “and unprincipled. It’s an underhanded business. If it should leak out, it might do much to tarnish Cemetery’s shiny reputation.”
“But they let us go,” said Cynthia.
“There wasn’t much at the moment they could have done about it,” I said. “There was no way they could stop us.”
“They did something later,” said Elmer. “They tried to blow up Bronco.”
Cynthia said, “If they’d destroyed Bronco, they figured we would get discouraged . . .”
“I think that is right,” I said. “Although we can’t be absolutely sure about the bomb.”
“We can be fairly sure,” said Elmer.
“There’s one thing about it I don’t like,” I said. “Without half trying, we’ve managed to make enemies of everyone we’ve met. There is Cemetery and now this band of ghouls, and I would suppose the people back at the settlement do not think too kindly of us. Because of us they lost some haystacks and a barn and maybe some of them may have been hurt and …”
“They brought it on themselves,” said Elmer.
“That won’t stop them blaming us.”
“I suppose it won’t,” said Elmer.
“I think we should get out of here,” I said.
“You and Miss Cynthia need some sleep.”
I looked across the fire at her. “We can stay awake for a few hours more,” I said. She nodded bleakly at me.
“We’ll take along the horses,” Elmer said. “That will slow them up. We can get their stuff loaded up . . .”
“Why bother with it,” I said. “Leave it here. It does us no good. What could we do with it?”
“Why, sure,” said Elmer. “Why couldn’t I have thought of that? When they come back they’ll have to leave some men to guard it and that splits up their force.”
“They’ll follow us,” said Cynthia. “They have to have those horses.”
“Sure they will,” said Elmer, “and when they finally find the horses, if they ever do, we’ll be miles away and out of reach.”
Bronco spoke, for the first time. “But the human two. They cannot go minus sleep. They cannot go for hours.” “We’ll figure something out,” said Elmer. “Let’s get going.”
“About the census-taker and the ghosts?” asked Cynthia, asking, so far as I could see, without any reason.
“Let’s not worry about the ghosts,” I said.
She’d asked the same question once before. It was just like a woman. Get into some sort of trouble and they’ll come up with the silly questions.
Chapter 13
I woke and it was night, but immediately I remembered what had happened and where we were. I raised up to a sitting position and to one side of me saw the dark form that was Cynthia. She was still asleep. Just a few hours more, I thought, and Elmer and Bronco would be back and we could be on our way. It had been all damn foolishness, I told myself. We could have kept on with them. I had been sleepy, certainly, and riding a horse for the first time in my life had not been an easy chore, but I could have managed. Cynthia had been played out, but we could have strapped her onto Bronco so that if she fell asleep she would not have fallen off, but Elmer had insisted on leaving us behind while he and Bronco shagged the horses deep into the mountains that loomed ahead of us.
“There can’t nothing happen,” he had said. “This cave is comfortable and well hidden and by the time you’ve had some sack time we’ll be back again. There is nothing to it.”
I blamed myself. I should not have let him talk us into it. I didn’t like it, I told myself. We should have stayed together. No matter what had happened, we should have stayed together.
A shadow stirred near the mouth of the cave and a soft voice said, “Friend, please do not make an outcry. There is nothing you must fear.”
I came surging to my feet, the hair prickling at the nape of my neck. “Who the hell are you?” I shouted.
“Softly, softly, softly,” said the voice, softly. “There are those who must not hear.”
Cynthia screamed.
“Shut up!” I yelled at her.
“You must be quiet,” said the lurker in the shadows. “You do not recognize me, but I saw you at the dance.”
Cynthia, on the verge of another scream, caught her breath and gulped. “It’s the census-taker,” she said. “What does he want here?”
“I come, fair one,” said the census-taker, “to warn you of great danger.”
“You .would,” I said, but I did not say it loudly, for all this business of his about talking softly and not making any outcry had sunken into me.
“The wolves,” he said. “The metal wolves have been set upon your trail.”
“What can we do about it?”
“You stay very quiet,” said the census-taker, “and hope that they pass by.”