“I see,” said Roberts. “Can you cross that pool without being attacked?”
“The fish are turned back by a chemical repellent with which my garment has been impregnated. Sir. They would otherwise bite me as they would bite you; but they would not ingest my substance, as it is not nourishing to them.”
“All right. Go over near the edge of the water, and kneel down.”
* * *
The robot willingly and obediently went near the edge of the water and knelt down.
Now, thought Roberts, if he climbed on its back, it would take him partway across and then toss him to the fish.
The function of this “special guide” seemed to be to give disastrous advice and murderous assistance. It followed that there was only one thing to do.
Roberts stepped back, aimed deliberately at the base of the robot’s neck, and depressed the trigger.
The fusion beam sprang out.
There was a flare of flame, flying sparks, the “head” tilted and separated from the robot’s body, and the body rose and wheeled toward Roberts.
Roberts shifted his aim to the lower chest, and the robot fell forward on the sand.
From the rock face to one side a dull flash briefly caught Roberts’ attention.
Down the rock face, another steel-gray wetly gleaming length of muscle and hunger tumbled, to land with a splat, and flop into the pond.
Roberts wiped the sweat out of his eyes, warily circled the human-like form, and crouched near its feet. Carefully, he undid the boots, and, holding the gun, stood thoughtfully considering the one-piece garment. He carefully pulled off the boots, but he had a disinclination to get in reach of the arms, however motionless the robot might seem.
Was the thing out of action, or wasn’t it?
He stepped back, found what was left of the long stick he’d held over the water, lightly pressed the end to the edge of the one-piece garment, partway up the back. He moved the stick as if he were tugging at the cloth with his fingers.
Pebbles flew and dust whirled as the headless robot sprang at the stick.
Roberts fired at the robot’s lower chest, and again it dropped to the ground.
Now, this time was it finally out of action, or wasn’t it?
And what if, in trying to make sure he had hit the control mechanism, he hit the energy-source instead?
Roberts blew out his breath and stubbornly considered the situation.
The obvious thing to do was to get that repellent-impregnated garment.
Roberts raised the gun, and methodically burned the thick arms off the trunk of the mechanism, cut a line across the garment with the fusion beam, warily took hold, and pulled the garment free. A hard kick threw him back and could have knocked him into the pool if he hadn’t expected it. But now he had the cut, but still usable, garment. And he could see that he was going to need it.
* * *
Down the rock face across the pool, another steel-gray form spun and fell, hit the shelf below with a splat, and flopped into the pool.
With an influx like that, there must be some way out for the fish already in the pool. But from where he was, Roberts couldn’t see it. He shook his head, put the garment on over his fatigues, put his shoes back on, started for the pool, and then paused, looking at the robot.
The headless, armless torso had rolled toward the place where he would have landed if that last kick had fully connected, and now it was feeling carefully with its feet along the water’s edge. Finding nothing, it lay still.
Roberts stood frowning.
Considering the source, how had he come to take that piece of information for granted?
He took his shoes off, and pulled off the robot’s repellent-impregnated garment. He put his shoes back on, searched along the edge of the invisible barrier, found a second long stick, tied one leg of the garment to the stick, and let the other end of the garment hang free. He walked down near the water’s edge, swung the stick out over the water, and dipped about eight inches of the garment into the water.
The stick jerked in his hands. The garment was cut off in a ragged edge half-a-foot above the water, and the steel-gray forms shot up in a boiling froth to snap bits off the part that dangled higher yet.
Roberts straightened.
This was the “repellent-impregnated” garment he had almost relied on.
Roberts glanced around at the robot, saw it was too far away to bother him, drew the fusion gun, lowered the remainder of the garment’s dangling leg barely into the water, and shot the first fish to leap out after it.
Other fish attacked that one, and, using his tried and proved method, Roberts reduced their numbers by enough to satisfy the appetite of the remainder.
And once again the pond became placid.
* * *
The robot was now exploring the far edge of the barrier’s opening on the pool.
Roberts, thinking over the situation, decided that things were about as favorable as he could hope to get them. Most of the fish in the pond should now be digesting the last meal, and any that might still be hungry ought to be attracted first to the remaining cloth on the end of the stick, rather than to him.
Dipping the cloth in the water, with the stick held in his left hand, Roberts eased carefully into the pool. The fusion gun, he held in his right hand, ready to use in case the cloth were attacked. But when he tried to move forward, his feet at once came up against some obstruction. He tried in a different place, with the same result.
The trip across now turned into a nightmare all on its own. Through the water, still murky, but no longer so badly stirred up, loomed skeletal rib cages and piles of bones. Here and there, a fish hung sluggishly, fins moving spasmodically. Roberts worked his way across, looking up frequently at the rock face, down which from time to time fell a steel-gray form that he had to kill before it got in the pool, because, if he didn’t finish it, it might very well finish him.
By the time Roberts was halfway across, the worst of the horror looming up at him through the water had begun to ease off. The bottom was becoming clearer, apparently because most of the victims had never made it this far.
From there on, suddenly it became almost easy, and the bottom was so flat and unobstructed that just a little carelessness on Roberts’ part would have dropped him down a narrow vertical cleft not eight feet from the edge of the rock shelf. He got across that with a sense of relief, reached the shelf, and just then something tugged at his shoe.
The cloth on the stick jerked, there was a splash, a sense of something brushing his leg, and when he looked down, the water was stained with red.
He threw the remainder of the “repellent-impregnated” garment into the pool, and pulled himself out on the rock shelf. He moved over near the face of the rock, took off his shirt, and bound it tightly around his badly bitten lower leg.
Now he discovered that the shoe of the same leg had been cut open, and he was bleeding from inside the shoe.
He took the shoe off, clenched his jaw at the sight, tore off strips of his ragged trouser legs, bound his foot, put the cut shoe back on, and laced it tight.
The bandages were turning red, but there was nothing he could do about that. He looked up at the rock face, which was apparently a form of shale, with many little ledges, some of them dry, and some of them, where the water flowed down, wet and mossy. The face wasn’t vertical, but if he should slip, there was nothing there to give his bare hands a real hold until he hit the rock shelf at the bottom.
Carefully, he started to climb, clenching his jaw against the pain from his leg. About fifteen feet up, there came a flop-thump from above, and one of the steel-gray fish bounced past, snapping at him on the way by.
Roberts began to climb again. When he had almost reached the ledge, he paused, studying the green moss at its rim just above. The moss had little stalks on it, and each stalk had a set of miniature spikes at its end.
What would happen if he touched that? Was it, perhaps, poisonous?
He looked around, then carefully worked to the side, and now he was on slippery wet rock. There was still moss up above, and he kept moving to the side.
Overhead, an occasional insect flashed out over the edge of the ledge, and then darted back again.