“With all respect, gentlemen, you keep this maniac away from my little girl or I’ll geld him!” the woman said and stomped away.
“Sit in the sun, Brother Howling,” Luzon suggested, pointing to a half-broken bench against the outside walldownwind of them.
All the while, Torkel kept expecting Satok to arrive to guide them to the rich ore faces as he’d promised. But several hours went by with no sign of the man. Finally the sound of helicopter engines once more routed the four men from their chairs.
Two helicopters approached the village. Torkel figured one would have men and one equipment to rid the area of the bushes, but when the passengers disembarked, he was annoyed to see that there were no figures in fatigues emerging, except the pilots, O’Shay and Greene. No one useful at all, in fact. Marmion and her entourage had come, along with George and Ivan from Luzon’s group. And to his further irritation, he watched as Clodagh Senungatuk was courteously helped to descend by O’Shay from his copter.
“You’re on report, O Shay, for disobeying orders,” he told the pilot.
“Oh, please don’t punish the dear boy, Captain Fiske,” said Marmion, with a flourish of fashionable fabric scarf and a charming move. “It’s all my fault really. Captain Greene returned from the southern continent with Yana Maddock, Dr. Shongili, and those sweet youngsters, plus another little girl Dr. Shongili says is the sister of his other niece”
“Goat-dung!” Shepherd Howling said. “She is mine. She is to be my wife.”
“Oh. surely not,” Marmion said, smiling brightly at him. “The girl’s less than twelve years old. But, at any rate, our teams were in need of one of Clodagh’s hearty meals and we sat listening to Yana and Sean tell us the most fantastic adventuresah, but I needn’t tell you, need I, Matthew? You were present for some of them.”
Luzon inclined his head, his eyes half-hooded and dangerous.
“Well, Johnny Greene heard Captain O’Shay’s message about the weeds here, and then Clodagh said that a work party wouldn’t do much good and might even be in danger. But that she knew something that would work.” Marmion paused, as if expecting approval, her eyes all wide and innocent. “Et viola! We have come to offer assistance.”
Before anyone could say anything else she added ingenuously, “Also, Matthew, your young friends were absolutely pining for you, and I simply had to help reunite you, isn’t that so, boys?”
Luzon’s muscular assistants noddedrather miserably, Torkel thought.
While everyone was standing around thinking of a response to Marmion’s gabble, Clodagh Senungatuk started walking out of the village.
“Where the devil do you think you’re going?” Torkel demanded.
“To make a path to the cave,’ she said simply, and kept walking.
By the time she had gone five more steps, Torkel recovered from his surprise enough to tell her that she wouldn’t be able to penetrate such a hedge of weed, and where were the boards and other spanning materials he had sent for? She gave no answer, plodding up the track toward the cave. The other new arrivals followed, plus half the village, which seemed to consider this expedition fine entertainment.
At the edge of the vast jungle of waist-high vines, which seemed even more impenetrable since Torkel’s first look at them, Clodagh paused. She bent down and gently touched the center of one of the leaves.
So what are you doing? Asking it nicely? Torkel demanded.
“Lookin’ at this white stuff. Wondering why somebody tried to paint the bushes. This is the only thing that works.” She drew out a large clear flask filled with a greenish liquid, uncorked it carefully, and then inserted a sprinkler head of home manufacture. She shook the bottle a bit in front and to each side of her.
Instantly the vines retracted as if they had been mowed with a scythe, and as she moved forward, Marmion fell in step behind her, followed by Sally Point-Jefferson, who had had the good sense to put on heavy boots.
Marmion turned around and said, “Quickly, boys. I don’t know how long the effect lasts. Clodagh’s very mysterious about it.
They followed with alacrity. Torkel felt like a fool, trailing behind the big woman as she doused her concochon to the right, the center, and the left, like some ancient prelate dispensing holy water or preparing a pontiff’s path with incense.