“You know that I urged you to visit me before I knew aught of you but your parentage and your own good spirit.”
“Yes, sir, you asked me to look you up. And I tried to, I really did—but I didn’t know where you had landed. I was just getting organized to do a little detective work on it when the Greenies landed. I’m sorry.” Don felt vaguely uncomfortable, knowing that he had put the matter off until he had a favor to ask.
“And I tried to find you, Donald—and was caught by the same mischance. Most recently, by rumors that are carried on the mist, did I discover where you were and what you were doing.” Sir Isaac paused as if he found the choice of words difficult. “Knowing that this house is yours, knowing that you were welcome in any case, can you forgive me when you discover you were summoned also for a most practical reason?”
Don decided that this called for “true speech.” ” ‘How can the eyes offend the tail? Or father offend son?’ What can I do to help, Sir Isaac? I had already gathered that something was up.”
“How shall I begin? Should I speak of your Cyrus Buchanan who died far from his people, yet died happily since he had made us his people, too? Or should I speak of the strange and complicated customs—of your own people wherein you sometimes—or so it appears to us—cause the jaw to bite its own leg? Or should I discuss directly the events that have happened here since first you and I shared mud in the sky?”
Phipps stirred uneasily. “Let me handle it. Sir Isaac. Remember that this young man and I are of the same race. We won’t have to beat around the bush; I can put it up to him in two words. It isn’t complicated.”
Sir Isaac lowered his massive head. “As you wish, my friend.”
Phipps turned to Don. “Young fellow, you didn’t know it, but when your parents called you home to Mars, you were a courier with a message.”
Don looked at him sharply. “But I did know it.” His mind raced ahead, adjusting himself to this new situation.
“You did? Well, that’s fine! Let’s have it, then.”
“Have what?”
“The ring—the ring, of course. Give it to us.”
XV – “Judge Not According to the Appearance” – JOHN VII:24
“WAIT a minute,” Don protested. “You’re mixed up. I know what ring you mean, all right, but it wasn’t the ring; it was the paper that it was wrapped in. And the I.B.I. got that.”
Phipps looked perplexed, then laughed. “They did, eh? Then they made the same mistake you did. But it’s the ring itself that is important. Let’s have it.”
“You must be mistaken,” Don answered slowly. “Or maybe we aren’t talking about the same ring.” He thought about it. “It’s possible that the I.B.I. swapped rings before the package ever reached me. But it’s a dead cinch that the ring that was delivered to me couldn’t have contained a message. It was transparent plastic—styrene, probably—and there wasn’t even a fly speck in it. No message. No way to hide a message.”
Phipps shrugged impatiently. “Don’t quibble with me as to whether or not a message could be concealed in the ring—it’s the right ring; be sure of that. The I.B.I. didn’t switch rings—we know.”
“How do you know?”
“Confound it, boy! Your function was to deliver the ring, that’s all. You let us worry about the message in it.”
Don was beginning to feel sure that when his younger self had bitten Phipps’ thumb, he must have been justified. “Wait a minute! I was to deliver the ring, yes—that is what Dr. Jefferson—you know who he is?”
“I knew who he was. I’ve never met him.”
“That’s what Dr. Jefferson wanted. He’s dead, or so they told me. In any case I can’t consult him But he was very specific about to wham I was to deliver it—to my father. Not to you.”
Phipps pounded the arm of the chair. “I know it, I know it! If things had gone properly, you would have delivered it to your father and we would have been saved no end of trouble. But those eager lads in New London had to—Never mind. The rebellion occurring when it did caused you to wind up here instead of on Mars. I’m trying to pick up the pieces. You can’t deliver it to your father, but you can get the same result by turning it over to me. Your father and I are working toward the same end.”