The Dark Design by Phillip Jose Farmer

Frigate hastily assured him that his interest was not in her but in the armlet. The man looked relieved; the woman, disappointed. But she shrugged and made the best of it.

“It comes from up-River,” she said. “It cost one hundred cigarettes and two hornfish horns.”

“Not to mention some personal favors on her part,” the man said.

The woman said, “Oh, Emil, that was before I moved in with you.”

“Do you know where it came from?” Frigate said. “I mean, where it was made?”

“The man who sold it to me came from Nova Bohemujo.”

Frigate gave the man a cigarette, and this seemed to ease the tension. Ernil said that New Bohemia was a rather large state about nine hundred grailstones up The River. Twentieth-century Czechs made up its majority. The minority was composed of some ancient Gaulish tribe with, of course, the usual one or two percent of peoples from everywhere and every time.

Until three years ago New Bohemia had been small, just one of the mingled Slavic-Gaulish peoples in this area.

“But its chief, a man named Ladislas Podebrad, launched a project about six years ago. He thought there might be mineral treasures, especially iron, buried deep under the soil. His people started digging at the base of the mountain, and they made an enormous and deep hole. They wore out much flint and bone. You know how tough the grass is.”

Frigate nodded. The grass seemed designed to resist erosion. Its roots were very deep and intertwined. In fact, he wasn’t sure that it was not one plant, a single organism extending on both sides of The River and perhaps beneath it. And its roots were tough silicon bearers.

“It took a long time to get below the grass, and when it was done, • there was nothing but dirt beneath that. They kept on, and after going sixty meters, they came to rock. I believe it was limestone. They almost gave up then. But Podebrad, who’s something of a mystic, told them he’d had a dream that there were great quantities of iron below the rock.”

“Of course,” the woman said, “I can’t see you working like that.”

“You’re not so dedicated yourself.”

Frigate did not give them long to stay together, but he said nothing. He could be wrong. He’d known couples like this on Earth who had verbally stung and stabbed each other from marriage to death. For some sick reason, they needed each other.

Three years ago, Podebrad’s dream and the hard work of his people had paid off.

They had come across an immense store of minerals: iron ore, zinc sulfide, sand, coal, salt, lead, sulfur, and even some platinum and vanadium.

Frigate blinked and said, “You mean, in layers, strata? But they wouldn’t occur naturally in that fashion.”

“No,” Emil said. “At least, the man told Marie that they shouldn’t. What he said, and I’ve heard others from New Bohemia say this, too, it looked as if a gigantic truck had just dumped the ores there.

“Whoever made this world had pushed the stuff there, you know, as if by a gigantic bulldozer. Then the rock had been put over it, then the soil, then the grass.”

Podebrad had gotten the minerals out, was, in fact, still bringing them up. All his people were armed with steel weapons now. And New Bohemia had expanded from its 12-kilometer-long boundaries to 60 kilometers on both sides of The River.

However, this had not been done by conquest. Neighboring states had asked to be absorbed, and Podebrad had welcomed them. There was wealth enough for all.

Meanwhile, other states along here had launched their own dig­ging projects. They had been at it about three years but had gained only sweat, worn-out tools, and disappointment.

Podebrad’s original site seemed to be the only one to contain minerals. Or else other dumpheaps-as Emil called them-were buried even deeper.

Emil pointed at the hills.

“Our own country has a hole sixty meters deep. But it’s being filled up now. The caprock is dolomite. Podebrad was lucky. His was soft limestone.”

Frigate thanked them and excitedly hurried off. As a result, the Razzle Dazzle anchored off the bank of Podebrad’s capital eleven days later.