The Dark Design by Phillip Jose Farmer

Burton stood up. “I understand. Many thanks for your hospitali­ty, chief, whether or not I ever see you again.”

“If not in this world, perhaps in the next.”

It was difficult to get to sleep. After hours of tossing and turning, he was surprised to find himself being shaken awake by Monat. Burton freed himself of the Arcturan’s three fingers and thumb and got up. Monat, who also came from a planet with a twenty-four hours’ rotation, had a biological chronometer in his head. Burton had depended upon him to wake the others at the right time.

They moved around, talking softly while they drank instant coffee. The crystals, a gift from the islanders, provided a boiling heat as they dissolved.

After going over their plan once more, they moved outside and relieved themselves. The hut was just high enough to be above the mists, enabling them to see a faint glow high up on the spire. The Shaawanwaaki, even though in fog, would be able to discern it as a dim glow. That would be all they needed.

Frigate and Burton were the only ones who had been wearing a full suit of cloths when the Hadji II had gone down. The others, however, had cloths given them by the Ganopo. Clad from head to foot in these, they walked down into’ the fog. Burton led, one hand in Alice’s, hers in Frigate’s, and so on down the line. Depending upon an unusual sense of direction, Burton ted them to the water’s edge. Now they could see the glow of the torches in the fuzziness.

Burton took out his flint knife. Kazz had a club he’d fashioned from a stick of pine with a knife- he’d borrowed from a Ganopo. Frigate’s knife had been given to the Neanderthal woman, Besst. The rest were unarmed.

Burton moved cautiously forward until he was at the edge of the raft. There was enough space between the torches ranged along the edge for him to crawl through unseen. He proceeded to do this until he was well out of range of the guards’ vision and hearing. He waited while, one by one, me others caught up.

“This is the easy part,” he said. “From now on we’ll be blind until we come across a torchlight. I have the location of the build­ings and the boats in my head, but in this fog … well, follow me.”

Despite his assurances, he blundered around for a while. Then, abruptly, the huge black figure of the idol, a fire in its hollow belly, was in front of him. He stood for a minute, estimating the probable number of paces from the statue to the building which held the grails.

Kazz said, “I can just see some lights to the right.”

Keeping to the right of the torches, Burton led the others until he saw the square walls and conical roof of the storehouse. From the front of the building came the voices of the guards, speaking in low tones, stamping their feet now and then. After going behind the building, touching it with a finger to keep contact. Burton stopped on the other side.

Here he removed from under his cloths a coil of leather rope borrowed from the Ganopo chief, who had not asked him about its intended use. Monat and Frigate also carried coils. Burton tied their ends together to make a single rope. While Alice held one end, he moved out into the darkness with Frigate, Monat, Loghu, and Kazz. He knew that there was a boat-rack on the edge of the raft just opposite the storehouse. This time, he went straight to his tar­get.

Cautioning them to move slowly and silently, he and the others eased a large canoe off the rack. It could hold ten people and so, though made of light pine and thin fish-skin, was heavy.

After me canoe was in the water and paddles placed in it, all returned except Loghu. It was her job to keep the canoe from drifting away.

Following the rope, they went swiftly back to the storehouse.

Just as they returned, Kazz grunted, and said, “Others coming!”

The flames of four torches became visible.