The Dark Design by Phillip Jose Farmer

Still, there are many among them who would like to make a raid just for the sake of excitement.”

Burton never found out what happened to the Babylonians. He decided that they should leave that day. After the canoe was on its way, the grails were pulled up, emptied, and placed in the bottom of the canoe.

21

After traveung 200 kilometers, burton found an area suitable for boat construction. It was not determined by the wood available, since all places had plenty of pine, oak, yew, and bam­boo. What was now difficult to find was flint and chert for cutting timber. Even in the beginning, these stones were restricted to certain sites, some being rich in them, others comparatively poor, and many lacking them entirely. Wars for flint had been common in the old days.

The minerals were even rarer now. Hard as they were, flint and chert wore out, and new supplies were almost unheard of. As a result, the end of 32 a.r.d. (After Resurrection Day) was also the near end of large-vessel construction. At least, it was in the coun­tries through which Burton had passed, and he presumed that it was the same everywhere.

The area at which he stopped was one of the very few that still had a plentiful store. The locals, a majority of pre-Columbian Algon-quins and a minority of pre-Roman Picts, were well aware of the value of their stones. Their chief, a Menomini named Oskas, haggled fiercely with Burton. Finally, he stated that his rock-bottom price was seven thousand cigarettes of tobacco, five hundred of marijuana, twenty-five hundred cigars, forty packages of pipe to­bacco, and eight thousand cupfuls of liquor. He also suggested that he would like to sleep with the blonde, Loghu, every five days or so. Actually, he would prefer that it be every night, but he did not think his three women would like that.

Burton took some time to recover from his shock. He said, ‘ “That’s up to her. I don’t think either she or her man would agree to it. Anyway, you’re asking far too much. None of my party would have booze or tobacco for a year.”

Oskas shrugged and said, “Well, if it isn’t worth it to you… ?”

Burton called a conference and told his crew what Oskas demand­ed. Kazz objected the most.

“Burton-naq, I lived all my life on Earth, forty-five summers, without whiskey or nicotine. But here I got hooked and if I go a day without either, I am ready, as you put it, to climb the wall. You know that I tried to quit both at different times, and before a week was gone I was ready to bite my tongue off. I was as mean as a cave bear with a thorn in his paw.”

Besst said, “I haven’t forgotten.”

“If there was no alternative, we’d have to do it,” Burton said. “It’d be cold turkey or no boat. But we do have the extra grails.”

He returned to Oskas and, after they had smoked a pipe, he got down to business.

“The woman with the yellow hair and blue eyes says the only part of her you’ll get is her foot, and you might have a hard time pulling it out of your ass.”

Oskas laughed loudly and slapped his thigh.

When he had dried his tears, he said, “Too bad. I like a woman with spirit, though not with too much.”

“It so happens that some time ago I got hold of a free-grail. Now, I am willing to trade that for a place in which to build our boat and the materials to build it.”

Oskas did not ask him how he got it, though it was evident that he thought Burton had stolen it.

“If that is so,” he said, smiling, “then we have a deal.”

He stood up. “I will see that things are arranged at once. Are you sure that the blonde is not just playing hard to get?”

The chief took the grail to the council’s stronghouse, adding it to the twenty-one free-grails there. These had been collected through the years for the benefit of himself and his subchiefs.

Here, as everywhere, special people made sure that they got special privileges.