Green emptied the handbag of the watchman and was pleased to see several coins of respectable denominations.
“Probably his life-savings,” he said. “I hate to rob him, but we have to have money. Grizquetr, do you remember those slaves who were drinking and gambling outside the Striped Ape Inn? Run to them and offer them six danken if they’ll tow us out of the ‘break. Tell them we’re paying them so much because it’s so late at night, and also to keep their mouths shut.”
Grinning, the boy ran off. Green hauled the limp body of the unconscious watchman behind the hut, bound and gagged him and threw a tarpaulin over him.
Grizquetr returned, leading six noisy and reeling men, sturdily built, with legs and backs big-muscled from hauling ‘rollers.
At first Green thought he ought to try to make them keep quiet, then decided that it would look more natural if he let them talk as loudly as they wished. There was a festive air over the city tonight, and more than one yacht was going out for a moonlight cruise.
Once out on the plain, Green threw the promised money to the slaves and cried, “Have a good time!” To himself he muttered, “Because tomorrow may be your last day.” Already, he had a presentiment of what might happen if he succeeded in tonight’s work. There was no telling what forces he might be unloosing. As he’d said to the boy, there were demons imprisoned in the bowels of the island of Shimdoog.
CHAPTER 26
JUST BEFORE DAWN the yacht coasted to a stop outside the high stone walls of the north side of the island of Shimdoog. Green had dropped the sail and, judging his speed exactly, had steered the craft until its side was almost scraping the wall. As soon as the roller stopped, Green put Lady Luck in a bag tied to his belt and cautioned her to keep quiet. Then he began climbing up the rungs nailed to the mast. The boy followed him, and both crawled out upon the spar. Green tied one end of a long rope around the end of the spar. Then he let himself down on it to the ground on the other side of the wall.
After the boy had also descended they paused for a moment, crouched, ready to run at the first sign they’d been seen. But there was no outcry.
The big moon, though dropping to the horizon, was bright enough for them to make good progress. Green led the way up a series of hills, heading in a circuitous fashion toward the highest. Twice he had to step and warn Grizquetr about the towers ahead, where sentries were stationed. Lady Luck seemed to know she should be silent. Her eyes glowed and her teeth flashed, but she was only making a soundless snarl.
They saw the fires of the guards and heard their muttered voices, but none saw them. It was doubtful that the sentinels ever did look out, for they did not think that any man in his right senses would be roaming about in the darkness, where it was well known that ghosts and demons waited for foolish mortals.
Just before they began climbing the slope of the peak that was their goal, Green whispered. “This island is built much like the first one we encountered. I think that all of these islands are more or less similar, all being composed of a base of a mile and a half square of eternum metal or something like eternum. And all covered with rock and dirt and trees and vegetation and stocked with birds and beasts. I suppose that the original builders landscaped these craft for aesthetic reasons. After all, a sheet of metal with a few metal chambers on it doesn’t look very pretty and would make a blinding glare in the sunshine.”
“Uh,” replied the boy, who didn’t understand.
“Do you know, it’s strange that I was right the first time when I sarcastically referred to the roaming islands as glorified lawn-mowers?”
“What?”
“Yes, in the beginning there must have been many more than there are now, enough to keep the vast plains looking neat and well-kept, the grass clipped, the forests prevented from encroaching well-defined limits, and so on. But when there were no longer any maintenance men to keep them going, they stopped, one by one, until at this present time there are perhaps a few hundred. Though, I don’t know, there may be more. Anyway, whenever one did run down or break down for some reason or other it was soon erased by a still-functioning island.”