“Yes.”
“What?”
“Get me out of here. Help me down the path.” Roy said hastily, “Hey, you can’t do that. You’re not in shape.”
“Can’t I? Either help, or get out of my way. And get everybody together. We’re going to have a town meeting.”
They looked at each other and walked out on him. He had made it to the squeeze at the top when Baxter showed up. “Now, Rod! Get back and lie down.”
“Out of my way.”
“Listen, boy, I don’t like to get rough with a sick man. But I will if you make me.”
“Bob. . . how bad is my ankle?”
“It’s going to be all right . . . if you behave. If you don’t well, have you ever seen gangrene? When it turns black and has that sweetish odor?”
“Quit trying to scare me. Is there any reason not to put a line under my arms and lower me?”
“Well. . .”
They used two lines and a third to keep his injured leg free, with Baxter supervising. They caught him at the bottom and carried him to the cooking space, laid him down. “Thanks,” he grunted. “Everybody here who can get here?”
“I think so, Roddie. Shall I count?”
“Never mind. I understand you folks elected me cap I mean ‘mayor’ this morning?”
“That’s right,” agreed Kennedy.
“Uh, who else was up? How many votes did I get?”
“Huh? It was unanimous.
Rod sighed. “Thanks. I’m not sure I would have held still for it if I’d been here. I gathered something else. Do I understand that you expect me to take you down to the caves Roy and I found? Caroline said something. . .”
Roy looked surprised. “We didn’t vote it, Rod, but that was the idea. After last night everybody knows we can’t stay here.”
Rod nodded. “I see. Are you all where I can see you? I’ve got something to say. I hear you adopted a constitution and things while Roy and I were away. I’ve never read them, so I don’t know whether this is legal or not. But if I’m stuck with the job, I expect to run things. If somebody doesn’t like what I do and we’re both stubborn enough for a showdown, then you will vote. You back me up, or you turn me down and elect somebody else. Will that work? How about it, Goldie? You were on the law committee, weren’t you?”
Howard Goldstein frowned. “You don’t express it very well, Rod.”
“Probably not. Well?”
“But what you have described is the parliamentary vote-of-confidence. That’s the backbone of our constitution. We did it that way to keep it simple and still democratic. It was Grant’s notion.”
“I’m glad,” Rod said soberly. “I’d hate to think that I had torn up Grant’s laws after he worked so hard on them. I’ll study them, I promise, first chance I get. But about moving to the caves we’ll have a vote of confidence right now.”
Goldstein smiled. “I can tell you how it will come out. We’re convinced.”
Rod slapped the ground. “You don’t understand! If you want to move, move . . . but get somebody else to lead you. Roy can do it. Or Cliff, or Bill. But if you leave it to me, no dirty little beasts, all teeth and no brains, are going to drive us out. We’re men.. . and men don’t have to be driven out, not by the likes of those. Grant paid for this land and I say stay here and keep it for him!”
14 Civilization
The Honorable Roderick L. Walker, Mayor of Cowpertown, Chief of State of the sovereign planet GO7390 1Il (Lima Catalog), Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Chief Justice, and Defender of Freedoms, was taking his ease in front of the Mayor’s Palace. He was also scratching and wondering if he should ask somebody to cut his hair againhe suspected lice only this planet did not have lice.
His Chief of Government, Miss Caroline Beatrice Mshiyeni, squatted in front of him. “Roddie, I’ve told them and told them and told them . . . and it does no good. That family makes more filth than everybody else put together. You should have seen it this morning. Garbage in front of their door . . . flies!”