Chapter IX: Found!

It was two weeks to a day when the four on the earth, after having seen very little of each other in the meanwhile, got together for the purpose of finishing their “revelation” to the Sanusians.

“Mr. Van Emmon and I,” stated Billie coolly, as they put on their bracelets, “have been trying to decide upon the best way of telling them how to obtain fire.”

Neither Smith nor the doctor showed that he noticed her “Mr. Van Emmon.” Evidently the two were still unreconciled.

“I argue,” remarked the geologist, “that the simplest method will be a chemical one. There’s lots of ways to produce fire spontaneously, with chemicals; and this woman Rolla could do it easily.”

Billie indulged in a small, superior smile. “He forgets that all these chemical methods require pure chemicals. And you don’t find them pure in the natural state. You’ve got to have fire to reduce them with.”

“What’s your proposition, then?” from the doctor.

“Optics!” enthusiastically. She produced a large magnifying-glass from her pocket. “All we have to do is to show Dulnop--he’s something of a mineralogist--how to grind and polish a piece of crystal into this shape!”

Van Emmon groaned. “Marvelous! Say, if you knew how infernally hard it is to find even a small piece of crystal, you’d never propose such a thing! Why, it would take years--Mrs. Van Emmon!”

Smith also shook his head. “Neither of you has the right idea. The easiest way, under the circumstances, would be an electrical one.”

He paused, frowning hard; then vetoed his own plan. “Thunder; I’m always speaking first and thinking afterward. I never used to do it,” accusingly, “until I got in with you folks. Anyhow, electricity won’t do; you’ve got to have practically pure elements for that, too.”

“Guess it’s up to you, doc,” said Billie. And they all looked respectfully toward their host.

He laughed. “You three will never learn anything. You’ll continue to think that I’m a regular wonder about these things, but you never notice that I merely stay still and let you commit yourselves first before I say anything. All I have to do is select the one idea remaining after you’ve disproved the rest. Nothing to it!”

He paused. “I’m afraid we’re reduced to the spark method. It would take too long to procure materials pure enough for any other plan. Friction is out of the question for such people; they haven’t the patience. Suppose we go ahead on the flint-and-spark basis.”

They went at once into the familiar trance state. Nightfall was approaching on the part of Sanus in which they were interested. Smith and Van Emmon came upon Dulnop and Corrus as they were talking together. The herdsman was saying:

“Lad, my heart is heavy this night.” Much of his usual vigor was absent. “When I were passing Cunora’s field this day, some of the masters came and drove me over to her side. I tried to get away, and one threatened to kill. I fear me, lad, they intend to force us to marry!”

“What!” fiercely, from the younger.

Corrus laid a hand upon his arm. “Nay, Dulnop; fear not. I have no feeling for thy Cunora; I may marry her, but as for fathering her children--no!”

“Suppose,” through set teeth, “suppose They should threaten to kill thee?”

“I should rather die, Dulnop, than be untrue to Rolla!”

The younger man bounded to his feet. “Spoken like a man! And I tell thee, neither shall I have aught to do with Rolla! Rather death than dishonor!”

Next moment silence fell between them; and then Van Emmon and Smith noted that both men had been bluffing in what they had said. For, sitting apart in the growing darkness, each was plainly in terror of the morrow. Presently Corrus spoke in a low tone:

“All the same, Dulnop, it were well for me and thee if the secret of the flowing blossom were given us this night. I”--he paused, abashed--”I am not so sure of myself, Dulnop, when I hear Their accursed buzzing. I fear--I am afraid I might give in!”

At this Dulnop broke down, and fell to sobbing. Nothing could have told the investigators so well just how childlike the Sanusians really were. Corrus had all he could do to hold in himself.

“Mownoth!” he exclaimed, his eyes raised fervently. “If it be thy will to deliver us, give us the secret this night!”

Meanwhile, in Rolla’s hut, a similar scene was going on under the doctor’s projected eye. Cunora lost her nerve, and Rolla came near to doing the same in her efforts to comfort the other.

“They are heartless things!” Rolla exclaimed with such bitterness as her nature would permit. “They know not what love is: They with their drones and their egg-babes! What is family life to Them? Nothing!

“Somehow I feel that Their reign is nearly at an end, Cunora. Perhaps the great secret shall be given us to-night!”

The girl dried her tears. “Why say ye that, Rolla?”

“Because the time be ripe for it. Are not all our kind looking forward to it? Are we not all expecting and longing for it? Know we not that we shall, must, have what we all so earnestly desire?” It was striking, to hear this bit of modern psychology uttered by this primitive woman. “Let me hear no more of thy weeping! Ye shall not be made to wed Corrus!”

Nevertheless, at the speaking of her lover’s name, the older woman’s lips trembled despite themselves; and she said nothing further beyond a brief “Sleep well.” After which the two women turned in, and shortly reached the drowsy point.

Thus it happened that Rolla, after a minute or two, once more aroused Cunora in great excitement, and after securely closing the entrance to the hut against all comers, proceeded to relate what she had seen. She finished:

“The seed of the flower can be grown in the heart of rotting wood!” And for hours afterward the two whispered excitedly in the darkness. It was hard to have to wait till dawn.

As for Corrus and Dulnop, they even went so far as to search the heaps of stone in the mineral yards, although neither really expected to find what they sought.