Children of Tomorrow by Arthur Leo Zagat (free children's ebooks online .TXT) đ
- Author: Arthur Leo Zagat
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âDikar,â Marilee said, her eyes puzzled in the ruddy dusk that sifted through to her from the fire. âWhy didnât you tell the Bunch about Tomballâs hitting me and taking the fire stick to where the plane could see it? Why didnât you punish him for it?â
âWould it be fair, Marilee, to say to the Bunch that it was Tomball, when we do not know that it was? Would it be fair to punish him for doing it, when we do not know that he did it?â
âBut we do know!â
âNo, Marilee. We do not. You saw nothing and I saw nothing that would make us sure it was him. Or did you see somethingâsomething you have not told me?â
She stopped, Dikar stopped, looking at her face on which the dim red light fell leaving the rest of her in shadow, thinking how lovely her face was, the red light tangled in the cloudy softness of her hair, her gray eyes grave and thoughtful, her small mouth puckered.
âNo-o,â Marilee breathed at last. âNo, I saw nothing that would make me sure it was Tomball. But I am sure, and you are sure, because we know that Tomball is the only one of the Bunch who would do a thing like that. Look, Dikar. Tomball wants to be boss, and if he cannot be boss of the Bunch he would destroy the Bunch, and he would stop at nothing to do it. You know all that as well as I do.â
Sadness came into Dikarâs face, and trouble in his eyes. âYes, Marilee, I know that as well as you do. Tomball has always wanted to be boss, and when he couldnât get to be boss by fighting fair he fought no fair, and now that he knows he canât get to be boss by fighting either fair or no fair, he would destroy the Bunch rather than have me or anyone but him be boss. But it would not be right for me to fight him any other way than fair.â
âWhy, Dikar? If Tomball wants to destroy the Bunch, it seems to me it would be right for you to fight him any way you can, fair or no fair. Why isnât it?â
The lines were back in Dikarâs forehead. Very clearly he knew the answer to what Marilee asked, but it was very hard to think of how to say it in words. âLook, Marilee,â he cried. âWhen we were littler we played lots of games, and we always picked someone for umpire to see that everybody played according to the rules of the game, because if there were no rules there would be no game. Remember?â
âYes, Dikar. I remember.â
âNow sometimes the umpire himself would be no fair, letting one side break the rules. And then the other side would break the rules too, and pretty soon the game would bust up because with all the rules broken there was no game any more. Right?â
âYes. But I donât seeââ
His gesture stopped her.
âYou will in a minute. Look. The life of the Bunch is no game, but it is lived according to rules, because if there were no rules, if every one of the Bunch did just as he or she wanted to, all the time, there would be no Bunch. Now, I donât think you or anybody else would say that if we hadnât lived all these years as a Bunch; sharing what we had, sharing the work, each doing what he can do best, all helping one another; any but the strongest of us would be alive and happy today. Would you?â
âNo. We are all alive and happy after the long years here on the Mountain because we have helped each other.â
âAnd played fair with each other. You call me boss and obey me, but you really obey the rules the Old Ones left us and the rules the Bunch has made for themselves, and all I am is an umpire to see that everybody obeys the rules, to see that everybody plays fair. Now, suppose I played no fair myself. Suppose, whenever I felt like it, I broke the rules. What would happen?â
She answered slowly:
âEverybody else would break the rules too. I see. Because if the umpire is no fair, all the ones playing the game feel itâs all right to be no fair too.â
âExactly. And pretty soon there would be no rules any more, and the Bunch would bust up. If Tomball is trying to destroy the Bunch, Iâve got to fight him. But if I fight him no fair, that will destroy the Bunch, sooner or later, much more surely than anything Tomball could do, or anything they who live in the far land can do. Now do you understand, Marilee?â
âI understand,â Marilee said. And then she cried, âBut youâve got to do something, Dikar! You canât let himââ She stopped short, twisted to a noise in the brush behind her. âDikar! Thereâs somebody-!â
Dikar thrust her behind him. âWhoâs there?â he demanded, his neck thickening. âWho is it?â
Shadows moved in the shadows of the brush, where the red light from the fire could not reach.
Chapter III: THE GUN ON THE ROOF
âWhoâs there?â Dikar cried again, and then the shadows were coming out into the light, and they were Jimlane and Billthomas.
âMarilee told us you wanted us,â Jimlane said. âWe waited till everyone was asleep in the Boysâ House.â
âDid anyone see you come here?â
âNo. They were all asleep.â
âAll right,â Dikar said. âListen, Jimlane and Billthomas. I have a job for you, but I am not going to order you to do it. Iâm going to ask you to.â
âWeâll do it, Dikar,â Billthomas said. He was shorter than Jimlane, yellow-haired, blue-eyed, his skin as smooth as any of the Girlsâ, his movements as graceful. âWeâll do anything you ask us.â
âAnything at all,â Jimlane agreed.
âWait, youngsters,â Dikar warned, âYou may not be so ready to promise that when you hear what it is. I hate asking you to do it, but it needs to be done, for the good of the Bunch. It wonât be easy. You may be hurt doing it, you may even be killed. Nobody but Marilee and me will know that youâre doing it.â
Two pairs of bright eyes were fixed on his face. âIf itâs for the Bunch, weâll do it,â Jimlane said. âWhatever it is. Tell us what you want us to do, Dikar.â
âBefore I tell you, you must promise, cross your hearts and hope to die, that you will say nothing about it to anyone. Whether you will do it or not, you will always keep silent.â
âCross my heart and hope to die,â Billthomas said solemnly. âI will say nothing.â Jimlane said the same and then the two spat over their left shoulders to show that they could never take back what they had said.
âNow listen,â Dikar said when they had done that. âThe job is to watch Tomball, by day and by night. You sleep in the Boysâ House with him, and Iâll always make sure to put you on the same jobs with him, so that part ought to be easy.
âIf he slips off any time, day or night, by himself, I want you to follow him without his knowing it. Do you think you can do that?â
âWe once followed a deer all day,â Jimlane said, âAll over the Mountain, and it never knew we was anywheres near.â
âI know that,â Dikar nodded. âAnd thatâs why I picked you to ask first to do this job. I also know you two are champeens of the Bunch at shooting with bonarrers, anâ thatâs another part of the job.â
The eyes of the youngsters widened, but they said nothing.
Dikar went on. âKeep your bonarrers near you all the time, and if Tomball does go off by himself, take âem along. If you see him start to make a fire where it can be seen from the sky, or from the kind of woods that will make a smoke go up through the tops of the trees, shoot him in the legs, right away, and out the fire. If he starts to go out of the woods to the edge of the Drop, in the daytime when they who live in the far land might see him, shoot him in the legs and drag him back. Stop him if he does anything else that might show Them that someone lives here on the Mountain. Do you get me?â
âWe get you, Dikar.â Billthomas looked puzzled. âBut all those things are Must-Nots of the Old Ones. Why do we need to shoot him to stop him from doing them? If he tries to, the Old Ones would wake from their sleep under the rocks at the bottom of the Drop and strike him down. He wouldnât dare to do âem, and if he tried, the Old Ones wouldnât let him.â
âLook, Billthomas.â Dikar put his hand on the kidâs shoulder. âDo you remember the time when the Bunch stoned me away from the clearing and made Tomball boss?â
âAnd you came back with a little gun that made a noise and killed our fawn, and you made the Bunch listen to you while you proved why we shouldnât have stoned you away. And then you threw the gun up on the roof of the Boysâ House and fought Tomball who should be boss, and licked him. Sure I remember.â
âWell, between the time I was stoned away and the time I came back, I went to the edge of the Drop, and I climbed down the Drop to the rocks under which the Old Ones sleep. That is the most terrible of all the Must-Nots of the Old Ones, but they didnât wake from their sleep, and they didnât strike me down. Nothing happened to me. I went into the far land, and I came back, and the Old Ones did nothing to me.â
âYou went into the far land,â Jimlane repeated in awed tones. âDikar! Did you see Them?â
âI saw Them, Jimlane, anâ I saw many things that made me know how very terrible it would be if they found out the Bunch lives on the Mountain. But the Old Ones did nothinâ to stop me. The Old Ones sleep under the rocks, Jimlane, anâ under the water that foams over the rocks, anâ they cannot awaken to stop Tomball from lettinâ Them who live in the far land know that the Bunch is here on the Mountain.â
âBut Dikar!â Billthomas broke out. âTomball wouldnât do anythinâ like that!â
âI hope not,â Dikar answered slowly. âHonest Injun, I hope that he wouldnât. But I must be sure, anâ Iâm askinâ you two to help me be sureâNo wait,â he said as he saw their mouths start to open. âBefore you answer I want you to remember how strong Tomball is, anâ how he said he would kill you, Jimlane, that time when you wanted to tell the Bunch why they were wrong in stoninâ me away, anâ how afraid of him you were, that time. I want you youngsters to think of that before you say that you will do this job.â
âIâve thought about it, Dikar.â Jimlane stood very straight in the firelight. âI wonât say Iâm not afraid of Tomball, but afraid or not, I will watch him, anâ I will do my best to stop him from doinâ anythinâ that will hurt the Bunch.â
âMe too, Dikar,â Billthomas said his voice clear and steady, his eyes steady as Dikarâs own. âI am afraid of Tomball, but I
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