"
The natives were all grimacing heartbrokenly with pleasure. Maybe
the one who got thrown on his ear--no, he didn't have any--was not
one of the more popular characters in the village.
"You just pulled your gun, and he dropped the knife and ran?"
Gofredo asked. "And the others were scared, too?"
"That's right. They all saw you fire yours; the noise scared them."
Gofredo nodded. "We'll avoid promiscuous shooting, then. No use
letting them find out the noise won't hurt them any sooner than
we have to."
Paul Meillard had worked out a way to distribute the picks and
shovels and axes. Considering each house as representing a family
unit, which might or might not be the case, there were picks and
shovels enough to go around, and an ax for every third house. They
took them around in an airjeep and left them at the doors. The
houses, he found, weren't adobe at all. They were built of logs,
plastered with adobe on the outside. That demolished his theory
that the houses were torn down periodically, and left the mound
itself unexplained.
Pages:
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48