The Lord Mayor and half a dozen others got a contragravity ride,
too, to the meadows to pick out cattle. A dozen animals, including
a pair of the two-ton draft beasts, were driven to the Terran camp.
A couple of lorry-loads of assorted vegetables were brought in, too.
Everybody seemed very happy about the deal, especially Bennet Fayon.
He wanted to slaughter one of the sheep-sized meat-and-milk animals
at once and get to work on it. Gofredo advised him to put it off
till the next morning. He wanted a large native audience to see
the animal being shot with a rifle.
The water tower was finished, and the big spherical tank hoisted on
top of it and made fast. A pump, and a filter-system were installed.
There was no water for hot showers that evening, though. They would
have to run a pipeline to the river, and that would entail a ditch
that would cut through several cultivated fields, which, in turn,
would provoke an uproar. Paul Meillard didn't want that happening
until he'd concluded the cattle-trade.
Charley Loughran and Willi Schallenmacher had gone up to the ship on
one of the landing craft; they accompanied the landing party that went
down into the mountains.
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