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Alice said, "I don’t like it. But why should I be embarrassed? Where all are nude, none are nude. It’s the thing to do, in fact, the only thing that can be done. If some angel were to give me a complete outfit, I wouldn’t wear it. I’d be out of style. And my figure is good. If it weren’t I might be suffering more."
The two men laughed, and Frigate said, "You’re fabulous, Alice. Absolutely. I may call you Alice? Mrs. Hargreaves seems so formal when you’re nude." She did not reply but walked away and disappeared behind a large tree.
Burton said, "Something will have to be done about sanitation in the near future. Which means that somebody will have to decide the health policies and have the power to make regulations and enforce them. How does one form legislative, judicial, and executive bodies from the present state of anarchy?"
"To get to more immediate problems," Frigate said, "what do we do about the dead man?" He was only a little less pale than a moment ago when Kazz had made his incisions with his chert knife.
Burton said, "I’m sure that human skin, properly ta
"I’ll try," the American said. "But I don’t know. I’ve gone through more than enough for one day."
"You "do as you please then, Burton said. "But anybody who helps me gets first call on the use of the skin. You may wish you could have some in order to bind an axehead to a haft."
Frigate gulped audibly and then said, "I’ll come.’
Kazz was still squatting in the grass by the body, holding the bloody liver with one hand and the bloody stone knife with the other. Seeing Burton, he gri
Burton squatted down by the body and applied the paint of Eke knife begi
"Care to try your hand at it?" Burton said. He rolled the body over on its side so that other, even longer, strips could be taken. Frigate took the bloody-tipped knife and set to work, his teeth gritted.
"Not so deep," Burton said and, a moment later, "Now you’re not cutting deeply enough. Here, give me the knife: Watch!
"I had a neighbor who used to hang up his rabbits behind his garage and cut their throats right after breaking their necks," Frigate said. "I watched once. That was enough."
"You can’t afford to be fastidious or weak-stomached," Burton said. "You’re living in the most primitive of conditions. You have to be a primitive to survive, like it or not"
Brontich, the tall ski
He handed Frigate his grail. "Put this in a hole on the stone, remember exactly which hole you put it in. Have the others do that, too. Make sure that they know where they put their grails. Wouldn’t want to have any quarrels about that, you know."
Strangely, Frigate was reluctant to go. He seemed to feel that he had disgraced himself by his weakness. He stood a there for a moment, shifting his weight from one leg to another and sighing several times. Then, as Burton continued to scrape away at the underside of the skin-strips, he walked away. He carried the two grails in one hand and his stone axehead in the other.
Burton stopped working after the American was out of sight. He had been interested in finding out how to cut off strips, and he might dissect the body’s trunk to remove the entrails. But he could do nothing at this time about preserving the skin or guts. It was possible that the bark of the oak-like trees might contain ta
Abruptly, the sun went past the shoulder of the mountain. A pale shadow fell over him, and, within a few minutes, the entire valley was in the dusk. But the sky was a bright blue for a long time. The breeze continued to flow at the same rate. The moisture-laden air became a little cooler. Burton and the Neanderthal left the body and followed the sounds of the others" voices: These were by the grailstone of which Brontich had spoken. Burton wondered if there were others near the base of the mountain, strung out at approximate distances of a mile. This one lacked the grail in the center depression, however. Perhaps this meant that it was not ready to operate. He did not think so. It could be assumed that Whoever had made the grailstones had placed the grails in the center holes of those on the river’s edge because the resurrectees would be using these first. By the time they found the inland stones, they would know how to use them.
The grails were set on the depressions of the outmost circle. Their owners stood or sat around, talking but with their minds on the grails. All were wondering when — or perhaps if — the blue flames would come. Much of their conversation was about how hungry they were. The rest was mainly surmise about how they had come here, Who had put them here, where they were, and what was being pla
Burton sat down beneath the wide-flung and densely leaved branches of the gnarled black-trunked irontree. He felt tired, as all, except Razz, obviously did. His empty belly and his stretched-out nerves kept him from dozing off, although the quiet voices and the rustle of leaves conduced to sleep. The hollow in which the group waited was formed by a level space at the junction of four hills and was surrounded by trees. Though it was darker than on top of the hills, it also seemed to be a little warmer. After a while, as the dusk and the chill increased, Burton organized a firewood-collecting party. Using the knives and bandages, they cut down many mature bamboo pleats and gathered piles of grass. With the white-hot wire o£ the lighter, Burt started a fire of leaves and grass. These were green, and so the fire was smoky and unsatisfactory until the bamboo was put on.
Suddenly, an explosion made them jump. Some of the women screamed. They had forgotten about watching the grailstone. Burton turned just in time to see the blue flames soar up about twenty feet. The heat from the discharge could be felt by Brontich, who was about twenty feet from it.