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Three
Rachel Silverstein was very disturbed by the account of the hunt, Gribardsun's narrow escape, and the killings and mutilations. But she was most upset by the report of his lone expedition.
'Why did you let him go?'
Von Billma
'But he's out alone in that savage wilderness! Anything could happen to him! We might never see him again, not even know what happened!'
'That's true,' von Billma
Drummond Silverstein said, 'Rachel, if I had gone, would you be as concerned?'
Von Billma
The last of the carcasses was brought in after dusk. Everybody except the babies went to bed very late that night. They cooked a great quantity of the meat and ate with good appetite, despite the wails and tears of the mourning women and children. Some of these ate greedily between fits of grief. And racks of wood were prepared and meat placed over them to be smoked. The meat was scraped off the rhino skulls, which were then broken open so that the brains could be cut out. The skulls were later placed in holes in the ground and filled with water. Heated stones were dropped in, and the pieces of meat left on the skulls were boiled free to make soup. Rachel talked to some of the widows. Their lot was not to be a happy one, not that it had been enviable when their mates were still alive. They would become the secondary wives of the most important men in the community, if they were still of childbearing age. They would be under the authority of the first wives. They and their children would always get what was left over in the way of food or attention. This would be more than enough when times were good. The tribe did not want widows and orphans to suffer needlessly. But when meat was scarce, the first wives and their children would get first choice.
On the other hand, the high death rate among females of childbearing age gave the secondary wives a chance to become first. Life was hard and insecure for everybody.
Four days went by. The three fretted. Rachel and Drummond hardly spoke to each other until the morning of the fourth. Then they became civil and kissed each other good morning. Apparently they had had some form of reconciliation that night, though probably not until after some verbal violence.
Von Billma
'Of course we will,' Rachel said.
'He should have taken along a radio,' Drummond said. 'His idea of going native was stupid. He could at least have taken a radio and we'd know where he was and if he was all right.'
'It was stupid of us not to think of it,' von Billma
'I would think so!' Rachel said. She made no attempt to hide her anger. 'How can you say anything bad about him? What's he done? Let's hear it!'
'Your emotions are showing,' Drummond said in a dull voice.
'Why shouldn't they?' she said. 'Isn't it natural for me to get upset if any one of us should be missing? Isn't it right?'
'I'm sorry I said anything,' he replied.
'What did you mean, almost sinister?' Rachel said to von Billma
'I don't think there's any doubt about that now,' von Billma
'I had heard that he was considered,' Drummond said. 'But I thought that he was finally rejected because he was too hard to get along with.'
'That did go against him, but nobody else had his brilliance. John Gribardsun was one of the other candidates considered. He had the same versatile background as de Longnors but he had not been famous in any of them. He had published very little, and his medical practice was limited to taking care of the natives on the I
'Hypnotized them, you mean,' Drummond said.
'In a way perhaps; he does have some curiously magnetic quality,' von Billma
'How do you know they were more qualified?' Rachel said.
'The project executives thought so,' von Billma
'That's a terrible thing to say!' Rachel said. 'How could anybody believe it?'
'You know how people are,' von Billma
'Did he?' Rachel said.
Von Billma
'We knew about that, of course,' Drummond said.
'And after a while the executives a
Rachel was 'furious but controlling herself. She said, 'Are you hinting that John might have had something to do with de Longnors' disappearance and his amnesia? That he was abducted and drugged?'
'No, I'm not hinting that John had anything to do with it. As you must know by now, I have nothing but the greatest admiration for John Gribardsun. I'm glad that he, and not de Longnors, was picked. All I'm saying is that something strange was going on at the time. And that, a year before the vessel was launched, John Gribardsun had little chance of being on it.
'It's a tremendously important thing to be chosen as one of the crew of the H. G. Wells,' von Billma